Multimedia Development Process – Part 1 of 3
Posted by gorjan in Procedures, Project ManagementJan 27th, 2010 | no responses
Having a process for repetitive tasks is an obvious solution. Once you’ve gone through the same (or at least similar) steps in producing a multimedia project, you start to realise that you could probably put a step-by-step process that will help you guide your next project.
Why would you want to do that? I’ve heard many complaints about multimedia processes: they don’t work, our projects are too varied to have a process, it slows us down, etc. Well, the truth is – written processes do work! Really. And although multimedia projects do vary somewhat, guess what – so do all projects. By definition all projects are “one-off” and therefore unique. But we can capture the similarities in a process.
So, what are the benefits of having a process:
- identify unnecessary steps
- streamline and compress delivery timelines
- standardise output
- maintain quality
All of this translates to: save time, make more money, be happier. And who doesn’t want to have more time, make more money, or be happier?
The Big Picture
I put together this process in a couple of days, along with all of the associated documentation. It comes largely from experience and answers questions such as “where do I start?” and “what am I forgetting to ask?”. Hopefully, nothing – forgetting to ask the right questions from the client at the very beginning of a project can lead to costs blowing up, delivery being delayed, and another client that wonders why is this all so complicated.
What are the steps in a multimedia development process?
The process consists of 6 phases:
- Setup Phase
- Requirements Phase
- Design Phase
- Development Phase
- Delivery Phase
- Project Closure Phase
These 6 phases are supported by a set of documents:
- Wireframe & Site-map templates
- Technical Specification Interactive PDF template
- Weekly Individual Progress reports (for teams)
It’s important to note that this process is related to development only. If you or your team are a part of a larger process, you need to ensure that some of the Setup, Requirements, and Design phases are completed together with your sales and design teams (depending on the type of your organisation, “design” team can be: Information Architects, Instructional Designers, etc.).
00 Setup Phase
Setup phase commences once a project contract has been signed. In this phase all the documents are printed out and a project diary is put together. At this stage we don’t know much about the project, but we do know that we have the contract and at some time in the future we will need to commence the next phase.
The Setup Phase contains two documents:
01 Requirements Phase
Requirements phase starts when either the client or your design team have the specifics of the business requirement. We are interested in capturing and understanding those to the best of our ability so that we can translate those requirements into a creative and technical solution.
This phase is supported by two documents:
In the next part I will look at the design and development phases in more detail.
What other steps would you list?
Do you have a process you use for your interactive / multimedia development? Have insights to share? Post a comment and let me know!
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