Hurray! Your project has been approved. The content is ready to go, project team ready, supplier ready.
You feel like you’ve been developing the project for weeks already! There can be a rush to get things done. You might be under pressure to ‘get me a screen’ or ‘get a script’. You've not started but the requests might have started already.
There can be a rush to get things going. Next time before things get hectic have a think about this…
1. Get your company standards together
Get the latest version of your company standards. You might have branding guidelines, IT specifications or writing guidelines. These are really useful for anyone working on the project. Share them the team and the supplier. Make sure you are on the update list.
If you don’t have any standards think about creating some! Make them dynamic, flexible and responsive.
2. Speak to other departments in the business
Check with IT, Marketing and other teams to see how your project might affect their work. You might need to ‘book’ an upload to an LMS or there could be marketing activity that could impact your project.
Speak to people you work with and tell them what you are doing and what the plan is!
3. Agree on your project team
Who is working on the project? What are they doing? Who is responsible for signing off project elements? Work together, share ideas and make sure you all know the plan.
4. Collate your documents and material
Get you project docs together – pictures, resources, docs, PowerPoint, spreadsheets, everything you need!
Don’t underestimate the time it takes to get find documents especially images – they often have filenames like CPN1234.JPG
5. Check the copyright on your material
You’ll need to do a final check on your material but it’s a good idea to do an initial check on your content especially if you plan to develop a course around a particular set of content or images. Ensure that you are able to use the content and that there are no copyright issues.
6. Pick your voiceover artist
If you are using a voiceover artist you can save some time by listening to showreels before recording time. Popular voiceover artists are often booked weeks or months in advance and if you find someone that you like you can make an early booking.
Conclusion
If you’ve started the planning on your project, that’s great. You can really help the development team and help the project run much smoother.
I’ve shared with you 6 things that you can do before the start of the project, they can help speed up the project process but there are many more.
You don’t want to waste time during the project. You are busy working in your business and have lots of responsibilities, I try to keep learning after each project and add to my tip list! If you have any questions or comments please let a comment.
About the author: Scott Hewitt is the founder of Real Projects, an elearning company that helps companies create innovative elearning solutions.
