Project Management with Limited Resources

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Project Management with Limited Resources

• Presented by Lisa DiDonato
• Project Manager for Basic Skills Research,
  Research and Institutional Effectiveness at
• Mt. San Antonio College

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About the Presenter

• 17 years experience as a researcher
• 1st professional position as a survey interviewer
  for the U.S. Forest Service.
• Additional research experiences
• Institutional researcher positions
• Richland Community College in Dallas
• Rowland Unified School District
• Mt. San Antonio College

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Introductions
Name? College? Title/Position? Microsoft Office
with Excel? Funds for new software?
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History of Basic Skills Initiative at Mt. San
Antonio College

• Year 1
• Pilot projects began Feb. 2007, ended June 2007
• Limited participation and project completion
• Year 2
• 1 full-time, 1 part-time, and 1 half-time
  researchers were hired to provide research
  support for all funded projects, but especially
  those over 20,000
• Year 3
• 1 full-time permanent and 1 full-time hourly
  researchers provide support for BSI funded
  projects
• Year 4
• ?

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Project Management

• Project management is the discipline of planning,
  organizing, and managing resources to bring about
  the successful completion of specific project
  goals and objectives.

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Challenges of Project Management

• The primary challenge of project management is to
  achieve all of the project goals and objectives
  while honoring the project constraints. Typical
  constraints are scope, time, and budget. The
  secondaryand more ambitiouschallenge is to
  optimize the allocation and integration of inputs
  necessary to meet pre-defined objectives.

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Discover the Goals Objectives

• Stated Goal
• Provide measureable outcomes for all Basic Skills
  Initiative funded projects over 20,000

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Our Challenge

• Complete the following in less than 8 months
• Understand the goals and objectives of the Basic
  Skills Initiative (Poppy Copy)
• Determine who and what projects were funded
• Assist in the development of measurable outcomes
  for all projects funded over 20,000
• Measure the outcomes
• Report the outcomes

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Our Challenge

• Complete the following in less than 8 months
• Understand the goals and objectives of the Basic
  Skills Initiative (Poppy Copy)
• Determine who and what projects were funded

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Why a Database?

• Planning, Organizing Managing
• Maximize efficiency in meeting objectives
• Versatility
• Ability to add new elements easily
• Report ability
• Ability to create tailored reports
• Open Office or Other database program

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Database

• Step 1
• Create a table that lists all the known
  information about the projects
• Create Identification System
• Create Names for Projects

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Database
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Our Challenge

• Complete the following in less than 8 months
• Understand the goals and objectives of the Basic
  Skills Initiative (Poppy Copy)
• Determine who and what projects were funded
• Assist in the development of measurable outcomes
  for all projects funded over 20,000

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BSI PIE formerly Known As PEO

• Contacted all managers, met with over 80
• Different flavors of PIE (Excel or Word)
• Linked to database

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Database
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Our Challenge

• Complete the following in less than 8 months
• Understand the goals and objectives of the Basic
  Skills Initiative (Poppy Copy)
• Determine who and what projects were funded
• Assist in the development of measurable outcomes
  for all projects funded over 20,000
• Measure the outcomes

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Measure the Outcomes

• Conduct research outlined in column 3
• Variety of programs used to accomplish this goal
• Microsoft Office, SPSS, Remark OMR Web Survey
• Linked to database
• Open Office, Microcase, Survey Monkey

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Database
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Our Challenge

• Complete the following in less than 8 months
• Understand the goals and objectives of the Basic
  Skills Initiative (Poppy Copy)
• Determine who and what projects were funded
• Assist in the development of measurable outcomes
  for all projects funded over 20,000
• Measure the outcomes
• Report the outcomes

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Final Reports

• Binder of all BSI PIEs and their associated
  reports

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Final Reports

• Binder of all BSI PIEs and their associated
  reports
• Annotated Bibliography
• Highlights Article
• PDF File on CD with hardcopy to each committee
  member

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Modifications

• Entering the five column model data into tables
• Tracking contacts
• AUO, SLO, SA tracking
• Expected completion dates
• Next year rubric for evaluation?

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Programs Used with Free Counterparts

• Microsoft Office with Access
• Open Office
• Adobe Acrobat Professional
• PDF Creator
• SPSS
• Free stats program
• Remark Web Survey
• Survey Monkey

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Discussion