Analyzing Scope Creep

 

Analyzing Scope Creep

Scope Creep is uncontrolled changes in a project’s scope. Finding the best solution to minimizing scope creep will give your project the best chance of success.  In the Portney text, the authors suggest that project managers need to revaluate when something isn’t working with the project. Portney states:

 “they can’t achieve what they thought could be done, so; the project manager needs to go back to the earlier phases of their project and rethink them”(Portney 2008, p.106). When scope creep occurs usually the project’s scope is not securely defined documented, or controlled. Shelley Doll gives several points on how to avoid scope creep in a project.  Doll suggest:

·      Be sure you thoroughly understand the project vision and deliver an overview of the project as a whole.

·      Understand the priorities and the priorities of the project drivers by making ordered list about the project duration that include budget, deadline, feature delivery and customer and employee satisfaction.

·      Define  the deliverables and have them approved by the project drivers.

·      Break the deliverables into actual work requirements by being detailed as necessary.

·      Break the project down into major and minor milestones and complete a generous project schedule.

·      Once the schedule has been created, determine critical paths.

·      Expect scope creep and use a Change Order form to allow for cost-benefit analysis before scheduling.  

(Doll 2011, para. 7)

The project manager who clearly defines the project’s scope and has a clear vision of where the project interacts at every point will have a greater success rate with scope creep and keeping it from killing the project. Having a flexible plan that allows for some vital changes (when necessary) will help the project manager keep the project on track and goals.  If scope creep does happen using the Change Order form will be vital for keeping the stakeholders informed and aware and will keep a written record that the project manager is keeping the major stakeholders informed so to avoid mistrust and mistakes for the future.

Resources:

Doll, S.( 2011)Seven steps for avoiding scope creep., Tech Republic. Retrieved from: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/seven-steps-for-avoiding-scope-creep/1045555

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.

 

Dilbert Photo: Scope Creep. Google Search, Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.simcrest.com/images/scopecreep.gif&imgrefurl=http://blog.simcrest.com/scope-management-dont-let-your-project-fail-because-of-scope-creep/&h=192&w=194&sz=12&tbnid=2ekPwnxeQcvqvM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=92&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dscope%2Bcreep%2Bimages%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=scope+creep+images&docid=QLH-D66TpFS1eM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=O7GXTrn5PIq2twe02aDkAw&sqi=2&ved=0CCQQ9QEwAg&dur=323

Budgets for the Project Manager

Communicating Effectively

Email can be an effective tool for reaching coworkers in a timely manner. An email can be sent to persons in other states and continents and has the ability to travel in an instant. While Email is a wonderful tool for reaching people, it can also be a detriment when not clearly written or has too much or too few information involved. Voice message and personal face-to-face communication can sometimes be a better option in order to get your point across.

Learning the best way to communicate with your co-worker will ultimately save time and possibly avoid blunders that send projects off balance.

For this assignment we were asked to evaluate three modes of communication in email, voice message and face-to-face meeting. The message was the same as was the sentiment behind the email. The following questions are based from my interpretations of those modalities.

How did your interpretation of the message change from one modality to the next?

Initially, I believe that the email message was too vague, had too many wordy sentences and was repetitive in the use of the word report.  When analyzing the voice mail message again, the conversation was too long, had too many details that lost the receiver in the length of the message. The face-to-face communication was appropriate as the message form was geared more toward regular face-to-face conversation. Michael Hyatt on his site recommends to “keep messages brief and to the point.” Make your most important point first, then provide detail if necessary. Make it clear at the beginning of the message why you are writing” (Hyatt, para. 2).

What factors influenced how you perceived the message?

In the email, the message sounded vague, rambling and had too many details that needed to be bulleted. In the voice mail, the message tone did get across and sounded a little more rambling and important information was covered under the rambling.  Finally, in the face-to-face; the recipient is given a conversational tone and the message is best suited for that modality. 

Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?

I believe that the conversational tone of the message was best suited for the face-to-face interaction. Sometimes it is not possible to converse with one another face to face, when this happens it is best to use email or voice mail with minimal bulleted agenda so the recipient does not get lost in all the details and is able to decipher the importance of the message.

What are the implications of what you learned from this exercise for communicating effectively with members of a project team?

I have seen how important effective communication is with coworkers and stakeholders while working in a business setting.  It is the single most important thing to think about when first addressing the concerns of the group or tackling the project from any angle because without communication people tend to invent problems, perceive information, or take an approach that is completely opposite from your own and might derail the project goals.  I have learned how getting your point across in the most effective manner is most important and finding the best delivery of that communication is essential to successful project completion.

