The Solution:

Invest the time, money and resources to create, populate, and maintain an adequate training environment, preferably with two to three instances available. Multiple training instances allow the training team to maintain a “golden” instance that can be used to accept configuration changes and populate clean master and transactional data. The golden instance is then used to refresh classroom and practice instances as often as necessary.

The Solution:

Provide the necessary context for your users with flow charts, business cases, and scenarios. Include clear section-introductions that explain the when and why for every procedure. Incorporate this information into your training and make sure you include it in your reference system or library.
We recommend creating an eLearning system, accessible directly from your enterprise document management software, to support your users at go-live and beyond. The eLearning system is an online help organised by business process. Users can view a high level business process and drill down through more detailed flowcharts or other contextual information to reach the procedure they need to complete.
Whatever reference system you use, spend time teaching how to use the system. Empower users to help themselves by providing reference tools that provide context, not just keystrokes.

The Solution:

Use the training approach or approaches that make the most sense for each audience and the content they need to learn. This is called blended learning.
Using the example above, instructor-led training is probably the right choice for the sales group. They do not need to travel for training and the classroom provides the opportunity for live interaction with the instructor to solve problems.
However, even though this group is centrally located, an eLearning module that covers the basics of system navigation would be ideal prework. This would save time for both instructors and students, and ensure that everyone is at about the same level of proficiency when they arrive for classroom training.
For the document creator group, an online approach makes more sense, to minimize travel expenses and business disruption. The program for this group may consist of the same prework eLearning module used by the sales group, plus additional eLearning modules to train the core content, and a series of online webinars to answer user questions and demonstrate exceptions.
For the two master data users, the time and expense of creating a full blown classroom course or eLearning module does not make sense. These users may benefit most from being involved in system testing and working through content in a series on one-on- one meetings with subject matter experts.
And, of course, when training is complete and the system is ready to go live, an easily accessible reference system or library must be available to all users so they have the tools to help themselves in those first weeks the system is live.

The Solution:

Don’t shy away from including at least common exceptions in your training program. This not only provides your users with the tools they need to follow the happy path, but also an arsenal to draw from when the happy path does not apply.
Give your users real-life scenarios where things get “messed up” and ask them to solve the real problems they’ll have. The layer of complexity this can add to your training development pays off many times over with a pool of well-trained end users that are ready for anything, not just for following the happy path.

Businesses large and small are looking at implementing or upgrading their EDMS – to streamline business processes, reduce costs, regulatory compliance and improve productivity.
While it’s one thing to turn on the software, it’s quite another to be sure it’s actually getting used by employees. That’s where proper training becomes crucial. In fact, in order to reap the rewards of an enterprise system, businesses must be sure their end users are:

• Well-informed about the new system and its impact on their jobs
• Given the tools necessary to do their jobs in a new way when the system goes live
• Trained to use the new system effectively. Unfortunately, organisations often underestimate the importance and complexity of the last point: effective training.

Once a business understands how critical training is for its EDMS implementation, there are many decisions to be made about how, when, and where to train users.
Many of these decisions, if made hastily or without enough information, can backfire and create problems instead of solving them. On the other hand, if the training strategy is well-planned and executed, businesses can quickly realise the benefits of their enterprise software investment.

Pitfall 1: Designing an enterprise training program around a sketchy audience analysis

Training teams frequently build their training plans around an audience analysis that only gathers the number of users by 1) system role, and 2) security access level.
Obviously, this much information is not adequate to tell you anything but the number of classes you will need for each role. To design a quality training program you need to know much more about:
•    The restrictions placed on users in their area of the business
•    Each user’s education and computer literacy levels
•    How the implementation will change each user’s job
•    The practical aspects of each role.

The Solution:

Taking the time to do a thorough audience analysis pays off in many ways. It is the best ammunition for justifying training choices. It allows you to design materials that meet all users’ needs, from the practical needs of engineers in the lab, to the workers on the production line.
What’s more, a lot of time and money can be saved if you don’t have to rearrange the training schedule three times because no one thought to ask the accountants if the week before year end close is a good time for training.

People can misunderstand each other, but the written word is (usually) unambiguous. So most companies rely on quality written documentation to disseminate information. Unfortunately, creating such documentation is often the first chore to be abandoned when employees feel overworked and harried.

While it can be hard to commit the initial time investment required to produce training documentation, imagine your relief if you could refer a employee or delegate by directing them to a common source of information instead of creating a help-desk ticket. Furthermore, user guides act as an excellent piece of reference or refresh material.

The emphasis is on effective
We’ve all been given responsibility for a new task with only a few handwritten scribbles to guide us, or, worse still, painstaking documentation that seemed to be badly translated from a foreign language. Can you create documentation that is as effective on its own as a live trainer would be? Yes, and it’s not as difficult or time-consuming as you might think.

