Project Post Mortem: Project Checklist for Virtual Facilitator New Hires

 

     As an experienced training specialist who recently joined a new company as a virtual facilitator, I quickly assessed that a checklist was necessary to organize the varied administrative tasks required to prepare for a synchronous instructor-led training for onboarding new hires.  The initiative began as a self-serving checklist to ensure that I had adequately prepared the materials, roster, calendar notices, systems access, and other requirements used during training.  The checklist soon got noticed by others, including the training managers.  The Project Training Manager determined that a checklist would best support newly hired facilitators by tracking all administrative tasks required to prepare for delivering a virtual training session. This recognition led to one of the managers asking me to do a project to create a checklist for all new hire virtual facilitators.

    In the project strategy meeting, we discussed the final product's perceived need, expectations, and application. The manager requested that the project have five deliverables to be completed in four weeks.  The manager encouraged me to invite peer facilitators to team up on the project to offer their experience and insight in the preparation process.  The manager also asserted to open the team's schedule to allocate time for the team to complete the project within the allotted timeframe.

    I developed the project plan that was divided based on the five programs.  I gathered a team of four individuals, each with extensive experience in each of the four areas assigned to them.  I took responsibility for the fifth program.  The project plan's work breakdown outlined the data gathering to collect artifacts, provided a preliminary standard template for the checklist, established a repository to store the data collected, a schedule for regular status meetings, and incremental milestones to recognize successes.  I developed a RACI chart to ensure an effective communication strategy to keep all stakeholders informed.

    The most frustrating part of the project was when the team was not allocated time to work on the project, but the timeframe did not increase because of the decrease in available people to support the project.  However, the training manager modified the scope to deliver a one-page checklist draft for four of the five programs due by the deadline.  The best part of the project was the team kept their commitment to contribute to the project as much as possible. Two of the three members contributed artifacts such as cheat sheets, old checklists, and procedures that were excellent resources to create the final products. 

    Overall, the work process was efficient, with appropriate communication on the project's progression.  The project was completed on schedule and delivered to the training manager.  The hand-off to the training manager was smooth; however, no feedback was provided by the training manager on if the project met the desired expectation.  The project soon became a shelved product that was never tested with the target audience or finalized beyond the draft format.

    I was satisfied with my approach to specify details, clarify expectations, define allowed resources, and secure buy-in from the management team.  I was also pleased with the communication strategy and connection with fellow peers who were excited to join the project team that I was leading.  The team did a great job contributing information when faced with challenges in their available time to support the project.  The one lesson learned from the project was to clarify time requirements for people resources necessary to support the project tasks adequately.  However, it was a great sense of accomplishment to drive the project to completion as the project leader and deliver the final deliverable on time.