C'man Cultural Management Guide: PM2 Management for Cultural Projects

A step-by-step project management guide for cultural managers, developed within the C'man Erasmus+ cooperation project. The guide is built on PM², the project management methodology developed by the European Commission for EU-funded projects — making it directly aligned with the logic, documentation standards, and lifecycle thinking that govern the programmes ZMINA:Resilience participants are working with or aspiring to join.

The guide covers the full arc of a cultural project across four phases — Initiating, Planning, Executing, and Closing — and is most directly relevant to three sessions in the ZMINA:Resilience capacity building series.

• It connects most strongly to Webinar #1: Organisations Ready for Projects, where Michal Hladký introduced the go/no-go decision framework, capacity self-assessment, and the strategic relationship between an organisation and its projects. The guide's Initiating Phase (p. 10) operationalises exactly this: it opens with an Idea development step and immediately follows with a Project Acceptance Checklist (p. 10, step 2) — a practical tool for the strategic and capacity filters Michal described. The full 16-step Initiating Phase workflow, from stakeholder mapping and partner identification through application writing, proofreading, and submission, gives organisations a concrete process to follow after the session.
• For participants of Webinar #2: Building Strong International Partnerships, the Planning Phase (p. 29) is the most relevant section: it covers partner communication from the first informational email through one-to-one meetings, the Partner Information Form, cooperation agreements, and risk management — directly complementing the session's guidance on Memoranda of Cooperation, governance structures, and partnership maintenance.
• The guide's Executing Phase (p. 42) and its evaluation toolkit also resonates with Webinar #3: Foundation of Impact, Monitoring and Evaluation, offering a set of practical monitoring and feedback forms — including a Project Progress Evaluation Form, Project Management Evaluation Form, and Teamwork Evaluation Form — that translate Paula Cukura's M&E frameworks into recurring project management practice.

One of the guide's most practical features is its full document library: each step in the workflow links to ready-made templates and tools, including a Project Work Plan, Task Matrix, Financial Package, Project Handbook, Risk Management Meeting Document, Communication Guidelines and Monitoring Document, Hosting Info Pack, Meeting Agenda, and a Lessons Learned template for project closure. These are available directly through the project website at culturalmanager.eu. The guide is freely available under a Creative Commons licence and can be shared, adapted, and used for teaching purposes.

Developed by Pro Progressione (HU), Central European University (AT), The Green Room (FR), and Kea European Affairs (BE) | Available at culturalmanager.eu | Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA