1
"
A Proposal to Transition NAIT from Paper to Digital Coursepacks!
Part 1 - Project Proposal"
2"
Introduction"
2"
Context"
2"
Business Need"
3"
Project Goals and Objectives "
4"
Project Charter"
6"
Summary"
10"
Part 2 - Project Schedule"
11"
Work Breakdown Structure"
11"
Gantt chart and schedule"
13"
Project budget"
17"
Description of work"
17"
Part 3 - Project Execution"
18"
Communication/reporting"
18"
Monitoring"
21"
Risk Assessment & Risk Management"
22"
Risk Management plan"
23"
Project People Management"
23"
Conclusion"
25"
Appendix 1 "
27"
Appendix 2"
28"
References"
29
2
Part 1 - Project Proposal" Introduction" The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is a large polytechnic college based in Edmonton, Alberta which offers credit programs in business, health, trades, and science, technology and the environment. NAIT has over 27,000 students, approximately half of which are enrolled in internship programs. As the number of courses and programs offered by NAIT grows the challenge of maintaining efficient delivery course material increases. Presently course material are provided as textbooks, internally published coursepacks, or digital learning objects. As with other colleges, university and K-12 institutions NAIT relies on textbooks published by third parties which are purchased directly by students independently or through the NAIT bookstore. Coursepacks are developed by NAIT faculty then printed and sold at the NAIT bookstore. Digital learning objects are developed by NAIT faculty and distributed to students via Moodle (the Learning Management System used by NAIT). NAIT has identified the need to reduce the use of self-published coursepacks as they are expensive to produce, labour intensive to distribute, and difficult to revise. The intended outcomes of this project are reduced production costs for NAIT departments, ease of revision, and acceptance by students of this new form of course material distribution. A switch to digital coursepacks also enables NAIT to maintain intellectual property rights and honour copyright licenses granted by third parties. This section provides an overview of the project which will be undertaken by NAIT to have coursepacks delivered digitally.
Context" NAIT is a polytechnic school based in Edmonton, Alberta which provides full-time, part-time and apprenticeship programs focusing on: health; business; trades; and science, technology and the environment. NAIT focuses on educational programs which meet the needs of both students and the economy of Alberta (NAIT, 2013). The vision of NAIT is to be â€œâ€Ś the most relevant and
3 responsive post-secondary institution in Canada and one of the world’s leading polytechnics.� NAIT has positioned itself as a critical element of the Alberta economy by helping to ensure the availability of a skilled workforce which is able to pursue and implement innovation and improvement. This project aligns with a number of these guiding principles including use of technology as an enabler and continuous improvement. The following section will provide further information on the business need that is driving this project.
Business Need" The need that is leading NAIT to undertake this project is to solve the problems and limitations resulting from a reliance on paper coursepacks. These problems are outlined below. Print is an effective medium for the distribution of information, it is familiar, portable, and can be inexpensive to produce. However print has major limitations when compared to existing and emerging technologies, notably a lack of interactivity and the difficulty of updating and distributing changes (Fahy, 2013). An example of the interactivity offered by digital material that paper can not offer is to incorporate a three dimensional (3D) image of a brake mechanism into a text about car maintenance. In this example the student could rotate the image on screen seeing it from other angles and even dismantle the mechanism into its constituent parts. The greatest limitation to paper based material is the difficulty of completing and distributing updates. If there is a critical error in one section of paper coursepack which is found only after the course has started and students have purchased the material then the only way to address the error is to provide students the corrected page(s) asking them to manually replace that page or pages. With digital learning objects (DLO) distributed with a learning management system (LMS) errors can be fixed and distributed instantly to all students with no, or very limited, inconvenience. In addition to the advantages of interactivity and ease of distribution utilizing digital course material provides a more effective means of managing intellectual property and copyright laws. Coursepacks are typically comprised of intellectual property developed by NAIT faculty and (or)
4 intellectual property of a third party which has been licensed by NAIT for one time use in the coursepack through direct sale to students registered in a course. This one time copyright license is often time limited until the end date of the course. Subsequent publication of the coursepack (for future offerings of the course) require renewing the copyright license. The challenge for NAIT is how to ensure the license is being offered once the physical coursepack is distributed to the student who could copy or resell the material. The use of digital coursepacks can provide more effective mechanisms for NAIT to manage copyright. By making the material available via a learning management system access to the material can be limited to students currently enrolled in a course. In addition material that NAIT no longer has a valid copyright license to use can be more easily removed from the coursepack. A third factor is the cost to students of paper coursepacks. Presently the cost of printing and selling paper coursepacks is charged to students at the bookstore. This charge is no longer necessary when the coursepack is digital. The three problems outlined above are the problems that this project is intended to address. These problems were identified through the efforts of a cross-functional committee made up of representatives from across NAIT, including the students association. The business needs which, justify this project, are improvements to course material by providing richer content than can be provided by paper course packs, more efficient mechanisms for updating course material, and improving the ability for NAIT to manage intellectual property and third party copyright. The following section defines specific objectives of this project.
