Margot Note's Blog, page 30

Determining Your Archival Project Budget

An archival project should be completed without exceeding authorized expenditures. Many projects in archives lack a direct profit motive. For these projects, even in the absence of monetary gain, careful attention to financial management is vital.

Project managers need to know what a project will cost. However, accurate cost estimating is difficult because it begins before all the information about the project is available. You develop a budget in stages—from an initial estimate, to a detailed estimate, to an approved budget. You may revise your budget while your project is in progress. The less defined the project, the greater the chance that the estimated costs will differ from the final numbers. The variance, unfortunately, is often on the side of a cost overrun.

Sometimes projects are supported by influential people within the organization, so it’s challenging to make an unbiased appraisal. Conflicting values and loyalties may exaggerate the expected benefits. Applying financial tests ensures that decisions made about investment in the project will endure scrutiny.

Valid Project Costs

Project managers must provide valid project costs to sponsors so they can decide whether the project should proceed. Don’t be intimidated into committing to a lower value than is possible. It’s far wiser to present realistic costs than to underestimate and set yourself up for problems in the future. Archivists must often defend our labor costs, so don’t back down in presenting your estimates.

When first determining the budget, consider the constraints. How much money is available? When should the project be completed? What internal resources are required? What external resources are needed, and what will they cost? What are you willing to settle for that will still meet your needs? Is there a way to complete the project using less expensive or fewer resources?For large projects, such as the construction of a conservation lab or the development of a research institute, the project team should work with the organization’s development office to begin fundraising efforts. The focus should be on the capital campaign, but the project manager should also push for endowments to pay for costs beyond the life of the project.

Payment Approaches

It’s also helpful to review payment approaches and how they can influence your budget. Standard methods are payment upon delivery, payment on a schedule, payment on a schedule with variable payments, and payment on milestones when deliverables are produced and verified.

Payment upon delivery is straightforward. When you receive a product, you confirm its validity and acceptability. The vendor then submits an invoice on pre-agreed terms. As project manager, you will have planned for the appropriate funds to pay for the product.

Payment on a schedule is also uncomplicated. This approach is used when you’re procuring workers on an ongoing time and materials basis. The outsourcing firm will take the hours claimed for your project and submit an invoice. You determine the accuracy of the hours worked, ensure you’re getting the quality expected, and confirm the invoices’ validity. These payments can also be planned by predicting the hours you expect to be billed and including the budgeted amount in your project cost plan.

Payment on a schedule with variable payments is handled similarly to the previous approach because the scheduled set of payments are made. The variable payment portion occurs when the amount of work required is based on a forecast. A base monthly fee is necessary for the service of handling orders with a potential rebate or additional payment, if the forecast volume varies from a given baseline workload. In this case, you plan the scheduled payments, and you watch how the workload volumes progress. Adjust your payment schedule quarterly.

Finally, the payment on a milestone approach relates to your project schedule. Aspects of what you require your vendor or partner to do are delivered in parts that should be captured in your project schedule. Payment on milestone is a fixed amount, so it is straightforward to include it in your budget. Verification of the deliverable against the milestone can sometimes take, so the period to perform that task should be included in your schedule.

Payment Flexibility

Your payment timing to vendors can affect archival project costs and the financial state of your organization. Depending on the sizes of the purchases, they can have consequences on your budget. Your organization may direct you to delay buying something until the next accounting period. Conversely, they may want to spend money now rather than wait, so the budget allocation remains the same in the next fiscal year or quarter.

Given these circumstances, it’s wise to understand what flexibility you can apply to your archival project schedule to accommodate different procurement opportunities.

Here’s one opportunity to consider: you may receive price breaks from vendors if you pay upfront. For example, organizations will often purchase computer hardware and software that requires ongoing support. The initial investment covers hardware-software delivery, license fees, and a year of maintenance. However, most organizations will want support for more time. Paying upfront for the original purchase with five years of support typically means you can negotiate a lower price. You can depreciate the hardware or software and cost of the support as an asset. However, your organization will incur a greater cash outlay now rather than making payments for support over the upcoming years. Vendors may provide an arrangement where you pay a portion of the agreed upon amount up front and make payments on a regular basis afterward. It never hurts to ask.

