PROJECT MANAGING THE DEVELOPMENT

This development cycle of design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination provides a basis for carrying out a project, but each of these phases can be assisted by more broad expertise in project manage-ment. Many developments in teaching comprise activity that can be said to be bounded in time, with specific associated goals and resources. It thus makes sense to view a development as a project. The need for project management is now widely accepted across both the private and public sectors. Many projects fail, and for a wide variety of reasons:

over time or budget, implementation not approved, redundancy of deliv-erables, user needs not met or insufficient take-up, staff leaving the project team at a critical juncture, and so on. Techniques, however, have been developed to manage the risks involved, and it is to these that we now turn. The scale of the projects envisaged here will not usually require use of the sophisticated protocols that exist for planning complex projects, but we will still benefit from some basic principles of project management.

The first lesson is that project planning is critical: you need to set clear goals that you can identify have been met (see also Chapter 4).

Some projects distinguish between general aims, more qualitative 1111

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outcomes that are more difficult to measure, and deliverables – the materials, events, training, and so on that the project provides. Specify-ing what you hope to achieve through the project in this fashion, even at a modest level of detail, then enables you to identify the work that is entailed, as we see in Table 8.2. Of course, you can again specify the work involved at different levels of detail. But it remains important to break down the work involved, even if only to a modest degree.

It is also important to manage the associated risks, and the factors that will influence the success of the project. What would seriously damage the project? Do you have a reliable process in place that will enable you to achieve the goals? What will happen if you fail to secure the necessary approval for introducing the new module? What will happen if the students fail to engage during the early sessions? What could you do about this? Table 8.3 gives a few examples of different risks, as well as factors that are likely to influence the success of the

DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND RESEARCH

■^{TABLE 8.2} Specifying the nature and timing of the activity that comprises the project

Work-breakdown and Comment

scheduling

Specify the activity that needs This helps to ensure that work is not to occur in order to deliver the forgotten, that it occurs in an appropriate goals of the project order, to an appropriate timetable – and if you are able to, that responsibilities can be allocated to those involved in the

development.

Categorise the activity This helps to ensure some coherence across the project.

Specify who will carry out Clarity is essential to ensure that

which activity everything is covered.

Resources that are needed to You may find that some work cannot go deliver the activities ahead if further resources are not secured.

This may affect which activity you carry out at which point.

Timing for each activity to be Key deadlines may include approval, carried out, with indication of printing, distribution of materials to key deadlines students, as well as the actual start

of teaching.

project. After all, if you can identify key things that will enhance the impact of your project, then you are likely to be able to target your effort more effectively. In particular, there may be a person who is sponsoring your project, and the extent to which they are happy with the progress of the project is perhaps more important than any other factor. You might try to complete a version of Table 8.3 for your own project.

Finally here, we highlight the fact that colleagues have a significant impact on the success or failure of a project itself, as well as on the extent to which the development is disseminated. A project sponsor may be key in this, but so may many other colleagues. You will need to give some thought as to how you might involve them in the project 1111

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■^{TABLE 8.3} Chart to analyse risk and success factors, with examples Scale of impact Chance of occurring Strategy to reduce risk or

maximise success Key colleague on the project may pull out

End of project Several colleagues Ensure that work is delayed by at least left last academic collaborative so that

four months year someone else is able to

take over Approval not granted, or granted only

under certain conditions

End of project; or Total rejection unlikely, Involve at least one project is completed but conditions could committee member in the but without enthusiasm easily be set project, and sort out issues

in advance with committee chair

Project sponsor changes their mind

End of project; or Sponsor occasionally Keep the sponsor informed significant work is goes back on earlier about progress, and ask

wasted decisions them to exercise influence

on key issues Students really enjoy the new course unit

Further developments Quite likely Convey confidence and

may follow on enthusiasm during the early

afterwards stages; pay attention to

professionalism

or reduce potential opposition, even if it is well intentioned. It is thus worth considering the following questions for your project:

■ Who are the major stakeholders in your project?

– What are their needs and interests?

– How can you involve them in the project?

■ Whose opposition should you try to avoid?

– What might underlie their attitude to your project?

– How can you deal with these?

There are a range of other project management techniques that you can adopt – as, for instance, detailed in Baume et al. (2002) – including networking, use of a project steering group, resource management and team working. These are particularly worth considering where a number of colleagues are also involved.