My current assignment in the MS-IDT program is to take the role of Project Manager for the development of interactive, constructivist learning objects, aligned to a school system’s existing bricks and mortar curriculum. I would love to take the role of ID in this case: as a veteran teacher, planning instruction is in my comfort zone. Managing a project is far less comfortable for me, so I have had to research some of the managerial aspects of this type of project. I found some resources on line that have helped me to estimate the time and cost involved in such a project. Here are some of the more helpful sites I found:
ProjectSmart : Duncan Haughey offers some sound advice about 3-Point estimating. Using this system, the PM would factor in the best and worst extremes along with the most commonly expected outcomes, to come up with a budget that would handle unexpected contingencies. Haughey’s formula looks like this:
E = (B + 4 M + W)/6
B = best case (1/6)
M = most likely (4/6)
W = worst case (1/6)
Haughey also describes common mistakes, and how to avoid them. Good information for those of us who do not yet have our own experiences to draw on!
This tool from Michael Greer is very helpful for a newbie like me, as it gives some guidelines for estimating work effort and cost. This was good, concrete advice, and it helped me to estimate the amount of time the various teams in my project would need to complete their tasks.
Once I knew how long they’d be working, I still needed to know the going rate for writing, design, and development work. I turned to Payscale.com. Good news, boys and girls! It looks like this degree may lead to a nice paycheck some day!
Hi Liz – I thought the Duncan Haughey article had a lot of really good information in it. For instance, it would not have occurred to me to consider that resources would only be productive for 80% of their time (Haughey, n.d.). His advice for including time for problem-solving and contingencies also sounds like the voice of experience. Good find!
The Michael Greer page looked good, too, but it only estimated time in terms of the instructional designer and left me wondering about all the other people who are also needed for a given project (Greer. 1992).
References
Greer, M. (1992). ID Project Management: Tools and techniques for instructional designers and developers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology.
Haughey, D. (n.d.). Estimating Project Costs. ProjectSmart. Retrieved April 3, 2011 from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/estimating-project-costs.html
Hi Liz, the ProjectSmart site was very informative and I think it provide some great information in the aspect of considering what your estimate is based on. Often this type of estimating is not seen in the project I work. It was nice to see these methods of estimating. Your Michael Greer work sheet is something I was more familiar. These sheets work well and will help you as you grow in the ID area.
Karl McKinney