When Do You Prototype and Design? - How to get off on the right foot with User Adoption part 21

When do you prototype and design?

This phase begins after the Analysis is completed, and you have sign off on the End User Support Strategy, the work plan and the cost and resource estimate. By this time, the implementation team is in the Configuration phase of the project.

You need to allow one month to complete prototyping and design. These activities are ideally completed before the development staff arrives, unless the project timeline is compressed.

How to complete the activities

This section provides guidelines on performing each of the Prototype and Design activities listed in the What You Will Do section.

Finalize Training and Documentation Scope

You need to perform a final review of the documentation and training scope before you define the development strategies. Submit the Documentation Table of Contents and proposed Training Curricula drafted in the Analyze phase to the project team, so they can thoroughly review it one more time for any gaps or inaccuracies. Ask the project team to sign off on the Table of Contents and Training Curricula after their review. Now you know the final scope of the training and documentation project.

Now you can define the documentation and training material design and development strategies.

Define Training Course Modules

You already know that an end user training program is comprised of many course modules. Training courses need to be modular, because many times a course can map to several different processes, and can also typically map to one or more job descriptions. Modular courses can be plugged into the appropriate job-based curricula, without having to rewrite pieces of courses and duplicate effort. To ensure the curricula maps onto job descriptions correctly, validate it against the Job/Task Profile compiled in the Analyze phase. Once you have completed the validation, submit the curricula to the client for review before creating the course outlines.

Client review is critical in this stage. The clients on the project team not only know their business, but also know how a system or new process will impact their business. Their input will ensure that the curricula focuses on the processes and skills the end users need.

Once you obtain final approval of the high-level curricula, it is time to define each of the course modules by drafting course module outlines.