65 i i M i€¦ · 65 i i M i 2 About Our Tipsters Karen Beckman, Project Manager, SoftAssist, Inc. As a project manager, Karen Beckman oversees the development of more than 35 courses

65 Tips on Managing Projects and SMEs for eLearning i

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65 Tips on Managing Projects and SMEs for eLearning ii

65 Tips on Managing Projects and SMEs for eLearning: Proven and Practical Solutions

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

About Our Tipsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Twenty-Five Tips on Dealing with Stakeholders and Planning Your Project . . . . 5

Thirteen Tips on Choosing and Managing Your Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Nine Tips on Effective Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Eight Tips on Constraints and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Ten Tips on Quality Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

65 Tips on Managing Projects and SMEs for eLearning 1

Introduction

Dear Colleagues,

All the great eLearning ideas in the world don’t matter if you can’t complete a project. If you don’t identify the core issues, find the right subject matter experts (SMEs), agree on goals, build a good team, and keep the lines of communication open, your project faces an uphill climb.

With that in mind, our upcoming eLearning Guild Online Forum on “Managing Projects and SMEs for eLearning: Proven and Practical Solutions” (July 26 & 27) will focus on how to help your projects — and your SMEs — stay on time and on target.

We asked the presenters for that forum, noted experts in the field, to give us their top tips for managing both projects and SMEs. What follows are 65 tips from 11 contribu-tors, focusing on topics such as defining the parameters of a project, the importance of sign-offs and written approvals, what to do when you’re out of resources, and what fac-tors drive quality.

We edited the tips and organized them into five categories: Dealing with Stakeholders and Planning Your Project, Choosing and Managing Your Team, Effective Communica-tion, Constraints and Challenges, and Quality Control.

I hope you find a great deal of valuable information in this eBook, and are able to use many of the tips to simplify and improve future projects. I also hope you consider at-tending or presenting at an upcoming eLearning Guild Online Forum!

Sincerely,

Chris BenzDirector of Online Events, The eLearning Guild


About Our Tipsters

Karen Beckman, Project Manager, SoftAssist, Inc.

As a project manager, Karen Beckman oversees the development of more than 35 courses per year from inception to delivery, and is responsible for keeping projects on track and viable. Over the last 20 years, Karen has honed her skills on projects for Novartis Pharmaceutical, Merck, Terumo, Walgreens, Reckitt Bensicker, Connexin Software, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and many others. Karen be-lieves that the most important factors in project management are effective commu-nication, establishing proper expectations, maintaining project scope, gaining client confidence, and celebrating successes.

Sudeshna Chatterjee, Independent Consultant

Sudeshna Chatterjee is an instructional designer and project manager with 15 years of experience across various domains. Sudeshna has spent many years working with SMEs, particularly for the purpose of documenting tacit knowledge. She recently left an educational start-up company to become an independent consultant.

Jennifer De Vries, Speaker Coach and Online Host, The eLearning Guild

Jennifer De Vries is a speaker coach and online host for The eLearning Guild’s Online Forums, and is president and chief solutions architect for BlueStreak Learning. She has over 20 years’ experience managing eLearning programs for organizations such as IBM, Motorola, Joint Commission Resources, and Thomson/NETg. Jennifer, who is a certified performance technologist, is best known for her groundbreaking report on rapid eLearning published by Bersin & Associates and for her logical, practical, busi-ness-oriented approach to eLearning. She frequently writes and speaks on the topic of eLearning, and OnlineUniversityRankings.org named her one of the 20 most influential people in online learning.

Dave Goodman, Director, SoftAssist, Inc.

Dave Goodman has over 20 years of experience as a senior consultant, manager, and director. Dave has managed over 300 assignments ranging from multimillion-dollar communication installations to interactive and online learning engagements. He is one of the original partners of SoftAssist, Inc. Prior to SoftAssist, Dave was the director of technology planning for Towers-Perrin, a global human-resources consulting firm.


Allan Harris, Senior Project Manager, Wells Fargo Bank

Allan Harris has worked in training and instructional design for more than 15 years. He has always emphasized a focus on the business when managing or developing training programs. Allan holds an M.B.A. degree and a PMP certification, and he strives to en-sure training projects deliver relevant results to the business and stakeholders.

