Scope Creep

For my look at scope creep this week I would like to use the project that I discussed a few weeks ago for our look at projects “post mortem.” The project has been the biggest project yet that I have worked on in my life and therefore it is my common “go to” when speaking about our own personal examples. Hence, please excuse me for repeating any information that you may have already read in the previous post about my project, Scarlet and Gray Ag Day (SGAD).

The project Scarlet and Gray Ag Day was a project that I was the chairmen of in college. In general the project consisted of yearlong planning culminating in one day in which Columbus area elementary school students attend hands on sessions on the ag campus at OSU to learn all about agriculture and the agricultural industry. It included committee work, working with stakeholders like presenters, student workers, elementary school teachers, financial supporters, organization and a lot of communication.

A little bit into the project I realized that the project was turning into a lot more than I had expected. The planning committee had decided to add extra elements into the program such as a lunch complete with a short speech from the Ohio Director of Agriculture who would be attending and a workshop for teachers several weeks before the actual SGAD event to teach students how to incorporate agriculture into their classrooms more. The project was already a huge undertaking and it suddenly began to grow which provided more organizational and planning issues. Not as much attention was able to be given to each task because our committee was spread so thin because of the creep of the scope.

The SGAD committee and I worked through these issues by meeting weekly and discussing the tasks that needed attention immediately. Committees that were only supposed to be worrying about a specific task on the day of the event were asked to add more to their workload and some were asked to add tasks related to the teacher workshop which had not originally been on the scope to their workload. The committee members were all ambitious so it worked out but having the original scope set up correctly would have provided a much smoother planning process.

Looking back on the project and what I have learned in the project management course, I think that I would have done some things differently in order to provide a smoother planning process. A smooth project begins with the planning. Setting up the scope, getting your team together to start the project and assigning specific tasks would have allowed me to see the picture much more clearly (Greer, 2012). It is one thing to talk about assignments and tasks and ask committee members to complete them but it would be another to provide committee members with a visual Gantt chart that they can refer back to. Setting up a scope statement would have provided me with a clear outlook of what needed to happen. In this week’s reading there is a checklist to “Keep the Project Moving” and included is to check back to the scope documents and address any changes weekly (Greer, 2010). We would do something like this during the planning process but not officially. By being structured about it and really addressing these changes may have provided a little less stress and more organization. “Project managers should approach changes of scope in a business-like fashion (Greer, 2010).”

The scope changes may not have been a problem if they had been anticipated previous to the project start and if it had been addressed correctly.

Greer, M., 2010. The Project Management Minimalist; Just Enough PM to Rock your Projects. Laureate University Institutions.

Factors Required to Develop Learning

This week we are asked to estimate costs, duration and effort associated with our particular projects and think about the same estimations for future hypothetical projects. I find this project particularly daunting and intimidating. The challenge of this week’s application is that I have no previous knowledge to draw upon. If I were employed as an instructional designer, I would have to do a lot of research in order to have an accurate picture of the resources that are required to produce a quality instructional design project. To research for this project and gather some background knowledge to build upon, I reviewed three online resources.

                The first online resource was titled Estimating Time and Resources in Instructional Design. The resource points out how important it is to budget your project and consider the effort and cost that will be going into the project. Just as project managers needs to remember to set goals and objectives, having a budget is another form of a goal focusing on keeping the project within range of resource use. Specific costs are listed such as $28.00/hour for instructional designers and $10-$15 per professional slideshow. The author of the site also listed estimates of duration or hours of effort that would be expelled to create certain projects. For example, the project that I am using for my course project is ELearning modules which would take anywhere from 220 hours-750 hours depending on the level of interaction that was required by the stakeholders. If the team worked 8 hours days, that’s 24-93 days of work! The site even has an Excel cost calculator which could prove to be helpful in the future.

                The second resource that I evaluated was a slideshow presentation entitled How Long Does it Take to Create Learning. This resource breaks down cost and effort into categories depending on the type of learning that is desired. Teacher led instruction would require the least effort whereas level three elearning which would consist of online games and simulations would cost the most and require the most effort. I was shocked to read that 1 hour of a level 3 elearning simulation would cost just over $50,000 to complete and 13% of the effort devoted to the project would be instructional design.  The chart refers to the level 3 learning and the effort and cost associated.

