Sharing Good Practice
Take each objective and layout the plan under watch of these headings .
WBS
From here we move to a Work Breakdown Structure
Here is where you isolate every task that needs to be completed in order to achieve your key deliverable . There are lots of templates for these online , and freely available .
The WBS is very people oriented and should be done in light of knowledge and skills of the people who are delivering your project with you .
According to Oxford University PPM , 2021 , each step of implementation of the project has 9 specific knowledge areas : integration , scope , cost , quality , time , communications , HR , risk and procurement .
As a project manager you need to look to your faculty to seek out the people who are skilled in each of these knowledge areas and leverage their skills to help deliver the project overall .
Once we have found the right people to support the rolling out of the project , we need to allocate them specific tasks , geared toward success , to ensure that they can achieve their individual goals for the project .
The SOW Statement of Work
This is an individual task sheet , essentially , for your teachers , your MLT and SLT and anyone supporting in the delivery of the project .
Let ' s look at sample project 1 for |
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Develop |
Learning |
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Teaching . |
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We can highlight a knowledge area to focus on .
In this instance let ’ s focus on cost .
Our SOW for the accountant might include 3 key objectives like :
1 . Identify 3 options for CPD relating to literacy improvement ( suitable to your cohort , curriculum , budget and current setting )
2 . Generate a Gantt chart for 10 teachers to complete each option with measurable objectives
3 . Proposed measurable impact on teaching and learning ( improved outcomes for G5 , teacher efficacy , teacher satisfaction , etc .)
Once you have allocated key personnel to each deliverable on the project , you can breakdown your SOWs even further .
Activity Lists
The activity list comprises all the work required to complete the WBSit outlines each activity needed to achieve each objective . This can be done through procedure diagrams , Gantt charts or using interactive tools like Monday . com or Trello . A school based system like Kinteract can do this for student centered projects . This is a hugely robust tool that can track , allocate trajectories , set key dates for review and more . These tools help you to outline each task as an individual step that is written as a SMART target in collaboration with the person who will be responsible . This helps to create a clear visual of what everyone needs to do , when they need to do it and how we can measure progress and success .
Just as we would ask a student to complete tasks to indicate their understanding of the curricular objectives , we can allocate tasks to demonstrate progress on a project for our collaborators .
This style of management takes a lot of time and effort at the initial stages but once the activity lists are established , rolling out the project is much more structured , more visible to all parties and can be tracked in a truly robust way .
If you chose to use tools like Kinteract , Trello or Monday . com , you can track the project live , from anywhere- You can allocate and monitor what tasks are being completed in real time . Resources can be shared , and communication maintained in a transparent and easy to access way .
As each team member achieves their goals , the whole team is aware , the whole team can celebrate , and the project runs smoothly .
There are multiple courses available online in Project Management , some more complex than others , so it is useful to look around and gauge the amount of depth you need for your current role . No matter what level you take , however , it is guaranteed to improve your practice . It helps you to be more structured and organised in any project and , though it is work intensive at the outset , holistically , it can save a significant amount of time . It helps you to identify tasks that do not contribute to the overall progress of the project . It helps keep everyone in communication and on track , and identifies where tasks are stagnated . It acts as a robust guide to success .
As an education leader , while making each of those 54000 decisions every year - using project management tools can ensure that they all have the impact you intend them to !
Here we might seek out the support of our accountant as a specialist . We can ask her to appraise the cost of CPD , analyse the potential impact and find the best available options in the market .
Catherine O ’ Farrell is an experienced educational leader and consultant . She is an advocate for inclusive education and sustainable improvement of educational practice across the MENA region working under the Global Sustainability Network striving toward the UNSDG Goal 8 . Catherine is a regular media contributor and conference speaker .
Class Time Term 3 Apr - Jun 2022 23