London Metropolitan University

Postgraduate Studies

MA Digital Media Module CMP001N: New Media Management

Brief one - SuperNewMedia Production Plan

by

Mickael Abensur 1004448

27.05.2011

Mickael Abensur

Module: CMP001N

May 2011

1. Analysis of the key features of the project, of the client's needs and of the target audience
Key features of the project include an up to date concise directory of local estate agencies, local primary and secondary schools and local employment agencies. If gathered carefully, these three directories will prove to be invaluable to the audience. A good experience will spread the good word and entrust people to use the full services of MoveAbroadAndBeHappy ltd. Our client, MoveAbroadAndBeHappy ltd, wishes to promote his removal services and tester holidays organization skills through the intermediary of the website. In order to acquire a good reputation, our client needs to increase the visibility of his brand and sustain solid partnerships with local enterprises (external stakeholders) in the four countries targeted (Elliott and Percy, 2007). These partnerships necessitate to be accurately represented on the SuperNewMedia website thus requiring an in-depth knowledge of local issues. SuperNewMedia will have the delicate task to establish a good and efficient communication, while gathering data from the four clients regional offices; in order to preserve the policy of each external stakeholder. Our prime target audience is 30-55 years old professionals based in UK, France, Spain or Greece. This audience very often will have dependent children therefore do not have a lot of spare time. Secondly, our audience is likely to have previous work experiences therefore is literate about business related terminology. Thirdly, these people come from European countries only thus are familiar with common laws shared by these four countries. These facts imply that the website needs to be legible from mobile devices allowing busy persons to access it on the move. The amount of information on the website will preferably be reduced to the most outstanding differences between each countries. The quality of the media content displayed on the website must reflect the quality of the new life offered by the clients relocation services (high standards expected).

2. Gantt chart: Project timeline and task allocations

Please see Appendix A for the Gantt chart of the relocation project.

3. Outline of team members and resource strategies

The project has a duration of 6 months, the 4 first weeks are dedicated to understand and precise the clients needs and prepare the. The 2 Last weeks of the Pre-production phase are deemed to assess the workload against the budget in order to dispatch the resources and split the work realistically. At the end of the Pr-production phase only 4 people are involved with the project: the Project manager, the Creative director, the Technical director and the UX designer. They will work together on developing an innovative approach to the project that satisfies the Client and current web interaction trends. Before starting the Production phase, I have identified the need to subcontract and delegate to a freelance certain tasks. Notably I will use the services of Applied LanguageTM, a UK-based translation service company to translate and localize my mobile applications, web pages and Flash games, visit their website on www.appliedlanguage.com. I have chosen this company for their rapidity. Thanks to their in-house TalkBase.connect API, I can communicate with them directly through our CMS Software. Mickael Abensur Module: CMP001N May 2011 2

Furthermore, Applied LanguageTM can translate straight from the code source of the web pages and even of the iPhone mobile applications (cf. www.appliedlanguage.com/localization-services/iphone-app-translation.aspx) An other task to outsource relates to the Flash game development. Because the Flash game is a self-contained product, and requires special programming skills (Actionscript), it is wise to hire a freelancer that has this expertise. Considering that this resource is needed at a later stage of the production (see Gantt Chart in appendix A), I will opt to post a job ad on Jobsites.com and Reed.co.uk to find a suitable candidate. Lastly, I will commission four Photo/Camera operators to produce the interviews and the pictures of the various countries. Commissioning video freelancers abroad save costs on travels and on translation service. The Creative director will supervise the shooting to ensure that every clip is shot the same way. I rely on the foreign clients offices help to provide me with local video freelancers contacts. For the rest of the team members I will use employment agencies such as Datascope (www.datascope.co.uk) and PFJ (www.pfj.co.uk) to find quickly the best talents available with the required skills and work experiences. Although going through a recruitment company might be costly, it will serve the purpose of building a solid team to work with on a longer-term basis. Eventually after 4 months of production, I will redeploy the vast majority of the team on other projects to the exception of one web developer and the UX designer in case of further modifications from our client. Please see Appendix B for an outline of the team members.

