Project Management in Archaeology: How to Finish on Budget and Ahead of Schedule while Meeting Expectations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Project management is an extremely important but critically underutilized body of knowledge in our discipline. Many of the activities that archaeologists engage in fit the definition of a project, that is a temporary effort that creates value through a unique product, service, or result. Despite that, many of us were never introduced to effective project management methods and only learned how to do it through trial and error. The goal of this poster is to provide an overview of project management as an effective tool that can be employed by the SAA membership, including students, private and public sector professionals, and academics. Specific insights include: 1) commonly used management frameworks that facilitate the responsible completion of research; 2) the roles and constraints of scope, schedule, and budget as they relate to archaeological projects; 3) what are common mechanisms to measure project success; and 4) common project management pitfalls which can result in inadequate preparation for research projects, degrade research integrity, and delay or prevent the dissemination of research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40219.0