Scheduling, budgets, and tasks.  Instinctively I think we do these things on a daily basis and don’t even realize it.  It can be as simple as planning a child’s birthday party, or planning a vacation.  We necessarily don’t think of them as projects, but if you look at the tasks associated with them, they truly fall under the heading of project management.  Transferring those skills to an ID project can seem like a daunting task.

While searching the internet for information, I came across a couple of great sites.  The first is http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html .  What I liked about this site is that it broke down some budgeting information down to the hour of development, and went even further to indicate if the training was synchronous or asynchronous.  It also provided some interesting links for stock photos and audacity.  Here is a chart that Clark listed.

Estimating Development Hours

Bryan Chapman of Brandon-Hall listed these average design times to create one-hour of training:

• 34:1 -- Instructor-Led Training (ILT), including design, lesson plans, handouts, PowerPoint slides, etc. (Chapman, 2007).
• 33:1 -- PowerPoint to E-Learning Conversion (Chapman, 2006a, p20).
• 220:1 -- Standard e-learning, which includes presentation, audio, some video, test questions, and 20% interactivity (Chapman, 2006a, p20)
• 345:1 -- 3rd party courseware. Time it takes for online learning publishers to design, create, test and package 3rd party courseware (Private study by Bryan Chapman
• 750:1 -- Simulations from scratch. Creating highly interactive content (Chapman, 2006b)

Development times to create one-hour of e-learning (The eLearning Guild, 2002):

• Simple Asynchronous: (static HTML pages with text & graphics): 117 hours
• Simple Synchronous: (static HTML pages with text & graphics): 86 hours
• Average Asynchronous: (above plus Flash, JavaScript, animated GIF's. etc): 191 hours
• Average Synchronous: (above plus Flash, JavaScript, animated GIF's. etc): 147 hours
• Complex Asynchronous: (above plus audio, video, interactive simulations): 276 hours
• Complex Synchronous: (above plus audio, video, interactive simulations): 222 hours

While these are averages, it does help to identify some sort of timeline.  An average instructor led class takes 34 hours to develop for one hour of training, where a standard e-learning course for one hour takes much, much longer.  This is something that an ID would need to take into consideration when estimating timelines in their project.    This site had a wealth of information on the total ID process, not just the project management portion.  A great find for any ID.  

Another source that I found, was a book on ID Project management.  Granted, my search only allowed some snipets of the book, what I did see was encouraging.  https://books.google.com/books?id=QUiGzp0PPyMC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=how+to+estimate+a+cost+for+an+id+project&source=bl&ots=5GjYdZHtPj&sig=tUa1Gx1n7tmoAbeUAbge_2bK1sE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nkzWVKPGKIqrgwTo4YGADA&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=how%20to%20estimate%20a%20cost%20for%20an%20id%20project&f=false .  What I liked about this was that there were several templates listed to assist with estimating costs.  It brought to light several elements of a project that a new Instructional designer might overlook.  Something as simple as the cost to set up a room might be an overlooked item for example. 

Below is a template that I located that I really like.  Each one of these could then be broken down into a WBS of its own.

(Greer, 1999)

While that book is no longer available for sale new, you can find it on Amazon or a printable pdf version at http://michaelgreer.biz/?p=4253 .

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Communicating Effectively

Multimedia presentation link- http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html


There are so many facets of communication, it is hard to list them all.  Certainly the written and spoken word are important, but as our resources pointed out this week, so are tonality, personality, and body language just to name a few (Laureate Education, n.d.).  Effective communication is not just the words that are written or spoke, it is also how they are communicated that punctuates them.

For the written word, sentence structure, punctuation, font, images and details all affect how the message is received.  As I reviewed the written request in our media snippet, several things came to mind.  I thought the written message was convoluted, and unclear.  The sentences seems wordy and there was no sense of urgency in the message.  The written format could have been much more direct with a deadline and requirements clearly spelled out in a more formal presentation.  While the email should still be cordial, it could have had a cleaner approach.  The email was very empathetic and even made excuses for the recipient why the report was not completed.  As a PM, you need to realize that all people are busy, but that there are still timelines that need to be met.  While email is good, because you have a paper trail, it does not include tone or inflection and assertiveness could come across as rude and condescending if the writer is not careful.  The format of the email presented does not pose any direct questions and a timeline.  It just indicates to let her know.  That could be today, tomorrow, next week etc.  The writer could have emphasized important parts of the email with a different color or font to draw the readers attention (Portny et al., 2008, p. 359)

The face to face approach was nice, and the presenters body language was relaxed, but again, there was no sense of urgency.  The woman almost appeared apologetic in her approach.  While this approach may be fine for co-workers who know each other extremely well, and have a great working relationship, the casualness of the approach may not be good in all situations.  Since the project needed be completed by the end of the day, the presenter could have been a little more aggressive or appeared in greater need.  It was as if, "Hey, if you are not too busy, I really need to get that report.  I hate to ask you, but if possible could I have it by the end of the day."  A better approach might have been, "I know you have been busy, like everyone else around here, but I must have that report for your part of the project completed by the end of the day.  What time can I expect it to be ready?"  What this does is that it forces Mark to commit to a time for his part to be completed by.  

For me, the voice mail approach was the best.  The dialogue seemed to flow better from a listening standpoint than a reading standpoint.  The tone was good, and direct.  While there wasn't an over dramatic sense of urgency, I did feel that this was conveyed more in this example as opposed to the other two.  Again, what would have made this more effective in my mind would have been the deadline and the request for a call back of when the report could be expected.  This puts the ball in Mark's court so to speak and the person can follow up if the time deadline passes without the product being delivered.

While voice mail isn't always the best option, in my opinion, it was the best for this scenario.  As a PM communication is vital to the success of the project.  What the PM has to learn early on is not to communicate how the PM likes to be communicated to, but how the stakeholders and project team members like to be communicated to.  It is important to know who prefers email as opposed to voice mail, and who prefers the face to face meetings.  This will ensure that the PM is keeping everyone in the loop that best suits them.  It makes no sense to just use email, because there may be team members that have very little access to email, or perhaps team members who are on the phone all day who might not have time to listen to voice mail.  In all cases though, the PM should be courteous, detail oriented, and diplomatic in any and all dealings with others.

Resources:

http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Communicating with stakeholders [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

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, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.

Moving......

Moving Day!                

                                

 Moving day....boxes, tape, paper, utilities, movers, dollies, blankets, child care, new place to live, trucks, transportation, pet deposits, inspections and lots of other logistics to consider. When it comes to moving a household of 4 and a dog across 4 states, it can be one of the most stressful activities that you could undertake.  Compound that with just having a baby and recovering from a C-section 1 month before, and that takes the stress level up several notches.  This was the case when we moved from Denver, Colorado to San Antonio, TX when my youngest daughter was only 6 weeks old.  While this is project is of a personal nature, it is a project nonetheless. 
     When I think back of all the stress regarding those few weeks, I chalked it up to normal anxiety, hormones, sleeplessness with a newborn, and, having to tirelessly pack a home by myself with an infant and a toddler. As I went through the post mortem review however, I realized many things I could have done to make the entire process smoother and easier.  I remember sitting down with a pad of paper and outlining everything that needed to be accomplished in order for the move to take place when we decided to move.  The entire task seemed overwhelming as I made list after list, arrows, scratchouts and scribbles.  The first realization that I came to when looking at the post mortem questions was, that I was a control freak.  I had to handle absolutely every aspect of this move, down to the last detail.  If I didn't do it, it would not be done to my satisfaction or at all, or so I thought.  As a project manager, it is important to have control in certain areas, but not to be in control of the entire project yourself.  By that I mean, carrying out every duty of the project.  I think that has been the biggest epiphany for me.  Working as the project manager either for a personal or a professional project, it is so important to select the right people to assist with the project.  I should have delegated some of the responsibility to people who could have helped me during this time, instead of trying to accomplish everything myself.  So, if I had to analyze Phase II of the project, I did not have the right people in place, to make the project run smoother.  My plan could have been a little better detailed and a timeline put into place.  For the positives of Phase II, did get the right vendors in place, and the move did come in at the projected cost. 
     As far as creating specifications for the deliverables, I could have done a better job with the overall planning.  While I made my lists, a timeline would have been helpful so I could plan for the next coming component of the move, instead of just winging it.  One of the pitfalls is an incomplete and inaccurate schedule (Portney et al., 2008, p. 107).  Instead of just listing on my paper what needed to be done, I would have been much better off to list the timeline required for each item and planned when in the process each deliverable would be accomplished.  This would have taken out the ambiguity, and produced a much less stressful situation.  A work breakdown process for each component would have been so much help while navigating this process.  No detail would have been to small to address.  For example, I can see how something as simple as getting moving boxes could be broken down into process steps so that there were no romps to the local grocery and liquor store at midnight to obtain additional supplies.
     Because the planning could have been better, the implementation strategy was chaotic.  I had a broad plan, with very little specification.  This led to high stress levels, upset vendors, and very contentious communication with my spouse. 
     While we did get moved, and hindsight is always 20/20, I now realize how I could have handled the project in an entirely different way.  If I had planned better, completed a work breakdown process, and had the right people in place to assist with the project, the transition would have been smoother, and easier for all.