Online Training, 2005,
SkillSoft.
Review by Jon Aleckson
Rating:
In a hurry?
Recommendation
Product Preview/Demo
Untitled Document
Would use of critical path variance analysis, a three-point estimate technique, or resource leveling improve your project scheduling effectiveness? Do you think applying project management skills to implementing training projects will lead to higher quality training?
Most executives familiar with project management would vote in the affirmative. Seeking out employees who can manage project activities and schedule competently is a top leadership priority. Training departments have relied on detail-oriented individuals to get things done by using commonsense to manage projects. However, many high-cost software projects and construction endeavors demand a more educated project manager.
Professionals serious about improving their PM knowledge can acquire a PMP certification from the Project Management Institute. This highly regarded certification has created a cottage industry around studying for the exam. SkillSoft, for example, offers over 40 online courses and displays over 600 project management-related online books on their Books 24/7 website to help individuals fine-tune their project management skills. This review focuses on one online course, Project Scheduling, which covers the topics of estimating an activity's duration, developing a schedule, and controlling that schedule.
SkillSoft is a leader in providing expertly written asynchronous e-courses on a multitude of business subjects. Taking e-learning courses has many advantages over conventional methods of study. Project Scheduling deserves three-and-a-half stars because it maximizes these advantages by providing multiple exercise worksheets (learning aids), real world scenarios, continuous use of check-on-learning assessments, and content that is thorough and aligned with the Project Management Institute's recently revised third edition of the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge). However, a word of caution: you will be entering a zone of content complexity reserved for serious professionals.
The course is well organized into three lessons covering the following topics: inputs, outputs, and tools to estimate activity duration, develop a project schedule, and control the schedule. Simple enough? As a generalist in the development of project management training, I found the content to be targeted to committed pencil pushers. Yet, this is beside the point because SkillSoft specifically aligned this training to the Project Management's PMBOK and the new material found in its most recent edition.
PMBOK authors have managed to develop a science from the art of this subject, complete with its own lexicon and mathematical equations to enable “scientific” guesstimates of how long a project activity will take. There are complex projects involving multiple interlocking activities that deserve the kind of schedule scrutiny the PMBOK recommends. The list of inputs and tools for developing a schedule takes over 75 pages to detail and involves working with the following:
1. Organizational process assets
2. Project scope statement
3. Activity list
4. Activity attributes
5. Project schedule network diagrams
6. Activity response requirements
7. Resource calendar
8. Activity duration estimates
9. Project management plan
This breadth of coverage provides good value.
Taking this course made me wish I had signed up for the mentoring services offered by SkillSoft. As a PMI Charter-Global Registered Education Provider, SkillSoft meets continuing education requirements, which are prerequisites to sit for the Certification Exams. In other words, they know this stuff.
SkillSoft courses reflect a disciplined, well-managed e-course development effort. The use of templates for interactivity and the consistent user interface results in more effective e-learning. Most users should be able to navigate the main menu buttons with ease. For example, “Skill Briefs” and “Job Aids” can be accessed at any time from the main navigation bar located at the bottom of the course template. To their credit, SkillSoft has invested generously in expert writing of multiple problem-based learning scenarios. The usual “water system construction project” was supported with scenarios from the film industry and a coffee shop opening.
I would have appreciated additional characters and voiceover styles similar to another course I reviewed on project manager ethics (Project Management: Ethics and Professional Knowledge). I would have also liked to have seen more in-depth examples on how project management software (or simple spreadsheets?) makes this easier for me. The inclusion of a study guide review sheet would come in handy when cramming for the exam, especially for memorization of term definitions. Because this material is beyond “soft,” the level of complexity of this subject calls for more on-screen questions that relate and tie into the worksheet exercises and more diverse on-screen challenges beyond the overused drag and drop (match term with definition). Here, the efficiency of the e-course template may fall short.
It is difficult to evaluate the learning effectiveness of a single SkillSoft course, considering it often comes with a wealth of supporting material. When taken as a whole—the entire project management curriculum, the SkillPort LMS, Books 24/7, the mentoring capability and links to PMI material—SkillSoft provides a real value and turnkey solution to preparing for the PMP exam.
Things I liked
Here are the most effective course features:
- Pre-test and scoring on main menu
- Use of audio on each page
- Multiple real life scenarios
- Several check-on-learning questions per topic
- Links to job aids or more complex exercises
- SkillPort features like access to over 600 PM books
- Mentor program
Things I didn't like
Here are features of the course that could be improved:
- Not enough “in course/on-screen” tie-in with the job aid exercises
- Check-on-learning limited to using drag-and-drop term definition exercise
- Complex content demands customized interactivity
- Drag and drops require sensitive mouse work
- Voices needs more variety
Recommendation
I highly recommend Project Scheduling to anyone interested in furthering understanding of what it means to be a professional project manager or pursuing a PMP certification.
