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This
week we are required to share an experience that reflects scope creep. At the school site that I teach, teachers are
divided into different types of clubs that assist with maintaining and ordering
school functions. One year I was assigned to work with a committee to organize the
annual book fair. The book fair at the site usually lasts four days, the last day
of the book fair the school also holds conference night. This allows parent s to visit the book fair as
well.
For the initial meetings, the committee
worked together to develop lists of resources needed to host the event. We
immediately noticed that the book fair would reflect a reduction in book circulation,
reduction in accelerated reader points, and scheduling of library classes. Allowing
students to read a variety of books at the school is very crucial because of
the high percentage of students living in poverty and high percentage of English
Language Learners. We decided to accommodate the reduction in circulation by reducing
the time allotted for library classes so that students would still be able to
visit the library to check in and check out books. This also addressed the
issue with reader points because students were given the opportunity to read
new books.
One
part of the book fair that the team overlooked was the amount of volunteers
needed to assist parents on parent night with purchasing books. The school site
has a low percentage of parent volunteers and due to conference night, many willing
parents were not able to assist due to their parent-teacher meetings. Not only
does a lack of volunteers make it difficult to assist parents but causes a low
return on investment in book sales. The amount of book sales for our school is
very important to receive books for the library because there is a limited
amount of resources for the school already. The Principal being the stakeholder
was not very pleased that the committee did not properly plan for this
conflict. Therefore, the committee was forced to take turns assisting with the
book fair during intervals that did not conflict with our parent conferences.
Reflecting on this project there are
some objectives I would do differently next time. Considering everyone on the
team was busy with other work responsibilities, it would have been more
effective to delegate the tasks for the book fair to accommodate the load of
work. it is suggested to use interns to assist with projects to assist with
tasks (Laureate Inc., 2009). In this case, using high school students to work
with the book fair would have been a more appropriate plan. In return,
community hours could have allotted for their effort. Frequent communication
through electronic mail or brief meetings would have addressed the any loose
ends to make it more successful (Laureate Inc. 2009).
Resource
Laureate Education Inc. (2009) (Producer)
Creating a Resource Allocation Plan [video] [transcript]. Dr. Stolovitch.
Hi Sophia,
ReplyDeleteYou made a great suggestion of identifying ways in which you would have changed the project if you were managing it. Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer suggest that "changes be approved in writing by the client as well as b a representative of senior management" (2008; p. 327). I think that you really could have improved the efficiency of the project had you been able to implement that idea!
JB
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.
Sophia
ReplyDeleteAt my school we also combine events so that it's convenient for the parents to attend school functions. We combine our one night book fair with our open house night. The book fair is set up the day before open house so that the students can visit and get their wish lists together. The book fair normally starts at 5:00pm and open house starts at 6:30pm. Families are allowed to visit the book fair until it closes at 7:30pm. PTA parents operate the book fair and they assign work shifts among themselves. Stolovitch (n.d) did suggest that PM use interns or volunteers to assist with getting the project or job completed. I initially figured in most cases you just learn from what didn't work the previous year and improve and use better strategies for the next year. After reading and learning about risk management and scope creep, it is better to think ahead of the possible risk factors before they happen, instead of reacting afterwards.
Sophia,
ReplyDeleteI see how the lack of volunteers planning can create a disadvantage to the event as well as potentially affect the revenue generated, especially when you were not able to employ additional volunteers the day of the event due to the meetings.
In the future, you may need to have a standing list of volunteers from the beginning of the year who are willing to donate their time and work the event. This way you have a group to count on even if you lose some.
Hi Sophia,
ReplyDeletePlanning any event can be difficult especially if it is your first time. When we try to plan out the event we try to take all things into consideration but a lot of times we under estimate resources needed. I have learned in project managment experience that sometimes it is better to over estimate and plan for the worst. This allows you to send people home if you don't need them and keep them if you do.