Resources:

Hyatt, M. (2007) Email etiquette 101: Michael Hyatt intentional leadership. Retrieved from: http://michaelhyatt.com/e-mail-etiquette-101.html

 

Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

             

 

            

     Have you ever had buyer’s remorse? That immediate after thought of “I should have done ___ and OH, I should/could have___”. Whatever the case, looking back and completing a post-mortem is important to finding what works, your strengths and ultimately your weaknesses. Looking at the post-mortem is helpful for future projects because you are assessing prior knowledge and building that knowledge so that future projects avoid the past pitfalls and mistakes. Michael Greer discusses the benefits of the written post-mortem when he states: “it allows the quieter, more analytical people to develop their responses to the questions without being interrupted by the more outgoing, vocal people who might otherwise dominate in the face-to-face meeting. Also, it allows everyone the time to create more thoughtful responses” (Greer 2010, p. 42).

     For this blog posting I will examine the last web project completed for Walden University. The assignment was to create a learning module, which had the capability to instruct students in an online classroom using a host module site.  Our instructions were to choose a scenario and to create a pre-training. In the beginning I felt that I understood the parameters of the lesson and was confident I had chosen a host site that was user friendly what I didn’t expect was to find out that the restrictions on the project in my mind were very low tech and unacceptable to the professor. My thoughts were to bring in a multi-media presentation such as Power Point to instruct the students adding narration and video when needed and then incorporating other elements. Immediately after I had formed the storyboard our instructor asked for a higher level of media from us and asked that we not use Power Point. My technical ability levels have always been challenged when completing asynchronous training and my strengths were not in incorporating higher levels of media into my presentation. I had to find a media that would fit the requirements and be something that I was able to accomplish.

     The process began with a storyboard and a flow chart. I embedded audio and video into the lessons to instruct and inform the learner about successful distance learning.  I did not include further instructional flash video or other instructive audio narratives that would have enhanced the learner’s perspective. I could have used an evaluation form or a flash visual to help the instructive parts of the lesson.  

     I think the use of flash; more appealing images, and better formatting on the instruction for the lesson would have enhanced the module.  I believe that an instructional video made from flash is more appealing, helps the learner get the idea of the project and appeals to more learning styles than written text on the page.

In the end, I believe that my project was successful but not as appealing as it could have been if I had incorporated a higher level of technology and had been more successful in finding help to incorporate that media into the project.  All in all, my project did well but as the instructor informed me in the comments. “There is always more room for improvement”.

Resources:

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc. p.42.

 

Reflection of 6135

When I reflect on the future of distance learning, I have to consider how far technology has come in such a very short time. Five years ago when I was seeking my Bachelors Degree, we discussed many avenues of technology and video conferencing and other areas of technology were really primitive as opposed to what they are today. In looking at the reflection for this course, I also was surprised at how fast Dreamweaver has been over turned as a website builder and manager for sites and how CMS have come along and have topped the technology in the current day. In another five years, it will be amazing to see what course management software is available and the capabilities of the technology will only increase and improve over time. In this last blog post, I discuss the future of distance learning as well as what kinds of things I expect to be doing as a Instructional Designer for the future.

What do you think the perceptions of distance learning will be in the future (in 5–10 years; 10–20 years)?

In the video lecture George Siemens references that with the availability of technology and resources to have meaningful online conversations in real time people are more accepting of online learning and education and are finding it a useful tool in today’s society. Siemens also discusses that there is a “growing sense of comfort for technology use” (Siemens, 2011, media, 1:32).  Siemens continues to talk about the diversity of the available technology and how accepting people are of the ability to talk to one another even if they are around the world. 

Siemens believes that distance education becoming increased with many contributions coming from all parts of the world and a growing shift of interaction with the availability to interconnect universities, corporations and government for an online training management system that all work together. It is believed that the shift in technology will only clarify and become stronger to where there are many avenues of learning that can be incorporated by these three agencies. I believe in the future we will have the availability of HD teleconferences and possibly even utilizing other technologies along with technologies such as SMS to interact with others. Skype and other teleconference software will seem very low tech by the time technology advances.  We are already seeing a trend for High School education to go mainstream, which seemed like an anomaly back in 2006 when I was finishing my Education degree. At that time, only a handful of teaching programs for alternative High Schools were available and were exclusive to a few resources. Also back in 2006 online courses were not frequently offered at the University I attended. At the time, online courses were not as advances as we see today and the discussion and interaction that we see from Walden University in 2011 is greatly increased.

How can you as an instructional designer be a proponent for improving societal perceptions of distance learning?