As stated, careful attention to financial stewardship is vital when developing and managing archival projects.

The blog was originally published on Lucidea's blog.

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam.

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Best Practices for Crafting an Archival Project Charter

The authority to begin an archival project is granted in a variety of ways, depending on the type of project. Approval may be in the form of an internal document signed by the sponsor, or an elaborate contract with an external client. Some organizations call this formal authority to advance a “project charter”, but it can also be known as a proposal, project datasheet, project specification, or a project definition document.

Defining the Charter

Archival project charters recognize the existence of the project and give the project manager the authority to spend resources. The charter includes the business need for undertaking the project and the deliverables that will be refined as the project progresses. It also describes the links between the project’s goals and the broader aims of the organization. A well-written charter forms the basis for detailed scoping, planning, and controlling.

Questions to Ask

Before writing the charter, ask yourself questions that will generate thoughts about the project:

What benefits are expected from the project? Over what period are they expected?

Who will benefit from this project? Who are the stakeholders?

Does the charter name the business needs that the project will address?

Does the charter have deliverables?

Has the financial analysis been completed for the project?

What are the conditions under which the project will take place?

Does the charter state what resources will be involved?

Does it outline the organization’s responsibilities about resources and decisions?

Does it include statements of what constitutes success?

Does it supply explanations of how success will be measured?

Are there any specific scope inclusions or exclusions?

How long may the project take? What are the critical dates?

What investments will be necessary and over what period?

What assumptions were made when identifying timescales, budgets, or benefits?

What may cause the project to fail? How will risks be mitigated?

An essential element is the archival project’s purpose, stated as a mission statement, a one-line summary of what the project aims to achieve, or a more thorough description of the business objectives of the project.

If resources, staff, and vendors are known at the launch of the project, list them as well. A description of the project’s risks, assumptions, and constraints should be incorporated. Project approval requirements and acceptance criteria should be added too.

Key Stakeholder Sign-off

The archival project manager must be named in the charter along with his or her responsibilities and extent of authority. Also integrated is a statement of the sponsor’s support. The charter begins the chain of commitment by putting in writing the sponsor’s support for the project and the project manager. All key stakeholders must approve the project charter as a sign of their agreement on the project definition. This announcement states that the project manager is authorized to perform specific tasks under the authority of the sponsor.

A Baseline Understanding

The purpose of the archival project charter is to describe the project to stakeholders and establish the project manager’s authority to gather and make use of resources. Often the charter has sections like the project plan—and is sometimes used as the project plan. It’s brief, several pages at most, and supplies an overview of a more comprehensive project plan.

For archival projects, especially at smaller organizations, a project charter may seem unnecessary. However, the act of constructing a document as well as getting stakeholders to approve it makes the project run smoother. If changes or misunderstandings occur, the document acts as a contract to denote to make decisions. The charter allows the archival project manager to move forward with minimal problems.

The blog was originally published on Lucidea's blog.

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam.

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How to Create Family Archives: A Master List

I've written a lot about family archives over the years, but sometimes my readers miss a post or are new to my community. I've listed my posts related to how anyone can learn methods to save their personal and family history. 

Learn the preservation secrets used by libraries, archives, and museums to protect their priceless materials (that you can also use for your family heritage items) by ordering my book: : 

CREATING FAMILY ARCHIVES: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR SAVING YOUR MEMORIES FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam. 

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The Secrets to Improved Research Revealed

Here's a roundup of my best blog posts on Research Methods. I love learning and teaching these tips to make people into better scholars and writers. 

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam. 

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Enhance Your LIS Career

The past several years for me have been quite a journey. I started my own consulting business, wrote a few books, started teaching at universities, worked with a number of clients, and expanded my professional network substantially. I also shared some of the lessons I learned from working as a self-employed archivist. Here are some of the most popular posts on my career advice. 

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam. 

Follow me on Pinterest | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

How to Create Family Archives: A Master List

I've written a lot about family archives over the years, but sometimes my readers miss a post or are new to my community. I've listed my posts related to how anyone can learn methods to save their personal and family history. 