4. Analysis of software and hardware required for this project

Please see Appendix C for the allocation of software and hardware.

5. Team management strategies and internal communication systems and strategies

I will adopt a collaborative management style throughout the project. It is essential to communicate constantly with the different team members acting on cross platform projects like the MoveAbroadAndBeHappy project where tasks are meticulously entwined. For instance, a flawed interface once implemented, will generate errors that are more difficult to spot if other applications communicate with it. As a result, it will slow down the production and may even delay other dependent processes. The collaborative management style shares the overall influence of the leaders with the team members, thus fostering trust and self-initiatives. A project like this one is very original on its own and can produce revolutionary tools to surf the web. It is therefore important to encourage everyone to share his or her ideas providing that the whole team will benefit from a successful project. By all means, it is essential to note that such practice could not be applicable if some of the team members were inexperienced professional. As a matter of fact, the individuals need to clearly understand their added value, and whether or not their action will help achieving the ultimate goal Mickael Abensur Module: CMP001N May 2011 3

(Northouse, 2009). I chose Copper as a team management software, to help the centralization of files related to a certain project and facilitate communication between the Client, the SNM management team and the SNM team members. Copper is Australian project management software created by Element software. Several crucial features of Copper make the management of a project, very intuitive. Copper is a Saas and does not need any software installation, it means also that the information relevant to a project can be accessed anywhere in the world providing that a internet browser is available. It gives a real advantage when working with collaborators in different cities, notably with the translation service company Applied Language TM and clients various regional offices. The administrator has the possibility to privatize the clients interface in such a way that his Copper profile page will only show pieces of information that really matters to him. The ability to share and view Google documents inside Copper allows easy feedbacks and approval between the Clients representative and the SNM management team. An intuitive calendar allows me to allocate easily the tasks to team members and set their working hours. Every team members can also sign in and update their time sheets instantly. The team members have the possibility to join a project and start messaging in real time other team members. The ability to use Copper on a move with an IPhone or IPad makes the experience complete. The design of the software has also widely influenced my choice because a dull interface can quickly deject people. Outside communicating via software I will praise face-to-face communication whether with the client or the team members. Regular meetings will be held on Monday mornings with the whole SuperNewMedia team to assess if we are on schedule. Occasionally during the week, I will organize Quiz evenings in a local pub in order to federate the team and stimulate collaboration. Work on Friday afternoons will finish an hour sooner allowing people to relax and chat. I will have an introductory meeting each time a new tem member comes on board with our management body (Creative director, Technical director and me) to present the company. The selected staff will have to love all digital practices and be opened to new experimentations. I will galvanize the team and show consideration to every members of the team. In the same way, I will expect the staff to come on time show commitment to the goals of SuperNewMedia and take according measures if rules are not followed.

6. Client management strategies

To manage efficiently MoveAbroadAndBeHappy client, I will use the Paprika software to model and forecast client activity. Paprika is a fully integrated software solution designed to maximize the potential of creative business. It generates reports instantly helping the directors to identify gaps in their knowledge of billable services. Paprika, an UK based software, notably produce timesheets and invoices thus reducing potential human mistakes and improving clients relationships. Paprika is also accessible on the cloud thanks to its new web interface Paprika i2 (www.paprika-software.com). Paprika i2 extend the reach of Paprika to mobile devices such has iPhones or tablet devices. I will initiate the relationship with our client in a public place, like a bar hotel to discuss about the deliverables, then with the help of the Paprika financial tools, I will generate an accurate budget estimate. A clever estimate will turn to be invaluable in the future, for the project acceptance by the client as well as defining clearly the scope of the project. I will prefer a face-to-face Mickael Abensur Module: CMP001N May 2011 4

