PROJECT HANDOFF ASSESSMENT FOR A UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT

Goal

Over the course of a semester, assess the project handoff and documentation protocol of a University of Michigan department to find the main problem points and provide suggestions to promote efficiency.

The Process

Using contextual inquiry, a group and I worked to improve the efficiency of the project handoff and documentation protocol of a department at the University of Michigan. For this department, knowing the level of detail and changes that should be recorded by each individual employee was not always clear. Also, varying project nature meant documentation protocol was inconsistent. Documentation is vital, however, as it gives project members clear indication of what needs to be done, and the information to do it. Comprehensive documentation also makes revisiting projects after months of inactivity much easier. After observing team roles and document templates, we produced an interview protocol in order to conduct semi-structured interviews with department members. After these interviews, we partook in interpretation sessions in which we identified key facts that could be used to construct an affinity diagram. Building the affinity diagram allowed us to draw connections across interviews and ultimately pinpoint four key problems this department was facing in their project documentation and handoff process. From here we came up with suggestions and wrote a final report of our findings and steps the department could take to improve efficiency.

The Result

We identified the root causes of the department's project handoff and documentation problems stemmed from office culture that promoted individual work styles. Also, team members across different roles lacked an understanding of what other roles needed in terms of documentation. To confront these problems we offered two main suggestions:

1. Managerial roles must come together to clearly define design processes and protocols. From here, managers will work with production roles to create more consistent work styles and tool usage across the office.

2. Monthly meetings to promote mutual understanding of job roles and what individuals need from documentation and project handoffs.

These findings along with the suggestions to address them were delivered to our client contact in the form of a final report. Our client was extremely happy with our report and the findings were well received.