Sumeet Moghe, Director, Knowledge and Learning Services, ThoughtWorks

Sumeet Moghe is an L&D professional with about a decade’s experience in various as-pects of the trade. He’s worked with IT and ITES organizations throughout his career and has seen the world both as a client and an internal service provider. By education, he’s a technologist — he holds a master’s degree in computer applications. In eLearn-ing, he is the author of www.learninggeneralist.com, and he’s a featured and recog-nized blogger on several lists. His passion is to marry technology and common-sense educational practices to create learning experiences that are “best of breed.”

Gus Prestera, Learning and Performance Strategist (Principal), Prestera FX, Inc.

For over 15 years, Gus Prestera has helped organizations get better performance re-sults from their people. As a consultant, Gus has worked in a variety of industries —the life sciences, financial services, technology, and manufacturing— supporting their orga-nization-development, talent-management, and enterprise-learning initiatives. He has led small and large teams and has owned and operated his own consulting firm. Gus enjoys building teams, developing future leaders, and engineering systems that enable people to succeed in their work. He holds a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems, an M.B.A., a B.S. in Marketing, and a Certified Performance Technologist designation.

Edward Reilly, World Trade Training Manager, Mentor Graphics Corporation

Edward Reilly has been in the training field over 15 years, developing and delivering world-wide training programs to support a variety of business objectives. He has held training roles at IBM and Adidas, and currently manages product- and business-skills training for the sales, support, and consulting divisions. He is especially passionate about maximizing training technology and intercultural awareness for the internal trainers.


Anita Rosen, President, ReadyGo, Inc.

Anita Rosen is a successful trainer and speaker on Internet- and Web-training-related topics. She has appeared as a guest speaker on many business radio programs, in-cluding regular appearances on Jim Blasingame’s Small Business Advocate. Anita has been a contributing editor to the I.T. Times, and keynote speaker for a number of con-ferences, including conferences given by the Republic of Singapore, French Telecom, and the American Management Association. She has written four books: E-Learning 2.0, Effective IT Project Management, E-Commerce Question and Answer Book, and Looking into Intranets and the Internet, all published by AMACOM.

Shawn Rosler, Senior Systems Analyst, Geisinger Health Systems

Shawn Rosler has been an instructional designer and developer of dynamic, inter-active, and highly efficient computer and Web-based training for nearly seven years. Shawn is a frequent contributor to various industry-based publications; his article “Trim-ming the Fat” was featured in T&D Magazine. Shawn has presented to academic, med-ical, and corporate audiences, covering an expansive array of topics, including at The eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions Conference & Expo in 2009 and 2010. From the basics of adult-learning theory to the real-world application of converting instructor-led training to a computer or Web base, he is an evangelist for trimming down processes while keeping them effective.

Lou Russell, CEO, Russell Martin & Associates

Lou Russell is a dynamic, entertaining speaker and a topic expert and author in the fields of training and performance, project management, and leadership. Her humor and positive outlook come through in every presentation she makes, and even the gnar-liest topics will bring you a giggle. Whether giving a keynote address for hundreds or facilitating a workshop for small groups, Lou’s insights spark a memorable creative chord, and she can turn any setting into an interesting learning experience with immedi-ate impact. No one leaves her sessions without new ideas, concrete tools, and tech-niques to apply immediately to their biggest challenges.

The eLearning Guild | 120 Stony Point Rd., Suite 125 | Santa Rosa, CA 95401 | +1.707.566.8990

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July 26 & 27, 2012

Managing Projects and SMEs for eLearning: Proven and Practical SolutionsWhether you are an eLearning designer, developer, trainer, or manager, you probably need to deal with project-management

issues and with subject-matter experts. Do you have the time and resources you need to lead or contribute to a successful

project? How can you get your subject-matter experts (SMEs) to be partners in, rather than obstacles to, project success?

Join this Online Forum to learn proven strategies and tactics for successfully managing eLearning projects and SMEs.

Register for an individual Online Forum for $495 ($395 for Guild Members) and get access to the live event plus the recordings of all ten sessions for 12 full months.