relation with our client (UK based) and will accommodate the SuperNewMedia office with a nicely decorated meeting room to welcome the client. I will promote open discussions with the client. I will clearly specify the needs to be paid promptly but make him feel at ease in our Studio as if it was part of our services (similar to a cosmetic dental boutique). We want to reassure the client that his brand image is in good hands. The SNM policy is above all the good mental health of our team members. Fitting supplementary requests from the client to increase the turnover cannot come to the expense of degrading the friendly atmosphere of our agency. As a video-conferencing tool, I chose Microsoft Office Live Meeting to keep contact and exchange files with the 4 clients office representatives. One of the reasons of such decision is that I trust Microsoft software to be reliable and efficient in most scenarios. Video-calls are vital to foster a good relationship with our Client, and I do not want to take any risk by using open source software or unfamiliar equipment. The features that Live Meeting boasts are appropriate to our needs. First the ability to share the desktop of different users, secondly the possibility to display a presentation to support the videoconference call, and lastly the ability to share any files instantly. It is wise to retain rights of the work produced by SNM for two reasons. First it will save time to produce future projects if you can reuse some of the part of previous websites. Secondly it will oblige the client to come back to you whenever they need further modifications (Frick, 2008). It is essential to discuss the matter very early to avoid irritating the client. Just after the project comes to an end, I will possibly propose a promotional and maintenance plan to the Client whether or not I have retained the files. If the outcomes of the relationship with the client happened to be negative, I will drop the plan to focus on longer-term relationships. As a matter of fact, a digital agency acts like the clients partner more than the clients supporter nowadays, thereby the need to keep a fair and healthy relationship to ensure its longevity in the industry.

7. Asset management strategies, digital rights management, copyright issues associated with the project
I will use Nuxeo 1.3 Digital Assets Management to store and facilitate retrieval of media content (visit www.nuxeo.com/en/products/dam). Nuxeo DAM is a open source cloud-based software (cloudware) that allows the user to preview and organize media content. Nuxeo DAM helps you to record for each file the origination of copyrights and set the type of license in use. Furthermore, Nuxeo DAM tracks the expiration of your assets and report misuse of the content efficiently. The software allows the administrator to protect content from distribution or modification, by granting control access to the users. Nuxeo DAM enables you to add captions and tags to files and look for them in a search bar to retrieve documents. No plug-ins or Flash is required to use Nuxeo DAM thus ensure quick access from any location any time. I will employ two online content managers full time to organize and name correctly all media assets. They will also contribute to the integration and optimization of the content online, including search engine optimizations of the web pages. The production assistant will support them by encoding and editing the video interviews of our clients witnesses. As for the interviews, we will make sure to issue a consent form to all the participants. We will make sure to film only consenting adults that Mickael Abensur Module: CMP001N May 2011 5

represent well our target audience. The shooting will happen in public places and does not require the authorization of other third parties. I have mentioned a potential risk linked to the foreign nationalities of interviewees in the risk analysis chart (cf Appendix D)

8. Risk Assessment. Provisions management systems.

for

crisis

and

risk

Please see Appendix D for the risk analysis table.

9. Quality procedures, testing and provisions for de-briefing of production.

I will use internal resources to test and debug all parts of the project. I believe that hiring experienced staff members will produce a cleaner, free of bugs products. I also think that creating four different versions of the website will automatically highlight navigational or accessibility issues at an earlier production stage as if only one version of the website is produced. Also the fact that many different team members will spend time interacting with the website (UX designer and Mobile application designer) before the final release, let me think that further problems will be discovered and solved during the two weeks that I have allocated to the debugging. At the end of the production, 6 weeks before the end of the project life cycle, I have planned to review and evaluate the different stages of the project. In these views I will prepare an Evaluation Plan during the first month of the production that will outline the goals of the projects. As an example it will include two or three general strategies to meet each goal as well as specific programs under each strategy similar to: the web site goal could be to book "x" number of flights (short stays) in the first six months of its release with our client. To measure whether or not the project has attained its objectives, I will use an open source software called Google Analytics. Google analytics is a reporting software that bring about many information on the use of your website online, it can simply be implemented to your website by adding special line of codes to your web pages to track various events. The possibility to set goals is also a very powerful tool to alert you whenever a certain result has been reached (visit www.google.com/analytics). I will employ interim reports at various stage of the production to gather insights from the team members and later one with customers. I will eventually perform an overall review after completion of the project to determine its success with the management team (Creative director, technical director and me). We will consider project management factors such as meeting the deadline cost and quality objectives. If the relation with the client continues, I hope to interview certain member of the clients team, and organize focus group. At a later time, I wish to gather subjective opinions on the use of our products from real customers. Examples of the opinions I want to find out about are: Is the product satisfactory? Is it widely used by the target audience? Did the project lead to higher return on investment for our client?

