production process proposal for
Internet Travel Network (ITN)
The following document was created as a proposal to define and clarify the working relationships within one Silicon Valley startup, Internet Travel Network (now Getthere.com) as it existed in 1997. The document remains an interesting take on the makeup and management of production teams--and might prove valuable to someone involved in the process of creating such a team.

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"Within any significant effort, it is important to have guidelines which allow those making the effort to locate their conceptual positions simply and effectively. In the case of ITN's production department, it is extremely important to the present and future members of the team that such a guideline arrive on the scene soon: to assign a vector to their everyday tasks, allowing them clearly to conceive of their roles, goals and effects of these tasks.



The production department should have two hemispheres: the design section and the implementation section. Both sections should be organized in a similar manner.

  • There should be an externally-oriented, point person for each project. This person establishes the definition of the project by interacting with forces external to the production team who have an interest in the project. Examples of these forces might be ITN's business plan, the new business development strategy, a specific client's request, a sales manager's needs, etc.

  • To balance these external needs there should be an internal, resource-oriented person responsible for seeing that the project can be and is carried out by the section's resources.

  • There is the compiled team (specific to the project) who carries out the creation of the product.

  • And finally there are the members who test the product.

    • Each of the design section's projects should be led by one of the department's Synthesizers. A Synthesizer gathers all necessary input from external sources with an interest in the project. This member functions like a firewall for the rest of the members -- providing one point of contact for external interests AND one point of input for the design team. The Synthesizer creates a design document based upon this input and provides it to the Design Director. (The Synthesizer is analogous to the Project Manager within the Implementation Team.)

    The Design Director is the manager for all Design projects, past, current and future. This person will control all ongoing projects and insures consistency of design and clarity of vision (in relation to ITN's goals, production department's credo, policy, etc.). The Design Director compiles a design team for each project. In controlling projects, the Design Director manages as many design teams as are required to conceptualize, construct and refine new sites as they are deemed necessary -- developing a design plan for each project. (The Design Director is analogous to the Production Manager within the Implementation Team.)

    A Design Team can consist of as many as four specialists: a User Interface specialist, a Graphic Design specialist, a Production Engineer and a Content Editor. These specialists carry out the project based upon the specifications of the design document and the design plan. The UI specialist is responsible for layout and logical flow of a site, while the Graphic Design specialist is responsible for all the project's graphics. The Production Engineer is responsible for overseeing any interaction of the Design and Engineering Teams relevant to the project and seeing that all programming concerns are addressed so that the project functions as layed out in the design document and plan. The Content Editor is responsible for creating and/or editing content used by each site. This means a certain amount of coordination with the Content Maintenance specialist within the Implementation Team. (A Design Team is analogous to an Implementation Team.)

    Finally the Design Team delivers the project to a Quality Control specialist for the testing stage. This person is responsible for extensive testing and in-depth reporting on the results for each project. With the report, the QC specialist works with the design team responsible for the project to ameliorate the issues brought up therein. QC specialists are specific to neither the design team nor the implementation team - they provide analysis to both.



    The organization of the Implementation section is more complicated than that of the Design section since Implementation deals with more external input. Many of the duties of Implementation are being carried out by the current members of the Production team (09.07.97).

    (NOTE: ITN currently uses the word "implementation" to mean "the process of bringing a client's site from pre-sales to clienthood." I tend to use the word "implementation" in a more general sense: "the process of creating a specific instance of something." In other words, a design can be implemented as can the wishes of a client. When I use the ITN-specified term, you will see it in italics. Otherwise, the general term is usually capitalized, as in "Implementation section.")

    Each of the Implementation section's projects is led by a Project Manager, whether the project is technically pre-sales, implementation or maintenance-related. A Project Manager gathers all necessary input from external sources with an interest in the project, primarily from the client and the account manager. As with a Synthesizer of the Design section, the Project Manager acts as the sole point of reference for internal and external forces acting upon a specific project. A Project Manager is responsible for producing an Implementation document detailing the external expectations to be fulfilled in the demo, implementation, or maintenance project. Once complete, the document is forwarded to the Production Manager and the Configuration Manager. It may be necessary for Project Managers to specialize within a certain field of Project Management: demonstration, implementation and maintenance are three easily identifiable subsets of the Project Management role. (The Project Manager is analogous to the Design section's Synthesizer.)

    The Production Manager is responsible for all Implementation projects, past, current and future. This person controls all ongoing projects and insures consistency of design, clarity of vision (ITN goals, production department credo, policy, etc.) and efficiency. The Production Manager compiles an Implementation Team for each project. In controlling projects, the Production Manager manages as many Implementation Teams as are required to demonstrate, construct, and maintain demo, new or implemented sites -- developing an Implementation plan (with the Configuration Manager, if necessary). (The Production Manager is analogous to the Design section's Design Director.)

    The Configuration Manager is responsible for the data that the ITN system uses to customize its product for each client. Especially during implementation projects, but also during any maintenance changes to a client's database, the Configuration Manager oversees Configuration Specialists who do the actual data entry or maintenance.

    If configuration is part of the requirements for a project, the Configuration Manager collaborates with the Production Manager to produce the Implementation plan and assigns a Configuration Specialist to the compiled Implementation Team.

    An Implementation Team consists of as many as five specialists: an HTML - Layouts specialist, a Graphic Design specialist, a Production Engineer a Content Maintenance specialist and Configuration specialist. These specialists carry out the project based upon the specifications of the Implementation document and the Implementation plan AND the general requirements of the design to be implemented. The HTML specialist is responsible for layout and logical flow of a site, while the Graphic Design specialist is responsible for all the project's graphics, whether provided by the design or not. The Production Engineer is responsible for overseeing any interaction of the Implementation and Engineering Teams relevant to the project and seeing that all programming concerns are addressed so that the project functions as layed out in the Implementation document and plan. The Content Maintenance specialist is responsible for the maintenance of text. The Configuration specialist is responsible for travel-specific site configuration as outlined by the Configuration Manager in the Implementation plan.(An Implementation Team is analogous to a Design Team.)

    Finally the Implementation Team delivers the project to a Quality Control specialist for the testing stage. This person is responsible for extensive testing and in-depth reporting on the results for each project. With the report, the QC specialist works with the design team responsible for the project to ameliorate the issues brought up therein. QC specialists are specific to neither the design team nor the implementation team - they provide analysis for both."



    [©1997 Thomas Richardson]