Lastly, the site Time to Develop One Hour of Training points out the difference between types of training that is being developed as well. Kapp and Defelice point out that all too many times the cost of projects is never estimated but only responded to with an “it depends.” It is important however for clients and stakeholders as well as the team members working on the project to see what they are up against and have something to shoot for. This website also points out the difference in cost from 2003-2009. As I would have expected, cost for most everything has increased with years. Similar to the other sites, this provided information that upheld that simulations or high levels of interactivity are more expensive and time consuming. I appreciated this site however because it points out some things that perhaps a project manager could do in order to minimize the factors that go into the project such as clear communication, conducting an orientation for stakeholders, etc.  

Chapman Alliance. 2010. How Long Does It Take to Create Learning? Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/bchapman_utah/how-long-does-it-take-to-create-learning

Clark, Don. 2010. Estimating Costs and Time in Instructional Design. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html

Kapp, K., Defelice, R. 2013. Time to Develop One Hour of Training. ASTD. Retrieved from http://www.astd.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Learning-Circuits-Archives/2009/08/Time-to-Develop-One-Hour-of-Training

Communication

This week we are asked to evaluate the same message but given in a variety of manners. We all experience these types of communication and in some cases, miscommunication. Formal communications and informal communications need to be carefully constructed and thought about when working with stakeholders as to not flip effective communication into miscommunication.

When reading the message in the multimedia program I thought that maybe some tone of voice would help the reader understand the urgency of the message. A written message can communicate factual data very efficiently but does not allow the reader to ask questions or pick up on nonverbal communication from the author as well (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shaffer, Sutton, 2008 ). The media features an email but it could also be a text message in a less professional or formal setting. I believe that texts and emails would have the same disadvantages. Perhaps in order to utilize this form of communication, project managers and team members should understand that this form should be utilized for documentation and factual data sharing. I think that the message that was trying to be shared in the program would probably not be effectively shared through written communication simply because of a tone and nonverbal communication would be a benefit in getting the message across.

The message on the telephone was a bit more improved in my opinion. Unlike the email, the phone message was able to convey the tone of the message by the voice and understand that the author of the message was simply concerned about the report, not angry as I may have assumed in the email. However, like the email, nonverbal communication is not available for the message recipient to use to their advantage.

Lastly, the message in person was the most effective. Although a personal message could provide some challenges such as finding the person you wish to speak with, wasting time holding a discussion after the message is given, and the message being  undocumented, verbal communication and meeting with the individual has its advantages (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shaffer, Sutton, 2008 ). By meetings with the individual in question, you are providing the opportunity for the receiver to ask questions, observe nonverbal communication, as well as hear the tone of voice in the message author or communicator. This allows for the least amount of misunderstanding to take place. Even if there was a communication error in the message, the receiver could ask right away for clarification which would improve efficiency of any project.

Understanding these advantages and disadvantages of specific types of communication will allow any team member or project manager to be clearer, more effective and straightforward with stakeholders and other team members. Miscommunication can cause unrest in stakeholders, slow down progress and can prevent a project from being successful.

The Art of Communication. 2012. Walden University.

Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M. 2008. Project Management: Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling Projects. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken NJ. 

Project Evaluation Post Mortem

For my review “post mortem” this week I would like to use an example in my collegiate career at The Ohio State University. I was chosen as a part of an organization to run a large student run event on campus called “Scarlet and Gray Ag Day.” This day is planned by Ohio State students and area elementary schools are invited to come and rotate around to several dozen stations with hands on activities all centered around teaching the students a topic in agriculture. Needless to say, it was a huge undertaking and involved working with several committees and many different stakeholders such as elementary school teachers, college organizations, college students, companies around campus and supporters of the event. Although not an instructional design project, there are similarities. I served as the chairman of the event which could relate to a project manager. We then had several different committees or perhaps in terms of project management; teams. In order to take a closer look at the project and learn something from it, I used the questions from the Project Minimalist to evaluate it.

1.       Are you proud of the deliverables? If so, what’s so good about them? If no, what was wrong about them?

I was very proud of the outcome or deliverables which would have been the day in general, the student’s learning, and experiences. Many teachers, stakeholders, were very pleased with the quality of the day and the value that it held for their students. Many standards out of the elementary school’s curriculum was hit and the teachers were able to go back to their schools with ideas of how to use agriculture as a learning platform in the classroom.

