Chapter 3. Project ManagementManager

Chapter 3. Project Management/Manager

KEY TOPICS

• Project Plans

• Yes, It Really Will Take 2 “3 Years to Complete

• Why Production Slips Happen

• Project Realities

As mentioned before, online games are complex creatures with plenty of moving parts . This is a lot to juggle, especially over a two- to four-year development timeline. To finish development in a timely manner, the team must be very tightly organized. This is a factor that has been missing in most online game development projects to date. The main cause has been a lack of institutional training and experience in pure organizational techniques; most producers seem to think that just knowing a bit about Microsoft Project is all they need.

The glue that will hold your online game project together and get it out the door is the project manager. This is the person who keeps the milestone and task list, tracks potential blockages, knows what everyone is doing, keeps records of it, plots it all out, and then follows up by keeping the producer, the leads, and the team informed.

And that's just the start. A project manager looks at the whole ball of wax, decides what is needed to track the project, determines what creates blocks to good tracking and good working conditions, and helps set the team up for success by demanding accountability. His or her responsibility isn't just making marks on a project timeline; it involves anything that presents , or is likely to present, a block to completion. Thomas Howalt, an experienced project manager who was brought on to the Anarchy Online ( AO ) team by Funcom AS to help turn around the game after a disastrous launch, defines the responsibility with this list:

• Instill and keep the discipline.

• Document decisions, requirements, analyzes, designs, code, and test procedures.

• Invest in buying or developing a strong and stable file version control system for all your products: text docs, code, graphical assets, and so on.

• Invest in buying or developing a strong and stable task management tool ”make sure that everyone on the team uses it.

• Create a configuration and change management process and continue to develop and refine it.

• Invest time in creating a common glossary and file-naming conventions. Be strict in the use of these.

• Clean out your offices often ”no one works efficiently when surrounded by pizza boxes and empty Coke cans.

• When you assess your team (as you will more than once), be fair and square ”they deserve it.

• Create (and document) build routines, and remember the old truth: Build early; build often!

• Think QA from day one. This is an issue for all on the team. Make sure that every piece of code and world design has a thorough test case that is updated.

• Don't be tempted to use the champignon management style! (The champignon style is: grow them somewhere dark, cold, and moist, underground , throw dirt at them with regular intervals, and if any of them sticks up their head, cut it off!)

• Make backups often.

When looked at in this light, it should be obvious to the most casual observer that the project manager is a pivot point around which swings the success or failure of an online game development project.