Production Planning

quality

time effort

The old saying goes … “On a given project you can have any two of these – high quality, on time or on budget. But you can never have all three.” Most of us have experiences that indicate some truth to the saying.

quality

time budget

The common-sense response to this dilemma is usually planning. The idea seems to be that planning ahead will eliminate inefficiencies, reveal best paths for production and predict barriers in time to remove them. To some extent, this is true. quality

time budget

PLANNING

PERT charts can help you visualize the steps you have to take to finish a project, which ones depend on which others, and therefore what order they must be done in. You can indicate time and people on this kind of planning chart as well.

GANTT charts can help you plot estimated task duration against time and visualize which tasks can be completed in parallel.

On a small project, especially with just one person working, a regular calendar can serve as the primary planning tool.

Planning is most effective when:•Functional and formal requirements are

known and fixed•Stopping rules are known in advance•Task paths are invariant •Participants are familiar with the tasks

to be carried out•Complex tasks can be decomposed into

orderly and non-dependent components

These are not characteristics of any but the simplest design situations.

When goal states, stopping rules and task paths are flexible, participants are not familiar with task paths, and the components of complex tasks are interdependent, the most effective and realistic approach is rapid failure.quality

time budget

RAPIDFAILURE

RAPID FAILURE

Rapid failure is an iterative approach in which contingent commitments are made to interim goals and possible alternative paths. The requirements for a certain commitment are tested rapidly. If results prove promising, a further commitment is made to that path. If the test fails, commitments and alternatives are adjusted quickly and more testing goes on.

RAPID FAILURE

Examples of rapid failure include:• Sketching• Storyboarding• Prototyping• Conducting trials

– conceptual– technical feasibility– usability– acceptability

RAPID FAILURE

RAPID FAILURE

RAPID FAILURE

RAPID FAILURE

RAPID FAILURE

RAPID FAILURE

Consider the topic you have in mind for your website in project 3. What would be some of the optimum ways you can imagine for using media to teach this topic via that website?

ACTIVITY

Consider the topic you have in mind for your website in project 3. What would be some of the optimum ways you can imagine for using media to teach this topic via that website?

NOW – what technical feasibility tests might you need to run in order to figure out if your optimum solution can work?

ACTIVITY

The old saying goes … “On a given project you can have any two of these – high quality, on time or on budget. But you can never have all three.” Most of us have experiences that indicate some truth to the saying.

quality

time budget

Problem with the old saying is, the person who made it up did not consider the additional key factor which is often under your control …

quality

time budget

SCOPE

SCOPE

You can manage the scope of a project in multiple dimensions, some of them more productive than others and most of the dependent on specific circumstances.

»constrain the goals of the project»set the fidelity of production»manage the path of production

SCOPE

SCOPE

Constraining goalsThere are two primary areas in which to constrain the goals of an instructional project:

•Audience•Outcomes

You will not always have the freedom to change constraints in these areas, but you may have more influence over them than you think. Remember that design problems are characterized in part by an openness to negotiating problem definition.

Constraining goalsConstraining the audience for a product limits scope by:

• Reducing the viable options for functional requirements and formal solutions

• Reducing the content required by focusing on the specific needs of a limited audience

Constraining the outcomes for a product can limit scope by:

• reducing the amount, depth and/or type of learning intended to occur and reducing the complexity of the project as a result

Consider the topic you have in mind for your website in project 3. – What audience do you have in mind for

it?– How can that audience be constrained

to limit the scope of the project?– How can you limit the amount, depth or

type of learning outcomes that the product needs to support?

ACTIVITY

What is fidelity?The degree to which an artifact matches some arbitrary finished or ideal state.

Fidelity can apply to prototyping (does or does not match the finished product), or to production value (does or does not match an ideal state).

Fidelity is a component of style. Deliberately low fidelity can be a style of its own.

High fidelity prototypes match a conception of the finished product as closely as possible (although in the case of prototypes, they may not be fully functional).

Low fidelity prototypes capture only the most salient features of a product and use forms that may only approximate those of the final product.

Low fidelity production values should be sufficient for their purpose.

Student has been careful to:•Position camera for best view•Include necessary details•Make lighting even•Keep key detail in focus

Low fidelity production values should be sufficient for their purpose.

Student has been careful to:•Position camera for best view•Include necessary details•Make lighting even•Keep key detail in focus

Professional photographer has also:•Maximized light-dark contrast•Minimized background distraction•Cropped photo for dynamic composition•Adjusted lighting for effect + visibility

Low fidelity production values should be sufficient for their purpose.

Artist has been careful to:•Maintain the same level and type of sketchy treatment in each part of the series•Match the layout and text treatments with the sketches for an overall integration of style•Capture salient details of the process visually and annotate images since they lack photo-real details

Low fidelity production values should be sufficient for their purpose.

In this R521 showcase project, the design team has used limited fidelity as a style by:

•Eliminating background detail•Using simplified contour drawings•Using spot color for emphasis and clarification•Matching the text treatment to the image treatment•Keeping the text and panel treatments clean and consistent

Production pathThe production path is all the steps it takes to get from a specified media design to the finished product.

Production pathThe production path is all the steps it takes to get from a specified media design to the finished product. For example – you want to find an image to use as a basis for an illustration …

find image

Production pathThe production path is all the steps it takes to get from a specified media design to the finished product. For example – you want to find an image to use as a basis for an illustration …

find imagelook on web

Production pathThe production path is all the steps it takes to get from a specified media design to the finished product. For example – you want to find an image to use as a basis for an illustration …

find imagelook on webopen browser

Production pathOnce you begin to unpack a production path, you see the steps that were hidden by a high-level description …

select imagesearch

open browser

evaluate

revise term

These steps are often multiplied across the number of media objects you will use … and they usually precede or follow another sequence of steps …

These steps are often multiplied across the number of media objects you will use … and they usually precede or follow another sequence of steps … which may be followed by another sequence of steps.

place on page

scan reducesize

importtoworkbook

Production path• Simplify and/or standardize production

paths by trying them out quickly and discovering which steps can be eliminated or made routine.

• “Gang” work by preparing materials and applying the same step to several items.

• Plan your production. Use storyboards and production paths to schedule work, sequence work and assemble materials.

Consider the IST showcase project on Cells and Their Parts. http://education.indiana.edu/~istdept/R521/– What media objects (smallest units)

were required to produce the materials for this project?

– What were the contingencies? (Which objects had to be done before others could be completed?)

– What might have been a viable production path for creating the teacher’s materials on this project?

ACTIVITY