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In this issue…
Reviewing the Localisation Project Management Course
a course outline
Managing Localisation ProjectsThe first thing to notice about this course is the title. No longer called "Localisation Project Management" but "Managing Localisation Projects". The reason for this is that as the course outline developed, it became obvious from speaking to a number of companies on both the publisher and vendor sides that project management meant different things to different companies. To overcome this issue we developed a generic localisation process flow diagram in order to set some boundary for the course content. Depending on the structure of your organisation the localisation management tasks are usually distributed amongst several people of varying titles. Whilst almost every organisation employed a "project manager" the role of this person varied with almost all companies. In order to cover all aspects of a localisation project the notion of distributed project management was introduced to cater for the situation where the project management tasks are distributed throughout the organisation. For example in a large multi-lingual project the project management of a language group may be implemented by a language co-ordinator reporting to a head of language whilst the DTP and Engineering project management elements may also be managed by DTP and Engineering co-ordinators. Course OutlineFollowing an introduction to the course by the course leader Fergus O'Connell, Gunnie Jacobsson gave an overview of the localisation process and initiated work on the design of the generic localisation process flow diagram. Structure Project ManagementThe course is based around Fergus O'Connell's successful book [1] and uses a 10 point system called "Structured Project Management".
Project Success IndicatorEach step has been allocated a weighting used to calculate a Project Success Indicator (PSI). Fergus has established the following rule of thumb for a project:
From the above we can see that there is a significant emphasis placed on the planning aspects of managing a project, something with which I think we can all relate. First Law Of Project ManagementAnother key concept introduced by Fergus was what he called The First Law of Project Management. This law takes the following form: On any product or system development project there is a function that relates four variables:
The law says that there is a function of these four variables that is a constant, i.e. function = constant [2] where function = (functionality x delivery date x effort x quality ) Simply stated this means that, for example, an increase in functionality corresponds to a reduction in quality. Management StyleFergus has identified 5 types of people that can be available to work on a project. These are:
In addition he has described management style as a continuum that stretches between hands on and hands off and is divided into 5 groupings A-E: Hands Off __________________ Hands On
A B C D E
Taking our 5 types of people above and depending on whether they can be trusted or not, Fergus would recommend that the following would apply:
Note the "E" case suggests that the person should not be on the project. DetailFergus suggested that many of the project management problems that occur in a project would be minimised by ensuring that the project management is carried out at a detailed level. Ideally this should be done at the man/day level. Recognising that this is a heavy overhead it is suggested that a combination of distributed project management and a folded map methodology would alleviate this burden. Distributed project management has been outlined above, the folded map principle uses the analogy of navigating a journey using a large map. At first the complete map is used to identify the current general position and thereafter it is possible to fold the map such that the general area can be viewed in detail. From a localisation project point of view this means that it may be sufficient to develop a plan that contains the major milestones for the project along with a detailed work break down by man- day for the immediate 4-6 weeks. Thereafter updating the plan on a rolling weekly basis with the new detail. Additional SkillsFergus also covered the area of problem solving (using brainstorming techniques) and time management. The Commercial side of LocalisationJohn Malone from Microsoft presented an overview of the commercial issues that organisations need to address in order to be successful. John dealt with these under the following headings:
John's model of the business planning process was presented as:
ConclusionThe overall feed back was very positive with virtually all answers rating the various aspects of the course as either good, very good or excellent. Gunnie Jacobsson calculated the results of the programme evaluations and will make the specific details available in her report. Being a pilot project part of the course was designed to capture the comments from the participants and thereafter include those recommendations that appealed to the majority of those present. Gunnie also deals with these in her report. Footnotes:[1] How to Run Successful Projects by Fergus O'Connell. Published by Prentice Hall (ISBN 0-13-138793-6) [2] How to Run Successful Projects, page 49. Alex McDonnell
ObjectivesAt the conclusion of the workshop, attendees will:
Contents
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LISA Business Data Forum Summaries and Presentations LISA Globalization Consulting Network Webinars and TouchPoint Advisory Calls LISA Forum USA LISA@Chinasoft Fair LISA Forum Asia LISA Forum Europe LISA Forum India Open Standards • TBX • TMX |
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