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Planning Successful ID Projects:
A Hands-on Workshop for Project Managers

This document provides an overview of Planning Successful ID Projects, Michael Greer's powerful workshop for instructional development (ID) project managers.

Why You Need This Workshop

Poor ID project plans can result in:

	Thousands of dollars in cost overruns
	Instructional materials that are either late or created using "quick and dirty" shortcuts
	Vendors who are out of control or applied inappropriately
	Loss of your credibility with your managers or clients

In this workshop you'll learn to plan projects that avoid these problems.

ID project managers are often torn between their ID consciences and their organizations' need for fast, cost-effective training. Given these pressures, it's hard to create effective instruction. Like the variety-show juggler, managers must keep lots of different plates spinning, performing exactly the right management interventions at exactly the right time. This requires effective planning. This workshop provides specific concepts, tools (job aids), and practice to help you become a better project planner. What's more, you'll learn to shift your focus from the ID process to the process of managing ID.

Who Should Attend

	Project managers who want specific tools and a proven strategy for planning and managing the development of instructional materials.
	Trainers, developers, producers, and Subject Matter Experts who want to contribute more effectively as development team members.
	Training or human resource managers who want to help their organizations develop a consistent, proven method for planning successful instructional development projects.

What You Can Expect

This is an intensive, hands-on session to help you plan instructional development projects. Working through case study situations, you will use reference tools to determine the size and shape of deliverables, required development time, and detailed project budgets. You will also learn how to create detailed project plans. Finally, you will adapt workshop principles to your job by creating your own, unique project management model and a personal action plan.

Workshop Objectives

Day 1

You will learn to:

	Describe the project management model and state the importance of each step in achieving quality courseware.
	Describe the job of the ID project manager.
	List the steps in determining project scope.
	Given a case study situation, use rules of thumb to determine the amount and type of instructional materials to be created (pages to be written, minutes of script, minutes of audio or video, etc.)
	Given materials specifications, use guidelines to determine development time required.
	Given a preliminary time estimate, use guidelines to determine development costs.

Day 2

You will learn to:

Describe how to organize a successful ID project by using a set of planning guidelines.

Describe how to plan a project kickoff meeting that will:

	clarify materials required, team responsibilities, and project schedule.
	help the project team become ready and eager to begin.

Using the generic project management model and tools as a guide, develop a unique, job-specific model and set of tools and describe how these can be put to work back on the job.

7 Reasons to Consider Team Attendance

Your organization's ID project management practices can be transformed overnight as everyone in your group learns to use the same tools and techniques at the same time.
Our up-front consulting can custom-tailor the workshop to help your organization meet specific challenges.
Group participation in the "neutral territory" of the workshop classroom can allow important management issues to be discussed and resolved.
The powerful exercises at the end of Day 2 allow everyone in your organization to "buy into" the new, custom tailored ID project management model which they create as a team.
Everyone in your group can develop a new set of project management values resulting in everyone "singing from the same songbook."
An on-site workshop can eliminate the time and expense of travel.
Your supervisors, project sponsors, and key contributors (SMEs, media people, etc.) will enjoy seeing a "single face" as your organization begins to use a consistent set of management practices and terminology.

How Will You Benefit?

	You can immediately use the tools and techniques from this workshop to begin planning your next projects.
	You will learn to more accurately estimate project deliverables, time requirements, and costs by using detailed guidelines and worksheets.
	You will learn by doing -- by working on case-study exercises and pair practice activities.
	You will discover how to identify critical project team members and determine their specific roles and responsibilities.
	You will take home a powerful textbook that is loaded with management job aids.

Participants each receive Greer's book ID Project Management: Tools and Techniques for Instructional Designers and Developers (Educational Technology Publications, Englewood Cliffs, NJ). This award-winning text contains 37 job aids (checklists, worksheets, guidelines) and recommends more than 50 specific project management practices. It has been adopted by businesses, universities, and nonprofit organizations around the world. What's more, the presenter's research, reported in ISPI's journal Performance & Instruction, shows that when managers use the techniques recommended in this workshop, they are more likely to complete high-quality materials on time and within budget.

About the Presenter

"Mike Greer is the Julia Child of ID project management... a real pro, a veteran of the project development 'wars.'" Performance & Instruction Journal, May/June, 1992

Michael Greer has many years experience as an ID project manager. With his company I.D. Network, he has developed full-scale curriculums for Epson America, Xerox, and others, completing course materials on time, within budget, and with award-winning results. In addition, he has helped Xerox, Apple Computer, and others develop custom project management tools and techniques. His workshop has been a favorite at annual NSPI/ISPI conferences for years.

He has presented this workshop to many organizations, including Southern California Edison, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem, National Education Centers, and the US Office of Personnel Management.

For More Information

For more information about this powerful workshop, including a more detailed content outline and a discussion of how the workshop might be customized to meet your specific needs, contact Michael Greer at greers_pm@yahoo.com . Or check out this web document: How to Schedule an Onsite Workshop.

Planning Successful ID Projects: A Hands-on Workshop for Project Managers

Day 1

Day 2

Planning Successful ID Projects:
A Hands-on Workshop for Project Managers