Project Goals and Objectives " The need for this project has been outlined above, building on these business needs the goals and objectives for this project are outlined in the following table. Goals
Objectives
Eliminate paper coursepacks
All 400 presently using course packs will transition to digital material by January 2016
5 Goals
Objectives
Reduced student expenditures
Expenditures on paper course packs will reduce to $0 by January 2016. presently student expenditures total $120,000 per year (based on 400 courses with 20 students per course paying $15 each)
Managing intellectual property
All third party copyright material used in course packs will have a current, valid license
Providing rich learning content for students
Students rate digital content more favourably than paper course material
Identifying Stakeholders" The Project Management Book of Knowledge identifies that stakeholders typically include: a sponsor, customers and users, sellers, external business partners, internal groups, functional managers, and others (Project Management Institute, 2013). The following section describes the representative stakeholders from NAIT that for this project. The sponsor for this project is the Director of the Department of Teaching and Academic Development who provides resources and overall direction for the project. Customers and users are the individuals, or groups, who will use digital coursepacks, in this context the users are the faculty and support staff who will develop the material and the customers are the students who will use the material for their courses. A number of Internal (NAIT) organizational groups will be affected by this project, the primary group affected are faculty. Faculty will have to transition to a new way of delivering their course material which could impact their overall approach to organizing and delivering their course or courses. Another group which will be directly affected is the Department of Teaching & Academic Development who provide faculty with support in the best practices of developing digital course material and also perform much of the production of the material, this group will likely see a significant increase in workload. Other internal groups affected include the bookstore which will no longer sell coursepacks, and the Learning Resource Centre which will no longer have to produce and distribute paper coursepacks. As the project progresses additional stakeholders will likely be identified. It is suggested that the team working directly on this project be comprised of staff from the Department of Teaching & Academic Development
6 and include the project manager, a teaching and learning specialist, a project associate. The role of the project manager is to clearly identify what the activities of the project are, when and how they will be done, to ensure the resources are available of the work to be done. The teaching and learning specialist(s) are subject matter experts who can provide direction to both faculty to ensure learning needs of students are met. They can also provide support to media production to ensure the technology does not overshadow the content. This team will be accountable to the Sponsor and work closely with stakeholders and representatives of stakeholder groups.
Project Charter" According to the Luecke (2004) the project charter details the results that the organizations expects from the project. The project charter is often a standalone document which is approved by the sponsor (often by signing the document) and distributed to stakeholders. The following sections provide an overview of the organizational factor, business case, and scope of work, which all inform the project charter.
Organizational Factors" This project does not involve any external stakeholders, therefore the only organizational elements that have to be considered are internal to NAIT. As discussed earlier in this document NAIT’s vision is to be “the most relevant and responsive post-secondary institution in Canada and one of the world’s leading polytechnics”. Building on this vision and values are a series of principles articulated as promises which guide daily actions, these include: “providing outstanding technical education”, “providing a positive student experience”, working with industry to plan programs, and “creating an outstanding place to work” (NAIT, 2013). These principles not only align with the objectives of this project but they provide a environment and culture which will help make this project successful.
Business Case"
7 The business case provides information to determine if the costs of the project (time and/or money) are worth the benefits gained (Project Management Institute 2013). As described earlier the benefits being realized by NAIT are improvements to course material by providing richer content than can be provided by paper course packs, more efficient mechanisms for updating course material, and improving the ability for NAIT to manage intellectual property and third party copyright.
