Project Planning
If you’ve defined the project strategy, you know the “what” and “why” behind your project. Project Planning drills into the “how.”
Project Plan
Teams in their planning phase may want to take a first pass at a few of the following sections before getting started with testing the concepts and value propositions of their proposed project. They could start with a draft of the summary, team, mission, use cases, worker/learner co-design, and success metrics without spending time planning the solution until they have more clarity on which problems to solve. This will give them more flexibility in choosing solutions before drafting a long plan.
Note that this section addresses many items you may be asked to supply if you are applying for funding or proposing a project within your organization. It can also serve as a helpful project charter. However, you may use the other templates provided with this Guide to go deeper or to find additional guidance in answering some of these questions. If you have already completed other templates, you may find that you can simply summarize your responses in addressing the questions below. (Or, you can skip them - you are free to choose your own journey!)
To build your implementation plan, reflect on the table and answer the questions on the template.
| Component | Guidance | Go Deeper |
|---|---|---|
| Project Summary | Clearly highlight the purpose and approach of the implementation project. Include a clear, descriptive title - this will help you communicate about your project. | |
| Mission and Statement of Need | Clearly describe the project's mission, including how issuing LERs as VCs addresses a critical SBHA problem or opportunity in the education or workforce system of focus for the project. | |
| Sector, Scenario, and SBHA Use Cases | Provide an overview of the contexts for issuing and using LERs as VCs in your project. This may include details of the sector focused on implementation, the learning and/or work scenarios, the populations and organizations to be served, and individual stories that will directly benefit from the use of LERs issued as VCs. | |
| Skills-Job Mapping, Assessment, and Framework | Outline an action plan to map and describe the skills needed in each job (existing and potential) for current and future roles within the organization, industry, or region; identify or develop the skills assessments and a skill framework to align organizational skills goals with industry standards. | |
| LER and LER Lifecycle Specification | Outline the processes for awarding Learning and Employment Records (LERs) and issuing/verifying them as VCs. Summarize how LERs will flow between systems across the LER Lifecycle (Issuing, Receiving/Managing, and Verifying), so they get to the identified consumers. | |
| Solution Components for Issuing, Receiving, and Verifying LERs issued as VCs | Provide an overview of the components of the solution for issuing and verifying LERs as VCs and how they will serve the LER Lifecycle (e.g., issuer dashboard, issuer and/or credential registry, digital wallet, personal storage system for data back-up, verifier, analytics dashboard), for the use cases outlined in this plan. You may include data models and technical specifications you plan to use (e.g., W3C VC, OB 3.0, CTDL, etc). Include a summary of achievement data systems, evidence storage systems, and other integrations as needed. as well as possible systems where verification results turn into new opportunities (e.g., HRIS, ATS, etc). | |
| Partner Engagement | Outline the key partners across your project community and LER Ecosystem, including employers, HR professionals, hiring managers, educational partners, and workers and learners to engage, and a plan to include partners throughout the project. | |
| Success Metrics and Evaluation Plan | Clearly describe the success metrics and KPIs used to evaluate delivery of outcomes of the solution; document methods of data collection, analysis, and reporting for evaluating impact on worker and learning opportunities and employer goals. | |
| Scalability | This section should clearly describe how the demonstration will impact the LER ecosystem more broadly and how it will prepare the teams and partners to scale this work over time. | |
| Budget | Provide a detailed budget clearly outlining the financial resources for implementation and socialization activities. (For guidance in creating a project budget, see Sample Budget section below and corresponding budget template.) |
Sample Budget
It is important for any type of project to develop a comprehensive budget and financial plan. We’ve identified a series of key activities that are often critical to include and price in a budget. Projects in their planning phase (see Project Strategy section) may want a lighter-weight budget with no or extremely minimal allocation for solutions, tools, legal, training, and evaluation. Instead, they may want to focus their spending on personnel, use cases, and solution research.
From a review of project implementation budgets, we’ve identified the largest costs are personnel (est. 30% of budget) and community engagement activities (est. 25% of the budget) for resourcing the people and partners to effectively manage the large-scale culture and system changes needed, including educational, and socializing and technology onboarding activities. Technology is the third-largest spend in the budget (est. 15% of budget) and covers solution customizations, integrations, and deployment of solutions, as well as product licensing fees. Note: These are estimations, and many projects vary in their budget allocation to align with community and specific project needs.
To build your implementation budget, reflect on the table and complete the Sample Budget Template.
| Component | est. % | Guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel | 30% |
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| Community (User) Engagement Activities | 25% |
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| Data and Technology Solution | 15% |
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| Skill-Job Mapping and Assessment Tools | 5% |
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| Consulting and External Support | 5% |
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| Training and Development Costs | 5% |
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| Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Activities | 5% |
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| Legal and Compliance Costs | 4% | Budget for legal consultations to ensure that the solution implementation complies with relevant State and institutional data access, use, and privacy laws and industry regulations. Include any costs associated with updating policies and procedures. |
| Travel and Transportation | 4% |
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| Project Evaluation | 4% |
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Project Risks and Mitigation
Every worthwhile project carries some risk, along with a high potential for reward! Naming potential obstacles you might face will help you plan effectively to overcome them.
When implementing a project to issue, use, and verify LERs as VCs, challenges or risks you may face include the technical complexities that can arise from integrating systems, ensuring data privacy and security, and compliance with regulations such as GDPR, which can be daunting. Interoperability issues may also surface as the system must seamlessly work with various educational institutions, employers, and verification platforms. Additionally, one of the biggest challenges can be resistance to change from people and organizations accustomed to traditional record and credentialing methods can also hinder adoption.
Your team will need to be prepared to address potential challenges and risk, and anticipate some mitigation strategies. And remember - you are not alone! There are teams and individuals who can help you navigate risks and support you in achieving your project’s goals. To connect with others working in the LER Ecosystem, refer to the list of LER Communities.
To build your risk mitigation plan, reflect on the questions in the Project Plan template.
Team
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