Project management tactics

[Mike Tomei - Ithaca College]

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to hear from others regarding your project management tactics for AV system design and install in higher ed.  Specifically:

1)  Project intake process (website form, planning committee input, one-off requests, etc)

2)  Portfolio management (how do you organize and summarize all open projects?  Excel document, project management software, etc)

3)  Is the "AV project manager" part of the AV department, or part of a more centralized campus-wide project management office that also handles facilities/construction PM?

4)  Do you have specific deadlines for accepting and reviewing AV system install requests from the campus community, or is it a rolling process as requests come in?

I'll get the discussion started with how we do things at Ithaca College:

Project intake:  we have requests coming in from our construction project managers, as well as requests from academic departments.  It's all over email or verbal requests.  No formal project intake process.

Portfolio management:  I manually maintain and update an Excel document that lists all of our open projects, as well as progress status for each project.  No formal project management software.

We handle our own project management of AV installs from within the AV support department. There's a separate PM office for facilities/construction planning.

Project request deadlines:  we don't have any specific deadlines in place for AV system install requests.  As the requests come in, me make a decision as to if we can accept it, and when it can be accomplished.  To be honest, that's resulting in quite a few last minute requests, since there's no hard deadline in place.

Thanks.

Mike Tomei

https://www.linkedin.com/in/miketomei

[Todd Hughes]

Here at Duquesne we have been slowly modifying our process but it is almost identical to yours at the moment.

 

Intake: is all by email and verbal and then my boss and I go meet with the potential client.

 

Portfolio management: Until the past 6 weeks that would be maintained in an excel spreadsheet.  At the beginning of the summer I found a free web resource called Trello.  It is a very easy and intuitive project management online software.  We have been using the summer projects as a test and are sold on it.  It has helped to keep our team organized and since it is web based we can access it at meeting and during installs etc.  We upload wiring diagrams rack layouts site survey pics etc.   You can have your whole team be members and the assign tasks to each member.  If anyone wants more info on how we have been using it please let me know.  I would be glad to tell you more about what we are doing with it and how we set it up.

 

Yes we handle all our own project management and installs.  We have project managers that are part of facilities that we work with BUT we do all the AV project management.

 

Todd

 

Todd Hughes

Instructional Technology Engineer

Media Services

Duquesne University

600 Forbes Ave

211 Canevin Hall

Pittsburgh, PA 15282

412-396-6090

hugh...@duq.edu

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[Scott Tiner]

Very interesting thread.

At Bates, we also use Trello.  It is fabulous, easy and I can not say enough good things about it.  It sounds as though Todd is using it more extensively than we are, so I may look into how to get more out of it.

The project intake is always via e-mail or in face.  Our project managers are in our AV department.  Like others, we work very closely with the project managers in facility services.  We do a rolling process of accepting and reviewing system installs or upgrades.  We have found that having a system like Trello, helps us better understand what is on the board, so we can communicate with our customers when a project is likely to get done.  

ST

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Scott Tiner, CTS
Assistant Director for Digital Media, Classroom Technologies&  Event Support
Bates College
207.786.6396 (office)
207.240.1154 (cell)

[Jon Bannan]

This is an interesting topic for sure.

1.) At TCNJ, our project intake is from multiple sources.  Most project requests go to the Cabinet, they prioritize based on the budget received.  However as Deans and Directors go, they also will come to us with projects that they are funding separately.   

2.) Our Portfolio Management is done via an Excel spreadsheet

3.) We project manage via "AV project managers"  Which are not dedicated PM's but part of a few people job description.  We work with closely our Campus construction PM's

4.) Our timeline is a rolling process based on fiscal year, cabinet prioritization.  (And the squeaky wheel :-) )

Jon Bannan - CTS - DMC-E-4K

Media Manager
Media & Technology Support Services
http://www.tcnj.edu/~mtss

The College of New Jersey
2000 Pennington Road
Forcina Hall 123
Ewing, NJ 08628
609-771-2304 - Office #
609-637-5126 - Fax #
ban...@tcnj.edu


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[John Jahn]

1)  Our College owned classrooms comes down the ladder from our Director. Other departmental jobs usually come from an email.

2)  Excel document and a Job folder with all related info

3)  Usually the Engineer that does the site survey follows the job to completion

4)  College owned is usually the summer, so about a week before the Fall term starts. Departmental gets done when the room is available.

We require the Departmental jobs to sign a service level agreement so both parties know exactly who is responsible for what. This saves us for doing extra work that they try to sneak in.

I would love to see others excel & folders to compare. I will also share if you email me.

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John Jahn, CTS-D/I, DMC-D
AV Planning Engineer | Media-Care Coordinator

University of Michigan | LSA-ISS-Engineering
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