Software Application Rollout Training (Part 3)
This is the third installment in a three-part series on responding to the challenge of software application rollout training. Or as some may call it..."What to do when the house is on fire."
Use Rapid Prototyping to Ensure Alignment
Developing quick, short prototypes for training components and putting them through stakeholder and/or SME review ensures you are on the right track early in the development process. Plus, you can avoid heavy revisions on later components because in the early prototypes, you'll more quickly see the types and depth of revisions you'll be getting. Once you adjust for these things, most of the revisions will be entirely due to software changes.
Regularly Report Your Progress
Inform your stakeholders of your progress on a regular basis. Although it seems counterintuitive to add the additional work of status reporting to your plate, doing so has a calming effect on stakeholders and SMEs alike. It gives them a rough idea of when you'll need them and it keeps a collaborative atmosphere in the situation.
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
As a Learning and Development professional, you are very likely committed and driven, and you care very deeply about the audiences who will take this training. The dream of producing training in an ideal situation with all the time, money and SME expertise you ever wanted dangles in the stratosphere for most of us. The truth in real life is the software application rollout is a house on fire, and we are there to put out the flames.
Your learners deserve good quality training. It is possible to put out that fire, and to deliver a training program that ensures they can roll onto the new software with confidence and competence. To that end, bear in mind all your training and expertise, and use your judgment about how to apply it selectively and judiciously. Below are words of wisdom from a Michaels & Associates client and veteran of software application rollout training who has also worked in an Agile software development environment.
"[In an Agile] software development environment, the best you can hope for is a 'B-' or 'C' level training effort. The fact is, we are not going to get all the resources we'd like to do the 'A' level training for software rollout training development, and the fact may be that we can only do 'A' level training on 80% or less of the time, instead of the 100% we strive to do. The magic bullet may be found in ensuring there are ready and willing resources to support employees post-implementation."
Director, Learning Resources and Organizational Effectiveness
Scottsdale Insurance, a Nationwide Insurance company
Any software development environment can offer these and similar challenges and without adapting well-used methods, Agile can emphasize an already stretched training task. By using rapid prototype methods to adapt to rapidly changing software, and by establishing expectations in advance, you can ensure the training will be better than learners would have without your efforts. Emphasis should be on getting the right training into the right hands in the right priority, not whether every step and action is thoroughly documented. Don't sweat the small stuff.
In Conclusion
The next time you're scorched from the heat of trying to build a solid, yet rapidly developed training program for software in flux, follow these flame retarding guidelines and deliver winning results. You'll be a beloved hero (like Smokey Bear!) by extinguishing the fire and knowing how to keep future blazes to a minimum.
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Continue reading:
Software Application Rollout (Part 1) →
Software Application Rollout (Part 2) →
