Project Creep

Scope Creep is defined as the attempted improvement of a product in the middle of a project (Portny, et. al, 2007).  While it is admirable when people are working towards a similar goal and want to make it the best that they possibly can there could be unintended problems such as no one knows what is happening or the project becomes too big to manage. 

In my professional life, I am now the offensive coordinator of a high school football team.  Four years ago, I was just the offensive line coach and another coordinator was at the head of the offense.  It became obvious that we needed a shake up in what we do, and we needed to install a new offense.  The five offensive coaches went away together for the weekend and literally locked ourselves into a hotel conference room and tried to install a new offense.  The first day we got a ton of work done. We drew up different formations, looked at personnel packages and schemed about different plays that we could run.  The second day however, the current coordinator and another coach got off on a tangent of the ability to run one play by blocking a different zone.  In theory, if this were to work it would be amazing, but the bottom line is that we are a high school football team, not an NFL team, and there is no way that our players could perform this kind of task.  However, since our project leader was DEAD SET that we could pull it off, we spent four hours drawing things out and trying to talk through what ONE PLAY would look like.  I left the weekend feeling discouraged and not listened to at all.  It was a terrible feeling and one that could have been avoided if we had stayed with the project goals.

If I had been the project manager, which I am now, I would have done a couple of things very differently.  First of all, I would not have allowed myself or my staff to deviate from the task at hand.  I would have constantly referred back to the objective of the meeting and redirected based on the objective, as I needed to.  Most importantly, I would not have allowed myself or others to lead the group so far off task that it was not possible to get back on.  As the coordinator I need to lead by example and make sure that the group stays focused on the task at hand. 

Reference:

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.

Modes of Communication

This week, we were asked to listen to three types of communication about the same subject, but through different modalities.  The same information was relayed in email, voicemail and face to face interaction.  The outcome of these three communications was very different and this was a fascinating study of how communication should be delivered.

Email-Although there was nothing mean or unprofessional in the email that was sent, it seemed to me to take a very curt and impersonal tone.  While an offer of understanding was made, it seemed very forced and not personal. 

Voicemail-The voicemail had a slightly more personal tone because you could hear that the person leaving the message was not angry, just concerned that this needed to get finished.  There were still a few questions left about if there was anger at the other person, but I did not feel that this was a bad form of communication.

Face-to-Face-This was obviously the preferred mode of communication.  Jane was calm, made eye contact, was not at all confrontational and offered a solution that I did not pick up in either of the first two communications. 

This activity has been important to me because it is obvious that face to face communication is by far the best way to talk to a teammate.  I have to admit, I am an over communicator in email, and I need to remember that it’s important to seek out face to face communication whenever possible.  In my profession, where I am responsible for students for the majority of my day it’s important for me to seek out people that I need to talk to during my planning and break time instead of sending an email, particularly when the subject of what I am talking about could be sensitive. 

Blog Assignment 1-Project Overview

The purpose of this project work has come out of necessity.  In the district where I teach, we do not have a curriculum that fits the needs of all learners.  We have a grade level curriculum where approximately sixty percent of our learners receive appropriate level instruction.  We have several advanced programs including Advanced Placement (AP) classes and International Baccalaureate (IB) classes, which serve approximately thirty percent of our population.  The leftover ten percent of students are not able to keep up with grade level math classes.  For years, they have been given a watered down version of grade level materials, but this is not adequate.  According to our state mandated tests, these students are not only not proficient in mathematics; they are not making the year of annual growth that is to be expected.  It is unacceptable that a student does not make a year of growth and this lies firmly on what instructional strategies and materials these students are exposed to. 

The project will be considered a success if a curriculum is evaluated and purchased for high school students that will be useful and viable in the classroom.  The project manager will make this project a success because of the work that they will do to facilitate the review of curriculum.  The project manager will set norms and have specific guidelines for teachers to look at as they are reviewing each curriculum.