Project Scope" Defining the scope of the project helps ensure outcomes are met. Based on the objectives of the project the table below provides examples of what would be considered in scope and out of scope. Activity
In scope
Out of Scope
Transition existing course material to digital content
Supporting faculty to transition existing content
Developing digital content for courses other than the 400 identified
Standardize format for digital content
Develop a limited number of templates for course material
Develop content formats for individual courses that can not be used for other courses
This is not an exhaustive list and more work will be required to define specific activities and to further elaborate what is in scope and out of scope.
Project Charter" The project charter is the formal document that all parties agree to that defines the project and identifies resources which will be put in place to ensure the project is successfully completed (Project Management Institute, 2013). Purpose The purpose of this project is to transition NAIT from selling students paper based coursepacks to digital coursepacks delivered via Moodle. Objectives The objectives of this project are:
8 • Have all 400 presently using course packs will transition to digital material by January 2016, • Decrease expenditures by students on paper course packs will reduce to $0 by January 2016, • Ensure all third party copyright material used in course packs will have a current, valid license, • Receive favourable ratings from students on digital content Criteria for Success Success of the project will vary among stakeholders, briefly outlined below are the high level success factors for each stakeholder group. • Students - efficient access to relevant course content, decreased cost • Faculty - support and guidance on how to transition from paper to digital content, need more than just an demanding email with deadlines • Administration - effective mechanisms are in place to manage intellectual property and reduce risk of violating copyright licenses of third parties. • Digital Media Production - clear expectations and timelines, sufficient support to manage increased workload. • Learning Resource Centre and bookstore - clear expectations and timelines so they can plan the transition of their resources away from producing paper material. High-level requirements The primary requirement is to have all 400 courses which are presently using course packs transitioned to digital material by January 1st, 2016. Assumptions Some assumptions underlying this project are: • All existing material can be transitioned by January 1st, 2016, • Digital content will be didactically equivalent, or better, than paper based material, • Managing intellectual property will be more efficient with digital content, • Third party content presently used in paper material can be licensed for digital delivery, and
9 • Transitioning to digital content will be cost neutral to students. High-level project description and boundaries, Once approve the project will be initiated on April 1st, 2014 and proceed until April 1st, 2016. The first, brief, phase of the project will begin with work to finalize project scope, timelines, and deliverables. Consultation with faculty will begin immediately focusing on determining which departments, programs, and faculty members are able to easily transition to digital course material i.e., the content is digitized and just has to be moved to a moodle template. From January 1st, 2015 to the end of the project the focus will be shifted to those departments, programs, and faculty who require more assistance in transitioning their content. High-level risks Some potential risks of the project include: • Insufficient media production resources are available, and/or the volume of work required of available resources is incorrect, • The volume of course material to be transitioned has been under (or over) estimated, • Significant portions of currently used course material can not be transitioned to digital format due to copyright protection and new content has to be found or developed • The cost, or complexity, of supporting digital content is greater than the status quo. Summary milestone schedule • April 1st, 2014 - project launch • July 1st, 2014 - finalized list of courses that will be transitioned to digital content for fall term • August 1st, 2014 - final date for confirmation that content will be ready for fall term, courses not confirmed on this date will move to winter term launch • September 1st, 2014 - beginning of fall term • October 1st, 2014 - finalized list of courses that will be transitioned to digital content for winter term. • January 1st, 2015 - beginning of winter term • May 1st, 2015 - finalized list of courses that will be transitioned to digital content for fall term • October 1st, 2015 - finalized list of courses that will be transitioned to digital content for winter term. • January 1st, 2016 - beginning of winter term • April 1st, 2016 - project close Summary budget
10 The budget for this project is projected to be $360,000 and is comprised of the salaries for the three people working directly on the project (project manager, project assistant, and digital media producer). Stakeholder list Project stakeholders include: • Students and the NAIT students association • Faculty members • Department of Teaching and Academic Development • NAIT bookstore • Learning Resource Centre • Other stakeholders will be identified as the project progresses. Project approval requirements Success for the project is to complete the transition from paper to digital learning content for the 400 identified courses by end of project. Additional measures of success are the acceptance of digital content by students and faculty. Success will be measured by comparing satisfaction ratings of faculty and staff as the project progresses. The project is completed once the sponsor signs off on the project closing document (anticipated to take place on or before April 1, 2016). Assigned Project Manager A project manager role exists within the Department of Teaching & Academic Development, this person will be delegated with the responsibility of leading the planning, managing the progress of the project, and ensuring successful completion. Sponsor The sponsor for this project is the Director of the Department of Teaching & Academic Development.