Mickael Abensur

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May 2011

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Appendix
a. Gantt chart i. Project time-line

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ii. Tasks allocation

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b. Recruitment of team members

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Job title

Background / Education

Previous experience

Desired skills

Employm ent status

Creative director

Graphic design degree

10 years working experience with at least 4 years in a senior creative leadership role

- Great design skills, art direction, color and typographic expertise - Excellent communication and team leadership skills - Initiate inspiring concepts in response to clients briefings - In depth knowledge of building websites on the ASP.Net platform - Good understanding of Sql Server Databases, VoIP and network infrastructures - Good communication skills - Experience with Javascript frameworks (Mootools, Jquery) - Solid understanding of cross platform issues and web architectures - Knowledge of W3C compliance and accessibility rules - Understanding on how web based APIs function and their various ways of implementation - Experience in developing wireframes and database-driven prototypes with Axure RP - Knowledge of C#, ASP.Net, Ajax, jQuery, CSS and Html - Experience in modeling Sql Databases - Great design skills - Excellent knowledge of CSS an Html web languages - Advanced skills in Actionscript and Flash - Innovative and creative thinking - Knowledge of SEO would be an advantage - Experience of using internal phone storage - Excellent knowledge of the iOS software development kit - Good knowledge of REST and SOAP API request structures - Ability to exchange data between browsers and mobile apps using JSON data interchange language - Excellent coding with ObjectiveC and debugging skills -Comprehensive experience of web analytics and SEO -Hands on knowledge of HTML, XML and CSS - Write compelling promotional content

Full time

Technical director

IT degree

7 years working experience with at least 3 years in a senior technical leadership role

Full time

UX designer

Degree in Human Computer Interaction

Localization experience is a strong advantage and at least 3 years of working practice

Full time

Web developer

IT degree

Based on the quality of portfolio 3+ years of work experience in the field 2+ years experience using Flash, including games development experience

Full time

Web/Graphic designer

Graphic design degree

Full time

Flash developer

Multimedia degree

Freelance

Mobile applications developer

IT Degree

2 years of working practice and a portfolio of mobile applications

Full time

Online content manager

Marketing degree

- Experience of managing content on a high traffic website - Experience of working with 3rd party suppliers and agencies

Full time

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c. Allocation of software and hardware table chart

Resource name Hardware - MacBook Pro: 15-inch screen; 2.0GHz Intel Core i7, 500GB Hard drive - Apple mouse - 3G Orange E1752 dongle - Mac Pro: Two 2.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Westmere processors, 1TB Hard drive, 6GB memory - Apple mouse & keyboard - Dell ST2220L - 21.5-inch widescreen - Intuos4 Medium Graphic tablet - Vostro Desktop 230 MT: 3.2GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core, 250GB Hard drive, 1GB memory - Dell ST2220L - 21.5-inch widescreen - Dell USB Optical Mouse - Black - Dell USB Keyboard - Mac Pro: Two 2.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Westmere processors, 1TB Hard drive, 6GB memory - Apple mouse & keyboard - Dell ST2220L - 21.5-inch widescreen - Ipad 2 - Vostro Desktop 230 MT: 3.2GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core, 250GB Hard drive, 1GB memory - Dell ST2220L - 21.5-inch widescreen - Dell USB Optical Mouse - Black - Dell USB Keyboard - iMac: 21.5-inch screen; 2.5 GHz QuadCore Intel i5; 500GB Hard drive; 4GB memory - Apple mouse & keyboard - Intuos4 Medium Graphic tablet - iMac: 21.5-inch screen; 2.5 GHz QuadCore Intel i5; 500GB Hard drive; 4GB memory - Apple mouse & keyboard - Intuos4 Medium Graphic tablet Software - Microsoft Project 2010 - Microsoft Office 2010 - Copper Saas - Dreamweaver CS5 - Mac OSX Leopard - Coper Saas - Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop CS5 - Dreamweaver CS5 - Microsoft Office 2010 - Mac OSX Leopard - Microsoft Office Live meeting - Visual Studio 2010 - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise - Microsoft Office 2010 - Apache HTTP Server 2.2.19 - Copper Saas - Genuine Windows 7 Professional - Axure RP - PhoneGap mobile framework - Mac OSX Leopard - Copper Saas - Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop CS5 - Dreamweaver CS5 - Visual Studio 2010 - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise - Microsoft Office 2010 - Apache HTTP Server 2.2.19 - Copper Saas - Genuine Windows 7 Professional - Mac OSX Leopard - Copper Saas - Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop CS5 - Dreamweaver CS5 - Mac OSX Leopard - Copper Saas - Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop CS5 - Dreamweaver CS5

