Analyzing the Scope Creep

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Image Credit (GraphicsbyDave)

Analyzing the Scope Creep 

Sometimes a picture says more the words. In the picture you see above you see how the man is whistling happily with no idea he has a monster behind him.  That is kind of what happens when a project manager does not plan for possible risk and for changes in a project.  All the changes that occur during the project are scope creep (Pornty, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008).  Budgets can get out hand and the amount of work estimated for the project can double if the project scope is not controlled

My latest experience with the scope creep was while making an overhaul of an existing course. The project managers made big changes to a course but never thought to check the media content to see if changes needed to be made. The result was that media was not verified until the last step of the quality assurance process, which is me. When I checked all the media, all the content was relating to the way the class was formatted before. All the media and transcripts were wrong. I reported the issue to the media team and it turns out there was never any budget allocated for media for this course.  They ended up having to take  out the media from the entire classroom without having anything to replace it.  They tried to schedule a last minute production for the media but they were not able to have it ready for the term start. This affected the quality of the course, as the videos were an important part of course. The students were not going be able to view the videos and they only had the articles and text book available as resources.

How did the team deal with the issues?  I was upset because it affected my timeline for the course to be ready for copy for the term start; we had to copy the course with only two days for the instructors to access the course. The media team was trying to solve issues but with all the other projects they had it was just impossible to meet the deadline. That is when the decision to take the videos out was made.  If I would have been the project manager I would have ensured that a media specialist was assigned to the project from the start. I am not sure why the resource was not allocated in the first place. I believe that did not even consider the videos since it was an existing course versus a new course. Also it seems like the project manager had so many other projects that she did not pay much attention to this one. The surprising thing is that it went through an Instructional Designer and the instructional designer never even checked the videos to see if they were correct.  The company has a lot of quality assurance systems in place so I think the project manager was not communicating with her team about the course and trying to ensure that everything was running smoothly. If I were a project manager I would ensure that I communicate with entire team on a consistent basis to ensure all bases are covered. 

Our course text also suggests having a change control system in place (Portny, et al., 2008).

 If I were project manager I would ensure that I had a change control system in place for this type of situation.  As a project manager it is important to monitor and control the scope creep and how you respond to the scope creep will either make the project fail or succeed.  In my situation I believe that the students were getting the short end of the stick since they were not going to have the videos for viewing. However they were still going to have to create all the videos at a later time and the budget was going to increase anyway since they never included media in the initial budget.

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.

Communicating Effectively



http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/categories/Communication%20and%20Media

This week we were tasked to review a multimedia program called the “Art of Communication.” http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html

In this presentation we were given three scenarios that presented three different ways to deliver the same information. One was via email, another voicemail and face-to face.  The object of this exercise was for us to post our interpretation of each of the different modalities in which the message was delivered. In addition, we were asked to synthesis our thoughts regarding the implication this activity may have when communicating with members of a project team. We also were asked what things we learned in order to communicate effectively with others.

Email

When I saw the email communication, I felt that the communication was very important and that I needed to immediately address the email.  For me personally it is essential to have the information in writing and I prefer an email over any other method of communication if it is a business situation.   It is important to be able to go back to the written communication to verify information. It is imperative to write an effective message when communicating in writing. Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Schafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008 explain that it is important to minimize jargon and acronyms, prepare shorter reports and to send scheduled reports in a standard format. When stakeholders see email reports or any other type of written communication that is too long, it is easy for them to get distracted and there is more of chance they will not read the email.

Vociemail

The voicemail communication in my opinion was informal and I personally barely ever leave voicemails and I don’t really check my voicemail. So if someone has something important to say to me a voicemail would not be an effective way to communicate with me. The voice was friendly and the message was delivered effectively.

Face-to-Face

The face to face communication seemed friendly  and if someone comes up to me personally in my work area to talk to be about something that serious I take it very seriously however I always ask the person to follow via email with me so I won’t forget the details.

Communicating with your Project Team

Dr. Stolovitch talks about communication and trying to find out what the best communication style  the people on your  project team prefer . It is important to have the “communication style “conversation with the people that are going to be working on the project. As a project manager it is important to communicate effectively with everyone in order to keep the project moving.  Not every person on your team will respond to the same method of communication as each person is unique. However as Dr Stolovitch explains in his video, it is always important to document your communication with other people. So even if you have an informal conversation with someone on the team about something regarding the project, it is important to take notes, in case you need to refer back to the notes when following up on any assignments. I especially prefer email since you can easily have a trail of the documents and communication you send via email. It is important to note that not everyone on your team will prefer email so that is when you have to adapt to that person’s communication style. If the person prefers a face to face conversation, then go ahead and take that extra step and plan some time during your day to speak to the person.