To learn the preservation secrets used by libraries, archives, and museums to protect their priceless materials (that you can also use for your family heritage items), read my book: 

Creating Family Archives: How to Preserve Your Papers and Photographs

By Margot Note

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam. 

Follow me on Pinterest | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

How to Master Archival Projects

I've compiled some of my best post posts on archival management. I love being a consultant who can help organizations fund, set up, or expand their archives programs. Interested in learning more about what I do? Check out my services. 

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam. 

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Holiday Gift Guide for Celebrating Family Memories

A gift that celebrates memories is so much more than a present. An occasion for gift giving--the holidays, a birthday, an anniversary--is all about the experience. Everything's better when you enjoy it together. 

Here's a list of distinctive presents for everyone on your nice list. They are suitable for people of any age. They are affordable as well; most gifts are $10-$20, with many under $10. When you purchase items through these links, I receive a small percentage of the cost through the Amazon Associates program. You can buy curated, high-quality items at the same that you support my work. The ties that bind these gifts together is that they cherish the past or create the future.

For Family Archivists

I would be remiss for not mentioning my book, Creating Family Archives: A Step-by-Step Guide for Saving Your Memories for Future Generations, as a thoughtful gift. It's an easy, quick, and affordable guide to protecting your treasures. I've also selected a collection of my favorite Gaylord Archival items for beginners, including family history kits, enclosures, and folders, that I advise my clients to use and that I use myself. I've also created the ultimate archival supply shopping list that goes into more detail about what beginning archivists need to get started.  

I offer services for individuals and families, with three levels of expertise. A family archives package is a unique gift for a friend or relative who values their heritage, but doesn't know what to do to protect it. It would be my pleasure to show you how! Learn more HERE. 

I've created a couple of on-demand tutorials for you to access at any time. Access Organize What's Meaningful to You, Kickstart Your Family Archives Project, or both for additional savings. You will receive videos jam-packed with content, as well as a growing collection of family history tools, articles, oral history kits, podcasts, and other resources; unlimited access to the tutorials; automatic upgrades to any new content, and other goodies. Learn more HERE.

For Memory Makers

Lea Redmond's Letters to... series provides prompts for letters to loved ones. Letters to My Friend: Write Now. Read Later. Treasure Forever. offers 12 letters to celebrate a cherished friendship. 

A gift of a recipe box with 100 recipe cards (and a potential to hold twice as much) allows family members to record their favorite recipes. I like this box because of its clean, modern design; a groove on the top of the box allows you to view your recipe easily. 

The Memories line of Homesick candles are the best. The Books scent smells like an older leatherbound book mixed with a woody desk character of cedar and sandalwood. Hints of balsamic and vanilla finish the complex scent. Doesn't that sound wonderful? This hand-poured soy wax candle burns for 60 to 80 hours. 

Drop a note to friends and family with letterpress printed cards. My favorite is a set individually printed on a 1930's letterpress with a vintage typewriter motif with "just a note" in black on the front. They're blank inside. The cards measure 3.5" x 5" and come neatly packaged with a variety color of envelopes. If these aren't your style, I suggest seeking another set of letterpress stationery; they have a luxe, handmade touch that stands out among slick and impersonal commercial cards. 

An archival-quality photo album kit includes everything you need to safely present precious family photos in an elegant black album. The kit includes a buckram cover, mounting pages, protectors, photo corners, and envelopes that are acid-free to safely store photos, negatives, newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia. I've written a post about purchasing and using the album to recreate a damaged magnetic album. 

For Kids

In Home, artist Carson Ellis makes her solo picture-book debut with a whimsical tribute to the many possibilities of home. I spotted this book at The Strand and was immediately drawn to it. The book has a beautiful tone that invites many return visits. It also introduces the important concept of how the places we live shape our lives.

These forest friends bookplates are so cute. The 80 bookplates were illustrated by Quill & Fox. They feature colorful owls, worms, squirrels, foxes, beavers, ladybugs, rabbits, and hedgehogs. It makes a fun gift for the little bookworm in your life.

Let's Make Some Great Art is such an inspiring book; it’s full of activities and lessons on artists, and is a great tool to get kids’ creative juices flowing.

