Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail: How to Create Your School’s Education Technology Strategic Plan(MAPIT®)

FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL is a book for Education Technology professionals who understand that Ed Tech projects are complex and costly, and therefore must be planned and managed just like any other large-scale project. Oftentimes Education Technology professionals move straight from naming an initiative, such as “1 to 1 computing, or BYOD” right into implementation, without taking into consideration the necessary infrastructure, bandwidth and capacity. These requirements may double or even quadruple the overall expenditure. But in recent decades, with the massive call for classroom technology, the large-scale technology programs that have made the news have been huge failures, and have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars, taking some superintendents with them. What is the key to avoiding these failures, and how can you insure that it doesn’t happen to your school? The key is planning and project management. Education Technology Strategic Planning is the subject of this book. It provides a detailed process, called MAPITTM that guides the planner through five phases for developing your school’s Ed Tech Strategic Plan: Needs Identification, Needs Analysis, Recommendations, Feasibility and Implementation.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter One - Needs Identification Chapter Two - Needs Analysis Chapter Three - Recommendations Chapter Four - Feasibility Study Chapter Five - Design & Implementation

About the Author :
Darryl Vidal has a Bachelor’s Degree in Administration, a Master’s Degree in Education and Instructional Technology and has been consulting for schools implementing education technology for over 20 years. His primary instructional focus for over 15 years has been the ever evolving technology classroom. He is currently the Vice President and principal Education Technology Consultant for Southern California-based technology firm Networld Solutions, Inc.

Review :
I have become very familiar with Darryl's writings. He provides a practical, knowledgeable approach to the complexity associated with planning, implementing, and managing projects in complex IT environments. His most recent work around his MAPIT methodology provides tremendous guidance on this subject. I am a big believer in utilizing consistent processes to be successful, and MAPIT is an outstanding methodology for organizations large and small. Darryl has provided a key roadmap on to how to formally document and plan for major technology projects. Because larger scale technology deployments in education are relatively new those who deployed them in the past did not need to do a lot of planning. The past consisted of ‘the computer guy’ setting up the system. What worked for ‘the guy’ to set up a few computers no longer works for tens of thousands of devices or millions in infrastructure spending. During a recent $15M technology infrastructure upgrade we used many of these strategies to adequately plan and implement the project. Large construction projects have been using many of these strategies for decades. Now it is time for strategies to be implemented that are unique to Educational Technology. Radical planning is needed and this book provides the tools necessary to stay on track. In my chair we always start with a dream or a vision. But you can be sure there is always a solid plan behind every dream if it's ever going to become a reality. Daryl has done a great job identifying each part of plans required to be successful when implementing technology based dreams. Darryl Vidal has written another must-read for educational technology professionals, technology coordinators, project managers, business managers and school superintendents. Far too many educational technology projects fail due to the lack of planning and project management. Millions of dollars are wasted each year on failed, stalled, delayed, and struggling IT projects. Darryl provides a strategy and a free tool - MAPITTM - that anyone can use to implement successful IT projects in their school district. Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail provides the insight needed to be a success! Darryl Vidal has provided a book on how to avoid the pit falls of lack of planning when doing IT projects. It gives you the process to have a successful IT implementation whether it is a large or small project. The concepts provided can be utilized not just for IT projects but for any projects school districts or businesses are doing. Read for your IT needs but use for all your projects.