Summary"
11 NAIT has identified the need to reduce the use of paper coursepacks in favour of digital content delivered to students via moodle. The business needs driving this project to provide richer course content than can be provided by paper coursepacks, more efficient mechanisms for updating course material, and improving the ability for NAIT to manage intellectual property and third party copyright. The team working directly on this project be comprised of staff from the Department of Teaching & Academic Development and include the project manager, a teaching and learning specialist, a project associate. This team will be accountable to the Sponsor and work closely with stakeholders and representatives of stakeholder groups to ensure the project is completed in the projected timespan of 2 years.
Part 2 - Project Schedule" The proposal of the previous section outlined the goals, objectives, and gave a high level summary of the project to transition to digital course packs. This section will build on that proposal by providing detailed information about the activities to be undertaken, the schedule, and identifying who will conduct the work.
Work Breakdown Structure" The project plan and charter provided a summary of the goals and major activities of this project but did not identify specific tasks that would be undertaken. By completing a work breakdown structure (WBS) these details emerge. The process of developing the WBS is to identify the major activities that need to take place, then identify all the actions to complete these activities. For this project the Visual Understanding Environment (Tufts, 2013) was used to create a visual representation of the WBS. This process was quite revealing and helpful to reveal and group all of the actions that have to take place. The visual map is shown in Appendix 1, below is a written summary of the WBS which provides more detail. " I.
Planning" A. Volume of work" 1. Confirm the number of courses"
12 a) Create an online survey to go out to faculty asking if they use course packs." b) Create an online survey to go out to students asking if which courses they have had to buy packs for." c) Meet with bookstore to determine which departments and courses they are getting course packs from." d) Which departments have the most courses using paper material" (1) Meet with department heads to determine if there is a reason that there is more paper course packs used for particular programs." (a) Is there a training need for these programs" (b) Are there unique requirements for these courses/programs/departments?" B. Plan work phases" 1. When are they offered (fall, winter, or summer term?)" a) Cross check the list of courses with the calendar to determine when the courses are offered, especially relevant for courses that are offered once a year." (1) Use this information to inform sequencing project activities." 2. Schedule which courses will be completed for milestone 1, 2, 3, and 4" a) Prioritize based on readiness e.g., course pack material in electronic format and needs only be transferred (cut and paste) to moodle templates." b) prioritize based on need e.g., prioritize courses are offered in the coming school term especially if they are only offered once a year" II. Create" A. Development Resources" 1. Confirm team is in place to transfer course content to digital format" 2. Determine capacity of the team to meet work phases identified" 3. Identify if additional resources will be needed" B. Determine the best format to use for digital course packs" 1. Determine what format and media are commonly used currently with paper course packs" a) Written material" b) Pictures, drawings and other visual media" c) Determine if other media are used " (1) Ask instructors if they use additional material, outside of course packs which could be incorporated into digital material e.g., videos shown in class" C. Standardize Format" 1. Setup templates in moodle" III. Implement" A. Test " 1. Identify 5 test courses" 2. Meet with instructors" 3. Instructors move content in to moodle templates" 4. Develop content for 5 test courses, as required" 5. Meet with instructors for feedback and guidance on developing training material" B. Transition to Digital Course Packs" 1. Courses for Milestone 1 " a) Finalize courses" b) Communicate process to instructors" c) Providing training/orientation material to instructors" d) Develop content for courses as required" e) Instructors move content to moodle templates"
13 2. Repeat above steps for each subsequent production cycle" 3. Provide training and orientation material to NAIT community " IV. Success of the project" A. Baseline" 1. Survey of stakeholders to quantify satisfaction with current paper course packs to act as baseline" 2. Quantify expenditures by students on paper course packs" 3. Determine cost to departments of developing and publishing paper coursepacks" 4. Document concerns regarding management of intellectual property and 3rd party copyright" B. Post-Implementation " 1. Survey of stakeholders to quantify satisfaction with transition to digital material " 2. Quantify expenditures by students on paper course packs over the life of the project" 3. Determine cost to departments of developing and delivering digital material" 4. Revisit concerns regarding IP and copyright to determine if transition to digital material has, or will, address concerns."
