Critical report submitted as part as the coursework for the module New Media Management (MA Digital Media) April 2010

1. Report
by Maria Gomez
Student Id: 10003413
CMP001N New Media Management
MA Digital Media
London Metropolitan University
April 2010

2. Maria Gomez | 1
Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 2
Strategy.................................................................................................................................................2
Team communication ......................................................................................................................2
Team Management...........................................................................................................................4
Client Management..........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................ 6
Bibliography......................................................................................................................................... 7

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Introduction
SuperNewMedia Ltd has been commissioned the development of a web-based application for
DigitalFashionForYou. The brief for this project explains that the application would be accessible
from the general public via internet and for the costumers in shops via kiosks installed in there.
Signed off project plan estimates 4 months for the completion of the project, including planning,
development, quality control and testing as well as specific milestones through the project cycle.
However, the project is now 2 months into the development and no deliverable has been presented.
This delay in the project, along with other issues like lack of team communication and organization
and loose of confidence the client has on us, has make the Board appoints me as new Project
Manager in order to have this project back on track.
If things keep going on the way they are now, not just the project but the company can suffer some
consequences that include losing the client (and all projects they have commissioned us). Also, our
reputation as a company can suffer as the client is an important fashion firm and we have already a
marketing plan going with the project. In conclusion, the failure of this project could risk future
opportunities and projects in the fashion industry and we need to do all we can to avoid the
situation.
The following is the strategy I suggest to identify and find a solution to these issues.
Strategy
Team communication
Clearly, one of the reasons of the failure of the project so far is the lack of a clear and specific
communication plan that the team can rely on. I have come out with a plan that follows:
First of all, I am aware of the differences between team members, starting with languages, but for
the sake of the project, I have decided to assign English as the official language of this project,
which means that all communication and documents related to the project will have to be written in
English.
All day by day communication between team members will be made by email or by collaboration
tool we will be using. In case of an emergency telephone communication will be used.
In terms of email communication, we will apply the internal SuperNewMedia email etiquette (that
includes not using the service to personal matters, using a conversational but courteous and not

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offensive tone and not attaching large files). Apart of this, the specific policy for this project
consists of:
• Using the subject line to indicate key information
• Choosing the right recipients (only the people interested in the matter)
• Limiting the message to one screen of text.
• When receiving a message, replying to it in a maximum of two working days.
[5]
In order to choose a collaboration tool we need take into account the different infrastructure of all
team members. One of the most popular tools used for this is BaseCamp [3]. However I would like
to project.net [4], an open source web-based project portfolio management that offers us all the
features we need for the project (calendar, messaging system, time management, version controlled
document management, task logs and a extended list of reports). The reason for choosing
project.net is based mainly in an open-source philosophy that I want to implement in this project.
In parallel of that I will implement a meeting’s strategy that will allow the team to work better and
more organised.
First of all, I will meet all the team members and explain them the situation of the crisis as well as
the measures I am planning to implement. To do so, i want to schedule a team-orientation session as
soon as possible in our offices in London [1]. The reason why the meeting will be in London is
because most of the team is actually in there. I will ask the three team members in Paris to come
down here and we will have the specialist in Hong Kong in the meeting via TokBox (an web based
video conference tool that allows to have up to 20 people at the same time) [2], as this person is
already engaged with other projects in the company and those will be affected if he came. Taking
into account the different time zones between, the meeting will be held at 8:00 GMT, what means
9:00 in Paris and 16:00 in Hong Kong. This rule will apply to all the meetings we will have with the
member in Hong Kong.
The meeting will be also helpful to make the team members know me, know each other and each
one task and to be sure they understand the new working plan. The Production Assistant and I will
be in charge of preparing the agenda and to make sure everyone receive a copy by email with
enough time to prepare themselves for the meeting.
Secondly I would like to present how the communications are going to be made during the rest of
the project cycle.
Monthly, we will celebrate a meeting including all the members, to review the general status of the
project Ideally this meeting will follow the same structure that the introductory one (describe

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before), having the Paris team coming to London for the day and the Hong Kong based specialist
attending via TokBox. If this is not possible, we are prepared to have a 3 conference.
Weekly, I will hold a production meeting with sub teams’ responsible (the Creative Director, the
Technical Director and the Content Specialist). We will discuss how the week has gone and set the
goals for the following one. As the two directors are based in London and the content specialist in
Paris, the meeting will be via video conference with the directors and me in London and the
specialist in Paris. Production Assistant will prepare the agenda for all the meetings and distribute it
in advance to the parts.
To finalise with the meeting’s strategy, daily every team will have a catch-up meeting where they
will discuss the task that needs to be done during the day. These meeting will be done in person
when possible or by phone. In the special case of our member in Hong Kong, he/she will send an
email to the Content Specialist at the end of each working day indicating the progress done and
he/she will receive another daily email with the task for the day from the Content Specialist.
Reports of these meetings will be sent to me and the production assistant.
I believe all these measures will lead us to a successful project.
Team Management
As the current situation of the project does not let much space to be able to reach a solution with the
rest of the team (which would be my normal approach), I have decided to lead the team using a
more authoritarian approach, that is, presenting the decision I have made and the strategy to follow
to reach successfully the end of project to all team member in the first meeting we will have. This,
however, will not prevent the team to ask me questions regarding the plan, which I will be more
than happy to answer (Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt define this leadership behaviour
as “Manager presents his ideas, invite questions” [7]).
Although I understand that this situation is not ideal for the team members and their creativity
(because of the stress injected with the crisis), I want to let them know that I am part of the team by
using an “empathetic approach to motivate them”.[8] To implement this I would like to have one to
one session with each one of them every two week. These sessions does not need be extend in time,
half an hour would be enough. Team members would be able to ask me any doubt they have about
the project and explain their personal feeling about it, as well as suggest new ways of improve their
work environment and give constructive feedback on their job. In a management point of view these
sessions will help to create an atmosphere of trust, which would improve the well being of the
project.
Other ways that I am intended to implement of help creativity and to build a better team are:

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• Team building sessions: to be held every month, coinciding with the monthly project
meeting explained previously.
• Making the whole team visible to everyone, by creating a map with every member in their
location and distribute it to all members. [6]
• Inspiring them to start conversation non-related to the project, by using the collaboration
tool (project.net) and creating a discussion group where all team members can post anything
they want, as long as it is not directly related to the project. To keep alive the participation I
will post every day a list of news that hopefully will create some conversation between the
members.
• Reward strategy: every month and if the team has reach the goals for that period, they will
be reward with different things like extra days off to be taken after the conclusion of the
project, shopping vouchers, etc. Also, at the end of the project, we will celebrate the success
of it by having a team building weekend in a location to be confirmed, where we can analyse
the project as a whole, celebrate the good decisions and learn from the bad ones.
Client Management
The client has pointed out that is not happy with our level of expertise in e-commerce (an important
part of the project) and is definitely losing the trust on us. To solve this I will propose them a
solution for the e-commerce module that I am sure they will like.
As SuperNewMedia has not enough experience and knowledge in the sector, outsourcing the
development and integration of the e-commerce module will be the best soution. I suggest two
different ecommerce solutions providers and I will let the client to choose. Those are: Actinic
Business Plus [9] and SiteWizard [10]. Both of them are based on the UK, which makes
communication easier and have all the features we need, like easy to install and use, customised
templates, wish lists, voucher and coupons support, etc. Also they are two of the most used and
leading ecommerce solutions providers in the UK and have more than 10 years experience and a
large list of clients in the fashion industry that includes The Dance Locker
(www.thedancelocker.com) and Plain Lazy (www.plainlazy.com).
I will have a meeting with the client where I will explain our new strategy and the steps to fully
success in the completion of the project, which includes a tailored solution proposal provided for
the two ecommerce providers named previously. Once the client decides which one to go for, I will
organize a three part meeting with both the client and the ecommerce provider company.
In order to recover the trust and the good relation with the client, in the meeting I will have with
them, I will present a communication plan which includes: weekly reports in the project status (see

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Apendix A for a status report template), demos and milestones to be delivered every month and a
specific plan to handle change requests (as the time left is really tight, we really need the client to
have a clear mind of what the way from the beginning and have them realize that any change at
towards the end of the project will have a huge impact in terms of meeting the deadline).
Conclusion
I believe that in moments like this, when you have a project in risk and a close deadline to meet, the
project manager needs to take responsibility and apply all measures in his hands to lead the project
towards a success. Based on this a more authoritarian leadership approach like the one I intent
implementing is essential.
It is fair to say that all the amount of stress going into the team members and the nature of a virtual
team itself can affect negatively in the team and cut the creativity. That is the reason why I want to
help the team to have a better relationship between each other and to improve the work
environment, so their environment will be as good as it can and the creativity will flow.
When client is losing the trust on you, you need to reassured them that you are doing everything in
you are hand to get over the situation. I will gain the trust back by exposing them the action plan
and by having a constant communication and report routine. However, client might not like the new
plan, in which case I will need to have a better understanding of what their desire is or I will try to
convince them of the benefits of the plan.
In conclusion, I believe in this project, its members and in the new direction I want to implement.
As a project manager I am ready to lead them forward and by the end of the process, have a
successful team and a happy client!

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Bibliography
[1] Deborah L. Duarte & Nancy Tennant Snyder. (2001) Mastering Virtual Teams. 2nd edn. Jossey-
Bass.
[2] TokBox Inc. TokBox for business. Video chat and video messaging [online] Available from:
http://business.tokbox.com/ . Date accessed: 11/04/2010
[3] 37Signals LLC. BaseCamp. Project Management, collaboration and task software. [online].
Available from: http://basecamphq.com/ . Date accessed: 11/04/2010
[4] Project.net. project.net: Open Source Web-based Project Management Software, Project
Portfolio Management Software [online] Available from: http://www.project.net/ Date accessed:
11/04/2010
[5] Louellen Essex and Mitchell Kusy. (1999). Fast Forward Leadership. Pearson Education Ltd.
[6] Free Management Library. Team Building in Virtual Teams. [online] Available from:
http://www.managementhelp.org/grp_skll/virtual/teambild.pdf . Date accessed: 11/04/2010
[7] Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt (1973). How to Choose a Leadership Pattern.
Harvard Business Review, May-June 1973. Pp162-180. [online] Available from:
http://hbr.org/1973/05/how-to-choose-a-leadership-pattern/ar/1 (accessed 11/04/2010) and
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6893779/How-to-Choose-a-Leadership-Pattern-Tannenbaum-and-
Schmidt (accessed 11/04/2010).
[8] England, E. & Finney, A. (2002) Managing Multimedia: Project Management for Web and
Convergent Media. 2nd edn. Harlow: Addison-Wesley.
[9] Actinic Software Ltd. Actinic Software Plus [online]. Available from:
http://www.actinic.co.uk/ecommerce-software-for-businesses/products/actinic-business-plus.html
Date accessed: 11/04/2010
[10] SiteWizard. SiteWizard ecommerce solutions. [online]. Available from:
http://www.sitewizard.co.uk/ Date accessed: 11/01/2010