Integrating new technologies into the classroom could be a challenging task. Six years ago our school was equipped with bulky Dell computers (Windows 2000) and Mac OS 9. In their eyes, our staff and students were equipped and ready for success. As an initiative from the county we received LCD projectors. A year later, we received laptops. Title I administration; evaluated the classrooms. Trusting the amount of technology (computers), they decided to implement a new project; from chalk to stylus.
As part of this project, Interwrite boards were to be installed in all Title I classrooms. Every classroom had installed an Interwrite board and trainings were offered to all teachers. Everything seemed to be a piece of the puzzle. One day, during winter break all boards were installed; without asking the teachers. They planned the amount of boards and they assumed that our computers and projectors were all we needed.
Here is where the scope creep invades our innovative project. Dr. Stolovich shares with us the importance to identifying what are the prerequisites needed in order to have a successful project. It is evident that this project did not consider it. They wanted interactive boards but they didn’t analyze the existent technology. None of our computers were able to run the software and also the teachers had no training on it. After a few months with Interactive boards in the classroom and no use, the Stakeholders established a plan. They created early starters groups to be trained and to train others, they updated all the software’s, and they added the writing tablets and clickers. This interventions or changes cost additional money and wasted instructional time. This changes meant more than a year, without using our equipment. Not only not being able to use our technology (interactive boards) we had no space to write on since the new boards were mounted in top of the traditional chalkboards.
If I were the PM of this project, I would develop a timeline with specifications of each person involved. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Each detail should be considered. They only thought about the equipment; they forgot the technical support, the training, the software, pc’s vs. mac’s and teachers technical expertise. All of these aspects should be considered before the project starts. Defining a scope should be done carefully, all details and aspects should be considered. A timeline helps you to monitor the progress of your project and the budget gives you and idea of what is available and how it will be used. Today, the boards are not still not being used to their maximum capabilities changes, old technologies, changes in staff and most of all changes in administration with wonderful ideas and no plans.
Reference:
“Practitioner Voices: Overcoming ‘Scope Creep’” Walden University, 2010
“Project Management Concerns: ‘Scope Creep’” Walden University, 2010
Posts
Evylyn,
ReplyDeleteYour experience with the interactive boards reminded me of a similar experience I had with a technology service learning project, and one of the greater risks the PM needs consider “newer technology” (Portny et al., 2008). The concept for the project was to provide technology to classrooms in a few inter-city schools with college and high school students acting as the technology deployment team. After the work was done the team was ready to work the teachers to train them with the interactive boards and learned the teachers and staff had minimal computer experience, so that portion of the project schedule needed to be amended and the student volunteer needed to redo all their training materials. These very excited student volunteers experienced exactly what you posted “…only thought about the equipment; they forgot the technical support, the training, the software, pc’s vs. mac’s and teachers technical expertise.” the next time this project was carried out the PM remembered all of these in the planning stage.
Gerri
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
Message from Terri Williams
ReplyDeleteHi Evylyn,
This is a great project for the school and it would have gone a lot better if things were planned a little bit better. This is excellent for the schools and the students, only if it works. Without training and proper planning it is a waste, it is like money going down the drain. It is important to plan ahead especially with such a huge project. There should have been a PM assigned to this project, a budget, a project plan, and ID or an IT and everyone who was involved with this project should have been apart of the plan and the preliminary meeting. According to Portny (2008), All organisms have a life cycle. They are born, grow, wane, and die. This is true for living things, and organizations, companies, and projects. A project begins with a concept, the idea is birth, then the define phase; a plan is developed; the start phase, is when a team is formed; the team begins the work and that is called the perform phase and the project ends and that is the close phase. (Portny 2008). If the team at your school had used these life cycle phases it would have saved a lot of time, effort, and maybe lots of money.
Reference:
Portny, S., Mantel,S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M. (2008) Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects: Wiley: New York
This example of scope creep sounds very familiar to me. My district is currently going through the installation of smartboard at my high school. You had a great idea about creating a timeline and responsibility chart. This sounded like a huge project your school system untook. I hope they had a project manager. We learned back in week 1 that the bigger the project the greater the need for a project manager. One of the keys to a successful project is creating a plan and establishing how the project will be accompolished. We all know that stuff happens with projects but a good project manager will inform everyone on what is going on in the project with clear and concise communication.
ReplyDeleteReference
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.
Hello Evylyn,
ReplyDeleteThat sounds so frustrating to be a part of that school system and to see all of that money wasted on technology that cannot be used. Seems like they wanted to give you all the best tools but they did it in the wrong way which caused more problems then what you began with, "the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project's output as the project progresses" (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2008, p. 350). After reading your experience with scope creep, it made me realize that many problems begin before the project even starts. It begins with the planning and in your example, it shows that they did not do a proper analysis of the classroom. What a waste of time, money, and other valuable resources.
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.