"
Creating the WBS provide significant information about the complexity of this project and helps inform the sequencing and scheduling of project activities, which are detailed in the following section."
Gantt chart and schedule" The project charter provided specifics about when the project will start and when it will be completed and identified some key milestones. These dates provide a high-level timeline within which all the activities identified in the WBS have to be completed. Below is a written project schedule which provides details about when project activities will be conducted and what the deliverable is at each stage. The process of creating this project schedule revealed that it will be difficult to complete all of the planning actions, create standard content templates in moodle, and test with faculty in time to have a large number of courses transitioned in time for the September fall term. Therefore the number of courses completed for September would be reduced to a maximum of 30. The scheduling process also revealed the need to allow for flexibility in the project timelines to allow for statutory holidays and also the fact that NAIT closes for a week during the Christmas holidays. In addition to this written schedule a Gantt chart is included in Appendix 2. This visual representation of the project schedule includes the ability to
14 show, and enforce, dependencies between project tasks. This ability revealed a couple of assumptions made in the project schedule which may not be correct. For example in the schedule it was assumed that the task of Testing could be carried out in parallel to the planning for the first production cycle. But, the results of testing need to inform the first production schedule. Therefore there is a difference in the written production schedule and the Gantt chart, which for the purposes of this paper are left to illustrate the advantages of a Gantt chart. " In making the Gantt chart some assumptions made in the "
Project Schedule" Phase!
Activity
Start
End
Duration Deliverable (days)
Plan!
Volume of work
1/04/2014
28/04/2014
20d
Identify the number of courses to transition
Sequence of work
1/05/2014
30/05/2014
22d
Courses assigned to a production phase
Development team 1/04/2014
14/04/2014
10d
Development resources confirmed
Format"
5/05/2014
16/05/2014
10d
Moodle templates finalized
16/05/2014
13/06/2014
19d
a) faculty orientation material finalized" b) better estimate of time to transition a course
Plan Production 1
2/06/2014
27/06/2014
20d
Plan for transition of first 30 courses
Production 1
2/07/2014
1/08/2014
23d
Complete production work for first courses
Implement
5/08/2014
29/08/2014
20d
Course material in moodle
Milestone
9/09/2014
9/09/2014
1d
First day of classes
Plan Production 2
2/09/2014
30/09/2014
22d
a) update sequence for all production cycles, based on lessons from production 1" b) confirm courses for production 2
Create!
Implement Test
15 Phase!
Activity
Start
End
Duration Deliverable (days)
Production 2
1/10/2014
1/12/2014
41d
Complete production work
Implement
1/12/2014
19/12/2014
15d
Course material in moodle
Plan production 3
5/01/2015
30/01/2015
20d
a) update sequence for future production cycles" b) confirm courses for production 3
Production 3
2/02/2015
31/03/2015
41d
Complete production work
Implement
1/04/2015
1/05/2015
21d
Course material in moodle
Plan production 4
4/05/2015
29/05/2015
19d
a) update sequence for future production cycles" b) confirm courses for production 3
Production 4
1/06/2015
31/07/2015
42d
Complete production work
Implement
4/08/2015
31/08/2015
20d
Course material in moodle
Milestone
8/09/2015
8/09/2015
1d
First day of classes
Plan production 5
8/08/2015
2/10/2015
19d
a) update sequence for future production cycles" b) confirm courses for production 3
Production 5
5/10/2015
27/11/2015
38d
Complete production work
Implement
30/11/2015
18/12/2015
15d
Course material in moodle
Plan production 6 "
4/01/2016
29/01/2016
20d
Final courses not captured in previous cycles
Production 6
1/02/2016
4/03/2016
24d
All courses transitioned to digital
Implement
7/03/2016
18/03/2016
10d
Final courses available in moodle
16 Phase!
Activity
Start
End
Duration Deliverable (days)
Success
Baseline
1/04/2014
15/05/2014
30d
Baseline data
PostImplementation
1/01/2016
31/03/2016
60d
Final project report
"
31/03/2016
31/03/2016
1d
Close!