Nothing beats the ease of taking photos on your cellphone, but there’s something retro about the Instagram-like wallet-sized photos produced from a Fuji Instax. All kids should experience the tangible aspects of photography, especially instant photography. Archivists and conservators are unsure about how long digital images will last. Physical images (when preserved properly) will survive hundreds of years. 

The classic My Book About Me, By ME, Myself encourages children to write and draw their own biographies. It's an ideal gift for elementary school children and one that will become a cherished keepsake. (I loved filling in my copy as a child!)

For Readers

Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind by Sarah Wildman documents her journey to find the lost love her grandfather left behind when he fled pre-World War II Europe. The book begins when she finds a cache of letters in his old files, then ends in an exploration into family identity, myth, and memory.

In Sidonia's Thread: The Secrets of a Mother and Daughter Sewing a New Life in America, Hanna Perlstein Marcus writes about her journey with her mother, Sidonia, who came to Massachusetts from a displaced persons camp after World War II. Sidonia supports herself as a talented seamstress, yet hides many secrets. As an adult, Hanna searches through her mother's old letters and photographs to find clues about her heritage. 

The House in Prague: How a Stolen House Helped an Immigrant Girl Find Her Way Home follows Anna Nessy Perlberg's life from witnessing the Nazis invade Prague in 1939 to after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The book is illustrated with pictures from the author’s family archives. 

97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman investigates the culinary habits of five ethnic families living at the turn of the twentieth century in one tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It includes 40 recipes.

In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. Lacking a written language of their own, the Hmong experience has been primarily recorded by others. Driven to tell her family’s story after her grandmother’s death, The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang’s tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together.

For Writers

The Blackwing pencil was introduced in the 1930's by Eberhard Faber and was the pencil of choice for Oscar, Grammy, and Pulitzer Prize winners throughout the 20th century. Pencil aficionados from John Steinbeck to Thomas Wolfe to E.B. White have sung the praises of the Palomino Blackwing pencil. After it was discontinued in the 1990's, fans began paying as much as $40 per pencil to seize unused stock. These are perfect for writing in your journal, scribbling down notes as you interview family members, or crafting letters to loved ones. 

The Fisher space pen is one of the most popular pens of the twentieth century. The original Fisher Space Pen was used on the Apollo 7 space mission in 1968 after two years of testing by NASA and has been used on all manned space flights since then. The design and construction of the pen hasn't changed; it's exactly the same as the one taken to the moon. The pen writes at any angle, even in Zero Gravity, and in extreme temperatures. 

Writers can jot ideas down quickly with a set of three Moleskine Cahiers. These flexible, singer-bound journals have indigo blue covers and visible stitching on the spine. The ruled pages are acid-free, so they are easy to preserve. 

For a more substantial notebook, choose Leuchtturm. These notebooks helps you get organized with numbered pages, a blank table of contents, and a set of stickers for the cover and spine that allow for clear labeling and archiving. I've chosen a notebook with plain paper; you can also choose lined or dots (for bullet journals). 

The Miracle Time Cube is perfect for overcoming procrastination. You can set it to 5, 15, 30 and 60 minutes and research, write, or edit until it beeps. 

What gifts are you looking forward to giving and receiving? 

To learn the preservation secrets used by libraries, archives, and museums to protect their priceless materials (that you can also use for your family heritage items), read my book, Creating Family Archives: A Step-by-Step Guide for Saving Your Memories for Future Generations.

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam.

Follow me on Pinterest | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

Highlighting Family Archives and Personal History Businesses

This holiday season, I'm sharing some entrepreneurs and small businesses that offer services related to memory, legacy, and family and personal history. I wish to amplify their reach so that as many people as possible know about their offerings.

I've noted the location of the businesses, but like most things these days, the Internet gives them the power to serve clients around the United States and the world. For example, many of my clients aren’t local. Depending on the project, companies and clients can connect as easily by email or by phone as in person.

Speaking from my own experiences, owning your own business is a labor of love. We work hard to provide unique, quality experiences and to delight our clients. By supporting smaller businesses in this field, you are helping others who share your values. 

I've also asked my contributors to share their suggestions for capturing memories during the holiday season. What are yours?

