This week we read about creating project schedules as well as estimating costs and allocating resources. As a project manager it's essential to create a schedule that is conducive to the overall objectives of the project as well making sure every task stays on schedule. We were asked to research different websites and search engines to locate resources that would be helpful to project managers when estimating costs for a project. I have included two websites that I found that can be useful to project managers that help define estimating costs and strategies they can use to make their projects more successful.
Clark, D. (2010). Estimating costs and time in instructional design. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html.
This website outlines creating budgets and estimating costs for companies. It gives you examples of companies and how they allocated their costs to fit within a certain budget. It gives you an itemized list of costs for specific items for training and development time. It also lists a schedule for each specific course and the time frame it should take to complete the training. This is a great example of how a project manager should conduct a project and the right steps to thrive at a project.
Greer, M. (2009). Estimating instructional development (ID) time. Retrieved from http://michaelgreer.biz/?p=279 .
This website was constructed by Greer, who also published one of our text books for EDUC 6145, The Project Minimalist. He always outlines important details to include in an instructional design project and ideas of how to create your own. There were a few ideas that stuck out, that I hope to use when creating my own project. They were:
1. He discusses the ratio development time vs. training time and what ratio is the most efficient. The ratio he discusses that is the most useful is 10:1 or 30:1. He said that it varies from project to project and from company to company. He said what matters the most when estimating the development time is the instructional development model you will be using (Greer, 2009). Your model should account for all activities you will perform, which would be called your "non-writing."
2. Deliverables would be different from one project to another. One course may be instructor led, whereas another course could include videos or interactive simulations within the training course. It depends on the instruction that is being presented as well as the overall outcome of that particular project.
Basically, he said to not trust the ratios that have worked for other projects unless they include the same instruction, same outcome and the same people throughout the course and project.
I liked how Greer said, "Don’t trust the ratios, unless they evolved from your specific projects using your own specific people — and even then, I believe such ratios are probably too simplistic and inaccurate to apply to a particular project," (Greer, 2009). I agree that we cannot be obsessed with following or meeting the ratio recommendations. Each project ration is going to be different based on the requirements, objectives and the experience and abilities of the members working on the team. It is nice to see the average rations of previous types of projects because it can give a PM a ball park figure of the design time they should be looking at. For instance, if the average time for instructor led training is 25:1 and the PM's projects ration is 10:1 then maybe it would be wise to go back and review the work to make sure that everything is covered, it is what the stakeholders agreed on, etc.If it is an experienced team and they feel that every area was met then great. But if it is an inexperienced team and their ration is only 10:1 then that might send up a red flag that they did not spend enough time on the design.
ReplyDeleteI used your first link as well. It was nice and provided very specific details.
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