Week 12 Readings

The Cervone articles were great. “Project risk management” was simple to understand and went over how to address risks before they come up and what are the usual risk factors that occur in digital library projects. I thought that these were really interesting. It was really helpful to put things in to risk categories. It then went over what sorts of steps to take to assess and control risks. It was an easy article for beginners. If I were more advanced, I might want more detail in steps to take. “Standard methodology in digital library project management” was also helpful to me. It went over why a structured methodology is important in structuring the project environment. He specifically talked about PMBOK. After reading the long PMBOK material, and then reading this, it was helpful to read someone else going over and kind of summarizing the process. I think that these last two articles would be helpful even if you weren’t doing a digital library project. In "How not to run a digital library project," he begins talking about project management and librarians getting glazed eyes when it is mentioned. He says many librarians do not come from backgrounds that use project management, especially if they are from humanities and social sciences backgrounds. I was a literature major, and I never heard of project management so it was scary to me at first and seems overwhelming when reading about it. I like how he goes over the things to not do in a sarcastic way. It made it interesting. “ Making Decisions: Methods for Digital Library Project Teams” also useful. It showed how to break down decision making and how to make a decision. I like how in all of his articles, he takes something that can be pretty complicated and intimidating, and lays it out in a simple and helpful way.