Hello, I'm Nishijo, the director.
The majority of the projects I work on involve production direction, covering a series of steps from planning to design and coding. I have gained a fair amount of experience as a director through a variety of projects, but sometimes I come across projects that I have never experienced before.
A recent example was a project where we had to "reassemble the source code of a website implemented by another company according to the design guidelines and parts collection prepared by the client." This was a unique project that was different from normal production direction, so we struggled, but in this article we would like to share some of the lessons learned and lessons learned from it.
The choice to "not create instructions"
Usually, when creating a website, a document called an "instructions" is always prepared. By putting the details agreed upon with the client and the ideas thought up during the design stage into the instructions, it is possible to prevent any misunderstandings among the members involved. Also, having instructions allows the coder to proceed with the creation efficiently without getting lost.
In this project, we proposed to prepare instructions at the kick-off meeting before starting the project. However, the other party said, "Since the work involves replacing source code, isn't it okay if we don't take the trouble to prepare instructions?", so the project started without preparing instructions.
The work will proceed as follows:
- The coder compares the target page with the design guidelines and parts collection to identify the necessary parts.
- Using those parts as a base, we replace the source.
Initially, we thought that since there were design guidelines and a collection of parts, if we could sort them out, we would be able to arrive at a specific part and proceed without any problems, even if it took a little more effort.
Unexpected burden on coders
However, halfway through the project, we discovered that the work on the part of the coders was actually significantly more than the man-hours estimated in advance. When we investigated the cause, we found that the bottleneck was the task of "identifying the necessary parts."
Since the workload was starting to get quite tight, I consulted with the coder and decided to try and identify the latter half of the screen myself. When I did so, the following problems emerged:
- It takes time just to identify specific parts.
- Furthermore, there are many areas that do not necessarily fit the guidelines and parts collection.
- It takes a lot of time and effort to come up with a hypothesis based on guesswork.
So, I, as the director, decided to do the scrutiny of the parts that I had previously left to the coder. Even for parts that seemed to fit the criteria, I confirmed with the client that there really were no problems with them, and then had the coder implement those that had been confirmed. By doing so, we were able to make a comeback in the second half and safely reach the finish line.
Later, the client told us that they were not familiar with creating modules like this and were unable to predict what information would be needed to ensure that they would run smoothly.
In this case too, if we had followed the usual theory of "preparing instructions" and first identified one page at a time, simulated the labor costs involved, and then clearly communicated to the other party what information would need to be prepared in order to replace the source, I believe this miscommunication would not have occurred.
As the person in charge of the project, I realized that I should have been more careful in determining the type of project, and I was reminded of the importance of making judgments.
Close communication with clients
Additionally, Google tools proved extremely helpful in recovering from this incident.
We restored the instructions in the second half and examined the parts, but this time there were many pages where it was difficult to identify the parts, and even just one page generated a considerable number of hypothetical comments. Therefore, by using Google Slides to collect knowledge online with the client, we were able to communicate closely, including feedback and confirmation, and this sped up the work of identifying issues, which I think allowed us to recover.
An example of instructions using Google Slides. Comments can be exchanged online with clients, making review work smoother.
Because the Google Slides were also shared with our in-house coders, even if there was something unclear during implementation after the identification, the coders could directly ask the in-house technical staff or the client online and provide comments depending on the case, which I think enabled us to get to work smoothly.
The client also told me that it was a good opportunity to review the entire page, and it made me think again that if we had been able to do this advance preparation from the beginning, the view towards the finish line would probably have been very different.
*Reference: For more information on parts collections, please also see Matsunaga's article "Reduce labor hours! Speed up operational work by using "parts collections" ."
As the project's "flag bearer"
The director needs to accurately judge the situation and wave the flag towards the goal, so if he proceeds based on preconceived notions, it will cause delays in the schedule and he will not be able to achieve what the client wants. For this reason, it is important to take time to prepare in advance before starting production, so that both parties can move forward looking in the same direction.
The understanding that is agreed upon before starting the project will have a big impact on the amount of work that will be required later, so it is necessary to proceed with the project carefully, especially with a type of project that has never been done before. Even if you start with the same goal in mind, I think that by assessing the situation each time and taking the appropriate steps to ensure that you are not placing more of a burden on the client or production side than necessary, you can create a job that is satisfying for both the client and the production side.
I would like to continue directing projects that will make both clients and the production side say, "I want to work with you again!"
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