I'm going to switch gears for this post and talk about some actual project management concepts and how they pertain to writers. I know you're all super hyped to hear more about how I'm micromanaging Trello, right? Well, sorry, I've got some knowledge to unpack for y'all.
First off, what is a project? It's one of those terms that seems obvious until you start thinking about it, right?
A project is defined as "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result".1
The key words there are "temporary" and "unique". A project does one thing, it has a specific beginning, and it has a specific end. So, publishing a book, writing a blog post, or doing a podcast episode are all forms of projects. For that matter, so are getting set up on Amazon to publish, migrating your blog to a new web host, and trying to figure out why the audio was so screwed up on your last podcast. All projects! Even if they're simple enough that you don't think of them that way.
Every project is aimed at fulfilling a specific objective by producing one or more deliverables. An objective is defined as "an outcome toward which work is to be directed, a strategic position to be attained, a purpose to be achieved, a result to be obtained, a product to be produced, or a service to be performed"2. A deliverable is defined as "any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is required to be produced to complete a process, phase, or project"3.
You just skimmed that, so here's an example: a project to publish a book (the objective) will result in a finished manuscript, a cover, and a set of keywords (the deliverables). Deliverables can, obviously, last beyond the scope of a project: your book doesn't just vanish because you succeeded in publishing it (although it might feel like that sometimes).
From the capitalist busy business standpoint, projects drive change and enable business value creation. Each project moves a business from one state to another. If you publish a book, you now have an additional book on the market that requires care and feeding (marketing). If you fix the audio problems on your podcast, your next podcast maybe won't sound so bad. And, each project returns some benefit to its stakeholders (usually you), in the form of time, money, or goods. So that book on Amazon generates revenue, or your improved audio quality might convince a new sponsor to advertise on your podcast.
Obviously you're not going to just stop at one project, unless it's like a miracle unicorn project that meets all your life goals in one fell swoop. (If it does, share.) That's where programs and portfolios come in.
A program is "a group of related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually."4 For example, if you're writing a series, each book in that series is a project, and the marketing for that series is a project, but the work for the series as a whole could be considered a program.
A portfolio, on the other hand, is "projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives."5 In other words, your entire writing business could probably be considered a portfolio, encompassing all your published work, your blog, your podcast, what have you. If an editor at a big publishing house talks about her portfolio, she probably means the set of authors that she's working with.
The benefit of understanding these concepts is to change the way you think about your writing. Every book is a unique crystal formed under titanic pressures no one else could conceive of, but it's also a project you'll be working on for a fixed amount of time. And if every book is a project, you can start to develop ways to plan for them that you can reuse from one book to the next. That's time saved, and time saved is more time to write in.
Thinking about your portfolio isn't a bad idea, either. If you consider everything you do as part of an overall strategy to earn you fame/money/your great-aunt's love, you can consider how each part is working to benefit that strategy, and ultimately you. It may not mean you change what you write, but it might affect how you present yourself and your writing. Or, it might actually change what you write. You do you.
That's just an introduction to a wide range of concepts that are all contained within The Project Management Body Of Knowledge, or PMBOK. Years ago, project managers being the sort of people project managers are, a bunch of them decided to form a collection of standard terms, concepts, recommendations, and rules that would guide the field of project management, forever and ever, amen. If you've ever heard of the PMP, which stands for Project Management Professional, then understand it's a certification for people who understand the PMBOK, put it into practice, and contribute to building the lore.
Anyway, I think we'll stop here for now. Let me know if you like this sort of thing, because I'm happy to keep going. And don't forget to check out my books!
-Lea
1. A Guide To The Project Management Body Of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Sixth Edition. (Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, 2017), 4.
2. PMBOK Guide, 4.
3. PMBOK Guide, 4.
4. PMBOK Guide, 11.
5. PMBOK Guide, 11.
I like this sort of thing! Keep going!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I get a bit lost in the PM stuff and remind myself it's more important to write. That's why I have a bunch of unfinished stories. Need a system for finishing instead of starting something new.
I also like this sort of thing. Keep going! I wish to nerd it up!
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