"
17
Project budget" The budget identified in the project proposal is $360,000, made up of wages and is comprised of the salaries for the three people working directly on the project (project manager, project assistant, and digital media producer). In the process of planning the details of this project it was shown that there may be a need to engage additional medial production resources. Therefore an additional expense for up to 1000 hours of medial production was incorporated into the budget (shown below). This addition, increases the project budget to $405,743."
annual salary
18% benefits
FTE dedicated to project
hourly cost hours on (based on project 2000 hours)
totals"
PM
$90,000.00
$106,200.00
0.6
$53.10
2400
$127,440.00
Project Associate
$60,000.00
$70,800.00
0.6
$35.40
2400
$84,960.00
Media producer
$70,000.00
$82,600.00
0.6
$41.30
2400
$99,120.00
Additional media production as required
$70,000.00
$82,600.00
$41.30
1000
$41,300.00
subtotal contingency
$352,820.00 15%
total
$52923.00 $405743.00
" Description of work" Provided above are the details related to the activities and the schedule of this project, summarized in this section is who will be involved with each of the major tasks. "
18 Activity!
Personnel involved
Volume of work
Project Manager (PM), Project Associate (PA)" Faculty and students will be asked to respond to a survey " Some faculty will be asked to provide additional details.
Sequence of work
PM, PA
Development team
PM, PA, Media Producer (MP)
Format"
MP, PA
Test
MP, PA, Faculty
Plan Production Cycle 1-6
PM, PA, MP
Production Cycle 1-6
MP, Faculty"
Implement 1-6
PM, PA, MP" With some involvement from NAIT moodle support staff
Baseline
PM, PA
Post-Implementation
PM, PA
Closing project"
PM, PA
Part 3 - Project Execution" The previous sections outlined a project proposal and provided a detailed project management plan. This section builds on this work by detailing how the execution of the project will be managed. The elements discussed in the following sections are reporting, monitoring progress, risk assessment and management, and project people management.
Communication/reporting" The communication plan for a project like this is guided by the answer to four questions, who needs to receive communication, what is being communicated, how communication will take place, and when communication will happen. The answers to these questions, along with some additional information as suggested by the Project Management Institute (2013) and the
19 Harvard Business School (2004) will provide a basis for the formal communication plan as outlined below.
Who" Stakeholders identified in the project proposal are who this project will communicate with. Stakeholders include: • Students and the NAIT students association • Faculty members • Department of Teaching and Academic Development • NAIT bookstore • Learning Resource Centre These stakeholders can be organized in to three groups: internal stakeholders i.e., members of the project team; external stakeholders affected by the project; and the project sponsor. The anticipated communication needs of these groups is outlined in the following section.
What" Communication needs will vary between stakeholder groups. External stakeholders will have a higher need to receive, rather than create information. Internal stakeholders participating directly in the entire project lifespan will have different needs than an external stakeholder who is affected by the project in a specific way for a discrete period of time. The table below is intended as a preliminary identification of the communication needs of the relevant stakeholder groups. Stakeholder group
Receiving Information (Need)
Creating Information
Internal
• detailed information of the entire project" • creating and updating tasks information including dates" • detailed information about specific activities of the project at a certain time" • aggregating project details • detailed information about a specific project activity
External
• summary information about the project" • specific information about how project activities directly affect them
n/a
20 Stakeholder group
Receiving Information (Need)
Creating Information
Project Sponsor
• summary information on high-level progress of the entire project" • ability to access details as required
feedback to project team
Understanding the communication needs of each stakeholder group is important for determining what mechanisms will be needed to distribute information.
How" This project has a broad range of stakeholders who are located within a single organization but are geographically distributed across NAIT campuses and organized into different departments. Reaching all these stakeholders will require a range of communication mediums. The Project Management Institute (2013) identifies that communication can be grouped into three methods: 1. interactive, synchronous, communication such as meetings and phone calls; 2. pushing information from the project team to an audience(s) via letter, report, email; 3. pulling information from a static source by the target audience i.e., a www site that stakeholders can access at their convenience. It likely that each stakeholder group will have communication needs that span each of these methods, the table below is intended to illustrate this by providing examples for each group and each method. Stakeholder group
Synchronous!
