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    Project Management
    There is no question that designers who have the ability to manage projects end up with more responsibility and higher salaries. Understanding and applying basic principles of project management to your projects will make you a better more efficient designer and move you toward achieving your career goals faster and more effectively.
    The basic components of a simple project management plan are objectives scope resources and schedule. There are other components of project management that may come into play in larger projects such as assumptions dependencies and risks. However for the purpose of learning about how to create and use project management we will need to learn about the basic components only.
    The Course Project and Project Management
    You will be creating a simple project management plan for the course project. This will require you to think about the four components above as they relate to the success of your project.
    Objectives
    What deliverable will you create for the project? This is the tangible finished piece you will design for the project. It may be a postcard a poster a brochure or some other collateral piece.
    How will the deliverable be used? This describes how you will use the deliverable to help you achieve the goals in your career plan. For example you may mail it out leave it behind after an interview drop it off at a potential employers office or use some other mode of delivery.
    What do you want the project to achieve once it is delivered to the prospective audience? This describes what you hope will happen as a result of your audience interacting with the deliverable. This could be anything from simply making the audience more aware of who you are to nudging him or her into making you a job offer.
    Scope
    For our purposes the scope of your project is defined by the requirements of the course. During each week you will complete a different requirement of the course project. The scope of the project therefore is everything you must do during each week for the course project. During this week for example you are to complete both the project management plan and a creative brief. These will be the first two items in the scope portion of the project management plan.
    To determine the rest of the scope review the assignments related to the course project inWeek 1throughWeek 6.
    Resources
    Resources often include other people who will work on the project. In this case however you are doing the work yourself. However you will rely on your classmates and instructor to provide you with feedback. Therefore your classmates and instructor are considered resources. You may have other people you rely on for feedback who are not in your class.
    Other resources include the tools you will use to complete the project for example the hardware and software you will use to design your project and the devices you will use to photograph or print your design.
    Resources also include assets you may use such as existing photographs portfolio pieces and logo or name designs. Make sure to include all of these as existing resources.
    Schedule
    Finally you will need to determine a schedule for completing the scope of the work for the project. Each assignment defines not only the scope of work but also the deadline for turning in the deliverable for review. The deadlines partially complete the schedule. However you should also include when you will begin work on each part of the project and when you plan on posting that part. For example if you know the deadline for completing an assignment is Monday midnight Mountain Standard Time (MST) you can work backward from that time to plan how you will meet that deadline. Working backward is the easiest way to plan a good production schedule. Here is an example:
    Post the assignment by Monday midnight MST.
    What will you need to be able to post it by then?
    You will need the assignment completed. Because you have to work the next day and have to be in bed by 10:00 P.M. you will aim to finish the assignment by Monday 9:00 P.M. MST.
    Complete the assignment by Monday 9:00 P.M. MST.
    What must you do to complete the assignment by then?
    You estimate you will need two hours to complete the assignment. If you want to be finished by 9:00 P.M. you will need to start the assignment by Monday 7:00 P.M. MST.
    Start working on completing the assignment by Monday 7:00 P.M. MST.
    What will you need in order to begin working on the assignment by Monday 7:00 P.M. MST?
    You will need to have studied the resources. You estimate it will take you two hours to study the resources. You work on Monday so you decide to study the resources on Sunday from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.
    Start studying resources on Sunday at 6:00 P.M. MST.
    By starting with the final deadline and working backward along the production schedule you can carefully plan your time and use of resources.
    ReadPart 2:Chapter 20in your textbookAIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design to learn more about creating a project management plan.
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    Writing a Creative Brief
    A creative brief is the most common way to manage the creative part of a design project. Designers who understand how to create or interpret the components of a brief and execute good design that satisfies the objective of the brief are considered to be very valuable to companies and organizations. When a design solution satisfies the objective of the brief it is said to be on brief. You always want your designs to be on brief.
    A brief can describe a lot of different parts of a project. Many design firms have their own standard design briefs and the components of a brief will vary from project to project and from organization to organization.
    ReadPart 2:Chapter 21in your textbookAIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design to learn more about the various components of a design brief and what makes a good brief.
    You will be writing a creative brief for the course project. The creative brief will work hand in hand with the project management plan. For your project the following components will be used in your brief. These are common components that may go by different names but cover similar ideas:
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    Assignment 3: Course ProjectCreative Brief and Project Management Plan
    The first step in completing a successful project is to draft a creative brief and a project management plan. The lecture and reading assignments during this week detail the information you need to complete the assignment successfully. This assignment requires you to apply the knowledge gained from this weeks resources to the completion of this important planning stage of the course project.
    Tasks
    Submission Details
    Participation and Discussion
    Please submit this assignment to theDiscussion Areaon the next page as a Microsoft Word document. Read the assignments of two of your classmates and comment on them.Within 48 hours of the assignment due daterespond to at least two of your classmates as well as any comments made to you by your instructor. Ensure your comments are relevant to the topics they are exploring. Do not use this as a place to say things like good job; instead add to their understanding of the topic. You can also ask questions on topics you do not know for more information and possibly more ideas for your career path.

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