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Gantt and Project Management for Museums

Gantt and Project Management for Museums

Gantt and Project Management for Museums

Project planning and event planning are notorious for taking longer than expected and having an element of surprise that might set you back in your schedule. The best way to minimize lost time and stay ahead of schedule is to have an organized project management strategy. 

This is especially important for museums that regularly alter their galleries, host fundraising parties, collaborate with their cities for local events, and manage entire archives and exhibit collections. Between planning these events and running the day-to-day operations of the museum, there’s a lot being asked of your managerial staff and administrators.

This article will include some project management best practices and information on how you can utilize other resources, like a Gantt chart or CRM, in your project management strategy. 

Museum Project Management Best Practices

Museum project management is the way in which your museum sets its event schedules, organizes project-planning teams, keeps tabs on project progress, and ensures that everyone involved is on the same page. 

There are some fundamental features to any project management plan in a museum:

  • Set a schedule for your event and try to abide by that schedule as best as possible
  • Set your budget for the event and make sure your goals are realistic within that budget
  • Create a visual aid, like a Gantt chart, to help track development and keep everyone updated on the projects’ progress
  • Involve your team as much as you can. Provide each department–curators, content developers, funding team, archives specialists, etc.– with the space and avenue to state their concerns and collaborate with leaders
  • If you’ve finished one step early, get started on the next task. You never know what may come up, and getting ahead of schedule should be utilized to keep the momentum moving
  • Adapt to the unexpected challenges and roadblocks that will most likely present themselves. This has just as much to do with being flexible as it does communicating with team members

Gantt Project Management

A Gantt is a useful chart that’s frequently used in project management in order to assist project coordination and planning. Utilizing a Gantt will help you meet deadlines, simplify your range of tasks, and divide the necessary deadlines between your various departments. Additionally, the visual aid that a Gantt chart provides will help make your timeline and range of task all the more comprehensible. 

Stay on top of your Gantt chart with these tips:

  • Divide the deadlines and tasks by department. A Gantt chart will easily color-code the various relevant teams, making it easier to organize and tack progress by department.
  • Make continuous notes and updates to your chart. This where adaptability comes in; if there are changes to the schedule or new tasks that need to be completed, make notations and updates to your chart accordingly. 
  • Account for days off and holidays.
  • Make sure all your departments, at least the heads of those departments, have access to the Gantt chart and are familiar with its functions. 
  • Hold regular meetings and use the Gantt chart as a reference point to check on the progress of your teams. This will motivate team leaders to update their Gantt chart and keep the project on schedule. 

Utilizing a CRM for Project and Event Strategies

Before you can start planning for an event or project, you’ve got to decide on where to allocate your resources and for what kind of events. A CRM will allow you to manage your relations with customers, members, and donors, providing you with valuable insights into the trends of those associated with your museum.

If, for example, you notice that ticket sales have an annual decline in a particular month or season, you might consider holding a new event centered around a seasonal theme or visitor interest. If you’d like to bolster membership growth, you might consider holding a members-only event and highlighting your membership benefits in the advertising of that event. 

A CRM will provide you with all the information and data you need to understand the interests of your guests and their trends as visitors. Utilizing that information should be an integral part of any project management strategy for museums. 

Part of creating a solid project management plan is having the proper technology and organizational aids to keep you on top of your events. Utilizing a Gantt chart, staying on top of your best practices, and making use of valuable technology, like a CRM, will help ensure your project is a success.

ACME’s features provide museums with some of today’s most innovative management and ticketing technology. ACME’s powerful CRM will give you all the insights you need to create a strong project management strategy, and our POS and customizable ticketing features will keep the day-to-day operations running smoothly so you can get to work on future events and projects. Make managing your museum and projects easier with ACME, and try your free ACME demo today.



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