I’ve had the opportunity to work on the project of building multiple programs within my current work. I have background learning in project management in primarily the waterfall style of project. That said, I’ve always been interested and tried multiple times to look at how to introduce or use a more Agile project methodology. My project of developing a digital marketing program became a hybrid model of these two methods.

I think the development of the programs would have worked better if we looked more at the process used by the University of Calgary when they created their Strategic Framework for Learning Technologies (2014). In this document they looked at the overall needs and groups available to support. It was a methodical plan that created and engaged all stakeholders. This was something that was missing when the initial plan was created for my development and needs were discovered as the project was worked on. I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the Taylor Institute and to see the learning environment that is presented by D’arcy Norman (2017) in his discussion on the AV systems. I feel that some of the discussion and shared knowledge that he gave during this tour was actually beneficial in overcoming or avoiding some growing pains we encountered.

With the idea that there could have been better management and planning on my part, the project was very successful with implementing new technology, developing courses and launching a brand new program in just over six months. I feel that this success was more attributed to the Agile methodologies used which allowed for a quicker and more iterative development process.

There was also the benefit that as the University of Central Florida (n.d.) discussed, we had institutional support and the knowledge that we would be building something relatively large, extremely quickly. The benefits to the college was that there would be technology programming created and launched for learners in an evolving economy. The challenges and barriers encountered were that this was something that had never been done before at the college, so there was a lot of learning for all departments that needed to be done as the project moved along.

As I moved from an instructor position to a coordinator position, I was able to continue refining the process of launching programs and building them. While the process is continually getting better and being refined, I would definitely say that looking at the project as a whole and creating a charter along with a much more refined schedule has been a great tool implemented. We learned from our initial sprints that sometimes slowing down and planning is better than being agile.

Norman, D. (2017, March 11). Lessons learned: AV systems design in the Taylor Institute. [blog post].

University of Calgary, Learning Technologies Task Force. (2014). Strategic framework for Learning Technologies.

University of Central Florida (n.d.). Institutional capacity and readiness.