Thursday, 26 July 2012 09:48
Micro Project Management System - SM Infrastructure
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
- Mark Twain
Micro Project Management (MPM) makes large, seemingly insurmountable projects manageable by breaking them up into micro-tasks. An analysis of the requirements and objective of each individual micro-task can then be made, after which the network is addressed to execute the tasks. Project are then being brought to their final completion, one micro-step at a time.
The reason why it is so difficult to complete large projects is precisely because they are so large. What do you need? Where and how do you start? The key to solve such problems is MPM.
We can apply the concept to every aspect of The Social Corporation itself. How do we purport to change the world? Our answer is: one project at a time. How do we complete these projects? Our answer is: one task at a time. How do we intend to do this? By crowdsourcing as much as possible and drawing on our social infrastructure.
Managing Projects Down to the Tiniest Detail
The Social Corporation will provide the digital media infrastructure through which the most useful projects -- as determined by the community -- will be selected and subsequently broken down into ever smaller tasks.
As the project becomes more manageable, users will determine the time, labor, money, and material requirements of every specific micro-task and their expected social outputs. This will allow our members to take on, fulfill requirements and complete tasks which are within their grasp, on their own initiative.
The digital framework bridges the gap between the project blueprints and their eventual completion in the real world. It allows the community to track all progress as well as keep an eye on the needs and assets of the projects.
The idea is for the system to function as a true democracy, but the actual implementation of MPM may (temporarily) involve central delegation of certain tasks to teams or individuals when user participation has not evolved to a satisfactory state yet.
Advantages Of An MPM System
The advantages of an MPM system involve the streamlining of production, the minimization of costs, the production of economic value and social profit and the full integration with the other aspects of the Social Corporation:
This early stage of the project can be done either by a team of volunteers or by the project manager sending out a team of scouts to analyse the park. In either case, once the relevant information is known to the network, the project specifications will be clear and a subdivision into micro-tasks possible
Every micro-task will then have specific requirements to achieve its completion, making the total requirements in terms of design, labor, materials needed, expertise and construction predictable. Similarly, this division will also shed light on the specific social output of the completed project, allowing for it to be compared to the other projects in the project pool by the network’s users.
Once the material and labor requirements have been determined -- either by the community at large or by a temporary team of managers -- the network will draw on itself to solicit the needed resources, allowing for an efficient and effective completion of the project:
- Mark Twain
Micro Project Management (MPM) makes large, seemingly insurmountable projects manageable by breaking them up into micro-tasks. An analysis of the requirements and objective of each individual micro-task can then be made, after which the network is addressed to execute the tasks. Project are then being brought to their final completion, one micro-step at a time.
The reason why it is so difficult to complete large projects is precisely because they are so large. What do you need? Where and how do you start? The key to solve such problems is MPM.
We can apply the concept to every aspect of The Social Corporation itself. How do we purport to change the world? Our answer is: one project at a time. How do we complete these projects? Our answer is: one task at a time. How do we intend to do this? By crowdsourcing as much as possible and drawing on our social infrastructure.
Managing Projects Down to the Tiniest Detail
The Social Corporation will provide the digital media infrastructure through which the most useful projects -- as determined by the community -- will be selected and subsequently broken down into ever smaller tasks.
As the project becomes more manageable, users will determine the time, labor, money, and material requirements of every specific micro-task and their expected social outputs. This will allow our members to take on, fulfill requirements and complete tasks which are within their grasp, on their own initiative.
The digital framework bridges the gap between the project blueprints and their eventual completion in the real world. It allows the community to track all progress as well as keep an eye on the needs and assets of the projects.
The idea is for the system to function as a true democracy, but the actual implementation of MPM may (temporarily) involve central delegation of certain tasks to teams or individuals when user participation has not evolved to a satisfactory state yet.
Advantages Of An MPM System
The advantages of an MPM system involve the streamlining of production, the minimization of costs, the production of economic value and social profit and the full integration with the other aspects of the Social Corporation:
- Projects are able to draw on volunteer or low cost labor and materials immediately. If the network does not provide enough factors of production to complete the whole project, it can be supplemented with cash afterwards.
- Certain costs can be decreased for social enterprises we sponsor or own. Apart from the labor network and the resource management system these enterprises will be able to draw on, they can also benefit from the communication, organization and networking our infrastructure provides. Marketing and brand development costs can also be minimized through association with The Social Corporation.
- Integration with the labor network and the resource management system will create synergies and allow projects to utilize all available resources through the MPM system.
- The specific MPM software can also be used by other businesses and can be shared or sold to other social enterprises or non-profits because it is open source developed.
Example of Using Micro Project Management: Park Renovation
Renovating a park is a daunting task, but becomes more manageable the more it gets broken down into micro details. Thus, in the first stage of the project, the park renovation will be broken up into smaller and smaller tasks, until every individual task becomes easily overseeable by an individual or small team.This early stage of the project can be done either by a team of volunteers or by the project manager sending out a team of scouts to analyse the park. In either case, once the relevant information is known to the network, the project specifications will be clear and a subdivision into micro-tasks possible
Every micro-task will then have specific requirements to achieve its completion, making the total requirements in terms of design, labor, materials needed, expertise and construction predictable. Similarly, this division will also shed light on the specific social output of the completed project, allowing for it to be compared to the other projects in the project pool by the network’s users.
Once the material and labor requirements have been determined -- either by the community at large or by a temporary team of managers -- the network will draw on itself to solicit the needed resources, allowing for an efficient and effective completion of the project:
- Lists of material requirements -- screws, bolts, wood, equipment, etc -- can be composed and submitted to the network, after which in-kind contributions can be solicited and managed through the system
- Labor and Execution can be done in the same way through integration with the labor network. Volunteers and paid workers can then meet (virtually and/or in real life), coordinate their activities and gain access to the solicited materials, after which the project can be completed as per the teams’ own arrangements
Published in
Social Media Infrastructure
