Opinion: Catching the E-train

Major system projects require significant investment. However, the best laid plans can be derailed by neglecting a fundamental element of any IT project – end-user training.

It’s the Cinderella of the project world. End-user training gets forgotten, left to an overstretched project team, downgraded or even cut altogether. The statistics are well known: unsuccessful user adoption is a significant reason for failure of IT projects.

If, as a colleague of mine maintains, testing is “job one” in any systems project, then training should be “job zero”. From inception, think about who you need to train, what they need to know and when?

Weave training into the fabric of your project to benefit from overlaps between requirements capture and understanding user roles. Work with the business during analysis and design, so your training team appreciates what success looks like.

A successful rollout depends on three Es: users need to be efficient, meaning they can carry out the activities needed to make the system work; effective, meaning they can use the system properly to run your organisation; and, most importantly, engaged, meaning their hearts and minds are won over to the change. Those three Es are like a tripod: lose one of the three and the whole thing goes over.

In practical terms, this means your training strategy should go hand in hand
with your change and communications strategies. Training deserves a seat at the project table and there should be someone from your learning team embedded in the project governance structure.

IT leaders must ask themselves some hard questions. What’s going to be done about training and by whom? Can it be handled in-house? Will it be part of the vendor or system integrator’s services or do you need a specialist provider? Just how big is the task and who’s taking ownership of it – now? This is all part of project definition, and how well end-users eventually use the technology to run your business should be a key indicator of success.

Keeping users effective, efficient and engaged doesn’t end when the project does. Roles change, knowledge fades and bad habits creep in. Think about how you can build a self-supporting structure to develop, maintain and enhance skills over time: a network of super users or a community of practice; online, printed or interactive learning materials; or coaching integrated into the system itself. This is where user training develops into performance support ... but that’s a whole new story.

Sue Bird is director of operations at SkillSet