So you're going to manage a project... http://www.proright.com/so_you.

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Publication:

So you're going to manage a project...

By Tom D. Conkright

Note: Provided by permission of Lakewood Publications, publishers of TRAINING. Reformatted for Internet.

Sooner or later, every trainer ends up with a project. In fact, consider yourself lucky if you only have one or two to
juggle at a time--some of your peers have half a dozen or more. It’s sort of like when I was a Second Lieutenant in
the Air Force; I had at least 15 "special duty assignments" listed in addition to my regular duty.

But what is managing a project all about? Few of us have been trained to be project managers. Ever hear of a
GANTT chart? What’s ETC (Estimate to Complete) or WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)? (Check out the glossary at
the end of the article.)

Managing projects is riskier than everyday management. The expectations are more specific, the resources more
diverse (usually some are not even in your department), and a deadline always looms just a few months (weeks,
days) away. But like most other business endeavors, the greater the risks, the greater the potential rewards. If
nothing else, you know when you’re done with a project, and you can usually look upon a completed something--a
new assessment, a new course, new learning center.

Most project management concepts and tools came out of the construction Industry-- building an office tower or
remodeling a shopping center. A lot of projects are also related to product development, especially high-tech products
such as hardware and software. Projects like these are usually large-scale, expensive, and require full-time managers
and support people.

But trainers can learn a lot from the techniques used to manage these activities. Although training projects may have
different characteristics, there is just as much need to plan, track, control, reallocate, report, and conclude them. We
have to admit that training dollars are usually more closely watched than some other budget categories. So while a
training project may represent a smaller investment, the trainer/project manager is subject to the same level of
accountability.

We'll assume that most of the projects you will do are related either to developing a new course or rolling out a new
training program you bought from someone else. (You may also get handed the United Way "project," or the third-
anniversary-of-the-founding-of-the-company "project," but we’ll stick with training.) We’ll use an example here of
developing a hybrid CD-ROM program--that is, one that operates in both CD-ROM and Internet environments.
Multimedia training projects are generally more complex and diverse than classroom efforts, and often require more
formal project management.

Getting started

The Project Management Institute (PMI), a professional society in Upper Derby, PA, defines five project phases:
initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. If you’re educated and experienced in instructional design, don’t
confuse ISD's five phases--analysis, design, development, delivery, evaluation--with project phases. A software-skills
needs assessment, for example, might be only "analysis" in ISD, but it would take you through all five project phases.
Initiating and planning a project has to do with the project itself, not with analyzing or defining what the training product
will be.

Initiating is setting the scope of a project. Of course, if your boss comes in and says you’re going to create a
leadership skills assessment and training program, she may consider it already defined and initiated for you. But be
sure you're clear about the scope and goal of the project. The PMI suggests you set measurable goals for your
project--very much like behavioral learning objectives, for you ISD-types. If you can write learning objectives that will
pass muster with Bob Mager, you can write project goals that will pass PMI.

The goal for our CD-ROM project was this: Develop a single-disk, hybrid CD-ROM program with video, sound and
graphics by Oct. 31 with a budget of $200,000. It's a commercial multimedia product, capable of dialing up the
internet, that allows users to assess their leadership skills, identify courses they can take to improve their skills, and
provide access to Web-based training modules. While the assessment piece already existed in print, the bulk of the
content would be new and would need to be extracted from 10 leadership experts. In other words, the project goal
had to be specific, defining what would be produced, when, and any constraints, such as budget and resources.

Your boss may have set the start and end date for you, but that’s not a plan. You need to do a Work Breakdown
Structure, which lists all of the tasks and subtasks, complete with who will do each subtask, how long each will take,
and what the dependencies are (I.e., task B depends on the completion of task A). Most projects even get a GANTT
chart that shows the duration and milestones in the project. (see figure page 66).

In a multimedia course development project, you may have two or three people designing the course (instructional
designer, media specialist, and programmer or authoring specialist). Then you bring in a team of writers, media
producers, and finally programmers or authors for production. And don’t forget about editors and quality control
people.

Finally, remember to calculate and plot your own time. Like any managerial role, project management requires

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leadership and communication skills, accounting ability and business savvy. The difference is one of degree: Since the
members of your project team likely do not report to you or even work in your department, you’ll have to use all the
influencing, negotiating and motivational skills you can muster.

A good project plan will allow an hour of project management for each six or seven hours of work by other people.
Keeping track of the status of each piece of the program through scripting, editing, media production, programming,
and quality control tasks is time consuming and tedious.

A wealth of software, such as Microsoft Project, is available for helping plan a project. But use caution: Most of this
software was developed for major construction or new-product projects. On a smaller project, you can invest more
time in updating your charts, resource allocations, and so on than you receive in value. For this CD-ROM project, for
example, we used a detailed plan to get started, and used EXCEL to track and report progress, but we did not revise
the formal plan.

Just do it

Now you’re ready to execute. This means you put your plan into motion. Sounds pretty simple. You’re tracking each
task and subtask, encouraging each member of the team, and conducting regular meetings.

