Agile Project Management for e-Learning Projects

Jody BatyMADLaT 2009 ConferenceMay 8, 2009

Learning outcomes

At the end of this session, participants should be able to: Describe the unique nature of e-Learning projects Discuss the challenges of traditional project

management with respect to e-Learning projects Describe Scrum and how to adapt it to e-Learning

projects

About your presenter – Jody Baty

Educational technology consultant Specializes in agile project

management for e-Learning projects 10 years of experience as a classroom

instructor and corporate trainer Working with Scrum for about one year Certified Scrum Master BSc.(Comp Sci), MEd. (Ed tech)

Small group project – the Brainbuster

Divide into groups of 4 or 5 participants Designate one person as the project

observer Get a puzzle from presenter Solve the puzzle as a group (5 minutes) Project observer documents group

problem solving process and interactions

Small group project - observations How did your team start out its task? Was the problem solving process iterative or predefined? If it was iterative, what happened between the iterations? Was the team self-organizing or hierarchical? How was the definition of done determined? What did you do when you were done? Other observations…

Nature of e-learning projects - dependency Corporate learning projects exist to provide training on a

product or service Learning development typically occurs at the end of the

product development, resulting in compressed timelines

20%

Analyze

30%

Design

40%

Development

10%

e-LearnDev

Ideal project timeline

20%

Analyze

20%

Design

60%

Development

10%

e-Learn Dev

Typical project timeline

Nature of e-learning projects - concurrency In my experience, scenario-based e-Learning has a

development to delivery ratio of about 100:1, even with rapid application development tools

E-Learning development must begin well before the product is in beta stage

Focus on what can be done

Realistic project timeline

20%

Analyze

20%

Design

60%

Development

60%E-Learning Development

Nature of e-learning projects - delivery

Synchronous learning tools – Elluminate, Adobe Connect, LiveMeeting….

Asynchronous LMS – Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle, Angel…..

Performance support – online help, expert systems, knowledge networks

Thanks to these tools delivery to the audience is fast and inexpensive

Classic project management - challenges Assumption #1: we have a repeatable, production line

process

But….. E-Learning projects are co-dependents; we can’t specify

everything at the start Systems, products and learning outcomes change often Change in the parent project is amplified in the training

team due to its location in development cycle

AAnalysis

DDesign

DDevelopment

IImplement

EEvaluate

Classic project management - challenges Assumption # 2: cost of failure to deploy properly is highBut….. We aren’t distributing CDs or DVDs any longer;

distribution is cheap via the web We can put out a less than perfect product and iterate;

see all Web 2.0 companies Change in production mode is now possible – and

should be welcomed since we can measure in real-time

Classic project management - challenges Assumption # 3: plan-driven, bureaucratic approaches

ensure corporate buy-inBut….. Is signoff on a plan really buy-in? An actual working product (real signoff) occurs too late in

the development cycle Would you rather see a buggy version or a perfect

document representing the real version?

What is Scrum?

Is a fundamentally simple process for agile project management

Based on empirical process control rather than a predefined plan

Uses 30 day sprints to develop a deliverable product

Scrum process overview

30 days

24 hours

Product BacklogAs prioritized by Product Owner

Sprint Backlog

Backlog tasksexpandedby team

Deliverable product

Daily ScrumMeeting

Scrum’s roles The Product Owner (Department head or similar)

Defines the parameters of the project, its success and definition of done (DoD)

Prioritizes tasks from product backlog The Scrum Master (Instructional designer)

Owns the overall process Resolves conflicts, removes barriers Part of the team

The Team (SMEs, Multimedia Developers, Editor) Owns the production process Cross functional, self-organizing

Components of Scrum

Project kickoff meeting Product Backlog (course level outcomes) Sprint Backlog (instructional objectives) Daily Scrum Tracking progress Project review

Project kickoff

One day session with product owner The output is a Product Backlog Like a mini-DACUM Product backlog for e-Learning projects are the Course

Level Learning Outcomes

Product backlog

Prioritized list of work to be performed on a course Product Owner responsible for prioritization Expressed in terms of Course Level Learning Outcomes Blooms Level (or controlled vocabulary) can be very

helpful for estimating Definition of Done is the satisfaction of Performance

Indicators

Product backlog for e-Learning projectsIntroduction to Ruby Programming

                 Blooms Description Sprint # 1 2 3 4 5 6

Level  

Effort needed for Release 1

as in the beginning of

the sprint 90 70 34 0 0 01Discuss the history and benefits of Ruby 5 0 0 0 0 01Define a local and instance variable 5 0 0 0 0 02Characterize variables as to scope (public, private, protected) 13 0 0 0 0 02Sketch the process flow of a 10 line ruby program 3 0 0 0 0 02Classify a simple ruby program for efficiency and correctness 13 0 0 0 0 0

Sprint 1 Introduction to Ruby Part I - The Basics              3Implement a class in Ruby 20 0 0 0 0 03Instantiate and initialize a variable - 13 0 0 0 03Employ class and instance methods - 8 0 0 0 03Apply visiblity rules to select proper variable modifier 8 8 0 0 0 03Implement a code module 2 2 0 0 0 04Compare modules and classes for suitability in a program - 5 0 0 0 0

Sprint 2 Introduction to Ruby Part II - Objects and Classes              3Implement an array in Ruby ? 13 13 0 0 03Code a complex loop 8 8 8 0 0 06Assess the efficiency of a Loop 5 5 5 0 0 06Rank a looping construct for efficiency 8 8 8 0 0 0

Sprint 3 Introduction to Ruby Part III - Program Control              Release 1 Deliverable version of Ruby 2 day seminar              

2Describe the namespace architecture employed in Ruby programs 20 20 20 20 20 203Instatiate a library using the include statement 20 20 20 20 20 206Extend a library for your own business requirement 40 40 40 40 40 40

Sprint 4 Introduction to Ruby Part IV - Extending Ruby and Libraries              Release 2 Deliverable version of Ruby 3 day seminar              

Effort in the whole backlog 170 150 114 80 80 80

Sprint backlog

Learning outcomes get divided into instructional objects (tasks) by the Team

A fixed period of 30 days to develop a deliverable product

The Sprint includes all ADDIE phases except evaluation Once a Sprint has started only the Scrum Team can add

or remove items in Sprint backlog Abnormal termination of Sprint is called for when the

Sprint Goal no longer makes sense

Daily scrums

Daily 15 minute status meeting;

Same place and time every day;

Three questions; What have you completed

since last meeting? What will you complete before

next meeting? What help do you need?

Any decisions to be made?

Tracking progress – backlog effort

1 2 3 4 5 60

102030405060708090

10090

70

34

0 0 0

Effort left until Release 1

Sprint #

Wor

k le

ft

1 2 3 4 5 60

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180170

150

114

80 80 80

Effort left in the backlog

Sprint #W

ork

left

Tracking – don’t overdo it

Too much monitoring wastes time and suffocates the developers

Does not increase the certainty of the indicators because of the chaotic nature of the system

Too much data is meaningless No monitoring leads to blocks and possible idle time

between assignments

Sprint review

Usually a demo of what was accomplished to the product owner by the team

Informal, no more than two hours of prep Assess against sprint plan Can possibly be tied into Kirkpatrick

Levels I & II

Further information

Scrum Alliance – www.scrumalliance.org Digital Learning blog –

www.digitallearning.biz

Questions?

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