Push
Internal
• weekly project meetings" • “open door” policy of PM
• project www site • status emails" • RSS feed from project www site
External
• launch information session" • project update report • ability to email project team
• project information from www site
Project Sponsor
• monthly or bi-weekly project status meeting
• project details from www site
• project summary reports
When"
Pull
21 Understanding the range of communication needs and the methods that will be used to meet these needs is necessary to guide when communication will take place. The frequency of communication for each stakeholder group is summarized below. How
Frequency
Internal
• • • •
project team meetings" status emails" RSS feed from project www site" “open door” policy of PM
• • • •
weekly" automated updates from project www site" daily updates" ad-hoc as required
External
• • • •
project information session" ability to email project team" project www site" project status newsletter
• • • •
quarterly" ad-hoc as required " available 24/7" quarterly
Project Sponsor
• project status meeting with PM" • project details
• project summary reports" • available from www site
A key element of the communicate for this project is a www site where stakeholders can find information about the project activities and status. To illustrate this a demonstration www site has been created and is available at https://sites.google.com/site/mde618demoprojectsite/.
Monitoring" Monitoring of the activities of this project has two components: a) tracking, reviewing, and reporting project of the status, and b) making changes to the project plan based on the information gained from monitoring (Project Management Institute, 2013).
Tracking, Reviewing, Reporting" The ability to track the progress of this project is facilitated by having a clear budget and project schedule which have been reviewed and approved by the project sponsor. The budget and schedule are then used as a baseline against which to measure the progress of the project and to determine if there is deviation from the approved plan. As a starting point for monitoring of this project three key metrics will be observed. Those are:
22 1. time spent on the project, as project staff are devoting a portion of their work day to the project it will be important to measure to ensure they are not devoting to many or too few hours to the project 2. completion of tasks, as part of the weekly project meeting the completion of tasks will be updated 3. project budget, a separate budget code will be setup with finance so costs can be associated directly with the project, monitoring will include monthly budget reports provided by the finance system.
Changing" Project tracking is intended to identify when the project is deviating from the budget and activities that define the project. If deviations in budget and project progress are identified they will be documented in the project status reports that are provided to the sponsor. If deviations, or an accumulation of deviations, will require significant changes i.e., cost over-runs beyond the contingency, it will be identified to the project sponsor requesting additional resources. To help reduce the potential for the project to deviate from the planned budget and schedule risks will be identified ahead of time.
Risk Assessment & Risk Management" Risks are unplanned events which have a positive or negative impact on the project (Project Management Institute, 2013). The risks identified in the initial planning of this project include: • Insufficient media production resources are available, and/or the volume of work required of available resources is incorrect, • The volume of course material to be transitioned has been under estimated, • The volume of course material to transition has been over estimated • Significant portions of currently used course material can not be transitioned to digital format due to copyright protection and new content has to be found or developed
23 As a means of identifying and addressing additional risks a risk management plan has been developed using concepts articulated by Harvard Business School (2004) and the PMBOK (Project Management Institute, 2013).
Risk Management plan"
how risks will be identified
as part of the planning activities of the first month of the project, the project team will meet to identify risks" ongoing during the project the team will be encouraged to identify, as applicable, additional risks or other issues that could effect the project budget and schedule
roles and responsibilities, who will lead risk activities
the project manager will be responsible for leading risk activities of the project
timing, how often will risk review take place in the project life. identify protocols for changes to the project scope or timeline
risk review will incorporated into the planning stage of each production cycle, the lessons learned from each production and implementation cycle will help inform the next stage of the project
risk categories
aligning with the overall objectives of this project the categories of risk that have been identified are:" • cost - reducing cost to students and remaining with the project budget" • scope - transitioning all 400 courses" • intellectual property management - course pack material has a valid copyright license" • time - completion of project by April 1, 2016
risk tolerance for each category
• cost - going more than 15% over budget is a high risk" • scope - transitioning less than the identified number of courses to digital course packs is a high risk" • intellectual property rights - all content used must have copyright license" • time - not completing by April 1, 2016 is a high risk
response to risk"
as part of the weekly project team meeting risks will be identified and documented using the framework shown in Appendix #1
Project People Management" As identified in the management plan the project team is made up of the project manager, project assistant, and the media producer. This is a virtual team as the members are part of the
24 larger DTAD team and will work on this initiative in addition to other responsibilities. The success of this project is dependent on the work of these individuals, which is in turn dependent on their skills and the ability to work well together. Briefly outlined in the following section are some of the people management structures that the project manager will be responsible to put in place to ensure the success of the project.
