Busted trying to SCOPE CREEP

Program Manager, Enterprise Product on Demand Service (ePODS)

About:  National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) began transforming its mapping, charting, and data management processes from an often outdated, labor- and time-intensive process this program aided in reducing cartographic production time from hundreds of hours to as few as one.  The clear success of the project served as an impetus for NGA to modernize nautical and topographic mapping and charting.

I was the Project Manager for this program.  I had several customers, who had customers for which these mapping products were being produced.  Each release we had competing requirements that had to be balanced. Mitigating "Scope creep" was important as we only had one pot of money, and it had to be used to develop and implement the new mapping product for that release.  Each new product introduced a new map and that serviced a different customer.  Topographic was for the Army and Marines, Nautical was for the Navy, Aeronautical was for the Air Force or their partners. 

I feel as though I did a good job managing scope creep, as each task was tied back to our requirements document/matrix.  If it wasn't in there, then it was considered a new requirement and had to go through our Change Control Board (CCB), as well as be impacted against the current requirements and schedule.

At the end of the day, it's all about balance.  Balancing requirements against resources, and ensuring your execution matches your plan.

ISD Estimating Resources

Hello team, below are a few links to ISD estimating resources that I have found extremely useful.

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html

This is one of the more popular references, I used this to form estimates for ID work projects I was trying to win contracts on.  If you can name, he covers it.

https://christytucker.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/time-estimates-for-e-learning-development/

Another good resource which outlines all the different areas/tasks you may need to consider when building/compiling an estimate.

Art of Effective Communication exercise

Communication

In my opinion all three of the modalities; written text, audio, and f2f all conveyed the same message:  Jane needs me (Mark) to complete a report that she gets information from in order to complete her report.  Her ability to complete and meet her deadline is dependent upon me. I need to get my report done as soon as possible as to not impact her.

• How did your interpretation of the message change from one modality to the next?

I didn’t really see a change between the messages, obviously with the written text I can choose to read it with an attitude, but I didn’t for that message.  I (Mark) is in the wrong and needs to get his report done, I don’t know if his report is past due, however it definitely has an impact on Jane’s work.

• What factors influenced how you perceived the message?

Tone of voice, my tells me all the time, it’s not what I say, but my tone.  20 years in the Marine Corps has conditioned me to be very direct and matter of fact.  I have to be aware of that when communicating to others.

• Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?

The voicemail and the f2f meeting, because I could hear the tone, it also I see the need she has for me to get my part done.

• What are the implications of what you learned from this exercise for communicating effectively with members of a project team?

Messages need to be clearly stated.  More importantly due dates need to be established and accountability for completing tasks enforced.  If there are dependencies, they should be stated and each person needs to understand the impact they could have on the rest of the team’s ability to complete their tasks.

WBT Project: Post-Mortem

Hello everyone, this is a project we are in the process of implementing.

Scope:  Create a WBT solution that will train analysts how to view images, assess the quality of the image, and assign a rating.
 
Background:  The aerial imaging community utilizes the National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS) to define and measure the quality of images and performance of imaging systems. Through a process referred to as "rating" an image, the NIIRS is used by imagery analysts to assign a number which indicates the interpretability of a given image. The NIIRS concept provides a means to directly relate the quality of an image to the interpretation tasks for which it may be used. Although the NIIRS has been primarily applied in the evaluation of aerial imagery, it provides a systematic approach to measuring the quality of photographic or digital imagery, the performance of image capture devices, and the effects of image processing algorithms. 

What contributed to the project’s success or failure? 
The project is going to be implemented, but not as we would like it.  Basically the some of the images that where provided for the practical exercises and quizzes were doctored, the SMEs did not go out and get the actual image for the rating as presented.  This caused problems for the students taking the course during the pilot phase, as each analyst may have a different monitor with varying settings, so the images do not display at the appropriate NIIRS rating.

Which parts of the PM process, if included, would have made the project more successful? 
I don't think there is anything we could have done, we advised them before using the images that they should find real images to use.  However, the SMEs stated that the images would work as provided. We therefore loaded the images into the module and during testing it was discovered that they would not be appropriate.  This caused about a 3 week delay, because now the SMEs had to go back and get new images. 

Hello Everyoone

Hello everyone, believe it or not, I never blog, this will be a new experience for me.
Will post information shortly.


Derrick