What falls under the category of ‘Project Management’ and who is a 'Project Manager'?

[Picture above: The Palio of San Nicola, Guglionesi, Italy, photography by Dr. Mark Woods.]

In this article we ask, “What falls under the category of ‘Project Management’?”

The thing to remember about projects is that they always have

1)   A Beginning

2)   A Middle, and

3)   An End.

If you have something you call a “project”, and it continues indefinitely, then you’re talking about ‘operations’ and the principles of management, while similar, are slightly different.

Most organizations have both, they have continuing operations and often or occasionally they launch, run and finish ‘projects’.

Some businesses are project-driven, in that the nature of their ‘operations’ is a long string of linked projects, sometimes overlapping, and sometimes singular and years apart.

The nature of the Creative Industries is that is commercially exploits and rewards the work of ‘creative persons’, i.e., artists.

Artists work on projects, and consequently, much of what constitutes the daily work of the Creative Industries is involved with individual projects.

Project Management is a qualified and regulated professional specialty in most countries, with states and governments setting requirements, mostly related to budget levels.

For example, in the state of Florida, if you do business with a government entity, you must submit a budget proposal. If this budget proposal goes over a certain total dollar budget / spending level, then by statute, you must have in place a certified Project Manager.

Project Management as a profession and academic field of study go back into the 1800s. Most theoretical approaches are concerned with management of personnel and other ‘resources’, and consider the limitations and potential in terms of ‘constraint’ and ‘output’, to one degree of another.

A very limited amount of scholarly research has been conducted into the focused specialism of Project Management with the Creative Industries, which includes the finance, development, production, post-production, marketing, advertising, distribution, audience reception, sales, and archiving of Art, Music, Audiovisual (Film, Television and Video) Performance Arts, including the so-called ‘Lively Arts’, i.e., Theatre, Stage, Dance, Cultural, Historic, Folkloristic, and popular material culture, Religious Ritual, ceremony and digital ‘New Media’.

Most scholarly research and analysis into Project Management for the Creative Industries has been a collateral or tangential effect of studies into Cultural Policy, and consequently most research gets tucked in with Cultural Policy, or relegated as an ill-fitting stepsister within Film Studies, Business Studies, etc.

One of the reasons for this ‘ill-fitting’ relationship to established fields of research is that the specialism of ‘Project Management for the Creative Industries’ straddles too many disciplines at once, and this presents problems for scholars, seeking common terminology to explain their research

For example – most people who finish a terminal degree in the arts, like the M.F.A. or Ph.D. in Film Studies, etc., would not normally also consider completing a research level degree in business (M.B.A.) or similar postgraduate research degrees in finance or accounting or management.

So there’s an implied distance between the readers of the research of individuals in business and finance, versus music, film and television, that is difficult for scholars to straddle, since their readers can’t be expected to understand core concepts in both the arts AND business (this is a generalization, since such individuals do exist).

To complicate things even further, the are many levels and types of individuals within the Creative Industries, who have varying needs, as to knowledge of ‘good practice’ in their field of the arts, and its commercial or public exploitation and distribution.

For example, film and television producers share some Project Management needs, but go separate paths on other production management needs.

Studio producers have different needs (as to what body of knowledge would benefit them) than independent producers.

Further on, there are middle tier Project Managers who manage both operations and individual projects for studios and television channel stations, and as such, the focus of their management is bi-directional vertical management (i.e., they interface with clients who are visiting producers, while interfacing with film school and government, commercial or cultural entities who found and authorize their existence, while they also manage horizontal relationship with other collaborating studios and suppliers, vendors, and craftsmen.

This phenomenon of having ‘multiple masters to serve’ is not new or rare for all fields where Project Managers work, but there are particular distinctions that are mostly unique to the fields of entertainment production and related ‘Creative Industries’ that Project Managers in these sectors need to understand and address.

Let’s give this discussion substance by tossing out some example of project management, already existing within the Creative Industries:

1)   The recording of a new band’s album CD

2)   The promotion of a concert series

3)   The production of a local, national or touring theatre or dance event

4)   The launch of a local or regional film festival

5)   The creation, development and marketing of a new computer software

6)   The renovation of an abandon, historic building into a new arts center

7)   The creation of society or association to promote ethnic heritage through cultural events and works of art

8)   The transfer of a community’s material culture from original to digital formats
9) Staging a parade or party or procession

[Pictured above: The 1980s cast of Rodger and Hammersteins musical, "The King and I", 

produced and directed by Mark L. Woods in Ohio, 

with support from Malone University Theater Arts Dept.]

This list could go on for a long time; you get the idea. But what about the profession of ‘Project Managers’? Where do they fit into the Creative Industries?

In one, general sense, there are already ‘project managers’ in every part of the Creative Industries sectors, who have traditional titles and job descriptions, some of which date back to Medieval guilds and craft/trade unions. For example, in this general sense, the Unit Production Manager as well as other film department production managers (production manager, art director, production designers, Production Stage Managers in theatre and dance, etc.) have job responsibilities, which are comprehensive in the same way that project managers have comprehensive responsibilities.

What differs between the job descriptions of these traditional ‘project managers’ is that in almost every instance, these traditional arts managers have responsibility for a single project, on which they are named ‘manager’.  Project Managers, especially those who are members of regulated, chartered or professional groups, by definition specialize in managing MULTIPLE projects, at once, in sequence, overlapping, etc.

In fact, most theoretical approaches within the academic study of Project Management consider and posit method of managing multiple projects, seeing them as conceptual events, and then managing the event through organized theories of management, i.e., event chain management, etc.

We hope this article has helped you to understand a little better what constitutes a ‘project’ and what constitutes a ‘Project Manager’ – both in general and in particular.

© 2013 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods; All rights reserved.