week 11 -adriel,nicole,amanda

There are a few factors and principles that makes project management of multimedia productions successful. The first principle or process is the whole production of the multimedia production or project. The most important or significant part of the production is the planning stage. Production is a phase when the project is actually rendered. In this production process, it is important that the storyboards are prepared, navigation maps draft out, and so forth. It is during this phase that important and continuing tasks are most dealt and monitored with.

For example, if the project is built and done by more than one person, it is very important that a management structure is established in advance. This is so that if one person is away on emergency lift or unavailable, the project partner will be able to continue the project from where is was left off. This management structure will include specific milestones that will make monitoring easier. Also, it will include production expectations for each contributor. This will act as a guideline and monitor contributors.

After the production stage comes the start up process. In the start up process, it is important to check all development hardware and software. It is important that all software is available before the start of project. Besides that, there is also the need to review organizational and administrative setup. It does not matter if you alone are handling the project because all these steps will ensure a smooth flow of completing the project.

It is also crucial to determine the capacity of your CPU and RAM- lower capacity means there will be limitations for your project size; while bigger capacity will allow you to explore more on your project and allow space for miscellaneous. Another relevant area is that are there sufficient disk storage space for all work files because these will affect your project outcome.

Another area to monitor is the time factor. It is important to keep track of the time frame given to complete the project and ensure that all management system is in place. The Gantt Chart is a good way of self monitoring throughout your project.

For every project, financial role plays a big factor. It is important the financial arrangements are secure and planned out. Should there be any emergencies, you can be rest assured that there is back up. As for clients, it is vital that you have all their contacts so that communication will be made easier. Should any problem arise, there will be room for discussions and negotiations.

To work on a successful project, one not ony have to concentrate on the project but also to have a good background communication with the clients as they are the sole provider for the financial issue on the project itself. Working with clients are not easy especially the fussy ones. Therefore, the developer will have to build good rapport between he or she to the clients they correspond to especially towards the management level in the big corporations.

In order to do so, always ask the needs and wants of the specification on the project itself. Ask in datail so you could eliminate further changes from the management itself. Another way to make sure is to develop a cheme to the management which specifies the number and duration of client approval cycles. For example, give a number of times which the management can adhere their changes to. For instance, 5 times and later after that the developer may charge them an acess fee if they want to make extra changes from then on. This step is to ensure rectifications to be done in proper timely manner and eliminate changes.

As the updated changes is done to the multimedia production by the developer. He or she will have to update the information to their clients. As the production file is huge, the developer need to think about the storage space needed for the production. For example, always have a back up copy of the project itself to eliminate any unwanted mistakes such as power shortage. Then, use software pogram such as Zip to make the file smaller. Furthermore, have a huge data storage. One prominent way to transport the files to the client as soon as possible is to courier them however with technology one would be able to update the changes through the website which the client can acess and download from the attachment provided for instance.

Tracking the workload of the project is another successful way to make sure everything is done in order and in detail as time passes very fast and a dateline on the project could be easily missed out on. One easy way is to develp your name file project to the maximum 8 characters provided which associates with the topic of your project. For the larger project ensure that you have equip yourself with the latest update on the software programming you are using to enhance better quality project. For example, Creative Suite which was launched recently.

The next step of making multimedia productions successeful would be the process of copyrighting. In fact, any form of work whether is be an idea, or a project needs copyrights as they are the safety measures for people who want to make sure their ideas and works are not copied and tampered with by anyone wanting to do so. A person's idea may be good in that it is creative and is getting the interest of clients but if intellectual properties like these are not inserted with a copyright statement, one will risk losing that property to another and make all their hard work go to waste.

All forms of production have their setback and difficulties. Multimedia productions are no exception. To have hazards and annoyances are only normal and what makes multimedia productions, in fact any other productions, successful is the ability to overcome them, manage them, and even learn from them. But should they be allowed to fester and continue to hinder the production, they may very well be things that makes the whole process fail. These hazards and annoyances may be both big and small, and they may come in a wide array of forms. Some examples would be uncooperative co-workers who just cannot accept constructive criticism and so they become insulted and under perform in their task. To solve this, managers should have one-to-one talks with workers like these and try to convince them that they have to accept criticisms well and that it was given for their own good and for the good of the team.

Clients may also be a problem as they can sometimes be very fussy and demanding. They may ask for changes and amendments at a wrong time and the way to avoid this is by stating in the clause or contract that should changes be made to the production, extra charges will be incurred. This will discourage them from having too much of their own way and will then give managers and producers of the production less trouble and more time to finish their work. All-nighters, or people who have the tendencey to fail to get enough sleep can also present a hazard. Because of their lack of sleep, they will be unfocused and very unproductive and the way to amend this would be to give a warning to them that should they continue on with their late nights, their position in the team will be in doubt. This can also be applied with deadlines if workers fail to meet them.