• 30Dec

    Prevent a Dinner Party Disaster

    You’ve been hired by a party planner to do some cooking for a dinner event. Being a great chef, you begin to ask those all important questions prior to preparing the menu:

    • For whom am I cooking?
    • How many will attend? Do any of the guests have special dietary considerations?
    • Will I be meeting with the hostess prior to the party?
    • Will I be able to work with the hostess on the menu?
    • How many courses will be served? Will the event be a buffet or sit down?
    • Is there a theme of the event? How is the event being decorated? How will the theme impact the menu?
    • What is the duration of the party?
    • What is the budget for the party?

    These are just some of the things that are running through your mind right now! Once these questions are answered, you can determine the number of staff you need to run the dinner event, plan your menu, and deliver a wonderful meal!

    The same is true with instructional design. In order to design training, you have to:

    • Obtain the project and create a training plan
    • Determine the core project team members needed to complete the project successfully
    • Create a project timeline
    • Work with the Subject Matter Expert
    • Write, sequence, and chunk the course content
    • Work with the multimedia designer to develop the course
    • Correct any errors or quality issues
    • Ensure all client standards have been met
    • Deliver a project within budget

    What is vital for a successful start to cooking for a dinner party holds true for a training development project. First, you need an understanding of the client’s budget and training needs. In addition, assessing initial assets and project structure provides a framework for determining project capabilities and risk.

    Looking again at preparing for our dinner party much of your administrative direction and guidance will come from the planner (i.e., the Project Manager), the Host provides the specific needs (i.e., the Subject Matter Expert), the decorator (i.e., the Developer) adds the right ambiance to go with the meal, and the Health Inspector (i.e., the Quality Assurance Specialist) ensures the standards are met so that the meal can be served.

    As a member of a training development team, it’s pivotal to understand the roles and responsibilities of each team member. This is key in delivering a training product that is instructionally sound, complete, and meets client expectations. For example, if one team member is not committed to their assigned tasks, this could potentially throw off your timeline and jeopardize a client deliverable. It is important that all team members share key information and communicate with each other, as you all impact the overall project outcome. The shared awareness of the project parameters helps to mitigate risk and keep the project fluid, organized, and within the bounds of the original project scope and budget.

    If this is your first time cooking for a big event or if you want to improve the odds of the project’s success try using the following table to help you inventory your project assets:

    Role Information you should discuss/obtain
    Project Manager (Party Planner)
    • Project plan (overall parameters of a project, due dates for all project milestones and deliverables, hours allotted to each team member, and length of client review cycles)
    • Training plan (project requirements and assumptions, contact information for both internal and external team members (stakeholders and SME/CIPs), preferred method of communication (e.g., e-mail, telephone), target audience, delivery method(s) and instructional strategies, platform compatibility, style guide, etc.)
    • Budgeted project hours (both for your role and for each team member assigned to the project)
    Subject Matter Expert/
    Content Information Provider (Host)*
    • Comprehension of Role/Responsibilities ( see the CIP to Avoid Choking (Part 1) blog)
    • Method of communication (for discussions and tracking changes)
    • Formulate and validate learning goals/outcomes
    Multimedia Designer/Graphic Artist (Party Decorator)
    • Considerations for:
      • Development process (e.g., use of a template)
      • Obtaining graphics (from client, vendor library, etc.) or creating customized graphics/logos
      • Media types and quantities (i.e., simple animations and/or static graphics used as instructionally needed)
      • Product testing (prototype, alpha, beta, and final)
    QA Specialist (Health Inspector)
    • QA checklist (QA standards, QA requirements, time allotments for QA process, template functionality, spelling and grammar, SCORM compliance, etc.)
    • QA team awareness of project timeline

    *Though a SME/CIP is the one who typically reviews content, at times, there will be additional reviewers. Keep in mind these reviewers will also impact the timeline. If you are not working as closely with these reviewers as you are with the SME/CIP, you may need to ensure that they have the same level of knowledge about the project, roles and responsibilities, and timeline constraints. It would also be advisable to make sure you are familiar with their internal review cycles and the communication methods that will be used for discussion purposes and for tracking changes.

    Filed under: Project Initiation
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