Project Management in L & D

The main goal of L & D is change . This is simply not worth disputing, changes are inevitable and L & D (training and development in the company) will automatically be successful. Successful L & D needs careful planning and management - and here the project management rules come into play. Let's talk about them.

In any project, the following principles are important:

• The client expects benefits and changes from the project.
• Management, which requires resources and time (after all, it is assumed that the project will bring profit).
• Other interested parties that may be "drivers", "inhibitors" or "neutral", depending on their point of view.
• The project team (L & D), which needs understanding and motivation to achieve success .

What happens to regular projects when a business plan is built? If approved, a feasibility study (training needs analysis) is created. If this stage has passed normally, development work begins, a project team is formed and a manager is appointed. The beta version of the product is launched, and then, if successful, the final version of the product (program) is launched.
')
All projects need a "champion", which can be a client (student). Clients tend to think that nothing happens on the project until they see any results, but most of the work on the project takes place before the implementation stage. Many project teams bypass this problem by creating a prototype (experimental program).

Being a manager responsible for the project is dangerous. There are a number of explanations for this, not least the potential conflict between the delivery of goods on time and the discrepancy between budget and quality. In addition, the project manager may not know the history of the project.

So, project managers must have the necessary skills and know a lot about starting a job, because this justifies the financing of the project and determines the expected benefits.

The client sets the goals of the project and forms his expectations - although clients are unlikely to be able to convey them to the project manager! While the tip of the iceberg is visible, many things can be hidden behind urgent problems, inappropriate details and incorrect translation.

Project Management: Management

After the initial phase of the project, managers should have at their disposal three important controls and controls for them: schedule, budget, and final results. However, the project may fail if you try to control all three elements right now, before everything is thoroughly defined (for example, if you try to keep within a strictly fixed budget, reducing the time allotted for this, then quality is likely to suffer.

Project Management: Resources

Also, beware of expanding project personnel when it is too late. It's just that everything will end even later.

At some point, the size of the team makes it difficult to communicate and, in the end, you communicate more than you work. This greatly increases the cost of the project, and if you have a schedule, it makes it impossible to respect the time frame.

Active project management levers:

• Value and risk. The control of these factors influences the project promotion as a whole. In addition, it is necessary to monitor the benefits and the likely results.
• Results.
• Quality.
• Risks.

Sources of risks are:

• Bad or incomplete specification.
• Changing specifications. They change because the ideas and wishes of the client change, or the whole industry and the market as a whole change.
• Employees. People can get sick or quit. They may be less experienced than you hoped for, or they may not be ready to accept the changes .
• The need to integrate the project results with the client's learning management system (or similar programs). The result may be confusing, or require additional explanations, and, of course, not all systems are the same and / or compatible with other systems.
• The client may refuse to accept the results. Suppliers may go bankrupt or delay delivery times, their employees may become ill or resign, their products may be incompatible with other parts of the software package.
• Other stakeholders may have their own plans. There may be a lack of technical infrastructure; the operational process may be unclear; the final product may not suit the customer; the ISP may not have enough bandwidth for the product, and so on.

You need to think about risk management at all stages of the project.

When you think about risk planning, you need to keep in mind that people will be able to influence risk levels, and, as a rule, they increase risks to the highest level.

You must evaluate each risk on a scale from one to 10. Evaluate everything that can occur during the entire life of a project. Then evaluate each of them, and its impact on the project. These two indicators multiply, and any risk, the result of which will be higher than 25, should be urgently studied.

This is not a one-time process. As tasks are completed, risks may change. Therefore, it is advisable to regularly analyze the risks, perhaps even weekly.

Project Management: Risk Avoiding Strategies

There are five main risk reduction strategies:

• Avoidance (Can I plan to avoid risk?)
• Redirection (Can I redirect this risk to someone else? For example, to an insurance company?)
• Abbreviation (Can I act differently? Less risky?)
• Taking into account the situation (I can not avoid risk, but I can plan what I will do when it happens)
• Adoption with tolerance (I took this into account in the budget and in the schedule)

It is important that someone keeps a risk record, and it is also important that the project team is aware of the risks.

And how do you start projects in the company?

PS We recommend another useful article on the topic of work on yourself - Strategic Leadership: How to Avoid the Most Common Mistakes that Leaders Make .

The author of the translation is Vyacheslav Davidenko, the founder of the TESTutor company.