As design projects move from their initial discovery phase into the more structured process of definition, so the companies in our survey began to use a variety of more formal project management tools
Formal tools serve two main purposes during project definition. They help design teams to ensure that they have considered and captured every essential aspect of the design problem – to avoid unpleasant surprises later – and they help in the communication of the design specifications to other parts of the organisation, so they can make go/no go decisions or sensible choices about the resources required to support the development of the design.
LEGO uses a series of process documents, which it calls the Foundation Overview, Foundation Document and Roadmap to effectively communicate the current status of a design project and to make the case for a particular product adjustment, redefinition or reconfiguration.
In the Define stage of the process, the Foundation Document is particularly important. It attempts to present the full rationale behind every project, including the concept, its business rationale, its target market and the required sales, marketing and communication support. The Foundation Document also allows LEGO management to assess the key risks associated with a new product idea, by spelling out the complexity of the product and any particular development challenges, together with recommendations for risk mitigation.
A similar approach to project management is used by Starbucks. Originally, graphical executions of in-store promotional campaign work were posted internally in a shared space in the Seattle office for the wider Global Creative team to review and comment on. Team members would provide feedback in writing on each execution, suggest amendments and alterations, or sign-off approval.
This system is now being transferred into an online workflow management tool, which manages this process of design iteration in a highly efficient, automated way. By capturing design iterations and feedback in a central repository, the workflow management tools speeds up the approvals process and captures important design information for wider use.
While some project management approaches attempt to define the project specifications in as much detail as possible before design development begins, others adopt a fundamentally different philosophy. Some companies, particularly in the software sector, consider changes in project definition to be an inevitable part of the design process. Their management systems try to make the implementation of those changes as quick, cheap and painless as possible.
Yahoo! product development makes use of project management systems for software development. AGILE is one of these systems, and is one of a family of approaches to software development. A number of key principles underlie the AGILE methodology:
- Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful software
- Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
- Working software is the principal measure of progress
- Even late changes in requirements are welcome
- Project progress through close, daily, cooperation between business people and developers
- Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication
- Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
- The development process should pay continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
- Simplicity
- Projects are delivered by self-organising teams
- Regular adaptation to changing circumstances.
In the AGILE system, designers, user researchers, developers and commercial staff work closely together on a given project. Team members may work separately on their particular parts of a project, but they come together frequently to take projects forward, and adapt quickly to changes and new information where possible. This type of project management, helps designers to identify where and when their input is most valuable, and to communicate that input frequently to other members of the team.