People Plan" A first step in managing the project team is to ensure that everyone has a clear understanding of their role on the team, what authority they have, what they are responsible, and what competencies they are expected to demonstrate. As an illustration the following table provides a summary of some of the roles and responsibilities of the project manager. Role
• ensure the successful completion of the project within scope, on time, and within budget
Authority
• budget signing authority" • human resource management of the project team
Responsibilities
• gaining approval of the project charter" • assigning tasks to team members" • documenting major deviations from the project budget, scope, timeline and updating project plans for approval of sponsor" • setting behavioural norms for the project team
Competencies
• • • • •
produce clear communication in a variety of formats" customer service focus - able to engage stakeholders" leadership - set objectives, motivate team, provide feedback" problem solving - able to define a problem, find solutions" maintain relationships with project stakeholders
Managing Conflict" Disagreements and conflict are a reality in the workplace. Conflict often has a negative impact on team members and could result in demotivation and disengagement which could significantly impact the success of the project. To minimize this the project manager will have to create and maintain a positive working environment.Fortunately the values of NAIT, respect, collaboration, celebration, support, and accountability create a framework and expectation for all employees.
25 An example of how the project manager can encourage open dialogue amongst team members is described by the Harvard Business School (2004). Conflict is addressed before it arises by creating an environment where: 1. people are encouraged to deal with sources of conflict by acknowledging that there is an issue and 2. the person who identified the issue is allowed to elaborate, describe the problem 3. discussion focuses on the issue rather than the people involved by keeping the discussion impersonal 4. enable team members to provide feedback to the project manager
Conclusion" NAIT has identified the need to reduce the use of paper coursepacks in favour of digital content delivered to students via moodle. The business needs driving this project to provide richer course content than can be provided by paper coursepacks, more efficient mechanisms for updating course material, and improving the ability for NAIT to manage intellectual property and third party copyright. Ensuring the successful completion of this project will be supported through communication with stakeholders, monitoring the project, assessing and addressing risks, and managing the project team so they can be most effective. Conclusion NAIT has identified the need to reduce the use of paper coursepacks in favour of digital content delivered to students via moodle. The business needs driving this project to provide richer course content than can be provided by paper coursepacks, more efficient mechanisms for updating course material, and improving the ability for NAIT to manage intellectual property and third party copyright. The team working directly on this project be comprised of staff from the Department of Teaching & Academic Development and include the project manager, a teaching and learning specialist, a project associate. This team will be accountable to the Sponsor and work closely with stakeholders and representatives of stakeholder groups to ensure the project is completed in the projected timespan of 2 years.
26
" " " " " " " "
27
Appendix 1 " Work Breakdown Structure Below is a visual representation of the work breakdown structure described in this document. This WBS can also be accessed at https://www.dropbox.com/s/tf2ugtjeycomzgj/ WBS_TimBulger.png"
" "
28
Appendix 2" GANTT Chart This Gantt chart provides a visual representation of the project schedule, this chart is also available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/vkcj6agon7vlbwx/Gantt_Image_TimBulger.png"
"
29
" References" Fahy, P. J. (2013). Online Teaching in Distance Education and Training. Athabasca, Alberta: Athabasca University. Luecke, R., Books24x7, I., & Harvard Business School. (2004). Managing projects large and small. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. NAIT. (2013). Comprehensive Institutional Plan 2013/14 - 2015/16. Retrieved from http:// www.nait.ca/docs/CIP2013.pdf NAIT. (2013b). NAIT Faculty Guide for e-Resources. Retrieved from http://www.nait.ca/ libresources/docs/faculty_eresources.pdf Project Management Institute, & Books24x7, I. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide), fifth edition (5th ed.). Newtown Square, Pa.: Project Management Institute. Luecke, R., Books24x7, I., & Harvard Business School. (2004). Managing projects large and small. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Project Management Institute, & Books24x7, I. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide), fifth edition (5th ed.). Newtown Square, Pa.: Project Management Institute. Tufts. (2013). Visual Understanding Environment. Retrieved from http://www.vue.tufts.edu