Register Now at http://bit.ly/registerolf96

Become an eLearning Guild Member-Plus and get access to all Online Forums — the live events plus the 700-session archive — for 12 full months, all for only $695.

Join Now at http://bit.ly/joinolf96

How to Attend...

OPENiNg SESSiON

101 - insanity is a Constraint for an SME, Lou Russell, Russell Martin & Associates

CLOSiNg SESSiON

601 - What is Really important to Your Learning Project?, Anita Rosen, ReadyGo Inc.

MANAgiNg ELEARNiNg PROJECTS

201 - Managing eLearning Projects: A Survival guide for instructional Designers, Gus Prestera, Prestera FX, Inc.

301 - Blending ADDiE and PMBOK for Successful Training Projects, Allan Harris, Wells Fargo Bank

MANAgiNg ELEARNiNg SMES

202 - Leading SMEs to Water (and How to Make Them Drink), Shawn Rosler, Geisinger Health System

302 - getting the Content You Need from Your SMEs: A Streamlined Approach, Jennifer De Vries, The eLearning Guild

MOViNg TO THE CLOUD

401 - Agile Estimation and Release Planning Techniques that Really Work, Sumeet Moghe, ThoughtWorks

501 - Why Projects Fail: Recovery Tips, Dave Goodman & Karen Beckman, SoftAssist, Inc.

MANAgiNg ELEARNiNg SMES

402 - Acquiring Tacit Knowledge from SMEs, Sudeshna Chatterjee, Independent Consultant

502 - Turning Your SMEs into Savvy Content Developers, Edward Reilly, Mentor Graphics Corporation

THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012 FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2012

Register for this Online Forum Best Value — All Online Forums

Two Days . Ten Sess ions . Rea l Lea rn in g .

Learn more at http://bit.ly/olf96info


Twenty-Five Tips on Dealing with Stakeholders and Planning Your Project

Planning a project takes time, but it’s possibly the most important of any step in the process. If you rush it, or don’t plan for contingen-cies, you may end up digging an inescapable hole. Our experts pro-vide guidance in laying a sturdy foundation for your project.

When initiating a project, talk to the sponsor and the stakeholders about what they en-vision the project accomplishing. Don’t get too caught up in the specific wording yet. Get them to paint a picture in your mind, and then work out the specific details on the deliverables. Sometimes we get so involved in the details of what we are creating we can lose sight of the real end goals.

Allan Harris

Remember to include only those people who’ll actually do the work in the estimation meetings.

Sumeet Moghe

Project schedules should always be bottom up — never top down.

Anita Rosen

Assess the roles and needs of stakeholders. Educate stakeholders about the process, and help them understand expectations. Manage their emotional needs (safety, belong-ing, esteem, and self-actualization) and keep them informed throughout the process.

Gus Prestera

Define what is “out of scope,” how it will be measured, who decides, what will occur if one side disagrees, who will pay, and how much it will cost to complete an out-of-scope task.

Karen Beckman and Dave Goodman

Understand why your learners are here. Why do the learners care? Focus on skills rather than a rundown of features or a knowledge dump. What, specifically, should your learners be able to do after class? Consider ending your course outline with the follow-ing statement: “After this session, you will be able to …” Then, list the takeaways for your session. Avoid words like “learn” and “understand,” and instead identify skills or actions you expect them to have or perform.

Edward Reilly


With stakeholders, act as a process consultant.

Gus Prestera

Agile estimation works when you’ve got your project requirements broken down into small, independent requirements — use the INVEST acronym (independent, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small, testable) to split your requirements.

Sumeet Moghe

Before starting a project write down your project goals.

Anita Rosen

When talking to stakeholders about a project, watch out for phrases like, “the project must do X,” or, “the project cannot do Y.” Technically, these are requirements and con-straints. While they may not be specific outcomes, they mark the boundaries of where you can go and what you can do. They are critical, and you want to make sure to meet any requirements and constraints you agree to. You may also need to consider these requirements and constraints when building a project’s schedule and budget, and make sure to build a realistic project that can achieve success. If you can’t meet a re-quirement or a constraint, discuss it immediately. Don’t agree to something you can’t do!

