This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
The Project Management Game -- Or rather, Game Project Management. Chris Williams of Lucasarts dicusses the role of PM in video game production.
"Problem-solving is the number one skill you need in project management in games," he says. "Game development is just one long series of problems."
"From a career fair point of view, there are a lot of opportunities for managers," says Williams.
The LucasArts veteran outlined some of the producer-level titles a employee might hold as a project manager, such as associate producer or executive; the roles vary somewhat from company to company. How managers interact with a publisher can also vary, depending on the studio's relationship to the publisher, the title in development, and the history between the publisher and studio.
Williams also took some time to explain the difference between working for a large, well-established company (where many project management and producers are hired specifically) to the small "scrappy start-ups" (where project managers tend to be people who rise to the occasion). He also explained Scrum-style development and other current working methods that would-be producers should have a clear understanding of before applying for a job.
He suggests that potential game developers and managers face the reality of the industry...
...When asked about crunch time, Williams outlined the following rule: "If you lose two weeks of your life to crunching and making games, then that's what you signed up for when you decided you wanted to make games."
But he's realistic about the reality as well...
...crunching for more than two weeks out of an eight-week period is a failure on the part of the project manager. "If we’re smart about our development tactics, then we can deliver the game on time," he says. "It shouldn't be typical that you’re working 60 or 70 hours per week on a regular basis," he says, recommending that developers who are in that situation ought to look for another job.
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