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Improving Department-Wide Efficiencies within Content Development Marie Erickson, Nicole Hamilton, Kelly Pomeroy Introduction Deliverables Development Benefits Method Management would like to use tool to analyze processing time to identify bottlenecks, and benchmark for future projects. Figure 1: Fishbone Diagram Extracted from Stakeholder Interviews Data Tool Stakeholder Interviews Figure 2: Process for Completing Project Tasks Continuous Education Scrum Plan Current State: • 2 weekly meetings • Blockers, HR/Admin, Benchmarking • <50% time spent on Blockers • Satisfaction Survey: overall 3.5/5.0 rating Proposed Future State: • Modified traditional Agile Scrum framework • Daily standups • HR/Admin and Benchmarking as needed • Scrum Master position allows for leadership opportunities NOTE: Started phased implementation, multiple trial runs needed to confirm improvement Abilities: • Analysis by project and by sub- discipline • Calculates average time per question • Displays information graphically Figure 3: ASUColPhysMechL2 Info Maintain: • Relevant professional development in HR meetings • Allow for suggestions and presentation opportunities • Training by peers Modify: • Show and Tell for separate job descriptions (bi-monthly) • Discussion sessions instead of presentations (hot keys, shortcuts, style, etc.) Propose: • Resource Master for each team (to keep track of scattered resources within department) • Cross-team mentorship program within sub disciplines Deliverable Related Benefits Scrum Plan Increased team productivity and communication Increased leadership opportunities Creates a goal oriented workplace Data Tool Allows management to make educated guess for future benchmarking and planning Continuous Education Creates opportunity for personal growth for employees’ general career path Increased leadership opportunities Topic consideration will increase attendance and participation Acknowledgements: Anna Milner – Director of Content Development, Lauren Knapp – Content Development Manager, Dr. Binil Starly – Faculty Advisor WebAssign is an online educational tool used to enhance the learning of high school and college students. The Content Development team creates questions either from scratch or from textbook material and codes the questions to be published and used on the WebAssign platform. WebAssign recently implemented a number of changes within the Content Development department. Management was unsure if they were operating at peak efficiency, so our team was called in to be a fresh set of eyes for the department. First, we interviewed about 15 employees within the Content Development department to get a grasp on the atmosphere and dynamic of the department. From initial analysis, we decided to pursue three main deliverables: 1. Create and agile scrum plan 2. Develop a dynamic process time analysis tool 3. Present a continuous education template