In our CD-ROM project, it wasn’t enough to track the task of writing, we needed to document when we received input
from our subject matter experts for each of the 20 sections. Then we noted when the script was drafted, edited, sent
to the client, edits made, edits reviewed, sent back to the client for final review, and approved so that production
could begin. We had to keep the process flowing because a full time media specialist and a full time programmer
were waiting for the next packet of approved material.

Then comes controlling. Sooner or later, at least one of your carefully planned subtasks will take longer or require
more effort than you anticipate. In our case, we hit a technological glitch: Everyone assured us that we could
automatically dial the internet from a CD-ROM. There are already commercial products that do it. But come to find
out, not with this authoring package.

The product support people for the software package were no help, and the internet chat group only provided some
hints. We had to decide how much extra time and effort (translation money) we were going to invest to solve this
problem. We found a good solution for Windows 95/NT, but could not solve the Windows 3.x problem without going
far over budget and sending the project careening out of control. The upshot: Some program users may have to
access the Internet manually.

There’s an old cliché that applies to almost any business endeavor: You can have it good, fast or cheap—but you only
get two out of the three. This is the golden rule of project management. Every project is a balance of time, money,
and expectations or quality. With enough time and money, you can have premium quality. If you have less money to
spend, either takes more time or cut quality. And when something goes wrong--and something always does--it will
take a toll in time, money, or quality.

If you are dealing with outside vendors, have a written agreement that covers deliverables, prices, deadlines, and
assumptions. This should include explicit language and procedures to handle change of scope. Nearly every project
changes as it moves forward, so consider how you are going to document the need for a change, who will do what,
how much it will cost and so on. Not every change of scope will cost you money—it may only affect the contractual
arrangements or it may slip the schedule, without incurring additional costs.

Au revoir

Eventually, every project comes to a close. It may be completed pretty close to the original plan or months later. Our
CD-ROM project came in about a month later than we had planned, but had grown somewhat in size. Not too bad,
given the complexity of the project and the new design elements involved.

By closing time, all the excitement has gone away, as have most of the people. You are left to pick up the pieces--get
out the final deliverable, close the books, pack up archives, and report to your boss how well you did. This is a lonely
time, but it also allows you to look back, reflect on what happened, and resolve to avoid the mistakes in the next
project. Call a meeting of all the key team members, get their feedback, and share with them the results. Of course
you should write all this down.

But hurry up with that meeting, because the next project is already ready to kick off. The core team is waiting next
door for you to join them. Don’t reflect too long. Grab your charts, and charge ahead with confidence.

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A Short Project Management Glossary

Actual to date. The amount of resources that have been applied to a project from
its inception to the most recent reporting date. Since human
resource time is usually the major resource, it is often tracked
through time sheets.

Benchmarks. Established productivity and quality standards based on

historic performance on same or similar tasks

Bid (proposal). The written statement to a customer of what the project will
be like—especially a statement of work, schedule,
resources, assumptions, and costs.

Budget. The financial or resource constraints under which the

project will operate. It should be sub-divided to reflect the
major tasks to be performed, equipment or other material
needs, and travel or communications related costs.

Change of scope. Any change in the amount of resources, definition of a

deliverable, schedule, contract, or costs from what was in
the original contract. A change of scope needs to be agreed
to by all parties, preferably in writing.

Contract. The legal agreement between two or more parties. This may
take a wide variety of formal to informal formats and
usually includes the proposal as an attachment.

Critical path. In a situation where the project has several tasks, some of
them overlapping or dependent upon an earlier task, the
critical path is the minimum time schedule for completing all
the tasks.

Critical success factors. The key items or issues that will determine whether or not a
project has met the expectations. Although budget and
schedule are important to all projects, they may or may not
be critical success factors for a particular project.

Deliverables. The end products that are to be given to (delivered to) the
customer during an at the end of a project. Interim
deliverables are the work in progress during a project, and
final deliverables are end of project deliverables that the
customer then implements.

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Estimate to complete At any point in the project, this is the best estimate of what
(ETC). resources it will take to complete the project, regardless of
what has been spent to date or the original budget.

GANTT chart. A series of lines (usually extra thick) that represent the
beginning and end dates for each task in a project, placed on
some form of time line.

Milestone. A key point (date) in a project when an event will occur,

such as completing a task or delivering an interim
deliverable.

Resource loading or Establishing an optimum schedule for the use of resources

leveling. so that there is a minimum variation in the number over an
extended period.

Risk analysis. Determining where things could go wrong in a project and

what the impact of something not happening as planned.
The risk analysis becomes the basis for contingency
planning.

Scope creep. The gradual addition of extra effort or size of deliverable.

Each addition may be so small that it could be overlooked in
the total impact on the completion of the project, but the
cumulative affect could be considerable.

Variance. The difference between what was expected and what is

actual. This can be applied to the budget, schedule, or
specifications.

Work breakdown structure The detailed sub-dividing of the project into tasks and
(WBS). sub-tasks in order to determine resources and schedules.

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