Course Preparation Process Redesign and Implementation

Description

Among my responsibilities at Business Professionals' Network, was overseeing the preparation of all live and live-replay products, which served as the company's primary source of revenue.

Each product has dozens of individual elements that need to be set up in advance of their live or live-replay broadcast. These included setting up the video playback timeline(s), ensuring relevant handouts are available, coordinating with clients, and a number of other specific action items. In addition, there are often certain features that must be customized in non-standard ways for particular programs.

Historically the process had been managed by a few staff members emailing information back-and-forth. However, as the business grew and the volume of courses greatly expanded, that process became difficult to manage and was unacceptably prone to errors.

Drawing on my studies in Enterprise Architecture, I redesigned the process based on kanban project management, a reorganization of staffing, and the implementation of collaborative online tools to help those involved stay on the same page.

The new process allowed us to standardize the course preparation process where possible, while still allowing flexibility for unusual circumstances. It also created a framework to continuously improve the process further over time. It allowed for increased transparency into the process and the introduction of quality control and quality assurance processes, such as defect tracking.

The new process also allowed new staff members to be brought in and scale up capacity much easier. It greatly reduced errors in the process. And, in turn, reduced friction between business units.