This year has no doubt brought your newspaper new opportunities and new challenges. Whether you are in the newsroom or the pressroom, each publisher is facing mounting pressure to trim costs and scrutinize expenditures while continuing to produce an innovative, fresh and relevant product.

How can you best balance the objectives and goals of your paper? How can you get it all done — current workload and new initiatives — with your existing staff? How do you prioritize? How do you maintain efficiency, effectiveness and quality?

The answer? Project management. You can fulfill many of your goals, from meeting readers’ expectations to achieving your company’s objectives, by properly overseeing your project to fruition.

The process and procedures used in project management are applicable across every newspaper and department. Project management can be used to reorganize a sales team, implement new technology, introduce a new section, consolidate customer service processes across multiple properties, share national news across different media outlets (TV, newspaper and Internet) and much more.

8 basic steps

Although the elements of a particular project may differ, the comprehensive project shares eight basic components: scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk and procurement.

Over the next several months, we’ll investigate each component, beginning this issue with scope.

Scope defines boundaries. It is critical to know specifically what is and is not included in your project and to avoid the dreaded “scope creep.”

Once you define things like assumptions, constraints, deliverables, product acceptance criteria and other necessary information to successfully complete your project, you will have very clear parameters by which you can track progress, measure results and communicate. Any change to scope will have an impact on the project’s ability to meet deadlines and stay on budget.

Modifying a project’s scope can oftentimes yield dividends as long as the processes are in place to communicate and track the changes effectively. Don’t be hesitant to do it.

You’re probably wondering how to start scope planning.  The best way to begin is to hold a meeting with representatives from every workgroup or department affected by the initiative.

Group to mirror skills

Once you compile a comprehensive list, group the activities into ways that depict the effort and skills needed. For example, if the initiative has only a minor effect on technology, then you might be able to consolidate that with another operational unit and thus assign only one team to handle both. The work and the skills of your resources should drive the scope “buckets.”

Here’s an example: Last year, when The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was evaluating the scope of its project to consolidate plants, enhance press capacity with new color towers and upgrade press controls, the newspaper decided to expand the project to include new computer-to-plate systems and automatic color registration control, said Richard Hawes, the paper’s director of operations.

“There were many interdependent areas within these projects, and it made sense to merge the efforts,” he said.

“For the projects to be successful, the CTP, color tower installations, controls upgrades, testing and training needed to be managed together.

“Without going through the formal process of scope planning, this may not have happened.”

Clearly communicate

Clearly defining a project’s scope also benefited The Dallas Morning News when it began planning its $50 million Sunday collating plant, which opened in 2006, said Bill May, vice president of production.

“By going through the scope planning process, we were able to clearly communicate what our project expectations and deliverables were to achieve our goals. We worked with our vendors and project stakeholders to integrate processes, information, equipment installations and operational timeliness.”

One thing to remember: There is no right or wrong way to manage the scope of an initiative. It should be developed to optimize your organizational assets and environmental enterprise. In other words, what works for you.

Next up: Time management. Once a project’s scope has been defined, organized, and most importantly, agreed to by stakeholders, you are ready to move onto the next phase of your project. Time management will uncover the order in which tasks need to happen, what is needed to complete each task, and what skills are needed to complete the work.

Judy Oliver Busby, a certified project management professional, is principal of The Busby Group. She can be reached at 847.342.9001 or jobusby@thebusbygroup.biz.