Managing Interactive Media

Managing Interactive Media

Industry insight quotes

Each chapter of Managing Interactive Media starts with an industry insight ... a quote from an expert practitioner. They are reproduced here.

Chapter 1
The IMP (Interactive media project) context		 A growing international market is there to be won by creative … businesses that are able to innovate and do not see any inherent conflict between creative excellence and commercial success. NESTA Report (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, UK), Creating growth, page 4, April 2006
Chapter 2
Initiating interactive projects 1		 Another key challenge for both the design profession and its business partners is to accept the fact that it's worth taking the time to prepare a proper design brief prior to commencing design concept development. This process will actually save time and ensure more effective design results. Peter L. Phillips from the Design Management Institute, written online for the Design Council, Briefing section, 'Challenges'
Chapter 3
Initiating projects 2
Scoping the project		 My advice is to be very careful about doing any project that hasn't been thoroughly scoped out in advance. Even if you're starving for work. By 'thoroughly' I mean that you, the client, your mom and your dog all know in fairly granular detail what's expected and when. Scoping projects, D. Keith Robinson, of Blue Flavor in the '7nights' blog, 16 Nov. 2005
Chapter 4
Stakeholders and their influence		 Realize that when a development project fails, it's not necessarily due to the technology, but rather that all the people involved haven't been brought together in the right way to create and support the project. Stakeholder analysis is a way to identify and understand the needs and interests of people affected by a project. Stakeholder analysis: perspectives on development, Amy Smith, Kurt Kornbluth, Prof. Mitch Resnick, MIT. OpenCourseware Special Program 722, Session #4 Notes, Spring 2005
As a final point about stakeholders, it is important for a project manager's morale to remember that it is essentially impossible to please all the stakeholders all the time … Project managers need to forget the idea of maximizing everyone's happiness and concentrate instead on maintaining satisfactory relations that allow them to do their job with a minimum of external interference. Lessons for an accidental profession, Jeffrey Pinto and Om Kharbanda in The Human Side of Managing Technological Innovation, page 186, 2nd edn, edited Ralph Katz, OUP New York, 2004
Chapter 5
The client-developer partnership approach to projects

Every good client relationship must be built on some basic understandings or agreements between client and contractor. Start with these:

  • The client has value to me, in the form of opportunity to work.
  • I am valuable to the client, in the form of the goods & services that I can provide.
  • As a contractor, I have financial and professional goals which I am committed to achieving.
  • The client has financial and professional goals which he/she is committed to
    achieving.
  • Both contractor and client are responsible for their own business and achieving their own goals. This responsibility extends to being respectfully assertive and communicative when those interests are being negatively affected.
 Client relationship management, Pat McClellan, Director Online, 9 August 1999
You are not working on interactive media-based ... solutions, you are working on interactive media-based business solutions – and that requires an altogether different approach and mindset. Bob Little, Interview for Managing Interactive Media, May 2006
Chapter 6
Troubleshooting common development problems: developer perspective		 Manage the client with the same effort as managing other aspects of a project. The relationship will be stronger. The work will be better. Your team will be happier. You and your company will make more money. Client relationships, Blog, James Bielefeldt, 28 March 2006
Chapter 7
Troubleshooting common development problems: commissioner perspective		 Too many client dissatisfaction issues occur because the client's expectations aren't managed up front. Start every project venture out on the right foot by stating the project's scope clearly and you'll reward yourself with fewer problems down the road. Managing client expectations with a project scope document, Michael Sisco, Techrepublic, 25 July 2002
Chapter 8
The user's contribution: usability and accessibility		 The most powerful way to plan a project involves use of three equal perspectives: business, technology, and customer. The customer perspective is often the most misunderstood and misused. Scott Berkun, The Art of Project Management, Chapter 3, How to figure out what to do, page 83, O'Reilly, May 2005
Chapter 9
Interactive media testing and archiving		 The real answer is that a methodology is required to test anything thoroughly. As humans, we take short-cuts. We assume we know an answer or we know what's going on because of past experiences and we cut to the chase because time is money and all that. Open source security testing methodology, Peter Herzug being interviewed by Federico Biancuzzi, Security Focus, 29 March 2006
Chapter 10
Legal issues 1		 Digital Media Technologies change society and the laws governing it. This change cannot be managed by simply putting patches on the old. Riding the Media Bits, Dr Leonardo Chiariglione, 2003
Chapter 11
Legal issues 2 – intellectual property		 Imagine the Internet as a play. The key to the plot is to identify the players and understand their roles. A player on the Internet often performs more than one role. When determining the legal consequences of activities on the Internet, it is important to identify which roles the person is performing. Smith G.J.H. ed. (2001), Internet Law and Regulation, 3rd edn, London: Sweet & Maxwell
Chapter 12
The e-marketing revolution and its impact		 ... the audience to whom you market is no longer a mass of demographics whose only choice is to take what you give them in the format you specify. They're individuals who know all too well that their choice of personal relevance in media is at an unprecedented height, and getting greater by the hour. New media age explains marketing, Paul Doleman, Jan. 2006
Chapter 13
Team management and interactive projects		 Many challenges face managers in charge of leading multi-function teams... perhaps the least known and understood is the power of widely different paradigms governing decisions and behavior inside various work units. Since paradigms are invisible to insiders by their very nature, the savviest managers of the future will learn how to identify, communicate and bridge across them. Otherwise much time and money, not to mention work relationships, could be lost. When worlds collide: managing a cross-functional team, Jagoda Perich-Anderson, Futurist News, Nov 2000