METHODOLOGY

PROJECT LIFE CYCLES – GENERAL

 

 

 

THINK: You should have enough experience now to give 5 basic steps involved in project development

MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS DEVELOPMENT

Variation in jargon

In multimedia, there is often some variety in the way people name the main phases. You may have seen lists such as

  1. Development (= defining=intiation)
  2. Preproduction(=planning=design)
  3. Production(=implementation)
  4. Postproduction(=completing,evaluate reflect)
  5. Delivery(=completing=maintenance)

Here is an example of lifecycles for an instructional media development (.doc)

Quite often, it depends on the variety of the media project as to the terms being used. See table below.

 

 

MULTIMEDIA LIFE CYCLE – IMPART METHODOLOGY

local copy of methodology documents from IMPART - for GU student use only.

(zip copy here)

If you examine the methodologies used by a number of multimedia production houses you will find slight differences in the terminologies used in each of them. It is important to a multimedia production house to verbalise the procedures that will be used in the production process.

The methodology of a production unit will usually specify

 

One methodology developed is Multimedia Pathways: A Development Methodology

for Interactive Multimedia and Online Products for Education and Training which Impart Corporation (http://www.impart.com.au) has developed.

 

 

This particular methodology is of interest because

You can find out more about the Impart corporation on their website at www.impart.com.au.

Impart has its roots when the CMC's were established (cooperative multimedia centres). Impart Corporation is a commercial joint venture of a selection of Australia's leading organisations in learning and technology. These are Oracle

Corporation Australia, Newmedia Corporation, Central Queensland University, University of Wollongong and Griffith University.

Its primary interest is the development of learning materials, this focus is reflected in its methodology.

 

Multimedia Pathways-an example of a methodology

Focuses on six phases of development: initiation, specifications, design, production, review & evaluation, delivery & implementation.

Each phase is divided into 3 categories of activity: Development, management and support, with each of these categories divided into further activity categories.

 

MULTIMEDI PRODUCTION TEAM

Objectives:

Students will:

 

The members of a multimedia production team will have some variation depending on the type of project e.g. educational, entertainment, business.

Educational and training multimedia materials projects will typically consist of:

 

 

TUTORIAL ACTIVITY:

Think about a significant multimedia project you have done in the past, or will soon be involved in.

Write a two paragraph description of the project.

Create a detailed work break down chart for the project.

Write up a list of team members that will be required for the project

For each of the major tasks, make notes as to what team members will need to be involved.

 

 

 

 

INITIATION PHASE REVISITED

Objectives:

Students will:

SCOPING A PROJECT – DEVELOPING A CONCEPT BRIEF

[[Class exercise: List some of the elements you might wish to incorporate into a concept brief.

Remember the aim of the concept brief is to gain a preliminary understanding of what the client wants and what is required by the project]]

There is a great variety in the way initial meetings are conducted. It is very much an individual matter. However there are main elements which must be addressed.

 

SETTING OBJECTIVES AND GOALS

One of the very first things you need to do when you first meet with a client is to establish the goals and objectives of the project.

Put simply, you need to determine what the client wants to achieve by doing the project.

You need to understand fully the objectives before you can proceed any further with quality and costing issues.

Remember, you and your client most likely come from different backgrounds and communication may become challenging.

You can begin by getting the definition of a goal.

A goal is a broad statement of the anticipated project outcome.

A goal must be supported by specific objectives.

Objectives are specific statements of measurable outcomes.

Good objectives are SMART

Specific – says exactly what must be accomplished

Measurable- you can determine if the objective has been met

Action orientated

Realistic

Timelimited

Example:

Goal: Produce a multimedia website for the first year subject Business Communications, which will be used to support lecture and tutorial sessions

Objectives:

{an example of a poor objective might be the website will facilitate student interaction –doesn't say how}

 

GETTING A CLEAR DEFINITION

Obtaining a clear definition of what the client wants from the outset is important in that it saves a lot of time later in the project. Without a clear definition, the project will be plagued with changes and frustrations of not being able to agree with the client as to what is required.

Whatever type of interactive project you are responsible for, the initial set of questions you ask will define the scope of the project.

[[class exercise – what kinds of things will you want to cover in the initial meeting with your client?]]

 

 

THE PROPOSAL

As a project manager, after you have met with your client, discussed the project with other colleagues, you will be required to submit some kind of project proposal to your client.

The aim:

To give the client a clear understanding of the project including timelines, budget concerns. There should be enough information to enable the client to make the decision about proceeding or abandoning the project.

A proposal must give a realistic view.

