Project Management Skills for Instructional Designers

The boss drags into the office after returning from the recent sales retreat, slumps into the chair opposite you and declares “We have a problem!” You immediately stop what you’re doing and give your full attention. Here’s the story. Senior leaders were flown in from head office to host the annual sales retreat designed to pump up sales officers for the upcoming fiscal year. Local and regional sales officers were in attendance at this high profile meeting. During the meeting, sales officers were asked direct questions about how they use the new automated sales management system as a tool to track and monitor their progress toward achieving targets. Responses from sales officers indicated that they were unfamiliar with the functionality of the automated sales management system. What’s more, indications were that the sales officers had no intentions of using the system any differently in the upcoming year. The vice president of sales and the chief executive officer are livid after the discovery and decrees that the boss must find an immediate resolve for the problem. The decision is made that the training department will design and develop a learning solution for all sales offices. Attendance for all sales officers will be mandatory. Given that the upcoming fiscal year begins in the next two weeks, the learning solution will need to be designed, developed and delivered within that period. As instructional designer, you are assigned to this project effective immediately. Your second question to the boss after the “How could you make such a commitment?” question is, “Could this request really be considered as a project?” While this might sound like a basic question, project and operational work share similar characteristics from the standpoint that they are: • Performed by people, • Limited by constraints, • Planned, executed, monitored and controlled; and • Performed to achieve organizational objectives or strategic plans. The boss reminds you that project work is different from operational work because operations are ongoing and produce repetitive products, services or results. Projects on the other hand are temporary. They have a definite beginning and an end. Projects are considered successful when they achieve their goals and objectives and are signed off by the stakeholders. So now you know that the situation presented appears to fit the basic definition of a project. At the same time you need to know a lot more before you can produce the first output of work. “Who are the stakeholders and how do we define them?” You ask. You convince the boss to stay in the office a little longer to assist in compiling the list of stakeholders. You know all too well that neglecting to properly identify stakeholders in a project at the outset may mean sudden death for the project and who knows what for you. Both you and the boss define stakeholders and agree on those included in this category according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide).