1. Planning the project

Various factors need to be considered before undertaking a digitisation project. Chapter 1 highlights integral aspects to a project’s design, such as its scope, budget, and planning, to help ensure a project’s success. The chapter further outlines how to estimate quantifiable metrics of the collection to be digitised, and how to effectively estimate timescale and labour requirements for the project. This planning phase also takes into consideration post-collection tasks, such as how the documents will be archived and accessed by others. This chapter hence gives an overview of everything that should be considered before the project begins. Special consideration should also be taken to ensure that external expectations of both grant-awarding institutions and local partners are met, and the chapter argues that it is better to underpromise and overdeliver as opposed to the other way around.