It is also important to consider if you are going to use formal or informal communication (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Schafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008) . Depending on the type of information you will deliver, you have to decide if you are going to use formal or informal. For example if you need the project to be approved, you know that will have to send a formal communication requesting a sign off.

Lessons Learned:

·         Use the correct type of communication method not only depending on the type of information that is delivered but also on your audience.  

·         It is essential to ensure that you are not leaving someone that is involved in the project out of the communication.  Making sure that everyone that needs the communication gets the information in the same manner as everyone else, preferably at the same time.

·         Ensure that you document everything in writing, even when having an informal conversation about a project.

·         It is crucial to follow up with people on your team regarding deadlines and decisions relating to the project.

References:

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.

Stolovitch (n.d.). Communicating with Stakeholders [video]. Retrieved from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6290461&Survey=1&47=8115912&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

As I reflect on the most recent project at my place of employment; I can say that there were things that were not done well and some that were done extremely well.  I work for an online university. The project our school is working on is changing the current course management system (CMS) to another.  Changing from one course management system is big project and there are so many people and teams involved that things can easily get overseen or forgotten. This project is so big it is divided in stages but I want to reflect on stage one of the migration project.  

The first time we knew this project was in trouble was when we did not meet the first deadline for the first roll out of courses in the new CMS. The deadline got pushed because we were not ready for the migration. I feel that management made a good decision in changing the date because if they would have launched the new CMS on the initial date things would have gone really bad.  Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer and Sutton explain that project scheduling is one of the importance responsibilities for project managers. Even though I was not aware of the exact reasons of why the project was delayed, I can assume it had to do with one or more teams not getting their tasks in on time by the due date. There could have many reasons for the delay, maybe there were not enough experienced people working on the project or the project managers did not conduct an effective forward pass.

The team I work for is responsible for fixing technical issues in the classroom or escalating content issues back to the course developers and then implementing the changes.   In addition, our team was in charge of updating spreadsheets with changes that have been completed in the old course management system, in order for another team to implement the changes in the CMS. The part of the project that was successful was that all the classes were migrated successfully and our team did a good job at tracking all the changes in the spreadsheet. The part that was a failure was that our team did not know enough about the new CMS in order to respond the technical difficulties that arose after the migration took place.  In addition, the faculty also did not seem to be very familiar with the new CMS, a lot of issues were also due to lack of knowledge.   There were things in the new CMS that worked correctly before and after the migration they were not working.

As I read the description of phase IV create deliverables and V test and implement deliverables from the assigned course reading. I can clearly say that our team did not have any input in the project. No one ever asked us what we thought even though our team plays a big part in the technical aspect of the classroom itself. Our group did not test the product in the manner that we were going to use it for our customers, which are faculty and students. If we would have created a training sandbox where we could have practiced making changes in the new CMS, we would have been ready to address our customers’ needs.  The transition was not smooth for faculty, employees or students. There could have been more effective training sessions for employees and students. Even though there were online trainings, in this situation I think it would have been better to provide information sessions with a facilitator available to answer questions as the students, faculty and employees learned how to use the new CMS.

Things that could be done better in the future are probably planning the schedule in a more effective manner, keeping the project moving and also paying attention to the scope creep (Greer, 2010). When a project so big involves so many teams and each team has a different function and manager sometimes it is very hard to have control of all the possible things that can happen. The important thing is to learn from the mistakes and ensure that we plan for all possible things that can go wrong (Greer, 2010)

Resources:

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

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

Reflection the Future of Distanced Learning

As I reflect on the course and the presentation by Dr Siemens, I believe that in the next 5 to 10 years online learning will continue to grow and that it will reach an amazing potential. As technology advances so will online learning. Having the capabilities of using the best and newest technology in an online classroom opens the door for so many more learning opportunities. 

According to Siemens (2009) the more experiences people have online, the more they recognize that geographical distance in distance learning is not as a big factor as people use to think. Siemens explains that growing acceptance is common in the corporate world. As people have the opportunity to experience online learning the more probability is that they will believe that online learning will be a preferred method of learning (Siemens, nd). In the next 10 to 20 years I think that most universities will offer online programs and that the amount of enrollments and completions rates in an online program will be about the same as a traditional face to face program. The negative perception of an online education will be gone and an online degree will be perceived as valuable as a degree from a traditional university.

As an Instructional designer it is my duty to advocate for distance learning.  Even though there are many people that may have a negative perception of distance learning either due to the lack of exposure or due to a negative experience. The first thing I have to do is ensure that as an instructional designer I need to always keep in mind solid instructional design principals when creating and developing my courses.  I have to ensure that I include course evaluations in all my classes so that I can improve my courses based on the student’s feedback.  Following instructional design and distance learning practices will help students have a positive experience in the online classroom and therefore they will spread the word on their positive experience to others. Ensuring that we are using inclusive practices when designing is also an important way to support distance learning (Dyjur, 2004).  Ensuring that the quality of the education meets the standards of the crediting bodies for the school and program will also make me an advocate for distance learning.

In order for me to be a positive force of continuous improvement in the field of distance learning, I must keep learning about distance learning. This course is the first of many more that I will be taking in order to ensure that I will help improve the field of distance education. I will keep up to date on research that is being conducted within distance education. I will try new strategies when designing online classes. I will ensure that my work is consistent with distance learning best practices. As well I will pass on my learning’s to colleagues and employers.

The most I have taken away from this course is to always think about the learners needs. Analyze who you learners are, base your instruction on solid learning theories. Planning ahead is essential to the success of distance education (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009). It is important to include activities that will engage students and keep them motivated. Having the opportunity to create an online orientation is opening the path for me to continue to explore distance learning and continue to grow in the field of distance learning.

References

Dyjur, P.(2004), Inclusive Practices in Instructional Design. University of Saskatchewan

Educational Communications and Technology. Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan.

Laureate Education, Inc. (n. d.). The future of distance education [video]. Retrieved from

http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6052001&Survey=1&47=784003

9&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teacher and learning at a

distance (4 ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

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Converting to a Distance Learning Format

This week we were asked to create a trainers guide for a trainer that wants to change his face to face training to a blended training course. The guide that I created includes pre-planning strategies  for the trainer, tips on how to enhance the distance learning format, and pointing out how the instructor’s role changes in an online environment.
Ensuring that we always think about the learners when developing an online class is always something very important to consider. Having the right technology and software is also critical when converting a program to an online format.  See the attached file with the trainer guide.




http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=108948442

The Impact of Open Source

The Impact of Open Source


Living in a world where there is the opportunity for people to take courses for free in open source software is amazing. Open sources provides the opportunity for students that may not be interested in earning credits but are interested in learning a specific subject.  Even though the licensing software for open sources is free there are still costs involved in offering an open course website (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009). This week I decided to explore the open source website for Yale University. Yale is a very prestigious university and I was curious to explore what their open source courses looked like. The course I selected to review is SPAN 300: Cervantes' Don Quixote. This is the link to the website: http://oyc.yale.edu/spanish-and-portuguese/cervantes-don-quixote/content/syllabus.

The website clearly explains that the classes are non credit and are for educational purposes online. The first thing we can see when we access the course is the name of the class, a description about the course and  information about the professor teaching the course with a picture of him. On the left side of the page there are six different tabs, one with the about the course information, professor information, syllabus, class session, downloads, survey and books.

Pre-planning and design for a distance learning environment

In trying to determine if this course was effective in the pre planning and design for an online learning environment, I took into consideration if the course was based on an instructor centered model or learner centered model. The course text explains that an online course should promote a student learning mode and there should be active learning and collaboration involved (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009).The content of the class is delivered via video lectures of the live class.

The course text explains that we should avoid dumping a face to face course onto the web, and that is what this course is. The course would be perfect for a face- to -face course where the instructor provides this website as a technology tool, for students to refer back to. There is no instructor to lead the course and there are no options for collaboration or discussions. This course clearly was not planned thinking about the distance learner's needs. As I viewed the session videos with the content of the class, I realized that the videos were extremely long and boring. The professor stayed in the same position during the entire class and continued the lecture without pausing or asking questions. When planning an online class it is important to consider the length of the video. Students may lose interest quickly and it is very important to solely teach the most essential parts of the content.

Recommendations for online instruction:

On a positive note, this course offered excellent options for learners that have different type of internet access and different tools to access videos streaming. The course provides the lectures in Flash and QuickTime, someone that has DSL, cable, high or low bandwidth would still have the opportunity to view the lecture. The course also follows online ADA compliance in the sense that they provided a transcript and CC captions to the videos.

There is audio streaming available for the learners that cannot access video or prefer to hear the lecture instead of viewing it. The course text recommends providing reliable technology for distance learners. Offering different options to ensure that the technology the course is using is compatible with the students technology is key to ensuring that even students from other countries that may have slower bandwidth can access the course material (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009)

The syllabus contained the instructor information, class description, texts, requirements and the grading system. All of these aspects are recommended for an online course. However in the syllabus there is no mention of a schedule or a topic list with the organization concept map, as our course text outlines that it would be important to incorporate them into the syllabus (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009).

An important aspect that was left out from the syllabus were the course objectives and goals. The course provides all the required readings and offers plenty of additional resources . Another recommendation for online classes are class evaluations, this course provides a survey requesting information regarding the student's learning experience with the course.

Course activities that maximize active learning for the students:

The course did not incorporate any type of activities into this classroom. If there would have been an area for a discussion topic for each session, the course would have probably maximized learning. The only requirements in this course are the regarding reading the required text. The syllabus mentions a test but there is no area where the student can go and take an assessment or quiz. Tests or some type of assignment must be incorporated into the classroom in order to measure if the student has learned the material (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009).

The course could have provided a group project to encourage collaboration. The course provides some of the basics of an online area but the course itself was not designed for an online student in today's world.


Reference:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson

Selecting Distance Learning Technologies

Example 1: Collaborative Training Environment

This week we are selecting a real life example of a scenario where technology is needed.For this week’s blog I am considering the example listed below:

A new automated staff information system was recently purchased by a major corporation and needs to be implemented in six regional offices. Unfortunately, the staff is located throughout all the different offices and cannot meet at the same time or in the same location. As an instructional designer for the corporation, you have been charged with implementing a training workshop for these offices. As part of the training, you were advised how imperative it is that the staff members share information, in the form of screen captures and documents, and participate in ongoing collaboration.

Considering there are six regional offices that need training and that geography and time are training problems in this business.  I decided that using the Cisco WebEx meeting application would be a good technology to meet business needs for this scenario. WebEx let people meet online share information and collaborate (Cisco, 2011). Even though this technology is costly for a business that requires training and they have offices in different locations, it is worth the investment.

WebEx offers many features for communicating that benefit everyone. One of them is that everyone can meet via the web application at any time. Web conferencing offers three main features; a web meeting area, web training and support services.  The Cisco serve allows you to train up to 1000 people at a time. The training center has tool to evaluate the training and it runs reports. The training center offers high quality video integrated audio and multimedia sharing (Cisco, 2011). The training center offers assessments which are always an important tool for an instructional designer, in order to measure the effectiveness of training.

One of the interesting things that I found that the training center offers is break out session in where the trainer can divide people in to groups for brain storming.  Instructors can share power points, videos or any type of documents. Students can join the conferences via a phone bridge or VOIP.

One of the companies that use WebEx successfully is TalktoCanada.com. The company’s core business is offering English language training to individual clients or businesses. They use to train their instructors and also to interact with their clients. Since they decided to use WebEx they have been able to establish relationship ships all over the world. Instructors and students find that WebEx is an easy and highly functional tool to use.

Glen Raven manufactures fabrics globally. They realized that they need to offer new hire training for the new employees and that it was not cost effective to travel every time training was needed.  Cisco was a good match for them because they supported the Glen Raven’s current router and all existing networks (Cisco, 2011). The company saved a lot of money and gained more customers after using WebEx.

Please click on the link below to view an example of an instructor using WebEx.
http://youtu.be/N8ZiT3hL5kw

Another choice that maybe a small company would prefer because the cost is less than WebEx could be Skytap. In the Skytap environment the trainings would occur in a cloud. With Skytap you can set up virtual classrooms and you can also create a library with all the training material the student will need for the training. One of the great benefits is that remote access is through the internet and the students or employees can log in from anywhere as long as they have internet connectivity. 

Skytap also offers labs in the classroom area where students can complete activities that relate to the training. With Skytap it is easy for the trainer to help out the student. If the student needs help the instructor and the student can view class room at the same time and see exactly what the student is seeing without having to share. Instructors can always reuse a classroom and easily change the content of the class area without having to go through tech  support. A company that used Skytap successfully is VDIworks. VDI works core business is to create and manage virtual desktops  (Skytap.com, 2011). Since they acquired the training tool, they lowered their travel cost, the time it took them to set up a classroom reduced.  They were also able to collaborate with clients across the world.

Click on the link below to see an example of the Skytap technology
http://www.skytap.com/solutions/virtual-training/

Both distance learning technologies that I selected provide the core benefits a distance learning program should provide; 24 access, the student can participate from anywhere and they both can save money and time (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009).


References:
Cisco. (2011, November 16). Web conferencing. Retrieved November 16, 2011, from Cisco:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/hmpgs/index.html

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance:

Foundations of distance education (4 ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.


Skytap.com. (2011, August 1). Customers. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from Skytap.com:

http://www.skytap.com/customers