Allan Harris

Before you meet with an SME, make yourself a form (electronically in Word or on pa-per) to ensure that you capture all the pertinent information in one interview. If you’re gathering information about a procedure, the form should include:

• What you need (as the learner) to have or do before you start

• When to do the procedure (or what are the cues that tell you when you need to do this procedure?)

• The procedural steps

• The result (or how do you know when you’ve done it right?)

• An example or case study of doing this right (or how would I recognize a master performer?)

• Common errors to avoid (or how would I recognize someone who is doing this less than masterfully?)

Jennifer De Vries

Promote direct, free-flowing communication with stakeholders.

Gus Prestera


Let your learners practice and test their knowledge. Consider adding labs or quizzes to your training session. If your learners have an opportunity to review their knowledge or practice new skills, their retention will improve.

Edward Reilly

Don’t outsource your project until you have written down your goals, identified your au-dience, and identified what the project is.

Anita Rosen

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With stakeholders, make friends and earn points.

Gus Prestera

Remember that shortcutting the requirements work will create more chaos, rework, and crises down the road. You should pay now with some attention to detail, or you’ll pay later with unreasonable workloads.

Lou Russell

Estimation is relative, so make sure you establish a notion of scale and have a few sam-ple sizes available during the exercise.

Sumeet Moghe

Before creating or using existing content, create your learning objective.

Anita Rosen

Do your homework. This can be challenging if you’re working on projects in diverse do-mains. Awareness (or, I should say, in-depth awareness) of the subject matter helps you frame better questions during knowledge acquisition. Your interest will motivate the SME to give more to the project.

Sudeshna Chatterjee

Don’t commit to something without consulting your team.

Gus Prestera

Be very clear about the business goals, scope, and project objectives before you start talking requirements. If the project manager is not clear about what these things are, requirements won’t work or matter. Be an active owner of the success of the project.

Lou Russell

Choose your authoring tools after you figure out your project.

Anita Rosen

Use planning poker or “rock-scissors-paper” throwing to help people say what they re-ally estimate the size to be.

Sumeet Moghe


Sometimes technology is not the answer ... don’t be afraid to tell the client “no.” Some-times your SMEs or clientele are going to fall in love with the idea of the computer-based training (CBT) and think it will be a cure-all that will solve all of their problems. We know better — don’t be afraid to tell them so. In the short term, there may be re-sentment or frustration with that call, but in the long term, if it’s the right call, you should be able to illustrate that fact to them. This will not only make them trust you as a resource more, but they’ll be more open to any suggestions you may have in the future.

Shawn Rosler

When managing stakeholders, negotiate … don’t give something away for nothing.

Gus Prestera


Thirteen Tips on Choosing and Managing Your Team

Your team is at the center of your project. You want your team to be a well-oiled machine, but even the finest engine needs a tune-up now and then. Our tipsters offer suggestions on choosing your team, lending a helping hand, and giving the recognition your team deserves.

Standardize, standardize, standardize. At any point that you can possibly do so, create a template or a form to aid in the design and development of CBT. This not only helps your team understand the process, but it aids in other ways, such as making onboard-ing of new designers and developers easier and bringing SMEs into the process in a more organized fashion.

Shawn Rosler

When people need to collaborate, provide structure and guidance.

Gus Prestera

It’s intoxicating to be someone that everyone needs to talk to. Do everything you can to fight the personal ego involved with this. Enable others and help them become self-suf-ficient. Knowledge is not power — sharing knowledge is power.

Lou Russell

Try not to change project managers mid-project. Everyone has a different expectation and understanding. A new PM might mean starting the project over, or at least require significant rework.


SMEs are the experts ... so let them be the experts. It really is as simple as that. For the veritable plethora of courses that we, as designers and developers, are responsible for creating, let the SME be the SME. Even in a situation like mine, where our focus is EHR (electronic health records)-based CBTs, there’s enough of a variety of required expertise to make it a wise move.

Shawn Rosler


Consider providing small-group or one-on-one training for SMEs. Remember that each training session is an opportunity for you to teach by example and model the skills you are trying to instill in your SMEs. Depending on the formats the SME will use, potential training topics may include:

• Train the trainer

• Presentation skills

• Authoring tools

• How to facilitate engaging Webinars

• Designing and delivering remote labs

Edward Reilly

The best SMEs for creating eLearning requirements are also critical resources to the rest of the business. It is predictable that everyone will need them at the same time and this should not be a surprise. When possible, SMEs should hold uninterrupted chunks of time for strategic work like eLearning development, and leave at least half their day open for fire fighting.

