Scope Creep while Redoing a House

One project in which I had to deal with scope creep was redoing my house. We bought our house and tore almost everything out. We were planning on keeping all the trim in the house since it wasn't in bad condition. We continued to schedule all the work and budget our money. We were two days away from the project starting and our entire family coming into town to help us out. And then, as we began to think about it more, we decided that we needed to tear the trim out as well. If we were going to do everything new, why not the trim as well and make the house look good? This would change our schedule and budget significantly, but we were going to be able to make it work.

Our family came in and we were telling them the plan. My brother-in-law promptly reminded us that if we changed our brown trim white then our brown doors would need to be changed as well. They either would need to be painted or we needed to buy new ones. Also, all the brass hardware on the doors would need to be changed to silver to match all the other fixtures in the home. This again, would not only add time but also cost to the project.

Another example of scope creep happening in our home remodel would be the floors. When we walked through the home, we were able to pull up the carpet a little bit and saw that there were hardwood floors underneath. In the section that we looked at, they seemed to be in good condition and we were excited. However, once we bought the home and were able to pull the carpet up the first day our family was there to help, we realized the floors were not in good condition throughout the home as we hoped. We now needed to buy new flooring and take the time to put it in. Once again, this added not only time but also cost to the project.

A third scope creep in the home remodel would be the pipes in our bathroom. My husband tore out the toilet (it was old and not usable). When he tore it out, he realized that the pipes were cast iron which were corroded through and needed to be replaced. This increased the time significantly and cost for parts.

In order to manage this project better, I could have planned on changing the trim in the beginning and talking to our family about it, since they brought in the need for changing the doors as well. Then we could have planned for this from the beginning. In regards to the flooring, we could have just figured in adding new floors with time and cost from the beginning just in case the floors were not in good condition throughout the home. The pipes in the bathroom was something we did not see coming but was also something that could not be prevented. It happened and we had to get it fixed; sometimes, this happens when dealing with a project. Since this was our first home, we did not look at the risks or how to manage them if they came up; however, we will be more prepared if we ever decide to buy another home.

Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

This week we are learning about putting together budgets and allocating resources. Here are some sources that I found that may be helpful in this task:
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1. Big Dog's & Little Dog's Performance Juxtaposition 

• This website has many different Instructional Design resources available. What is great about it in terms of budgeting is that they outline cost estimates for instructional designers. They go through instructional design costs by hours and how different projects can be broken down into hours--which will help with cost estimates to the new instructional designer. They also offer analysis templates. 

• The most helpful thing about this website would be the breakdown of hours needed to complete different designs such as asynchronous and synchronous courses (simple, average, and complex). I would definitely look at these in the future to help budget my time and give estimates to prospective clients who hire me as an instructional designer for their project. Below is the breakdown of hours: 

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2. eLearning Industry 

•   This website takes one through the 5 important factors for estimating to consider when designing an eLearning course. Pappas (the author) goes through and tells the readers different information without any exacts; however, the links provided in the article are quite helpful. 
• I will be going back to check out the different resources on this blog. One reason I will be back to this website time and again is due the following resources provided:  

6 Resources for Estimating eLearning Course Development Time

• Five Resources for Estimating Development Time

• Estimating Costs and Time in Instructional Design (this is the same resource discussed above!)

• Estimating course development times

• Time to develop one hour of training

• E-learning Development Time

• Evaluation of the Time Needed for e-Learning Course Developing (PDF)

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There are many sources on the web that can help potential Instructional Designers when it comes time to estimate costs and time used on projects. These are only two such examples, but just do a google search and one can find many different sources. Do not believe you are above the help instead embrace the help and look at all the resources available. That's my plan at least. 

Different Mediums of Communicating

Multimedia used to assess different mediums of communicating:

"The Art of Effective Communication"

Communication Medium	Interpretation of Information	Changes from previous Interpretation	Which one was the best form of communication for the message?
Text	Jane seemed to convey the message that she needs information that Mark has. He should get it to her as soon as he is able to.
Audio	Jane seemed to need information from Mark and was somewhat stressed about not having it already.	Something that I noticed more in this medium is that you can tell from Jane’s tone of voice that this is an important message and something to be done sooner rather than later.
Video	Jane seems friendly but nervous about not getting her information. This shows that she is not upset but needs the information quickly.	Also, from her facial features and tone of voice she is worried about missing her deadline than what is shown in her e-mail.	Since this message is important for two deadlines to be met, I believe that face-to-face  communication would be the best medium for this message to be delivered.

Synthesis

 This activity shows different ways a design team can communicate with each other when working on a project. E-mail or text would be a good way to communicate non-urgent messages to the entire team. When something is urgent and a face-to-face communication is not able to happen then it would be best to use Voicemail to convey it. However, when facing an urgent matter, then a face-to-face encounter may be the best solution. This will allow the person receiving the message to not have the opportunity of ignoring it. Sometimes, texts can be misunderstood by others as well as audio messages. These tactics would also be true for group communications. 

