SDLC

Trainer/Training Group

Trainers are the people who will be responsible for training either the internal organization or the external client based on predetermined training needs.  Depending on the technical capabilities of the individual being trained, the trainer will need to have different technical abilities. It is the responsibility of Technical Support to train users and the responsibility of engineering to train Engineering personnel.  It is also the responsibility of Technical Support to act as the Tools Trainer.  This individual is one that knows the tools and can train the Content Group of any changes made to the toolset.  In instances where Technical Support is not knowledgeable on new functionality, individuals will be pulled from Product, Operations and Development in order to "train the Trainer".

Technical Support

The Technical Support group within SDLC is responsible for defining the initial training and documentation requirements, reviewing the documentation that is produced by the Development Group and providing training to the users.  It is ultimately the responsibility of Technical Support to ensure that training and documentation are clear and concise.  This group is also responsible for training the Content Group on toolset additions.

Development Group

Product Group

It is the responsibility of the Project Manager within the Product Group to work with Technical Support to define the training needs of the release.  Jointly, these two groups will be required to complete the Training Needs Form and the SOW. 

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance is ultimately responsible for accepting or rejecting the documentation produced by the Development Group.  Quality Assurance must review the documentation created and provide necessary feedback.  Once the documentation is complete, Quality Assurance accepts the documentation by signing off on the documents.  It is ultimately the responsibility of Quality Assurance to ensure the accuracy and thoroughness of the training documentation.

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Defining Product Training and Documentation Requirements

Preliminary product training and documentation requirements are defined in the Release Planning Procedure (SOP 1005) within the Scope of Work (SOW) documentation.  Both the Technical Support and the Product Group are required to work together in order to define these requirements.  These groups then complete the SOW, which will document the training requirements, who will need training, and who will be providing the training.  The training may vary depending on the classification of the customer/user, or whether the training is for internal or external use. 

Prior to the beginning of Gate 6 (Project Lock Down) of the SDLC Business Gates, Technical Support and the Product Group must again work together to better define the training and documentation materials that will be necessary for the release.  This is necessary to achieve Project Lock-Down at Gate 6.  During this activity, both groups will update the SOW to reflect any modifications made in the System Requirements Specifications during the Requirements Definition Procedure (SOP 1040) will ensure that complete and accurate documentation is produced from the Development Group.  Development will produce documentation as outlined in the SOW.  Additionally, Quality Assurance will provide acceptance criteria within the SOW to identify what will be acceptable documentation for Development to produce.

Creation of the Training Needs Document for the Release

Technical Support and the Product Group will review all SOW's and create one summarized Training Needs Document.  This document will outline all of the functionality that will require training within the release, who will provide training, who needs to receive training and whether or not there will be an FOA rollout training and controlled rollout training.

Completion of the Pre-Needs Assessment Form

Based on the updated SOW, the Training Needs Document and, if applicable, any customer contract, Technical Support and the Product Group must complete a Pre-Needs Assessment Form for each client that will be receiving training.  This form contains all the training requirements defined in the SOW.  This form is then sent to the client for training expectation acceptance and sign-off. 

Completion and Review of the Documentation

Once the Detailed Plan is Complete (Gate 5), the Development Group must complete the training and documentation materials that were identified in the SOW during the Requirements Definition Phase of the release.  This documentation must contain, at a minimum:

• User documentation, including training materials

• Customer interface changes (if applicable)

• Customer feature descriptions

• Previously known system problems (if applicable)

It is vital that this documentation is complete and accurate.  The following groups are responsible for reviewing the documentation for accuracy and completeness, and it is the sole responsibility of Quality Assurance to accept or reject the documentation:

• Technical Support

• Product Group

• Quality Assurance

• Operations

Should this documentation not meet the needs and requirements of these groups and the requirements set forth in the SOW, it will be sent back to Development for rework.  This process will continue until the documentation is satisfactory.  The acceptance criteria for this documentation is based on pre-determined criteria contained in the SOW, developed by Quality Assurance and agreed upon by Development.

First Office Application (FOA) Training Pilot

Not all releases will necessitate an FOA.  For those that do, once the documentation passes the review of the required groups, this will be the first application of the training and documentation materials that were developed.  The FOA Training Pilot may be either a shared responsibility of the Product and Technical Support Groups or it may be the responsibility of only one of these two groups.  The Training Needs Document will indicate the need for FOA training as well as the responsibilities for conducting it.  This training will take place in the staging environment.

If this training is found to be ineffective due to the documented materials, the Development Group, based on an updated Requested Documentation Form, will create new documentation materials.  If the training is found to be ineffective because of the training ability, an additional training session will be held.  The client-accepted Pre-Needs Assessment Form will be the measure used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training and the documentation.

Training Pilot

It is the responsibility of Technical Support to deliver the training pilot to the end-users (non-technical) and of the Development Group to deliver the technical training.  The training pilot should be carried out and based on the needs identified during the Definition Phase of the project and included in the Training Needs Document.  This training is available prior to the general release of the product and should be considered as a learning tool in advance of the general release.  Based on the Pre-Needs Assessment Form, the training and documentation will be evaluated for the effectiveness and completeness.  If one is found to be incomplete, the training will need to be performed again based on the requirements presented in the Pre-Needs Assessment Form.

Customer Training Classes

Upon acceptance of the training pilot, prior to deployment, Technical Support will provide customer-training classes for the controlled rollout and general availability (Gate 0).  This training will occur in the staging environment and will be based on lessons learned during both the FOA pilot and the training pilot, as well as the requirements defined on the Training Needs Document. 

Once this training is complete, it is the responsibility of Technical Support to issue the Training Evaluation Form to the customer. If the training does not meet the customer needs that were identified in the Pre-Needs Assessment Form, it must be redone. Four weeks after the production deployment occurs, the Training Evaluation Form should be sent to customers again.  This will help more effectively evaluate the training courses once the end-users have had the opportunity to practice what they were taught.