An archival project should be completed without exceeding authorized expenditures. Many projects in archives lack a direct profit motive. For these projects, even in the absence of monetary gain, careful attention to financial management is vital.

Success criteria specify how the project is executed. Archival projects have universal success criteria that include finishing the project on schedule, keeping costs within budget, and meeting the goals that have been agreed upon by the project stakeholders and team—but that’s not all. Additionally, deliverables and objectives are sometimes referred to as critical success factors.

By their nature, all archival projects have elements of uncertainty. Obstacles, some inevitable, can cause missed deadlines, cost overruns, and poor performance. Archivists must expect problems and re-plan activities and shift resources as unforeseen challenges occur. Modifying the schedule is one way to solve problems related to project delays.

The critical path is a sequence of tasks that enables the completion of an archival project in the shortest possible time. It encompasses the duration from project start to completion and identifies which tasks must be finished before others can follow.

Since archival projects require you to work in new ways, you may not have the necessary equipment or skills internally. For resources beyond your organization, the procurement process includes solicitation, evaluation, selection, contracting, and management.

As part of your procurement, you should include a project procurement plan. You will then have to review and approve the plan, define your selection criteria, identify potential vendors, create a statement of work, and create contract change processes.

Plans for archival projects have expressions of how to meet quality, budget, and time expectations. Archivists heading projects should calculate the funds required to deliver the specified products within the proposed timeframe. Archival project managers need to demonstrate that planned activities, number and types of staff, and time frames are all realistic. The project must have a reasonable chance of succeeding in achieving its objectives, especially given its schedule.

Starting work on an archival project can be challenging as your attention shifts from planning to action. When archivists allocate tasks and complete the scheduling, team members may not automatically start working. The archival project manager ensures work begins by making sure everyone knows who should perform what tasks and when each should start. Team members must be free to start work, and the essential materials and equipment should be available.

Archival projects should begin with a kickoff meeting, which is the first formal meeting of the project team members and stakeholders. The meeting announces that the project is about to commence, communicates what the project is about, and generates commitment to goals and deliverables.

The kickoff meeting happens somewhere between scoping the project and in-depth planning. This moment is the busiest time for a project manager across the entire lifespan of the project. Everyone should recognize what the project should achieve, why this project is important, and where it stands on the organization’s priority list.

A challenge for archival project team members is that they become torn between the conflicting demands of their supervisor and their project manager, especially in repositories where archivists wear many hats.

Tracking is the process by which archival project progress is measured to ensure that changes to the schedule are tackled promptly. The starting point for tracking progress in archival projects is the project baseline schedule and other plan documents devised and accepted when key stages are fixed before implementation. The project baseline should remain unchanged throughout the project, and it’s the guide against which variances are identified.