Scope Creep

Online learning opportunities have significantly expanded the course offerings for small school districts and my school wanted to capitalize on these possibilities. At the time, our school district was experiencing instability in some key leadership roles including the superintendent of schools and the high school principal so I inherited the bulk of the online learning project.
The board of education, several teachers, and I decided to conduct a pilot program with well-defined constraints that included a limit of twenty students in their junior or senior year with a 3.0 or better GPA. The project team consisted of me, the library aide, the counselor, and the yet to be hired high school principal. The pilot program was officially acknowledged at a public board meeting but no formal project plan or documentation was developed. My responsibility was to identify content providers, develop a budget, establish a course catalog, and address technical issues.  The counselor would screen students and assist them selecting an online course. The library aide was responsible for registering students in the online courses and supervising the students while taking the courses in the library. The future high school principal would provide mentoring and academic support. When I left for the summer, everything was in motion and ready for the start of school.

Lynch & Roecker (2007) define scope creep as uncontrolled deviations of the projects requirements. Greer defines scope change “as any addition, reduction, or modification to the deliverables or work process as outlined in your original project plan” (2010, p. 35). Russell (2000), Stolovitch (Laureate Education, 2010), and Portny et al (2008) all recommend managing and controlling scope change with detailed scope of work documentation but concede sometimes scope change is inevitable. When I returned to work several weeks prior to the start of school, I discovered the interim superintendent capriciously removed all of the student enrollment constraints in an effort to reduce class sizes. Instead of twenty students, fifty-five from ninth through twelfth grade with no GPA or other screening signed up for online courses. To further complicate matters, the high school principal was not hired until October, the permanent superintendent was hired the following March, and we were operating under severe budget restrictions.  This was a situation we were completely unprepared for, causing many difficulties throughout the school year.

Portny et al (2008) advises risk analysis and contingency planning to prepare for unexpected changes to project parameters. There was no contingency plan for this debacle; only through long days and hard work were we able to get all of the students enrolled in their online classes, some as late as three weeks after the start of school. Because of the increased number of students, there were not enough computers in the library for all class periods causing the library to close when the aide was supervising in a computer lab. Over twenty-five percent of the students failed their class due to a lack of screening and insufficient academic support, over twice the classroom failure rate. In addition, I had to explain to the new superintendent why the online learning budget was well over two times the budgeted amount.

“What does not destroy me, makes me stronger” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

While the pilot program was a disaster by most accounts, I did learn enough to advocate for sufficient resources for a full-scale online learning roll-out the following year. In retrospect, I still see my options as limited. Insisting adherence to the original constraints was not my decision and requesting additional resources was flatly rejected. Better documentation of the process and candid status reports at board meetings may have illuminated the problems or may have further estranged me from the project.

References

Friedrich Nietzsche. (1888), Twilight of the Idols

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

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). [Video]. " Monitoring Projects."

Lynch, M. M., & Roecker, J. (2007). Project managing e-learning: A handbook for successful design, delivery, and management. London: Routledge. 

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.

Russell, L. (2000). Project management for trainers. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Communicating Effectively

Project managers are responsible for communicating project plans and status to an extensive cohort of stakeholders from top-level executives’ to functional employees, clients, and various other observer roles (Portny et al, 2008). Additionally, Portny et al explain the importance of selecting appropriate methods of communications based upon the message content and intended audience. This post presents an analysis and synthesis of examining the same message delivered in three different modalities, textual by email, aural by voicemail, and interpersonal face-to-face over a cubicle wall.  

Communicating by email is a legitimate method of making a request; however, of the three approaches observed, email implies the least sense of urgency. Furthermore, the request was somewhat ambiguous about the desired response being the report ETA, the actual report, or the data. In addition, I sensed a respectful yet accusing tone in the email message. An advantage of the email was the ability to reread the message multiple times however it is also easy to get lost or elicit to wrong response like an ETA of “I’m working on it.” 

The voicemail message conveys a higher measure of urgency and, for me; the voice tones were not accusatory or demanding.  While in the example it was easy to replay the voicemail several times, that is less likely in an actual situation. Overall, the message appeared more sincere but it was nevertheless difficult to interpret the desired outcome. Conversely, the face-to-face experience was hard to ignore, the message was sincere, and the desired outcome was clear even though the actual script was identical to the email and voicemail messages. 

