Hive Philosophy
Many lessons can be taken from nature and applied to our daily lives. Nature has been working its wonders for countless centuries and its' processes are proven and efficient. Take bees for instance. They pollinate our crops and flowers, enable the cycle of life to continue, and provide a wonderful product all without human involvement. I would compare these worker bees to creative resources we all depend on. Everything from the phone book to a web page is developed by creative individuals who have a busy bee mentality. Also, human involvement can benefit bees and society by following the time-honored traditions of beekeeping.
Hive Management is dedicated to these creative and technical resources. This website has been created to help you become a good Project Manager. Whether you intend to start managing project resources or already have a team, a useful guide can help you accomplish the various and often complicated tasks within your project. This site is designed to assist both new and experienced managers in setting up a creative colony and to improve your style of working while understanding these busy bees.
Establishment for Success
Initial preparation has a great deal to do with the potential success of any project effort. One should take a few moments to review the following topics before getting started on your next project: use case studies, requirements document, and project plan. These tasks are also helpful to perform as a check-up with a project already underway and potentially encountering difficulty.
Although it is easy to call any collection of work a project, any formal project effort should have a firmly projected start and end date and not considered an ongoing task. The project should also have clearly defined goals and outcomes. It is crucial to have at least one well engaged sponsor who has both adequate authorities and resources to charter the project effort. As you read further in Hive Management, we will cover the steps of developing a hive charter, selecting a Project Manager, building a hive plan, and forming a colony team.
Hive Structure
In larger organizations there may be several departments involved within single projects. Usually a Project Manager is assigned responsibility for the completion of the client's project. This PM is like a beekeeper in which the resources produce a product that the beekeeper has little direct involvement. This person simply enables the colony to produce and provides stability and security to the colony and client. A successful PM will recognize none of the work is produced by their own efforts while they act as a liaison between the client and production team.
The following diagram represents the resource's structure around a single project. They also represent a specific discipline within multimedia and web productions. Other resources may report to these individuals as tasks are delegated to others within the project. These colony members also act as leads within the project and focus their attention towards the discipline they specialize. In smaller companies, individual resources may take on multiple roles within the project but they need to differentiate each discipline as the change these roles during production.