1. Choose a format and build a template
Building a template serves two purposes: 1) it keeps you focused, even when dealing with the most disparate and complex tasks, and 2) it provides your users with consistency and familiarity. My colleagues and I have adopted the tried-and-true “Five Ws and an H” format:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

Give your users every last bit of information they might need about the procedure/task or functionality, and they won’t come hunting you down to fill in the blanks. Using this format, you can clarify even the most complicated piece of your organisation’s convoluted processes.

2. Know that of which you speak
In other words, be sure to practice the procedure you are documenting. Try simulating a minor user error to see what happens. It’s often more helpful to know how the procedure could go wrong than to know how to do it exactly right.

3. Use a common language
Many companies have a formal or informal agreement about terms in common use. Depending on which department will ultimately use your documentation, “customer” could mean anything from the end user of a development project to an advertising client. Make yourself familiar with the language of your audience. Refer to a previous post regarding the Importance of Style Guides.

4. Make it easy to scan
Also be sure to employ consistency in your directions. For example: If you use the phrase “from the Tools menu, select Options,” the next time you direct the user to choose an option from a menu you should use the same phrasing, e.g. “from the Edit menu, select Paste Special.” Don’t worry about being repetitive; this is one case when it is actually useful.

5. Split complicated procedures into smaller sections
If you find yourself documenting procedures that consist of more than 10 numbered steps, you might consider breaking your instructions into sub-sections. You can then recap at the end of each section and briefly explain what happens next. This is an effective way to prevent the user from losing sight of the ultimate goal.

6. Use handy screenshots and Word drawing tools
Most people are able to rapidly assimilate information in a visual format, so never underestimate the power of a well-chosen screenshot. Our screen-capture tool of choice at GoAsk is SnagIt.

7. Send your documentation on a couple of trial runs
Ask a few co-workers for constructive feedback. Be sure that your test subject pool includes typical users who will rely on your documentation, not just other IT pros. Try not to get frustrated if you have to refine your documentation a few times. Remember, once you get it right, it will save you and your users hours of time

Our fundamental goals for each training program we develop are to:

• Provide users with hands-on learning experience that simulates their job functions

• Discuss system functionality within the context of the new business processes

• Leverage multiple instructional approaches to provide the most cost-effective solution at the appropriate time

• Provide end users with ongoing support materials, such as online simulations and job aids, for use during and after the training

We provide overviews of your business processes to inform users where they fit in the process and how their tasks contribute to overall business activities. We develop role-based training products to provide users the knowledge and skills—and the confidence—they need to perform their jobs successfully. Our training focuses on the user’s discrete tasks and also provides the context that makes those tasks meaningful. We develop real-world examples to help users gain experience and become familiar and comfortable with the new applications.

We follow a structured method to develop our training programs, which ensures that your users are fully trained and prepared to accept the changes brought by your enterprise solution. We analyze your users’ needs and your business processes to determine the most effective training approach for your organization.

GoAsk knows that each business has its own policies and practices, its own culture, and its own way of using enterprise applications to improve business performance. Likewise, we understand that each person touching a system has different needs—from content creators to document reviewers to organisation executives. We work closely with users, listening to their needs and usability objectives, and we tailor our user support and training services accordingly—because well-trained users equal a successful implementation.

Companies of all sizes spend a significant amount of their IT budgets on software. New document management systems can enhance security and can automate tasks previously done manually or provide easier and faster accomplishment of tasks previously performed using older software, thus enhancing productivity. But you won’t see the bottom line benefits of these upgrades or implemenations unless the end-users of the software can successfully make the transition. That’s why it’s important to plan an end-user training strategy before you roll out new software, and make sure the plan is scalable so it can grow with your company.

Setting training goals

Your first objective in providing software training for end-users is minimising any productivity losses associated with the software transition. This means you have to, as quickly as possible, get them up to the skill level required to do their jobs at least as quickly and accurately as they were doing with the old software (or manual methods). Then in the next phase, you want the software to help users do their jobs more quickly, accurately, and/or securely than before.

It’s important to be realistic about the timeframes in which you expect to accomplish these objectives. These timeframes will be dependent on the complexity of the new software as well as the number of users who need training and their beginning skill levels. Upgrading to a new version of the same software already being used can present special challenges. Training might be expected to proceed more quickly because users are already familiar with a previous version. However, if there are many changes in the new version or it has a very different interface, users may actually find an upgrade more difficult than switching to a completely new software package because of their existing expectations.

Remember that all software packages aren’t created equal, and neither are all users.

Assessing end-user needs

An important element in creating your training plan is to evaluate the technical skill level(s) of those who will actually use the software on a daily basis. Some software, such as a new document management system, may be rolled out throughout your entire organization.