Lou Russell

Minimize dependencies — enable parallel workflows.

Gus Prestera

Let the SMEs bear some of the burden ... and show them the benefit of doing so. When you give them the responsibility of corralling the knowledge we need to create effective training, they may give some feedback that they feel like they’re doing our job. Illustrate to them that, while they may very well be performing a small part of the design process, the time, money, and effort saved by eliminating the review-cycle-of-doom is well worth some time up front.

Shawn Rosler

Make sure your SME shares your project goals.

Anita Rosen

When people need to review or test, micro-manage that process to minimize rework, churn, and delays.

Gus Prestera


Don’t assume the SME knows what eLearning is. If you’re working with older SMEs, or those working in traditional sectors such as manufacturing who have limited expo-sure to new modes of training, you may have to spend additional time making them un-derstand how eLearning courses are structured. Sometimes SMEs want to see all the content on PowerPoint presentations or course slides. You may have to spend some time helping them visualize eLearning as a blend of course content, online references, and performance-support tools.

Sudeshna Chatterjee

Your project succeeds because of the hard work and dedication of your project team. They are the people who do the work so everyone succeeds. Remember that fact as your project accomplishes major milestones or when it completes. Recognize them. Congratulate them. Make sure to reward and recognize them for the hard work they contributed to the team. Sometimes it can be a simple public recognition from the proj-ect manager or the project sponsor. Sometimes you may even include a task in the project plan to celebrate when things conclude!

Allan Harris


Nine Tips on Effective Communication

Good communication is the key to keeping a project on track. Do you have a common vocabulary? Are you asking the right questions … and are you asking the right people? Here, our experts explain how to keep the lines of communication open with your project.

Communicate, communicate, and communicate. Communication is the number one task for almost all project managers. If you are in doubt about whether you should com-municate something, do it.

Allan Harris

Write your requirements down, identify your terms, and agree on the terms’ definitions and expectations. When you say “prototype,” the person you’re saying it to must au-tomatically think: 10 screens of an eLearning course with text and graphics on each page, two interactions, a knowledge check, two assessment questions with feedback, navigation, and a GUI.


Pursue, pursue, pursue. Very rarely are an SME’s KRAs (key result areas) linked to the eLearning project. It’s up to you to make the most of the association. Set time for regu-lar interactions (daily or weekly, as per the length of the project). Figure out the best time of the day to connect. And don’t get discouraged if a couple of sessions push out or never happen. Keep up the phone calls and e-mails. I personally prefer connecting over Skype or on the phone, because a lot of disconnects and doubts can be thrashed out in real time.

Sudeshna Chatterjee

Always involve those who are doing the actual tasks when making estimates for the work amount and/or its duration. While you may have an idea of how much time some-thing will take, those who are actually doing the work will have a better idea.

Allan Harris

Tease out assumptions during the estimation meeting and record them. When assump-tions change, speak to your client to change the estimates.

Sumeet Moghe


Agree on proper documentation and sign-offs or written approvals. Never assume that something is approved if it is not written down. Keep track of all correspondence. Dur-ing telephone calls or Web sessions, have someone take notes for the record. Don’t push the notes down someone’s throat (e.g., “on December 12th you said…”), but have the notes available as needed.


Where there are handoffs, promote over-communication.

Gus Prestera

If your project schedule does not meet corporate dates, provide management with alternatives.

Anita Rosen

Learn to communicate visually. Use pictures, simple charts, and metaphors to commu-nicate the requirements that this project entails. Avoid lengthy text documents; every-one will sign off on the documents just so they don’t have to read them.

Lou Russell


Eight Tips on Constraints and Challenges

The one thing that you can count on in every project is that some-thing will eventually go wrong. You can expect it; what makes the dif-ference between success and failure is how you respond. Our tip-sters offer pointers on how to make sure a challenge is only a bump in the road.

