Adapted from Miriam Posner’s project charter guidelines.
Assign the following roles to project member(s). Please note that no single team member is responsible for any of these roles; rather, the specialist coordinates activity related to this work and assigns tasks to team members. If your team has more than six members, multiple people may be assigned to one role. If your group has fewer than six members, please combine two roles.
- Project Manager: Pays close attention to schedule and milestones. Alerts the team to possible roadblocks or time-crunches. Ensures that communication among team members is efficient and harmonious. Keeps track of all project documentation. Takes notes at meetings. Communicates team needs (for example, additional training on a tool) to the professor and TA. Communicates with subject-matter expert. Submits milestones on time via CCLE.
- Web Specialist: Oversees the design and structure of the site. Purchases server space for the project. Oversees the installation of the content-management system and any required plug-ins. Works with the CMS (or HTML files) to ensure that the site performs to the team’s specifications. Installs any required updates to the CMS.
- Data Specialist: Oversees the cleaning, refining, and augmenting of the group’s dataset. Teaches other team members how to use OpenRefine. Ensures the data is standardized, usable, and well-formatted.
- Mapping Specialist: [If mapping is a component of your project.] Oversees the project’s maps. Geolocates data. Learns how to use (and teaches teammates how to use) the appropriate tools. Fine-tunes map display. Adds maps to site.
- Data Visualization Specialist: Oversees the project’s data visualizations. Ensures that data is in the right format. Learns how to use (and teaches teammates how to use) the appropriate tools. Fine-tunes data visualizations and adds them to site.
- Content Specialist: Oversees the authoring of the site’s main narrative and ensures that the data visualizations and maps integrate neatly with the written content. Writes section headers and captions. Obtains necessary images and embeds them in the site. Oversees the creation of the “About” page.