2.       What was the single most frustrating part of our project?

The most frustrating part of our project was the complexity of the entire thing. The event had been done year after year and each year more aspects are added to benefit the event but provide hurdles for planning. With this complexity came the increased need for communication and organization which was not always there at times causing issues.

3.       How would you do things differently to prevent frustration?

Like I mentioned before, I would be sure that there was an increase in communication and organization. I would have may also added more committees/teams in order to spread out the workload.

4.       What was the most gratifying aspect of the project?

Talking to the teachers and receiving feedback from them and other stakeholders about the level of quality and usability of the day for teachers and students was rewarding because it felt as though the work throughout the entire year had paid off and was validated.

5.       Which methods worked well?

The committees had a group meeting with all of the other committees to report on their progress and receive updated duties if required. As the project manager, it was great to have those meetings in order to touch base and be sure there was progress in the right direction being made and collaboration of ideas being held.

6.       What methods were frustrating?

As college students, putting this event together was not our jobs nor were we getting paid to put it together. Therefore, a lot of students that were working on it may not have put their 110% effort into it. It would slow everyone down with one of these individuals and if they would delay responding to an email, it hurt the project a few times.

7.       If you could change something, what would you change?

As I stated before, I think that I would try to minimize the complexity of the event. I would focus on making the main event solid and quality without trying to add too many extra things before making sure the rest of it is planned solidly.

PHASE 1

Our audience and market was the elementary schools of Columbus, Ohio. It helped that year after year we have this event and have contact with the teachers of the area. This particular year, we communicated with the teachers and asked for their input on the event and what they could benefit from us teaching their students. We also held a workshop with the teachers who would be participating to have an overview of the event so that they could be prepared. Our team did an excellent job looking at the elementary school curriculum and standards and translating them into the interactive and hands on learning experiences at Scarlet and Gray Ag Day.

PHASE 2

 In the initial planning phases we had not planned for the growth that the event would take on and complexity that would then ensue. It would have been more beneficial to have stuck to the plan and not tried to spread our team too thin by adding more and more to the event throughout the year of planning no matter how beneficial it may have been. We had many supporters of the event financially and as a presence at the event. We needed each and every one of those supporters because we were limited by the finances of the event as well as facilities, transportation and the elementary school’s schedules. There were a few issues with vendors that may have been prevented by simply using clearer communication and having more experience working with vendors on the part of the college committee members.  Roles and expectations were clearly laid out in the planning meeting which worked well for setting up the committees and teams and as I said before, there were students that didn’t hold this project in priority. Their absence at some meetings was felt as it was important to have clear lines on communication each week when we would collaborate. One thing that should have been planned and communicated more clearly was the milestone goals. For some aspects of the project there were no milestone goals which didn’t motivate team members to accomplish them.

PHASE 3

The blue prints for the project were a little gray. We had ideas and goals to accomplish but throughout the year they were modified so many times they should have been a little more concrete for the team members to visualize and follow along with. Creativity was involved and all members of the team were involved in the blueprints. We needed input from each one of the committees or teams in order to make the blueprints or plan of attack on the project.

PHASE 4

I was very proud of my deliverables as mentioned before. All stakeholders delivered on their part. If one committee, supporter or other stakeholder did not hold up their part, the event would have not happened or had major problems which it didn’t.

PHASE 5

The test audience was the real audience in this case and the deliverables worked in the real world. We aligned the teacher curriculum with what the students were learning at the event which helped teachers teach their actual required curriculum as well as gave them ideas on how to utilize agriculture in the future for their classrooms. Because the nature of the project, implementation was fairly effective. Motivation could have been increased but overall the project was pulled together effectively with quality.

Overall, teachers comments would be the artifacts that I would point to uphold my opinion of success of the program. The artifacts that I would point to to suggest a struggle or frustration in the project would be the evaluation that the committee members or teammates returned. Many of them cited communication and organization issues within the team.

Greer, M. 2010. The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your Project! 

Welcome

Welcome to my Project Management Course blog! I will be posting my thoughts and ideas on this blog about Project Management and Instructional Design. Stay Tuned!