Tracking the Involvement of Your Organization Through Project Management Distance Learning

1. Tracking the Involvement of Your Organization Through Project Management Distance Learning Administration 2002 Presented by: Roy Robbins, Phd

2. About Virginia Tech Focusing on teaching and learning, research and outreach, the university creates, conveys and applies knowledge to expand personal growth and opportunities, advance social and community development, foster economic competitiveness and improve the quality of life. • Public land-grant university • 170 degree programs • 2000 faculty • Over 25,000 students • Top 50 Research I Institution • University assets: • Recognized Faculty • Faculty Development Institute • IT Infrastructure and Systems • Distance and Distributed Learning

3. Institute for Distance & Distributed Learning Provide an Open Campus Created in 1999, the Institute for Distance and Distributed Learning provides leadership, coordination, management and support to the distance learning activities of Virginia Tech. The Institute takes a holistic approach to distance learning where the students total educational experience is considered. Research & Development Specialized & Contractual International Education Electronically extend the campus

4. Distance Learning Snapshot 9,401 enrollments 2001/2002 Agriculture & Life Sciences 5.7% Architecture & Urban Studies 3.8% • Current Offerings • 14 Masters Degrees • 6 Post-graduate Certificates • 425 credit and non-credit courses • In Development • 2 Masters Degrees • 3 Post-graduate Certificates • 30 credit courses • 12 non-credit mini & short online courses Human Resources & Education 30.4% Arts & Sciences 25.9% Engineering 25.5% Business 8% Natural Resources; Vet Med >1% Number of DDL courses

5. Organizational Need • Organizational engagement is useful for those in small to mid-level size organizations experiencing rapid growth. • IDDL formed a Project Engagement Action Teamto deal with a planning gap between macro level planning and detailed project reports. • IDDL management wanted to monitor projects without becoming bogged down in micromanagement issues.

6. Relating Project Engagement to DE • At IDDL, we felt that Distance Learning Program Heads were often unable to show top administrators: • What they were doing in a clear but specific way • How the organization was related to other entities • How distance learning was related to the University goals and objectives as found in the strategic plan • In addition, IDDL management felt it was becoming bogged down in details as it tried to manage multiple details.

7. The Idea of Engagement Contracts • An engagement contract is a specification about how a type of organizational change will take place. Specifically, a change from a prior to a subsequent state. • Contracts are bound by the scope of the contract and the rules governing their activities. • The activities specified in an engagement contract must have an end point. That is, engagement contracts do NOT deal with monitoring on-going, routine activities.

8. Step One: Identify Organizational Functions and Relationships • Problems of intra-organizational involvement, or overlap. These are problems within an organization that have to do with role definition. • How does what I am doing relate to the goals of the project? • World left undone, because “someone else will take care of it.” • Example: What ist eh difference in the organization between “development” and “support” • Problems of inter-organizational involvement, or alignment. • What are the organizations relationship to other entities within the university? • Because of relationships with other entities are not properly aligned, the organization cannot “grow” its relationships. • Example: Are the roles of distance education and distance learning clearly distinguished?

9. Step Two: Specify Levels of Engagement • Level One: Specify organizational Actors and their Roles • Level Two: Specify organizational Entities • Level Three: Specify organizational Goals Step Three: Specify Rules of Engagement • Policies which govern administrative planning within an organization. • Procedures (SOPs) which govern administrative oversight.

10. Step Four: Specify Engagement Activities • Type One: Administrative activities • Types Two – Six: Activities that involve the major purposes for engagement: • Type Two: Development Activities • Type Three: Implementation Activities • Type Four: Support Activities • Type Five: Marketing Activities • Type Six: Evaluation Activities

11. Step Five: Explore engagement Rationales • One: Start new processes (decision point examine/create) • Two: Grow Existing processes (decision point examine/project) • Three: MaintainCurrent processes (decision point relegate) • Four: Change current processes (decision point adjust/alter) • Five: Reduce/end current processes (decision point prioritize)

12. Step Six: Scope or Reach of Contract • Secure sign-offs or project legitimation • Identify begin/end dates • Describe major milestones

13. The Project Review Process • The engagement review process • Management reviews all current contracts • New contracts introduced for consideration • Results in the organization (all members) becoming self-conscious about what is taking place at all levels

14. Summary Conclusion By formalizing these activities into engagement contracts and the engagement review process, an organization can put in place activities that will facilitate discussion through a formal review of its involvement with other organizations, its purposes and reasons for that involvement, and an understanding of how these activities are governed. In addition, it can monitor these activities to ensure that certain activities take place at the agreed upon time, and that the people who need to be involved are available.

15. Project Example Briefly describe the project. To develop an in-house database for IDDL course administration and management purposes. The database should track and provide based on retention, grade analysis, student demographics, etc. What need does it meet? Currently, IDDL lacks the in-house capability to produce its own reports except through a course-by-course look-up process. This is really inefficient and we need to automate the process as much as possible. What are the major outcomes or products resulting from this project? IDDL will have a new database that the assessment and enrollment staff will be able to access to produce reports.

16. Project Example (continued)

17. For more information:Roy Robbins robroy@vt.edu 540.231.3054 http://www.iddl.vt.edu/