In many cases, software end-users are not particularly technically savvy, but you may have different technical skill levels within a group. It’s important in that case to provide different levels of training. Technical novices will need more focused, step-by-step instruction in basics, whereas more skilled computer users will quickly pick up the basics and benefit from more training that shows them how to use more obscure or advanced features of a document management system. Attempting to train the two groups together will result in the novices being overwhelmed and confused and the more skilled users wasting time that could have been spent doing their work.

Training delivery methods

The next step is to assess methods of delivering the necessary training. Again, there are several factors to take into consideration:

• User skill levels as determined by your needs assessment
• Number of users to be trained
• Timeframe for rollout of the document management system (and whether you’ll be doing it in phases or throughout the entire organization at once)

There are several different methods for delivering training, and you may want to use a combination of these, especially in a large organization. The least effective is, unfortunately, the one used by most small organizations and many larger ones: the IT equivalent of throwing the kid in the water and letting him sink or swim. Suddenly the new document management system appears on the end-user’s computer, perhaps with a copy of the manual, and it’s up to the user to figure it out and the company’s IT support desk to untangle the messes the user gets into. Some better training methods include:

• Individual hands-on training–An trainer walks each user individually through the process of performing common tasks and answers questions. This is the most expensive method, although potentially the most effective.
• Hands-on classroom style instructor-led training–An trainer shows users how the software works and how to perform common tasks, with users performing the tasks themselves in a classroom setting. Each user or pair of users has a computer on which to practice. Classes of 10 to 15 are often effective.
• Seminar style group demonstration–An trainer shows users how the software works and how to perform common tasks in a live demonstration. Groups of 20 to 50 are often effective.
• eLearning self-paced training which allows end-users to complete interactive lessons that walk them through the processes of performing common tasks, and the software tests them on their performance and understanding. This format can also supplement a blended learning approach – where eLearning supports the classroom based training as a reference or refresh tool.

Whichever delivery method(s) you choose, it’s helpful to first conduct a pilot training program of a small, selected group of users that best represent your overall user base. This will help you to identify problems and issues with various training methods before committing to one.

Avoid Jargon

As the background of the eLearning participants can vary greatly, the use of jargon can be confusing and also difficult to translate. For example, why talk about “Powering down the system” when it simply means “Turning off the system”?

Use Simple Sentence Structures

Keep your sentences short and try to emulate descriptions and explanations that you would also use in a classroom-based situation. Avoid using “and” to string different ideas together as in the following example, “The templates in Documentum are in compliance with CF-SOP EDMS-06 and this SOP must be followed for all documents created or imported.” Keeping the two sentences separate also makes them easier to translate: “The templates in the system are in compliance with CF-SOP EDMS-06. This SOP must be followed for all documents created or imported.”

Avoid Humour

One distinct difference between classroom-based and web-based training lies in the use of humour. While the use of humour can be beneficial in classroom-based training, for example as an icebreaker right at the beginning of a course (“Please remember to switch your phones back on when outside of this classroom.”), it should be avoided in eLearning. Humour can be easily misunderstood when it is reduced to the written language. In eLearning is it a distraction. In addition, as humour is usually cultural, it is difficult to translate and might even cause offence in another country.

Avoid Redundancies

Time is a valuable commodity, therefore your language in eLearning courses should be concise and the use of superfluous words should be avoided, for example, “now” and “then”. Here are a few more examples of redundancies:

Using redundant words Correct
Create a new document. Create a document.
Print out a copy. Print a copy.
Click on Finish. Click Finish.
Whether or not Whether
Group together Group
Necessary prerequisites Prerequisites
Specific requirements Requirements
Still pending Pending

One exception to the above rule is the use of the relative pronoun “that”. In the English language, the use of this pronoun is redundant. However, if your course material is to be translated, this relative pronoun should be left in the English text to ease translation. Consider the following example:
“Complete the following on the document that you created in Documentum:”
This sentence is grammatically correct without the word “that” but “that” should be left in as a relative sentence marker for translators.

Any company that is creating documentation of any type should provide a style guide for those involved in the process. A style guide should not only be concerned with the form of documentation, but also offer guidelines for grammar, punctuation and typography. This is even more important when writing scripts for eLearning. Any kind of communication should be clear, consistent and easy to understand. Redundancies and errors in grammar, punctuation and typography in course documentation pose a threat to the successful implementation of an eLearning programme as they offer a distraction to the actual points that are meant to be brought across. And keeping the attention span focused on the aims of the course is of utmost importance in both classroom and eLearning.

While a general style guide can be a good basis for the creation of a style guide for eLearning, for web-based training it needs to be expanded to cater for the specific needs of an eLearning audience. Quite a lot of the vocabulary that is used is IT-industry specific and oftentimes cannot even be found in standard dictionaries. To ensure consistency, the spelling of certain words needs to decided upon and/or brought in line with the client’s style guide:

I am not trying to give you a prescriptive list, but here are a few examples of words that should be included. It is the up to you and your client to decide which the correct form is and you then need to stick to it throughout your documentation.