In my new career as an instructional designer, I have seen a number of issues related to scope creep. Working in the education field can have its share of ups and downs and all elements of my career have their own room for scope creep. Recently I worked as that ISD of a course that was running fairly smooth up until a few weeks prior to the handoff date. The handoff date is the date clearly specified by the project manager at the beginning of the project. Each person who works on the course has a specific date specifically for them. The particular course developer for this course was having a rather difficult time writing the course and her scope began to creep up on here. I had never been through this type of situation so I was just under the assumption that if she was a few days late it would be ok, but I was totally wrong about that!
Portny et al (2008) states scoop creep is the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project’s output as the project progresses. The course developer in this situation did not manage her time as well and ended up having to extend here project period for another week. Portny et al. (2008) states that uncertainty is a lack of sureness that something will come to pass. Her uncertainty jeopardized the status and progression of the entire project because all dates had been approved previously.
The project manager had to step in and negotiate more time for me since I was set to begin my role in the design of the course a week prior. The stakeholders were disappointed that the project fell off schedule but were overall happy that the project manager took the proper steps to assure that the project would still be able to be fulfilled with minor alterations to the course schedule.
As I think back on the situation, if I were the project manager on this project, I would have had weekly status meetings with the management team over the course developers and instructional designers to assure that all aspects of the project were running according to schedule. This would have assured that even if someone was running behind in their role, alterations could have been made prior to the scoop creep period and extra days could have possibly been scheduled in for situations such as this.
Reference:
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Communicating Effectively
How did your interpretation of the message change from one modality to the next?
Upon reading the email version of the message, I found it to be very clear and to the point. It was carefully outlined and the importance of the message was relayed. Since this report is very important, confirming in writing is great way to cover yourself in the event the deadline passes and verification needed to be submitted that you attempted to reach out concerning the matter.
Portny el at. (2008) states To minimize the chances for misunderstandings and hurt feelings: Confirm in writing the important information that was shared in informal discussions.
The voicemail version of the message would not have been the best form of communication for me personally. I interpreted it to be a bit lengthy for a message and with the flaws of telecommunication; the message could have not been received by Mark.
The face to face version is possibly the best form of communication. By speaking directly to Mark he knows the urgency of his report and when it is needed. It also adds that accountability directly to complete your portion of the work requested. Unlike the previous two versions of the message you can also ask questions directly if you re unsure of something related to the report.
What factors influenced how you perceived the message?
The urgency presented in each version played an important factor to how I perceived the message. If I were Mark by each message received, it would have shown that I needed to make this project a top priority.
Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?
The best form of communication was the email version because Jane took the time to to place everything that she needed from Mark in the email. In a face to face or email environment sometimes elements can be left out the message or forgotten that would make it difficult to obtain what’s needed accurately.
What are the implications of what you learned from this exercise for communicating effectively with members of a project team?
Communicating effectively with team members is of the utmost importance. For me, to be on the safe side, I would utilize at least two out of the three levels of communication initially. Using face to face interaction will ensure that all team members are accountable for the information received. Follow-up emails would be sent to each team member with the information discussed in a written format. As an added point of accountability, electronic signatures will be requested to assure acknowledgement of the email. Voicemail would be the last result and would show an ultimate red flag if it got to that point to receive any information that was previously requested in the other two formats.
Reference:
Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M., & Kramer, B. (2008). Project Management: Planning, scheduling and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Upon reading the email version of the message, I found it to be very clear and to the point. It was carefully outlined and the importance of the message was relayed. Since this report is very important, confirming in writing is great way to cover yourself in the event the deadline passes and verification needed to be submitted that you attempted to reach out concerning the matter.
Portny el at. (2008) states To minimize the chances for misunderstandings and hurt feelings: Confirm in writing the important information that was shared in informal discussions.
The voicemail version of the message would not have been the best form of communication for me personally. I interpreted it to be a bit lengthy for a message and with the flaws of telecommunication; the message could have not been received by Mark.
The face to face version is possibly the best form of communication. By speaking directly to Mark he knows the urgency of his report and when it is needed. It also adds that accountability directly to complete your portion of the work requested. Unlike the previous two versions of the message you can also ask questions directly if you re unsure of something related to the report.
What factors influenced how you perceived the message?
The urgency presented in each version played an important factor to how I perceived the message. If I were Mark by each message received, it would have shown that I needed to make this project a top priority.
Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?
The best form of communication was the email version because Jane took the time to to place everything that she needed from Mark in the email. In a face to face or email environment sometimes elements can be left out the message or forgotten that would make it difficult to obtain what’s needed accurately.
What are the implications of what you learned from this exercise for communicating effectively with members of a project team?
Communicating effectively with team members is of the utmost importance. For me, to be on the safe side, I would utilize at least two out of the three levels of communication initially. Using face to face interaction will ensure that all team members are accountable for the information received. Follow-up emails would be sent to each team member with the information discussed in a written format. As an added point of accountability, electronic signatures will be requested to assure acknowledgement of the email. Voicemail would be the last result and would show an ultimate red flag if it got to that point to receive any information that was previously requested in the other two formats.
Reference:
Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M., & Kramer, B. (2008). Project Management: Planning, scheduling and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”
In my fairly new career as an Instructional Designer there have been more than a few projects that I have been assigned. In one of my first projects on a course that I was working on, I made many flaws and small mistakes that were detrimental and could have cause a lot of issues if they were not corrected in a timely fashion. My ID role is slightly different then the more traditional ID role. I focus mostly on uploading and assuring that the courses are properly developed.
The project was a special course that had a small window of development time to be fully completed. After the course was written by the course developer it was then handed off to me to properly upload the course and assure all media pieces are in the correct places. One these elements are down then I had to send the course to the editorial department for final edits.
In the long run this course was a success but in the beginning I was very new to the process and didn’t really understand the importance of time management. The other skill that I lacked was paying attention to detail, a skill that has to be in place to be successful in this career. Being able to have a longer window of time to complete the course would have possibly given me more of a chance to pay attention to detail. Although that is no excuses for quality of work, it taught me how to truly focus on the task at hand.
The project was a special course that had a small window of development time to be fully completed. After the course was written by the course developer it was then handed off to me to properly upload the course and assure all media pieces are in the correct places. One these elements are down then I had to send the course to the editorial department for final edits.
In the long run this course was a success but in the beginning I was very new to the process and didn’t really understand the importance of time management. The other skill that I lacked was paying attention to detail, a skill that has to be in place to be successful in this career. Being able to have a longer window of time to complete the course would have possibly given me more of a chance to pay attention to detail. Although that is no excuses for quality of work, it taught me how to truly focus on the task at hand.
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