Effective Change

I know that sometimes e-mail can be ineffective since it does not always properly convey what is important and what is not important. When changes need to be discussed, then it is probably best down either through teleconferencing, in person, or video conferencing. This will make the discussion less confusing and all parties will be able to get all the information at the same time. Also, if something is urgent, then again, e-mail is not the way to go. I communicate mostly through e-mail in my current position but I will rethink this as I go forward after going through this exercise and our resources from class this week. 

Project Post-Mortem Analysis

Project Summary:

            When I began teaching tumbling classes at Celina Gym and Cheer, the classes were hastily thrown together with little information on how children progress from one level to the next. I worked with the owners of the gym to come up with a better structure. I helped introduce different skills that were needed in the progression from somersault, to back walkover, to back handspring, to elite tumbling skills. This required a lot of work not only on my part but also on the other instructors.

            Step 1: Somersault (Gymnastics, 2008)

Step 2: Back walkover (Gymnastics moves, 2008)

Step 3: Back handspring (How to do a back handspring, 2013)

Step 4: Elite Tumbling (Langley, 2011)

           

            The instructors had to be taught as to what was satisfactory for each skill set in order for the child to receive a passing score. Some of the above tutorials were used to help instructors learn to teach the skills and what to look for in satisfactory skills. They also needed to be taught how to use the evaluation sheets.

            

 Sample of a Progress Report/Evaluation Sheet

            This worked out well for the first couple of months but then we lost some of our instructors due to graduation and promotions at other jobs. Now, we had a new staff and the gym did not take the time to train these new employees after it was suggested several times. The older employees were expected to “teach” the new instructors on the go while in classes with them. This was a very difficult thing to do since we had large class sizes and needed to make sure our students were progressing. Eventually, the new instructors caught on somewhat but lacked the drive to want to make students have the desired skills at satisfactory level and would just pass them through to the next class (where the instructors expectations were higher). The gym and classes lasted this way for about a year.

            Recently, we restructured the classes again, but kept the same skill sets for progression. We went through and trained all the employees again, new and old, to make sure everyone was on the same page when it came to instruction time, expectations from each instructor for the higher level classes, and answered any questions the new employees may have had about satisfactory skills. We also have two employees now who do all the evaluations of the students, that way in order to progress to the next level course, each instructor cannot put their own opinion into it and it is more standard. This allows classes to be more equal in skill sets and is easier for the instructor to differentiate when planning stations.

            As we continue on with this new set of classes, I hope we instruct the new employees and have meetings to keep all employees updated on changed to expectations. Also, after each 11 week session, the same person will evaluate all students which will help in ensuring students are at the correct level when progressing. The evaluator is available every night while classes are going on so if instructors do not know how to teach something or if they can move on in their progression of teaching, they can ask the evaluator to help them out.

Using the Project Management Process:

Problem from initial class structure	PM Processes which could help make it successful
1. Untrained new employees	1. New employees need to be trained before they take over a class. This is important in any business structure. New employees can be taught some things (NICE to know items) on the go but when it comes to the important things (such as NEED to know) items, those need to be address immediately. This will help ensure they understand their task at hand. (Murphy, 1994)
2. Lack of communication	2. Employees need to communicate with each other and the PM (gym manager) needs to communicate with the employees (Murphy, 1994) (Greer, 2010). This will allow every employee to know any changes that are happening to requirements for class progressions.
3. Too many evaluators	3. Define each employee’s role (Murphy, 1994) (Greer, 2010) (Portny et al., 2008). Tell them if they are an instructor, evaluator, or manager. This will help when it comes to moving students to a higher class and consistency from one class to another.
4. No reflections	4. After each session, the employees need to reflect on how the structure worked for them and their students (Portny et al, 2008) (Greer, 2010). This will help show any problems with the structure before the next session—and can be fixed.
5. Employees refusing change	5. The gym manager needs to take any employees not making the necessary changes aside and discuss the problem. The employee may not realize that they are not implementing changes to the requirements for their class (Heathfield, n.d.)

References:

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

Gymnastics : How to perform a somersault. (2008). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZjLSmH0Oew

Gymnastics moves : How to do a back walkover. (2008). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIzCqy-R9oo

Heathfield, S. (n.d.). How to Deal With Difficult People at Work. Retrieved from http://humanresources.about.com/od/workrelationships/a/difficultpeople.htm

How to do a back handspring: Gymnastics lessons. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZTevhiE5BI

Langley, J. (2011). Back Layout Full Twist Examples. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsLvr4D1AwU

Murphy, C. (1994). Utilizingproject management techniques in the design of instructional materials. Performance & Instruction, 33(3), 9–11.

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.