Defining a training intervention for a specific project

[Martyn Bullard]

I was in a discussion with our 'project management office' in how we define and agree what training intervention to use for any specific project.

As a head of IS learning, I am involved at the initiation stage of the project. Currently, this will typically be discussing the nature of the project / product with the project manager. At this point we make a decision based on experience as to whether we should provide a physical training intervention and / or elearning, documentation etc.

My question is - are there any heuristics / processes we could go through to make better decisions?

any thoughts from anyone would be greatly appreciate

Martyn Bullard

[Bill Wilson]

Martyn

I see from your original post that you are looking at IS learning. I would suggest you take a look at what you can do within the application in terms of performance support to reduce the "training" that is needed. We just completed a project for a major company on a new IT solution and we were able to work with the development team and we controlled what was in the "help text". They also embedded "?" throughout the application where we could do tips. We also had input in the onscreen messages. Having the learning team control the help text rather than the IT group really makes a difference in the use of that tool.

We did a brief overview (e-learning) to introduce the new application and talk about the changes that would take place in terms of processes with it in place. All the "training" is within the application in terms of step by step how to guides and some "video" to walk folks through key processes and functions.

This requires getting the learning team in early in the development cycle so you are working with the development team and clearly understanding the application.