Federal Grants Course Project Management

In my role as an instructional designer on a project to develop a grants-related training course for federal government employees, I was primarily responsible for product development. However, this project provided a unique opportunity for me to contribute beyond instructional design—into both project management and product strategy—because it served as a proof-of-concept for a new outcome-based learning (OBL) product approach I had pitched and championed within my organization.

Although I was not the official project manager, I worked with the project lead to shape our development strategy and execution plan. This collaboration allowed me to influence key decisions related to the design, scope, and delivery of the OBL approach, while also giving me hands-on experience with the project lifecycle, stakeholder alignment, and risk awareness. I was not only building the course—I was helping lay the foundation for how we might build future courses using this OBL framework.

After developing the course product, I took time to reflect on the broader project management dimensions of my involvement. I wanted to sharpen my own project management capabilities while clarifying how the project aligned with and advanced the organization’s emerging OBL initiative. As part of this reflection, I documented a full RAID+C analysis (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies, and Constraints) specific to the project, along with a detailed risk register.

These tools not only helped me structure my thinking, but also built my confidence in communicating about project risk and strategic planning. Ultimately, this experience strengthened my ability to identify and assess project risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies, and equipped me to more effectively manage those factors in future project environments.