A proposal should contain:

  1. summary of some of the data obtained from the concept brief – definition of project type, purpose, audience description
  2. Statement of what the client wants
    Phrase this using language and styles with which the client is familiar. This is an opportunity to insure that there has been an accurate understanding and interpretation of what the client stated and expressed
  3. Statement of what the user needs
    The client will have made some interpretation of the user needs in the initial briefing. You can add to these as a result of your own knowledge and experience. You may have previously developed a similar product and are familiar with interactive levels etc required for the users; you may be familiar with some interface features that similar users have found appealing.

    Make sure that anything you add or modify is cleared with the client.
  4. Description of general treatment with justifications
    There are often a number of alternatives as to how the project might be treated. Usually no one correct answer.
    Be aware of the differences in treatment between different project types

    To help your client, it is a good idea to have walked your client through several sites at the initial meetings so you can note their reaction to various approaches and interfaces.

    Guidelines for online and offline project treatment

Online projects

Offline projects

Homepage setting out expectations, structure and image for rest of the site
Homepage may also be starting point for site search engines
Note that clients tend to find it difficult to categorise information, putting in too much inappropriate text

Map out the sections in the website – showing expected size, media components along with estimate of time to complete each section
Getting a feel of the size and complexity of each section is essential for working out costs.

e.g. small is 5-10 web pages, Medium 10-20, Large 20-30; very large 30+

Complexity is determined in terms of media production and programming. E.g. if need to pull information out of an existing database then medium complexity

Also need to factor in any rights clearances required.

Don't forget to include time for testing and rework as well as development time

Check if any client objectives have not been met.

 

Flowchart of main areas of content and how they are linked

Indicate the number of minutes of material each section contains

Will built-in help and prefs be required?

Platform decisions can affect the range of media. The client may specify a particular media but the platform makes this inappropriate. Point this out to the client.

Cost out as accurately as possible media required

Consider rights clearances

All proposals should also contain

[[class exercise: what other main elements should the proposal contain??]]

The decisions about treatment you make are very much a matter of balancing COST, TIME, MATERIALS and USER NEEDS.

 

A GUIDE TO COSTING AND TIME

Objectives:

Students will:

 

PLANNING TIME

The best approach to planning how long a task will take is to base it on previous experience – if a person is unfamiliar with the task then they cannot estimate time required to complete the task.

Time is multimedia projects is determined by carefully creating a work breakdown structure and determining how long individual elements may take.

 

Charting projects

Two common methods are the Gantt charts and PERT diagrams

Gantt charts are horizontal bar charts that graphically display the time relationship of the step of the project

To create a Gantt chart:

List the steps required to complete the project

Estimate the time for each step

List the steps down the left hand side of the chart

Draw lines across the chart for each step starting at the planned start date , ending at the end date

Gantt charts allow for parallel steps which are carried out at the same time.

Tools such as Microsoft project allow you to do this.

 

PERT diagrams-Network analysis- Critical path

Uses a diagram to show logical links between tasks, illustrating ones which are simultaneous and which ones are dependant on others reaching a certain stage. Because of the dynamic and complex nature of multimedia these diagrams are quite often not used.

COSTINGS

The example on below, is taken from England & Finney 1999, p 105.

It shows a breakdown of the resources and staff required for a project. Note that the figures in the cost column are not realistic. You would need to find out the hourly or daily rates for your own situation. An excel copy of the spreadsheet below is available.

When estimating media costs you will need to have some indication of how long obtaining the media costs.

As a general guide:

When working on your own projects it is a good idea to note the kind of time required for various activities – this knowledge is invaluable in the workplace

Click here for an example of a costing spreadsheet
(NOTE: you will require microsoft excel to view it)

 

 

 

From proposal to contract

Once you and the client have agreed on the proposal, it forms part of the contractual agreement between the client and developer since it states the work to be preformed, the schedule and the costs.

It is also important that the final agreement clearly states procedures for making of changes.

As most of you are aware by now, making changes can be costly and if unaddressed can be detrimental to the project.

One of the main challenges you will face, especially in regard to making of changes, is educating the client about the complexities of the multimedia development environment. Most clients will not understand, without some education that merely changing a menu item has widespread and costly consequences at certain stages of the project.

In the final agreement it is also a good idea to specify exactly what the client responsibilities will be and what the responsibilities will be of the project manager in regards to the project. This will help avoid any disputes later down the line.

 

TUTORIAL EXERCISE –

You have been asked to draft a proposal because there is a deadline and your colleague is sick. Whe attended the briefing meeting with the client and all you have to work from is the completed scoping questionnaire. You have one working day to complete and fax it directly to the client while coping with your ongoing projects. This sort of time-scale is not unusual.