Pay extra attention to chokepoints in the process, places where the process can bog down or put a project in jeopardy. Build buffers and contingencies into high-risk areas.

Gus Prestera

Keep documented examples in your back pocket for future conflicts. Any time you think you’ve proven your case (about SME-based design, for example) to everyone you’d ever need to, someone new comes along. Save examples, save statistics, save every-thing you can — so that when it comes up again (and it will), you’ll be ready with more information than you had the last time.

Shawn Rosler

If your client says, “I am a perfectionist and this project won’t be complete until I am satisfied,” walk away from the project or buy a large bottle of aspirin. You will not win.


Insanity is a project constraint for an SME.

Lou Russell

Use the parameters of complexity, volatility, and completeness to estimate risk at the re-quirements level and extrapolate that data to build a notion of project contingency.

Sumeet Moghe

Know when it might be best to stop the project. Read “The Chaos Report” by the Standish Group International, Inc. and reflect on it.


Be proactive about managing risk … know where the process can break down and provide extra support, structure, and guidance.

Gus Prestera


Say yes to saying no. When you are out of resources (time, budget, people, energy) there are only two choices. A typical choice is to deny the reality of the situation, work 24 hours a day, send frightful e-mails, drink too much caffeine, and do the work ex-tremely poorly, meaning you’ll do it again later. The more difficult and strategic choice for you and the business is to cut the scope of the work and focus on the more critical parts to do well. This provides the right quality for the most critical business needs.

Lou Russell

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Ten Tips on Quality Control

It doesn’t matter how closely you adhered to your plans or how well you met your deadlines if the final product isn’t solid. Can learners use it easily? Does it meet their needs? Is it a star for your compa-ny … or just another item checked off a list? Our experts’ advice will help ensure your project delivers on expectations.

After releasing a course, go back to see if it met your initial goals — and don’t forget to tell your organization when your project succeeds.

Anita Rosen

Develop a quality-assurance plan. Develop quality standards, and promote visibility and accountability.

Gus Prestera

Quality is how well the results the project delivers align to the stakeholder’s expecta-tions. Quality is an important component to monitor and manage throughout a project. Given that, it doesn’t need to take a lot of time if you plan for it. Consider having a third party or another SME review the work under creation. Provide them with a list of the various requirements for them to verify. Adding these reviews may add a few days to a project schedule, but the likelihood of meeting the stakeholder’s requirements go up considerably.

Allan Harris

Save time, but don’t cut corners. Anywhere you can save time, do so ... but never at the expense of quality. Always maintain a critical eye to the balance between the two. Gone are the days of “good, fast, cheap … you can only have two.” Knowledge con-sumers are savvy, and know just enough to be dangerous. Our product needs to be good, fast, and cheap at all times.

Shawn Rosler


Improve your facilitation skills, and take every opportunity to practice. The same factors that we appreciate in a classroom setting — voice, posture, body language, and eye contact — have parallels in the online world. Learn to encourage interaction in meaning-ful ways. Pause for questions and encourage discussion. In the Webinar format, tools like polls, chat, and whiteboards engage remote learners and help hold their attention. Follow-up e-mail support provides them an opportunity for offline discussions and additional learning.

Edward Reilly

Understand what factors drive quality:

• Understanding organizational and stakeholder requirements

• Understanding learner and work context

• Access to subject-matter expertise

• Great content, interaction, and media design

• Sound development practices

Design the process with those factors in mind.

Gus Prestera

Don’t forget to quality assure and beta test your course — before you release it to a general audience.

Anita Rosen

Define a “review cycle.” How long will it be, who will be included, who finally arbitrates the changes, and how many reviews will be held at each stage of the project.


Identify someone responsible for updating or taking down each course when the con-tent becomes stale or unnecessary.

Anita Rosen

Think like the learner. Imagine yourself in the shoes of the learner. There are no stupid questions. If it has occurred to you, it might occur to the learner as well. During your discussions with the SME, try to absorb knowledge and information as a learner would. This will help you make your courseware more lucid.

Sudeshna Chatterjee

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65 i i M i€¦ · 65 i i M i 2 About Our Tipsters Karen Beckman, Project Manager, SoftAssist, Inc. As a project manager, Karen Beckman oversees the development of more than 35 courses