Measure the amount of time each of your programmers spend by Division, says Evone Vognsen, Director, Program Development Continuing Education from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She spoke recently at a best practices conference sponsored by LERN.
“Data is our world,” she told the packed room. “And we live and breathe operating margin,” she noted.
One of the new metrics she and her programming staff have recently started to measure is how much time a programmer spends by Division. A Division, by LERN’s definition, is a group of courses or offerings that has one (and it need be only one) of these three things in common: same audience, same subject, or same format.
Then use a similar concept to the Boston Consulting Group stars-cash cows-problem children-dogs chart. Instead of market share and market growth as your axis points use time spent and revenue earned/Operating Margin. Place each of your Divisions in one of the four areas based on Income/Operating Margin and whether the time spent by the programmer is less or more. Then look to see that the amount of programmer staff time is appropriate for each Division area.
That is, your “Star” Division areas should be receiving more time and attention from your programmers. And your Dog Division areas should get the least amount of programmer time.
For more advanced tips on programming, including measuring programmer staff time, see our 8-week online program, New Course Development Institute, beginning in September.