“Instructional Project Management: Managing Instructional Design Projects on Site and at a Distance,” by Brenda Litchfield

In this chapter, Litchfield offers an analysis of the skills and characteristics needed to be a good, effective manager (and/or leader) of an instructional design project in a contemporary workplace environment. Basic principles include appropriately timed and consistent communication amongst team members and adopting flexible management style (dependent on the team members and/or groups involved).

I found a fair amount of Litchfield’s analysis and advice interesting, if a little quirky. Some of her takes on “types” seem a little too sweeping, and her consideration of technological issues seem to lag behind a bit. (I was surprised to remind myself that the piece was published in 2008. I would have suspected upwards of a decade earlier….) However, I did appreciate considerations of the difference between (the roles of) leadership and managment, of the different skills and characteristics required to be a good manager (and her humanistic belief that missing ones can be practiced/acquired), and her breakdown (even if not universal) of the different members/groups that one may find in managing an instructional design project (something I’ve not had experience with before).