Forum Discussion
Iteration Fatigue!
We create learning modules and online ed for a number of government agencies. We deliver storyboards that often are reviewed by 6-12 people with various levels of expertise or subject matter expert...
Hi Marguerite, I also make eLearning for the US Federal Government and it can be exhausting. Here are some suggestions that may or may not work for your situation.
Before each course-building project, create a detailed project plan that indicates how many revisions you will do. For example, I like to keep the working group small (preferably 1-3 people) and talk with them each week as I'm building the first draft. Make sure the project owner (the decision-maker for the client) signs and agrees to the project plan. Make it formal.
Once the first draft is done we have two stakeholder reviews where larger groups of stakeholders review the course and provide suggestions. I make no changes to the course during this time. Once all the comments are in, we go through the comments with the working group and decide if those suggestions are in or out. I make the changes, and then we have the second review, which is run the same way.
If there are people who have "veto" power, or the power to say what must be in or out in the course, then that person has to be part of the working group. They can assign a proxy, but only if they are willing to accept the decisions their proxy makes.
Once the two review are done, (or however many formal review you agree to at the beginning of the project) then that's it. The client has to start paying extra for every additional review. Once they know it will cost them money, they will usually pull back. Also let them know there may be charges for out-of-scope changes.
Also understand that in the government, many people feel it's necessary to get their two-cents in, and what they say could have less to do about what they think the course should actually contain, and more about them trying to make a point, or get their pet projects to be covered in the course. So the scope should be carefully defined.
I went through a project last year that took way too long, and no amount of detailed project plans or stern conversations about scope would help. Sometimes there's just no help. Good luck to you!
