How to Integrate Training within a Change Management Team (3 models)
Or why solo trainers or tech writer struggle alone in a change management team. And how to fix it..
Problem Overview
Training and Software Implementation are Separate
I worked for CITEC Confirm as a software support analyst and then transitioned into training. And one thing stayed the same. Training and software implementation are separate projects.
Trainers and tech writers analyse, design, develop and implement training material and/or documentation.
All these steps require timelines, dependencies and resource allocation, even for one person. And often this role is performed in camera away from the actual day-to-day implementation. Meaning trainers and tech writers too need project management experience or support. Which happened well in my role at CITEC Confirm and my last role.
Training Analysis of Software Implementation Changes Dependencies?
Inevitably trainers and tech writers cannot work closely with the change project unless the training project is quite small (see successful models). They can't possibly assess the training impact of all implementation changes unless they're embedded within the implementation team which only happens post go live. That’s where a good trainer or technical writer must be able to understand the training consequences of implementing software.
The Masked Change
So often any training dependencies that occur in the implementation project remained masked. As seen in nearly all my projects since 2005. Let’s imagine that two weeks before going live, a new software tool (Adobe Acrobat) replaces an existing one (PowerPDF). The project assesses this change as a low impact and low urgency and therefore low priority.
However, this change had high impact and immediate urgency for the training. Why? In this case all training materials for the PowerPDF tool were now obsolete and had to be rewritten. What was the impact on the project? PDFs required for cases would have to be manually generated.
Had the project not communicated that change to the training team, the project would’ve gone live with the wrong training materials meaning that cases would have stalled.
Project Risk
Meaning there is a risk that the project could not move forward due to the lack of available training whose root cause was a software change. And this is a risk that exists in all software implementations...
Solution
Which means an analysis and assessment of the training impact of a software change must be carried out. And timelines estimated. As did happen eventually in my last project and my first training role. But that impact analysis must be carried out before software implementation occurs, otherwise there is a risk that all training materials become defunct, meaning training cannot be carried out and thus imperilling the success of the project. I have numerous examples : after one software change, I received a dozen client phone calls but not the carefully crafted email.
But recounting horror stories provides no answers. Because there were models that did work.
Three Successful Models (Executive Summary)
Over 10-15 years as a trainer and tech writer, these are the successful team models (which occurred early in my career):
An embedded training analyst within the change project implementation team.
A training project manager liaising with the change project implementation team. This role also acted as an analysis liaison between the project implementation team and the training project team.
Embedding the trainer or writer with the implementation team which sufficed for small projects.
All require the trainer to have the ability to assess the training impact of a software implementation. Otherwise the training and thus the project may be lost.