Project manager

Creative director

Technical director

UX designer

Web developer

Web/Graphic designer

Flash developer

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Online content manager

- Copper Saas Professional - Indesign, Illustrator, - MacBook Pro: 15-inch screen; 2.0GHz Intel Core Photoshop CS5 i7, 500GB Hard drive Dreamweaver CS5 - Apple mouse - Nuxeo 1.3 DAM - Genuine Windows 7 Professional - Google Analytics - Mac Pro: Two 2.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Westmere processors, 1TB Hard drive, 6GB memory - Apple mouse & keyboard - Dell ST2220L - 21.5-inch widescreen - Ipad 2 - Copper Saas - iOS SDK 4 - Mac OSX Leopard - Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop CS5 - Dreamweaver CS5 - Copper Saas - TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress - Genuine Windows 7 - Nuxeo 1.3 DAM - VLC player

Mobile applications developer

- 2x LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 1TB external hardrive - Vostro Desktop 230 MT: 3.2GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core, 250GB Hard drive, 1GB memory Production assistant - Dell ST2220L - 21.5-inch widescreen - Dell USB Optical Mouse - Black - Dell USB Keyboard

d. Risk analysis table chart

Tasks Outsourcing of the translation Synchronization of mobile applications with website E-commerce website creation Commissioning of interviews to video freelancers Development of the 2 mobile applications Development of the 2 mobile applications Risks - Text translation is not correct - The mobile application does not communicate well with the web platform - Some of the foreign airlines do not offer competitive prices - The interviews video clip show discontentment from the participants - Difficulty to program on Windows for an iOS mobile application - Some Greek symbols are not supported by the mobile apps platform - The Flash game does not entertain our 4 nationalities in the same way and even offense some of them Low Risks level Impact/Probability High Mitigating strategies Establish a good communication strategy with the translation company (TalkBase API) Do not link the mobile apps with the Client web platform but simply make them compatible with popular web browsers Study alternatives to flights with rail and boat services Shoot two times more people than what will be used the website Buy an extra Mac computer and development kit software Mention the issue to the regional Greek clients office. Find alternative text to use Make a quick storyboard of the gameplay and send it to the regional foreign clients offices for reviewing the ideas

High

Medium

Medium

Medium

Low

Development of the Flash game

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References

Copper (2011) Project management tool (Internet) Available at: http://www.copperproject.com Elliott, R. and Percy, L. (2007) Strategic brand management. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Frick, T. (2008) Managing Interactive Media Projects, New York: Delmar. Northouse, P. (2009) Leadership: Theory and Practice, London, SAGE. Microsoft Office Live Meeting (2007) Hosted Web conferencing (Internet) Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/online/office-live-meeting.aspx. March 2011

12.

Bibliography

Elliott, R. and Percy, L. (2007) Strategic brand management . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Frick, T. (2008) Managing Interactive Media Projects, New York: Delmar. Gilbert, S. (2001) 90 days to launch: Internet projects on time and on budget. New York: John Wiley. Northouse, P. (2009) Leadership: Theory and Practice, London, SAGE.

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