You have a choice of two completed scoping questionnaires – one online and one offline. Using the information given, derive a proposal for one of them.

Click here to view the questionnaires
(NOTE: opens in a new window)

 

 

 

 

TUTORIAL EXERCISE – complete the table of client and project manager responsibilities for a multimedia product

Project manager responsibilities

Client

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COPYRIGHT AND LEGAL ISSUES IN MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION

e.g. get a written indemnity from the client that they own the copyright

 

While most clients will recognise that it is of little value to own copyright to any code etc, it is wise to obtain an agreement with the client re the ownership and future use of code developed for their particular project

 

Some clients might not grant permission for demonstration since they do not want their competitors to see the product.

Moral rights: as a developer your company can ask for a right of paternity to be included in the contract, this allows your company and its members who worked on the project to have a credit, otherwise no one is obliged to recognise your involvement once the product is released.

Moral rights may also come into play when sourcing assets such as music. E.g. the composer of a piece of music has the moral right for the music not to be edited. If you are designing an interactive presentation which enables the user to change around pieces of the music then you may be breaking moral rights; problems may also occur when creating collages with images etc.

Force majeure – this refers to the situation where unforeseen circumstances such as natural disasters prevent the company from fulfilling the contract – avoids company being sued for non-completion

 

You will most likely need to obtain rights and clearances for:

Still pictures

Any reuse of existing photo, picture or slide or even extracted details from any of these for which neither you nor your client have permission will incur cost

How much is charged depends on

Who owns it (museum, library etc)

What it will be used for (the purpose can be tricky since multimedia projects often change to a different purpose later down the track e.g. from CD ROM to website)

Where it will be seen

How long it will be in use for etc

Music

Very complex, depends on artist, length, if it loops or not, publisher, library music, original work etc

Voice Overs

Cleared through the voice over agent – rate varies according to who it is, time spent recording, type of use, the number of countries

Video Footage – like stills clearance, varies according to whether the piece is being edited together with other pieces. Video footage can contain the need to clear secondary rights

 

Overview of some rights models:

Below are listed some of the rights you may have for materials

All rights – as the name suggests gives developer all rights to exploit material; usually applies to a small contribution and may incur small or no fees

Non-theatric – excludes broadcast, home video and theatric rights. Allows use for training, business, education, conferences and exhibitions.

Home Video – video store type of clearance

Interactive right- relatively new, permission to use the media in any interactive form such as CD ROM.

 

RIGHTS CHECKLIST

    1. Can we administer and pay royalties?
    2. What is our target fee for any particular asset?
    3. What delivery platforms are we licensing for?
    4. Online, offline or both?
    5. What is duration of licence?
    6. What territories are covered?
    7. Are foreign language versions covered?
    8. Are further editions covered?
    9. Are bug fixes covered or are they considered new editions
    10. Are derivative versions covered?
    11. Have asset providers indemnified against claims for infringement should they not have rights?

(England & Finney,1999, p341)

 

 

 

PROJECT MANAGER AND Team considerations

Objectives:

Students will:

 

One of the major roles the project manager will have is to put together the multimedia production team.

In order to achieve this the project manager needs to have an excellent understanding of what expertise will be required to develop each of the components of the multimedia project. This means a good understanding of each of the roles that will be required.

The primary source of skills will be in house team members. However, it may be that the skills are not available in house and need to be selected from outside sources

The project manager needs to ensure that:

Multimedia production is above all a team endeavour. The success of the project will depend to a large extent on team members having harmonious, productive, supportive relationships. This means fostering an atmosphere of mutual respect among team members. Communication among all team members is considered paramount. The project manager is as much part of the team as anyone else.

 

Lessons in Team leadership-John Whatmore's elements of successful creative team leaders

 

 

 

 

TUTORIAL EXERCISE:

1. If you have had experience with project managers Use John Whatmore's elements of the successful creative team leader as a checklist to determine how that person measured up. Did the criteria work for this person? Were there any notable omissions? Would you add any extra criteria? If you haven't had experience with a project manager reflect on you teams you have been involved with (no names please).

List the functional/technical, decision-making/problem solving and interpersonal skills this person had or lacked.

What do you consider to be your own strengths and weakness as a project manager.

 

2. Reflect on your previous team experiences. What were some of the best? List the features and characteristics of team members that contributed to the successful aspects of the team.

What were some of the worst experiences. List some of the features of these unsuccessful interactions.

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