Budrovich and Achong (Laureate Education, 2010) describe personal examples of utilizing different communications strategies for various situations and stakeholders.  Portny et al (2008) explains the different needs for verbal and written communications as well as formal and informal communications. Towers Watson found that “Effective employee communication is a leading indicator of financial performance and a driver of employee engagement” (2010, p. 2). Email serves as an informal communication method but has the advantage of a written record of the exchange. Voicemail is also an informal form of communications that provides tones of expression, which personalizes and enriches the message. However, both email and voicemail lack the advantage of feedback and interaction.  The face-to-face interaction is also informal but offers the best opportunity for a clear exchange of the intended message. Effective communications requires a mixture of different communication strategies including informal and formal along with written and verbal.  

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). [Video]. "Practitioner Voices: Strategies for Working with Stakeholders"

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.

Towers Watson. (2010). Capitalizing on effective communication: How courage, innovation and discipline drive business results in challenging times. Retrieved September 20, 2012 from https://www.yammer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NA-2009-14890.pdf

To Weed Or Not To Weed

A post-project review is an important step when closing out a project, providing insight on causes of poor performance and unmet expectations as well as identifying effective methods and practices. While individual reflection is valuable, Russell (2000) writes, “Knowledge management occurs when project teams reflect on their project experiences together, transform that knowledge as their experiences are vocalized and exchanged, and create new knowledge through action plans for the future” (p. 92). 

I will conduct and provide an accounting for a post-project review of my home gardening efforts from this summer. This project is worthy of review because of several variables introduced this year and the fact that I was not particularly satisfied with the outcomes. The following background information will provide a point of reference. I am an avid gardener and maintain a vegetable garden, strawberry and raspberry patch, and several flower gardens. I considered not planting this year or limiting my efforts due to a heavy workload on the job and with my graduate studies. However, I ended up planting my full repertoire and added a new wildflower garden I had been planning for a while. This year, several unique influencing factors contributed to my decisions, successes, and unexpected failures with my gardening project. Some of these influences include my son’s high school graduation prompting my wife to insist upon the flower gardens, a severe drought in southwest Michigan, and the disabling of my sprinkler system due to road construction. 

My post-project review has revealed several factors contributing to both successes and failures. The first factor was the classic scope creep that Portny et al (2008) describes as present in all projects. The flower gardens for the graduation party were an essential as was maintaining the strawberries and raspberries.  However, allowing my wife and daughter to convince me to plant tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini in what was supposed to be a vacant vegetable garden this year along with my own ill-advised additions of vegetables and a new flower garden was a grave mistake that contributed to multiple failures. One positive experience was the decision to use wood chips for weed control, which was tremendously successful and will prove useful in future years. 

The combination of a drought, disabled sprinkler system, and an overextended project scope contributed to significant damage of my strawberries and raspberries. In an effort to maintain watering of the yard, flowers, and vegetable garden, I completely neglected the strawberries and raspberries, which suffered stress due to water depravation and overgrown with weeds. Eventually I became demoralized and gave up maintaining the entire project.  Portny et al (2008) warns that team members will become disillusioned with a project if they do not believe it will be successful. 

I have taken away several important lessons from this year’s gardening project. When expanding the scope of a project ensure you have sufficient resources to complete the additional work. When my wife and daughter suggested including some vegetables, I should have negotiated their assistance with the additional workload. Further, water is a critical resource to gardening and contingency planning to ensure sufficient resources are available is prudent. Identifying and deploying efficiency improvements will help control resource usage; in my case, the wood chips reduced my weeding workload. Finally, if a project gets out of control, it may cause long-term and possibly irreversible damage.


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.

Russell, L. (2000). Project management for trainers. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Project Management and the Instructional Designer

        It seems there is a lot of cross over between instructional design and project management.  Even when working on a small portion of a large project, project management techniques and skills are relevant. However, Portny et al (2008) make it clear that separation between the two roles is essential for efficiency and recommends scheduling specific time for project management activities.  Dr. Stolovitch shares this advice when discussing the transition from instructional designer to project manager (Laureate Education, 2012). Through the progression of responsibilities, it is vital for the individual to maintain a distinction between the roles and responsibilities of instructional designer and project manager.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (2012). [Video]. "Project Management and Instructional Design."

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.