We’ve recently launched a set of web pages to help staff lead projects at York. This was a collaborative effort working with the University’s central Project Management Office.
The new Project management resources web pages provide guidance on the standard project life cycle at York, from concept through to handover and close. The pages are published in the main staff section of the University website to maximise visibility and discoverability of the information.
Audience and aims
The pages are for:
- seasoned project managers who do this as their day job
- leaders and managers who are running projects and might be less familiar with project management.
The purpose of the resources are to:
- offer a central repository for project management resources and templates
- help guide staff through the process of managing a change or project.
Job stories
It was tricky figuring out how to structure these new project management resources alongside the change management pages in the same section.
Both sets of resources are based on three main phases of change (plan, implement and embed). We needed to think about how the user journeys intersected and where the project life cycle phases would fit in.
We worked with our Project Management Office stakeholders to write something called job stories for the resources. These helped ensure we were on the same page about who and what the resources are for. They helped us understand how best to present content. They also helped clarify the stakeholders’ thinking.
Here are a couple of examples:
When a leader asks me how long the project will take…
- I want to know the processes and resources I can use to work this out.
- So I can provide them with a project schedule, including key milestones.
When I am working on project or change
- I want to access trusted and tested approaches.
- So that I know we are working to recommended practice.
Website structure
We considered merging the new resources within the phases of change pages. But after creating the job stories, it was clear we needed a distinct section to help guide staff on project management specifically. The information has crossovers but different user needs.
- The change management resources support leaders with behavioural and softer skills around supporting teams through change.
- The project management resources provide methodologies and document templates for running a project or change.
We also renamed the parent section ‘Project and change management’ to improve clarity. It was originally called ‘Making change happen’, which is now the strapline instead.
Content
Cheryl, our main stakeholder in the Project Management Office, had compiled the resources in a slide deck and a spreadsheet with all the document templates. This was repurposed into a set of web pages. These include:
Finally, we had some beautiful graphics designed by our Creative team to bring the pages to life.
Take a look for yourself: project management web pages.