It is important for the instructional designer to be a proponent for distance learning by supporting the learner, creating user-friendly design programs that support and scaffold the learning, and finding ways to incorporate interactions among students in the online courses. Students who feel supported are more likely to achieve success in the online education world and want to take more online distance education courses.

How will you be a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance education?

I will be a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance education by considering my learning audience and the strengths and limitations there may be. I will consider and implement proper design elements into the course or module I am designing in order for the learner to have proper support, interactive discussion and resources available to scaffold them for the learning. In my design I will consider which module to use and for what purposes the learning will take place. I will implement course development that will give the distance learner an overview of the course that will introduce new learners to the module as well as refresh the prior learning of seasoned distance learners.

Resources:

Siemens, G.(2011) “The Future of Distance Education”. Retrieved from Walden U we

Converting to a Distance Learning Format

 A training manager has been frustrated with the quality of communication among trainees so he wants to convert all current training modules to a blended learning format and  hopes that the trainees and trainers will have more interaction with each other. He also wants to put all the training materials online.

The manager will need to consider the time and money that it will take to implement this course change. He will also have to consider the needs of the trainers and learners as well as the course requirements and how the hybrid classes will look, the scheduling needs and the needs of the learner to have access to the internet. The managers role will be to facilitate the turnover and to form a time line in which the classes will be converted. The manager will also need to consider that in a blended learning environment, the training will need to be updated and the materials will need to be updated as well.


Click here to read the entire article.
(After clicking you will be taken to the Google Docs website. Choose the "6135_WrightL wk7.pdf" file then click to view the full document)

The Impact of Open Source

The Impact of Open Source

The concepts presented in this week’s resources have given a framework for the instructional designer. The framework for the online course is very important for the construction of the course. The Instructional Designer must start with a Story Board, which shows how the class will be represented. The Story Board’s design gives the ID a breakdown of what the class will need to have in order for the students to learn. In the design process the Story Board will represent categories for the objectives to fit into. Writing the objectives and goals for the course will give the ID a direction of where the training is going, how it will instruct the students, and then evaluate how well the student learned.    

This week, we were asked to evaluate an open source site and I have chosen to evaluate MIT’s open course materials found at http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm.  When looking at the site as a whole, the overall design is appealing and interesting. The graphics are appealing and visible and are relevant to the topics presented. The text and other basic layouts of the site seems to be purposefully thought out with a “Get Started with OCW” (MIT, 2011) video that gives a general overview of the course and other aspects of the course the learner will need to know.

When choosing a course, the learning appears to be fully asynchronous and relevant to a distance learning environment.  The heading for a course on Computer Science immediately has a layout of Course Features, which include: Video lectures, Assignments, Subtitles/Transcript and Exams and solutions. There is also a technical requirement heading which gives the user a heads up on the type of software he/she needs to have access to in order to view certain files.

Now lets consider the recommendations for online instruction for this website. Some of the online recommendations in our text show the following requirements.

Unit, Module Topic Guidelines where the Unit would be shown as relating to “4 or 5 weeks of instruction” (Simonson et al, 2009, p.155), a Module or a “distinct and discreet component of a unit” (Simonson et al, 2009, p.155), or a Topic “supporting the idea that explains, clarifies, or supports a module” (Simonson et al, 2009, p.156).

In the MIT site, the syllabus and assignment lists are patterned out in an ordered fashion with Unit goals, Modules, and Topics being correctly separated.  When thinking of the design elements the course the activities section is broken down by lectures and is relevant to the lecture topic. The learner is presented with and encouraged to use many collaborative opportunities with his/her fellow classmates. Moving on to the evaluation guidelines, this course exhibits a “major assignment, and one minor assignment per two to three modules” (Simonson et al, 2009, p.156).  The assessment does not follow all of the patterns set forth in our text such as the lack of a “Ten-page paper” (Simonson et al. 2009, p.156) and additional graded threads but I believe that it does produce clearly stated learning objectives with “observable and measurable learning outcomes” (Simonson et al. 2009, p.156). 

The content is clearly stated as per our text and there are specific reading and lecture subheadings for each topic. The last concept in our text discusses the teaching guidelines. The course is presented as having two one hour per week sessions along with a recitation one time per week.

In looking at overall design and concept of the course, I believe that the MIT site follows many of the recommendations for “Distance Delivered Instruction” (Simonson et al, 2009, p.155). The course looks appealing and carefully thought out, the modules are easy to follow and the flow of the layout is carefully chosen. This site would certainly be a welcome addition to the online distance learner and gives a rich learning environment, which is both interesting and incorporates usable information in an appealing and well thought out design.

Resources:

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

MIT(2002-2011) MIT open courseware: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved from: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm