Project Management

eLearning projectsOctober 4, 2013

Gina Haberman

PwC

Agenda

•Projects defined

•Classroom vs. eLearn

•Project plan

•What makes a good plan

•eLearning development considerations

•How do you create a project plan – key elements

•Plan template or tool

•Best practices

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Projects - defined

“Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of

specific project goals and objectives.”

“A project is a finite endeavor – having specific start and completion dates – and undertaken to create a unique product or

service which brings about beneficial change or added

value.”

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Projects - defined

“The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while adhering to classic project constraints – usually scope, quality, time and budget.”

“A project is a carefully defined set of activities that use resources (money, people, materials, energy, space, provisions, communication, motivation, etc.) to achieve the project goals and objectives.”

Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/project_management

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Classroom vs. eLearn Projects

In the chat type what you think the differences are between a traditional classroom course and an eLearn course.

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Project plan

• All good projects begin with a scope

• Document planning assumptions

• Organize all tasks associated with the project

• Determine timeline

• Gain agreement from stakeholders and team members on roles and responsibilities

• Manage deliverables

• Help manage staffing and potential holes

• Acts as your road map for the project

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Good plans include:

• Detailed list of all action items for the duration of a project

• Realistic timing associated with each deliverable

• Clearly defines who is responsible for each task

• Provides status of each task

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eLearning development considerations

• Know the development platform and the specifications

• Multimedia

Audio

Flash animation

Video production

• Think through technical considerations

• Time to develop – build in extra time for testing

• Stakeholders may need help visualizing end product

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Where do I start?Determine your milestones and key dates

Key accomplishments within your project that significantly impact your overall success

Easiest to start with your delivery date and work backwards allowing enough time for each task that needs to be completed

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Milestones Key Dates

Common L&D timeframes:

•Registration build – 1-2 weeks

•Materials branding – minimum of 1-2 weeks

•L&D announcement - sent 6-8 weeks before delivery

•Reporting schedule - varies

Common L&D milestones:

•Registration released

•Venue selected

•Completion of materials

•Detailed design review

•Leadership buy-in

•Talent sourced

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Where do I start?Determine your interdependencies and contingencies

• Identify your lynch pin deliverables – those that several other deliverables depend on

• Determine how they impact the rest of your project

• Think through how best to accomplish those to avoid bottlenecks and issues

• Identify the highest risk deliverables in your project plan

• Take steps to ensure they go according to plan

• Think through “worst case scenarios” and what your back up plans could be

• Manage change orders

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Interdependencies Contingencies

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Project plan template

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Can be something simple in MS Excel or other project tool

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Best practices

• Agree on project scope

• Always get stakeholder buy-in

• Use the tools in excel - conditional formatting, drop downs, linked dates, etc. - to do some of the work for you

• Make sure your plan covers the full timeline of the project, including everything that needs to happen after delivery

• Agree with team on plan utilization and guidelines

• Make a plan to manage version control

• Use to drive agenda for team calls

• Actually USE it!

• Keep it simple!!!

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Questions?

Feel free to reach me at regina.a.haberman@us.pwc.com