Without further ado, I’ll let them speak for themselves:

Robin Brooks, The Beauty of Books

Western Massachusetts

thebeautyofbooks.com

What's your #1 tip for capturing memories during the holiday season?: The way I capture memories best is by standing still, in my body and in my whole being. I try to separate myself from all the holiday commotion around me. Then, I focus my attention on the one person I want to connect with. I look into that person’s eyes and just plain listen. I also watch facial expressions as he or she describes what is in their hearts or minds. I love this, especially being able to learn something new from the younger generation like my son or daughter, niece or nephew. Or hearing a different perspective on life from one of my sisters. I want to hear what each person has to say as they share a small piece of their lives with me. What an honor!

Tell me about your services:: I provide book design, production, and print supervision with printers ranging from KDP/Kindle Direct Publishing (gets you easily onto Amazon) and Ingram Spark (gets you into bookstores)—both true Print-on-Demand (POD)—to short-run digital and hi-end traditional printing.

I offer scanning (with a large format professional scanner); fixed layout eBook production for personal histories; direction for flowable eBooks; and full project management, as needed.

I provide self-publishing guidance to those who are wanting to get their books out into the world. This includes working with KDP and Ingram, as well as offering recommendations for distribution, publicity, and social media help. Within this area, I also design promotional materials.

I offer mentoring to new personal historians.

I provide guidance for choosing a specific printer.

I think the most important service I provide is that I lend my ear as a human being, alongside over 40 years of experience.

Do you have any holiday specials or discount codes that you'd like to share with my audience?: I am offering 5 hours of free consulting on all projects initiated by 12/31/19.

HollyGenealogy, LLC

New York, New York

genealogybyholly.com

What's your #1 tip for capturing memories during the holiday season?: Interview relatives to record important information about your family history. Start with older generations of your family and/or close family friends. Use photos and mementos to trigger memories. If possible, get your conversations on video. There are lots of online guides that can provide suggestions for thought-provoking questions to ask that may shed light on new family discoveries.

Tell me about your services: My genealogy research services include consultations, traditional research and record retrieval. Through my research experience and training, I have developed skills and techniques which allow me to gather, analyze and interpret documents and the information contained within them, utilizing both online and on-site resources. My specialization focuses on 18th, 19th and early 20th-century genealogy research in the United States. Through my memberships in various genealogy associations, organizations and subscription services, I have access to a multitude of federal, state and local records pertinent to family history research.

Beth Nevarez Historical Consulting

Raleigh, North Carolina area (Eastern NC)

bethnevarez.com

www.facebook.com/bethnevarezhistory

What's your #1 tip for capturing memories during the holiday season?: Take advantage of family gatherings to ask questions about family traditions and how they started, or what stories go along with special holiday keepsakes like inherited ornaments or other special decorations. Asking can lead to hearing great stories and learning so much more about your family's history. But be sure to write it down!

Tell me about your services:: I offer historical consulting services mostly for museums, businesses and organizations, but some of my services can be tailored for individuals as well. I work with collections--artifacts, archives, photos, and more--to organize, preserve, research, and provide access to them. I also help museums and businesses to make use of those collections to enhance outreach or marketing endeavors through digital content creation via social media, blogs, and web features. I help organizations to harness that history, tell their stores, turn archives into assets, and make connections between past and present.

Life Stories by Liv

Phoenix, Arizona

lifestoriesbyliv.com

www.facebook.com/lifestoriesbyliv

What's your #1 tip for capturing memories during the holiday season?: Pull out the recorder! If you're spending time with your parents and grandparents, sometimes they start telling amazing stories out of the blue. In the moment, you enjoy listening but you probably don't think you need to preserve that story. But you never know when it will be the last time they tell it! Thankfully, most of us have a voice recorder in our pocket at all times: a smart phone. On an iPhone, the built-in voice recording app is called "Voice Memos." You can pull out your phone and start recording in seconds. It's amazing how meaningful it is to hear someone's voice once they have passed on. And if you have a collection of recordings, you can type them up and save them all together in a book!

Tell me about your services:: I operate a full-service life history business. I conduct and record interviews with storytellers, transcribe and organize the interview material, edit to create an engaging narrative, and incorporate images to create a beautifully designed book using professional software Adobe Indesign. I have done books for couples and individuals, and one four-narrator memoir. I am working on a new product--a book for missionaries who want to preserve the memories of their service. I am also in search of an illustrator to help me offer illustrated life story books intended especially for the storyteller's grandchildren.

Do you have any holiday specials or discount codes that you'd like to share with my audience?: I am offering $100 off for any life story project that is booked by Christmas. (The book will not be done by Christmas. The client would receive a gift certificate to present to the storyteller. The project would begin at the start of next year.)

To learn the preservation secrets used by libraries, archives, and museums to protect their priceless materials (that you can also use for your family heritage items) read my book: 

Creating Family Archives: How to Preserve Your Papers and Photographs

By Margot Note

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam. 

Follow me on Pinterest | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

How to Manage Archival Project Risks and Assumptions

As you plan your archival project, analyze its risks and their impacts. Assessing and proactively mitigating risks guards against problems. Projects also have assumptions that should be explored before executing the project.

Risk refers to circumstances existing outside your control that impact the project. Successful projects ensue when your team addresses problems before they occur. They may not foretell all difficulties, and unlikely obstacles may still arise. Reactive project managers resolve issues when they happen, but proactive project managers determine issues beforehand.

Risk Responses

There are several responses to dealing with risk. One approach is to list and prioritize them, and describe their probability and impact—then create response strategies depending on the circumstances. Another choice is avoidance, which refers to activities that circumvent risks. Mitigation, on the other hand, reduces the probability or impact of the risk. A standard risk mitigation technique—especially in complex projects—is the purchase of insurance. You’d rarely buy insurance on small projects, but you could use reserves against cost overruns. Another option, transference, reassigns the risk to someone else. Another approach is active acceptance— recognizing problems and creating a contingency plan. Conversely, passive acceptance realizes risks, but delays deciding what to do about them until after they occur.

Reducing Risks

Reduce the likelihood or effect of a risk, if you can. For instance, if a team member is new or inexperienced, the possibility of them creating a poor-quality deliverable may be diminished by setting expectations. Asking the team member to show his or her work throughout the project may address quality concerns and mitigate the risk.

The likelihood of risks should be monitored to determine whether they’re becoming issues. For example, if there’s a risk that the scheduled time will end before the user acceptance testing, that prospect can be assessed by tracking the number of problems being recorded daily. If the amount rises, so will the probability of the risk. If the number falls, the chance diminishes.

Never Make Assumptions

Assumptions are a critical factor in determining a project’s fate. Projects rest on assumptions, whether or not they’re acknowledged. As archivists in charge of projects, we make many assumptions and don’t always realize we’re doing so. Take the time to identify, analyze, and validate what you implicitly assume.

Listing assumptions is often one of the most challenging sections of the plan to complete, but continuous conversation will ensure that we don’t keep our presuppositions for long. Since you don’t know what you’re assuming, continue your communication to identify assumptions and agreement on their resolutions.

Because assumptions express uncertainty, they are also risks, and should be considered in terms of their likelihoods and effects. For example, you may assume that team members will work full days until the project is completed. The project will, therefore, carry the risk that some people may work fewer hours or be asked to work on other projects.

Tolerance and Contingency

Make allowances for the unforeseen by including elements of tolerance and contingency. Tolerance is the amount of time you can add to the plan without reporting it or seeking permission to continue. Contingency is an estimated amount of money to address project risks.

Tolerance and contingency are related to risk; the higher the risks, the more likely that the archival project will have higher costs and an extended schedule. For example, a 10% tolerance and a 15% contingency are suitable for a medium-scale archival project taking six months or less.

By taking the time to identify and analyze your risks and assumptions, and plan accordingly, you allow your archival project to thrive. You can then select the project management approach best suited to each individual issue.

The blog was originally published on Lucidea's blog.

If you like archives, memory, and legacy as much as I do, you might consider signing up for my email list. Every few weeks I send out a newsletter with new articles and exclusive content for readers. It’s basically my way of keeping in touch with you and letting you know what’s going on. Your information is protected and I never spam.

Follow me on Pinterest | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook