The Pursuing Performance Blog

7 Steps of PACT CAD's Design of the T&D Path or Map or Menu

2008-07-03T06:09:00.011-05:00

CAD - Curriculum Architecture Design is an ISD - Instructional Systems Design - process, but is not ADDIE - Analysis/ Design/ Development/ Implementation/ Evaluation ISD. That - is at the product level of design/development of ISD.

CAD is at the systems engineering level of "product line" design of instruction and information - to enable human performance - for targeted jobs - in targeted or all of their processes. Designing the flow and timing of content - enabling better timing of the participation in training/development - and the appropriate points in the process for evaluation of the progress being made.

CAD has 4 Phases to guide formal adaptations or informal adaptations/approaches, hybreds, adopting some methods/tools/techniques and adapting others.

If you have met all of the exist criteria of Phase 2 Analysis - you are ready for Phase 3 Design.

Design is where a Design Team using all of the analysis data - is facilitated through the 7 design steps. That typically happens in one multi-day meeting. Of course there are preparations done prior and documentations done post.

The 7 Design Steps of CAD are framed in the following 7 steps:

1- Establish the Path
2- Sort the AoP Data Sets: Output/Tasks/R&R/Gap Analysis Data
3- Sort the ETA Data
4- Sort the EKS Data
5- Modularize Data
6- Eventize Modules
7- Clean-Up and Finalize the Path

Note: This set of design steps works IF the analysis data needed - is available in the "configurations" of 1- Target Audience Data: demographics, etc. - 2- Analysis data organized by outputs-tasks-role/responsibilities/gaps - 3- Enabling Knowledge/Skill Data - 4- Existing Training & Development: for its reuse potential in this targeted effort.

This analysis data always ends up inside the design elements - in The PACT Processes. All of the design elements below the Event Level are "housed" in an inventory scheme of 5 Tiers...

Those 5 Tiers are:

Tier 1: Organizational Orientations
Tier 2: Performance Orientations
Tier 3: Enabling K/S
Tier 4: Shared Performance "How To's"
Tier 5: Unique Performance "How To's"

The 5 Tiers "inventory" both the designs of content - and the actual content - at the Instructional Activity level and Lesson levels (not addressed in a CAD effort) - and at the Module level of CAD projects - in that a T&D Path is composed of Events which are composed of Modules...a modular design of Events (Courses, Workshops, Sessions, WBTs, etc.).

The logic of PACT - is a data logic.

Data is framed in the PACT Processes per the next diagram...

Back to the 7 steps...

7 Design Steps of CAD

1- Establish the Path- This is how you can begin the team process with "the end in mind." A shared "end in mind" mental model of this T&D Path thing that you are here to design/create/build.

I always present a "build-up picture" of where we are going to produce and how, by first talking about the T&D Path of T&D Events - the terminal goal of our design process - as a tight, sequenced path of content when and where necessary - and a looser, menu of content - when appropriate. With a blend of all kinds of deployment means and mechanisms - currently available and practical for the learner/Performers, and hopefully, thereby appropriate.

Organized to help each learner/Performer and/or their managers downselect from the T&D Path to create a T&D Plan...unique given the performance expectations of each learner/Performer and their incoming education and experiences and knowledge/skills.

A T&D Path is a "learning continuum" in that it lays out a set of content in a structured and orderly manner - so that the learner/Performer and/or their manager - can sort through all of the content relevant to their jobs - and downselect the Events and arrange and time the order for participation/completion (unless a sequence and timing is mandated by the Enterprise to comply with external regulations or internally imposed requirements).

When designing one the designers and the Design Team needs to have a frame of reference that they share - otherwise this tends to become a swirl where little gets done. The process is not clear and/or adhered to.

That's why establishing the Path - establishing a shared frame of reference, is important. And basing that on a review of the Target Audience data. What is it about the "knowns" of the target audiences' incoming (for new hire) and/or current (incumbant) knowledge/skills levels compared to the needs of the processes that they perform within - that would suggest some deployment modes/methods over others? Which are feasible modes/methods given both the Performance Context and the Learning Context for that Target Audience?

Here is how I frame the T&D Path so we can attend to the remaining steps with a shared mental model of what we are going to develop over the course of the Design Team Meeting...

Every T&D Path has a beginning - and a middle - and an end.

The Beginning - Middle - End concept is simply a framing devise that we are going to use to sort our analysis data into to rough out a sequence of content for the target audience. If your project is addressing several target audiences then you should be attempting to produce multiple T&D Paths. Trickier - but doable.

So it helps a team to discuss this after they see the next bit...that Beginning and its Beginning-Middle-End as additional framing of everyone's mental models for a T&D Path.

Every T&D Path that I've ever produced for a Job (versus a Process) has this kind of front-end...subdivided into 3: The Beginning's beginning-middle-end.

Where the Beginning of the Beginning is all about: Orientations to the Organizations of the Enterprise. From top down the organizational chain - from My Enterprise, My Division/Business Unit, My Function, My Department, My Job, My Teams and My Team's Processes. Or something like that.

Where the Middle of the Beginning is all about: Orientations to the "My Areas of Performance" unique for My Job - this series of content that further details what was covered in the My Job "content." If a PACT analysis effort did not precede the design effort - then this portion of the design will be weak - and not performance targeted - and not necessarily gap free.

Where the End of the Beginning is all about: giving me the immediate survival knowledge and/or skills necessary for someone new to this job. This is where variation by design occurs, where a T&D Path becomes more Menu-like.

For some jobs, this is where this segment of the Path covers either "the whole job" or "part of the job to-get-you started" - as appropriate to the job. For an airline pilot - they need the whole job covered. For a part-time sales clerk in a clothing store where there will always be a seasoned sales clerk on duty as well - they need part of the job covered.

This is only important as that changes the remaining B-M-E segments of thee T&D Path.

The "BoftheB" orients the learner/Performer to their job context, from top of the house to the individual contributor role for critical roles. The content created for the most critical of target audiences is then available to others and might end before getting to their job level "advanced organizers." That is what the BofhteB is all about.

The "MoftheB" is all about a deeper dive into "My Job" - addressing "My AoPs" - which are the Areas of Performance that framed the analysis prior to any CAD design steps.

As the ideal Design Team is a subset of or the whole Analysis Team (with "no new" players) they already understand and trust the AoP framework and the data details that it represents.

If a detailed PACT analysis wasn't done - or the anlaysis effort gathered data in a different data configuration - then this is step is harder to do and define the result with great confidence. This portion of the T&D Path can be defined without a proper PACT analysis that correctly frames the Areas of Performance, but that may lead to risks. Risks which are either tolerable or not. Let that be your guide with your clients. They get to decide what is a tolerable risk and what is not.

The content objects defined here are merely advanced organizers - for the enxt series of training/learning about the job's performance expectations and when and how one will learn "how to do it" further down the path.

Next the "EoftheB" is framed, discussed - so that everyone knows where we are collectively headed.

After the "B-M-Es" of the Beginning are described/discussed the Middle of the T&D Path and the End of the T&D Path are described and discussed. If possible - a lot of drawings may be needed on the flip chart paper or whiteboard. And depending on which "way" the End of the Beginning went - whole job or partial job - the Middle of the T&D Path - picks up at a very different spot. So it can be short or very long relative to the length of the entire Path.

Which is a good thing!

The final task is to estimate/guess - the cycle time for: 1- the Beginning, and 2- the Middle, and the 3- the End. And - are there more than 3 "phases/stages" of the path or map or menu that seem appropriate at this stage - some framing that links this to something in their real world? If so, use it.

The "segments/phases/stages" of the Path and their cycle times will be reviewed and adjusted at the end of each of the 7 design steps IF it seems appropriate to the Design Team to do so. Which we will now continue with...design step...

2- Sort the AoP Data Sets: Output/Tasks/R&R/Gap Analysis Data . I warn people that I train/certify to do this that some on the team might not like processing these decisions quickly and that is the goal: to quickly sort of "outputs/measures/tasks/roles responsibilities/gap data" into the B-M-E of the T&D Path framework - already "established" in the minds of those participating in the CAD design steps.

But if they were part of the Analysis Team - they might be able to be encouraged to let the team go full-steam-ahead on this and then step back and survey the results. That's the facilitator's role: to push the group to quickly process - and then step -back and examine - and tweak as needed.

I have print outs of the analysis data configured in a different format from how it was captured and reported out for review. It's often printed out on light Blue paper. And on 1/2 or 1/4 paper sized pages which we call Slip Sheets.

We also tape flip chart paper and paper a couple of conference tables end to end (sometimes 3 tables are used). We mark the top-sides: Beginning - Middle - End - and create a visual to go along with the shared mental model we attempted to develop across the team earlier.

Once all of the "Output/Task Clusters" - as I call this data-set - are sorted onto the Path - the Path is re-visited/re-examined for its logic and the timing of B-M-E. Update as necessary.

3- Sort the ETA Data: Now that the "Output/Task Cluster" data has anchored the T&D Path design in a performance orientation, it is time to see how the existing T&D that was assessed in the ETA - Existing T&D Assessment part of the analysis phase, is to be used "as is" or after modification" within the design.

If these existing T&D "products" indeed cover the Task Training then they replace (consume) the O/T Cluster data with them. I have pages with this information on it printed out onto a deep gold paper. I staple the light Blue pages of the O/T Cluster data onto the back of the Existing T&D Assessment Page which is in Gold.

4- Sort the EKS Data: K/S Item data are printed out on white paper - usually in 1/2 or 1/4 pages sizes - which we then refer to these too as Slip Sheets. These then sorted into a sequence per the AoPs that they enable. That means they precede the AoP data on the path - because they are an enabler. Sometimes they are deemed to be covered adequately in the ETA Sheets on the Path. They are then stapled/affixed to the ETA Sheet. Or they are left alone on the Path in a sequence deemed appropriate given the AoP Tasks that they enable.

5- Modularize Data: Mod Specs are printed on green paper - full size. Once all of the ETA Data is represented and the remaining AoP data and Enabling K/S data is visible on the table top (representing the T&D Path) on Gold paper - the first AoP data on the Path can be placed/stapled onto a Module Spec Sheet and then the next slip sheet of either AoP data or K/S data is examined to see if it goes into any of the Mod Specs produced so far - or does it get it's own Spec Sheet (destined PERHAPS to be a stand alone chunk of content someday - IF a priority).

The each and every slip sheet is examined in a similar manner. Until all slip sheet have found a home in 1 Mod Spec. These are now sequenced into a path or setsmenus on the path.

Mod Specs are like Book Chapters. Now that you have the chapters figured out - it's time to specify the Books - the Events in PACTerms.

6- Eventize Modules: Event Specs are printed out on yellow paper. All Modules are examined, starting with the first on the Path, and placed into an Event Spec. The first Module goes into the first Event Spec. All others go into an existing Event Spec of a new one is created just for it. These are placed on the Path in a sequence relative to all ETA Sheets and other Event Specs - continuously. To check the logic of it all!

7- Clean-Up and Finalize the Path: Whe everything has turned gold or yellow on your table top version of the T&D Path - you are in the home stretch (near the end). All that is left is fianl sequencing, truth-in-title changes (still just working titles), numbering on the Path, determining the mode of deployment for each Module within the Event, estimating the length of each Module and adding them up per Event - to sum total the estimated length etc.

The B-M-E of the Path might be changed to 2-3-4-5-6 segements. I've had up to 10 that made sense to the Design Team - and that number of segments of a T&D Path I always leave up to them. Who else would do something more approrpiate for that Target Audience?

The example T&D Path below has 4 segments...

What are those boxes on the Path? They are the Events...some of which exist...

Some exist as use as a source/use after modification....

Some are currently complete gaps...

Here is the code section of the Path...

Here is another Path that is more Menu than Path...

For more get the free 404-page book PDF of "lean-ISD" at http://www.eppic.biz/ - plus the hundred or so other resources available there as well!

Plus review the other Blog Postings in this current series.

# # #

PACT CAD - A Macro-ISD Design - Systems Engineering of Learning

2008-06-28T11:21:00.006-05:00

The Purpose of Curriculum Architecture Design
The Curriculum Architecture Design (CAD) process generates the overall design for an entire T&D product line. The design is high-level (macrolevel), systems-oriented, and modular. The design identifies
• Where (within the scope of the design) training needs exist
• Currently existing T&D that addresses the training needs
• Gaps where no existing training addresses the training needs
• Which gaps are high-priority and should be filled by new or updated training

In summary, the Curriculum Architecture Design process identifies all of the T&D that could be and then prioritizes efforts to build all of the gap T&D that should be.

The purpose of designing the entire T&D product line is so that business decisions can be made regarding which of the current gap T&D products (those where no existing training product addresses a training need) should be developed or acquired. By developing or acquiring such products, the T&D organization brings them “to market,” making them available for T&D customers. The methods to bring them to market - so to speak - can involve any ISD process, rapid or less rapid.

But having a CAD design as a blueprint insures that less gaps and overlaps will be your end result if you employee a rapid approach and let any/all SMEs and ISDers create content. This frames their activities so you'll have less inadvertent redundancy and the redundant first costs and life cycle cost from that redundancy - to protect Shareholder Equity from being squandered!!!

The macrolevel design of the T&D product line also helps identify which of the existing T&D products require maintenance before it is used for the target audience or audiences of the CAD effort.

The alternative, of course, is to let "whatever" happen. And then live with those consequences.

CAD is one of the PACT Processes...PACT is an acronym...

CAD is one of 5 methodology-sets of PACT...

A Curriculum Architecture Design process leads to a number of analysis and design outputs.

Analysis outputs include target audience data, Performance Models, Knowledge/Skill Matrices, and assessments of existing T&D. These outputs are explained in more detail in Chapter 2 of lean-ISD:Overview of the PACT Process for Analysis, and in Chapters 21–27, which are devoted to analysis.

The design outputs include specifications for training and development components, called T&D Modules. The outputs also include specifications for T&D Events, which are simply packages or groupings of modules for use by T&D customers.

The key design output of PACT CAD is one or more T&D Paths (or Learning Paths, or Learning Menus, or Learning Continuum, etc., etc. - a rose is a rose is a rose - by any name).

Curriculum Architecture Design Teams
Success of the Curriculum Architecture Design process depends on teams with specific responsibilities. The teams involved in a CAD process include
• A Project Steering Team of T&D customers and stakeholders to oversee the project
• An Analysis Team of customer representatives along with an instructional design professional to perform the analysis work
• A Design Team of customer representatives along with an ISD professional to develop the actual Curriculum Architecture Design
• An Implementation Planning Team of project stakeholders to assign priorities to the prospective T&D to be acquired or developed

Involved with all of these teams is a project manager along with ISD professionals from the ISD Team.

CAD Phase 1

In Phase 1: Project Planning & Kick-off, the project manager and the Project Steering Team plan the Curriculum Architecture Design project. Interviews are conducted, a Project Plan is drafted, and a Project Steering Team is assembled.

The Project Steering Team conducts its first gate review meeting. Gate review meetings involve customers and key stakeholders and are held to review project progress, check work products, and provide approvals for further action. The first gate review meeting is to
• Review and sanction the project.
• Modify the Project Plan or put the project on “temporary hold.”
• Cancel the project if it doesn’t meet a priority business need.
In this phase, the Project Steering Team handpicks members of the Analysis Team.

CAD Phase 2
In Curriculum Architecture Design Phase 2: Analysis, target audience data is gathered and preparations and logistics for the Analysis Team meeting are coordinated.

During the Analysis Team meeting, the team generates the Performance Model and the Knowledge/Skill Matrix data. After the Analysis Team meeting, existing T&D is assessed to see how that training addresses needs identified in the Performance Model and Knowledge/Skill Matrix.

All of the analysis activities are documented in an Analysis Report. The project manager and analyst present the report to the Project Steering Team during the Phase 2 gate review meeting. During the gate review meeting, the Project Steering Team verifies and approves the findings, or changes them as necessary.

CAD Phase 3
In Curriculum Architecture Design Phase 3: Design, the project manager and designer begin by preparing for the CAD design efforts. Then a Design Team meeting is conducted.

In the Design Team meeting, all of the potential modules of the architecture are identified, classified, and numbered. The team combines these modules into T&D Events and constructs T&D Paths for learners―sequences of events appropriate for target audiences.
The results are compiled in a Design Document and formally presented to the Project Steering Team, which reviews these at the gate review meeting.

CAD Phase 4
In Curriculum Architecture Design Phase 4: Implementation Planning, an Implementation Planning Team is formed.

This team prioritizes the gap T&D Events and Modules. Modules of highest priority will be developed using the Modular Curriculum Development PACT Process or some other ISD process.

In parallel, development cost heuristics are developed and applied to forecast the cost implications of implementing the CAD’s top priorities.

The final priorities and cost implications are then presented to the Project Steering Team for review and reaction.

In some projects, the Project Steering Team performs the Implementation Planning Team’s “prioritization of gaps” function during the Phase 3 gate review and during Phase 4 is asked to “macroplan” their development/acquisition.

Business Implications of the Curriculum Architecture Design Process
The purpose of the Curriculum Architecture Design process is never to bring to market all of the T&D Events and Modules specified in the design―only those T&D products that truly make business and economic sense. Corporate resources are always too limited to allow unfettered T&D development within the enterprise.

The Curriculum Architecture Design process systematically creates a blue sky, ideal, performance-based CAD. Based on the design, key management representatives on the Project Steering Team decide where to place their strategic training “bets.” Only when the projected return on investment on the proposed training meets with the approval of customers and stakeholders is that training slated for development or acquisition.

The role of ISD professionals is to facilitate the process of customers and stakeholders making critical T&D decisions. The decisions about which training products to bring to market and which products to maintain are primarily business decisions. Customers and stakeholders―more than ISD professionals―are the ones who live with the consequences of poorly targeted resources that develop the wrong T&D. And when ISD professionals develop T&D with limited customer involvement, they are often the objects of blame for T&D that is costly or that doesn’t produce results.

Address All Needs?
No.

Just because ISD professionals are adept at uncovering knowledge and skill requirements does not automatically warrant addressing them all. No one in the ISD community ever has the insight necessary to select the T&D with the most significant returns for customer/stakeholder organizations. Furthermore, when ISD tries to put together an often overly complicated ROI algorithm to prove where strategic bets should be placed, ISD is too often seen as not working with and for the customer. We seem to be arrogantly telling them what’s best for them.

Usually the customer can rationally decide what’s best, if confronted in the right manner with the right data, as the Curriculum Architecture Design approach dictates. That’s why we need to engage customers and stakeholders systematically in this CAD process for business decision-making. We can handle the ISD decision-making. Let customers and stakeholders handle the business decision-making. We need to be cognizant that it’s their money being invested in T&D, not ours.

One Thing Leads to Another

The book: lean-ISD is available as a free 404-page PDF at http://www.eppic.biz/

There are also articles, presentations and Podcasts available on PACT - on the EPPIC web site - all free!!!

For a complete set of FREE tools and templates for CAD -see the PACT Wiki - referenced on this Blog on the right hand column! Share your adaptations on PACT Wiki 2. And please respect my copyright - not everyone does - but they should!!!

# # #

What is: HPT - Human Performance Technology

2008-06-24T21:21:00.001-05:00

From: The Final Report to the ISPI Board of Directors from an ISPI Presidential Task Force.

Human Performance Technology – An integrated systems approach to improving human performance.

Criteria to Judge applications of HPT:
1. Is focused on valuable, measured results;
2. Considers the larger system context of people’s performance;
3. Provides valid and reliable measures of the effectiveness of those applications

Clearly describes applications grounded in prior research or empirical evidence (or are not discouraged by either one) so that they may be replicated under the conditions and by the means for which they were recommended*

*When stated this way, intuition and respected practice are permitted and encouraged (provided they meet the first three criteria) without scientific evidence provided that there is no research evidence that it may not work under the conditions or by the means where it is being recommended.

Our definition of human performance is: “those valued results produced by people working within a system.”

Assumptions:
▪ A technology is a set of empirical and scientific principles and their application
▪ Human performance technology is the technology concerned with all variables which impact human performance
▪ All organizational processes and practices impact the production of valued results, whether positively or negatively and whether those results go measured or unmeasured, acknowledged or not. (Everything that an organization does affects what it accomplishes, whether or not the results are acknowledged or desirable.)
▪ The purpose of all organizations is the same: to create value for their stakeholders; this is accomplished by aligning all processes, practices, and resources to maximize the production of that value.

We collaborate with and value the expertise of other disciplines; human performance technology becomes the integrator and multiplier.

- Submitted by Guy W. Wallace, CPT on behalf of the ISPI Presidential Task Force chartered by the ISPI Board of Directors in 2003 to refine our definition and framework for Human Performance Technology (HPT), which included the following participants: Roger Addison, John Amarant, Rick Battaglia, Carl Binder, Dale Brethower, Michael Cassidy, Richard Clark, Timm Esque, Jeanne Farrington, Ingrid Guerra, Ruhe Hao, Roger Kaufman, Doug Leigh, Karen Medsker, Margo Murray, Jim Pershing, Geary Rummler, Marilyn Spatz, Ray Svenson, John Swinney, Don Tosti, Guy Wallace, Charline Wells, and Klaus Wittkuhn.

www.ispi.org
# # #

Target Audience Data

2008-06-20T16:23:00.009-05:00

“Know thy customer” applies to T&D as well as it does to any consumer product venture.

For that reason, gathering Target Audience Data is one of the four types of PACT Analyses covered in my book: lean-ISD. A good starting picture of the target audience allows the project team members to complete successfully the Analysis and Design Phases of Curriculum Architecture Design, Modular Curriculum Development, and Instructional Activity Development.

So far my recent Blog Posts have covered three of the other critical set of analysis data:
1- Areas of Performance and the Performance Model Charts
2- Enabling Knowledge/Skills Categories and the K/S Matrices
3- Existing Training & Development Assessments

This posting covers the fourth set analysis data used in the PACT Processes for T&D/ Learning/ Knowledge Management. I've covered this fourth in the sequence - although I always begin the analysis efforts, even the prior Project Planning efforts, starting on this critical data gathering effort - and often it is the last thing finished in the Analysis Phase - and sometimes spilling over into the front-end of the Design Phase. It simply must be completed prior to actual design efforts. I've learned that it must be started early to affect the project planning efforts for the analysis phase - and finished just before the Design Team actually works on the design.

Why Gather Target Audience Data?
The reason for collecting data about the target audience is to understand the customers for the T&D. This ensures that the eventual design (done in Phase 3 of each of the PACT Processes of CAD, MCD and IAD) is appropriate to the learners’ background and the incoming knowledge, skill, and experience/education they bring to the training/learning effort.

Just as marketers need to understand the customers for their products, the PACT project manager and analyst/designer must understand who their customers are. Specifically, they’re interested in the primary, secondary, and even tertiary target audiences. And by that I mean: primary = we intend to meet their needs 100%, they are in the box --- secondary = we intend to meet some of their needs but not 100%, they are on the edge of the box/partially in and partially out --- and tertiary = might be confused by some as within our target/scope, but they are not, they are outside the box.

Depending on the prior experience the analyst and the ISD organization have with the target audience and the work environment, quite a bit may already be known about the target audience and therefore this component of the analysis effort may be attended to. The more knowledge about the target audiences available at the start of a PACT Process, the less new data is needed. If the analyst’s understandings are based on past experiences, the analyst may simply need to confirm and update those understandings, or just presume that what they know is adequate to their needs. As always, it depends.

Knowing what can safely be assumed and what cannot be assumed is critical. For example:

• Does the audience generally have degrees in electrical engineering and experience working in the manufacturing factories, or is there a mixed bag of educational and work experience backgrounds? Will some need AC/DC Electrical Theory and others not? Will some need an orientation to the manufacturing facilties and others not? This insight will drive modularity at the Event level later in design.

• Do audience members exist as “one-sies” and “two-sies” across the organizational landscape―at the 87 sales offices in 14 countries―or are they all in one building at headquarters? This insight will affect design decisions for deployment methods as well as the design of application exercises (Appos) within the methods/media selected.

• Are audience members all masters of business English? Or will some struggle in their parallel efforts to translate words/concepts into their first language to process them. Will the pace need to be much slower at times for members of the audience suffering from cognitive load issues?

The goal of gathering Target Audience Data is not to pin down audience characteristics 100 percent, but rather to get a good feel for the audience - in order to more appropriately design the instruction to be more effective. Know thy customer!

Downstream Uses of the TAD
Downstream from some upstream, early project discussions and planning efforts…I will need the following, early in the pre-Analysis efforts. But as an external consultant I needed enough of all of this to “plan” my entire project in sufficient detail, up front, to enable me to fix fee price the effort! I quickly learned what I needed for success.

For Project Planning I need Target Audience Data (TAD)…which job title(s) and for which process(es) are agreed to be the “targets” for efforts for the analysis, design, development, etc. And are all targets equal? More on that later. This helps me size my Analysis Team meetings and my Design Team meetings. Should they be 3-day, or 4-day or perhaps a 2-day meeting?

The more Target Audiences, the more “reps” I’ll need to facilitate in those meetings...and while more heads is better than one...it takes longer to get them to discuss, debate and achieve consensus. There are other factors to estimating the length of “meeting time” I’m going to plan for, but this is one key to that educated guess-work.

For Analysis I need TAD to…help me sort out output/task “involvement and responsibilities” in my Performance Modeling efforts. Whose performance do we need to really capture in greater detail, and whose (if anyone’s) can we capture with less detail? And who, if anyone, should we ignore, deliberately? More on that later.

And that Performance Modeling effort leads to next, determining who needs which of the enabling K/S items, as those are derived systematically, using the Performance Model, in the next analysis step.

And when we assess any and all existing T&D content for reuse potential, we’ll need to know who, which Target Audiences, are the ultimate end users.

For Design I need TAD to…determine who to really address fully and partially, as I define one or more T&D Paths (learning continuums) for the target audience.

It also will help me determine how to configure the “shareable” and “unique” content objects into the right number of instructional products to both increase performance impact, and reduce content redundancy’s increased costs for downstream-from-design development, pilot-testing, updating and then ongoing administration, deployment, and maintenance.

Understanding your Target Audience Architecture helps define your required Enterprise Content Architecture for your objects administration, and the various types and levels of packaging (for deployment). An Enterprise Content Architecture ideally also reflects the Enterprise Process Architecture. A mixture if you will. With form following function.

For Development - I need TAD to…determine the number of sub-populations to use to test the instructional materials and process in my Pilot-Test...always referred to also as “the first delivery”...so it doesn’t look like we’re not trying to bring this product to the market pronto and slowing everything down with more testing!

And if the stakes are high for this ISD effort, and there are a lot of eyes on it, my client’s will always try to put their spies in the Pilot to get feedback from somebody they trust. I don’t blame them. So I accommodate them, and even encourage them. We call them both spies and Management Representatives.

But how many Pilot-Tests should I plan for, and what are the other implications to the conduct of Pilot-Testing?

Target Audience Data is covered in Chapter 22 in lean-ISD

The instructional content’s integrity - related to its completeness, accuracy and appropriateness, can be tested using the handpicked Master Performers and SMEs as Management Representatives in my Pilot-Testing efforts. I also call them Management Spies. In a nice sense! Only they can be the judge of completeness, accuracy and appropriateness. But you can’t really measure learning/instructional effectiveness using them. They should already “know it!”

To measure the instructional effectiveness I use members of the Target Audience, and we call them Target Audience Reps. Did learning occur with them? You can measure learning with them - but they cannot tell you if your content was complete, accurate or appropriate!!

This is all further complicated if there is more than one Target Audience. Say, one target is all Product Managers. But if you also include the Market Managers, Engineering Managers, Manufacturing Managers, Sales Managers, Service Managers, and Financial Managers required to represent the enterprise and the “New Product Development” process owned by Marketing, then you need to plan for accordingly for your Pilot-Test.

Then say that there is more than one New Product Development process, as the Target Audiences are from three different business units who haven’t quite accomplished the common-ization of that global process yet. Did you see that one coming early enough? That you were to address not one but three variations of the processes?

For Implementation - I need TAD to…determine who, in terms of the target audience or audiences, and their management, will need to be informed regarding the instructional products availability, accessibility, etc. Or trained as coaches, mentors, etc.

And I use TAD to determine if and then how we will need to roll-out or launch the instructional product or products differently, for those “different” audiences. I’ve found that even a large scale ISD effort aimed at one job title is almost always more complicated than that. There are often Target Audience “segments” that I should have recognized sooner.

For Evaluation - I need TAD to…determine how many distinct evaluations will potentially be necessary. And how many languages, or other/multiple versions for other reasons...do regulatory issues vary for anyone with that same job title?

Components of the Target Audience Data
Components of the Target Audience Data vary depending on the particular project. Data points might include
• Audience job titles
• Audience size, historical trends, and future expectations regarding size
• Audience demographics―where jobholders are geographically
• Audience educational backgrounds
• Audience work/industry experiences
• Background learning styles preferences

Audience job titles and the number of job holders are straight-forward bits of data. Other data is more complicated and nuanced.

Turnover rates and other key data are important in their potential impact to the Design Phase. T&D requesters may say that the population is not growing or will not grow over time, but the analyst may discover that the stable size of the audience hides the fact that the client has an unhealthy turnover rate. The implication for training is that the numbers of new learners will not necessarily diminish over the years, and there will be a continuous stream of folks to train (unless the client fixes the cause of the high turnover). The analyst and project manager need to understand the reality of turnover in order to formulate initial packaging and deployment strategies for the T&D.

The analyst also needs to know the range of educational levels and work experiences of targeted customers. Information on audience educational background is obviously crucial to designing and building T&D. The amount of work experience audience members have in the industry also will affect design and development. So too will the learning styles favored by audience members.

Future expectations regarding the audience size are nice to know. However, getting this data from business leaders may be difficult due to concerns over leaking proprietary business strategies. No responsible business leader will hand over sensitive and potentially damaging data that has a link to critical business strategy, even if withholding the data has a negative effect on T&D. If the business leaders are going to close an operation, get out of a line of business, or build up capacity in a certain area, the analyst may be out of luck in obtaining accurate data on future expectations concerning audience size.

This situation can be dealt with by getting organizational leaders to participate in the PACT Processes via the Project Steering Team. That way, leaders may be able to provide insight without sharing all of their rationale. These decision points occur in the Design Phase of PACT and then again in the establishment of priorities in Phase 4 of Curriculum Architecture Design, Implementation Planning. The implications of not knowing future audience sizes or being guided inappropriately in this area will fall directly into the laps of the Design Team members and/or the Implementation Planning Team members as they perform their roles.

The geographic location of the audience is important for at least two reasons. First, it may affect how the T&D is deployed. And second, if an audience is widely dispersed, it may suggest assembling a geographically divergent Analysis Review Team to ensure input and buy-in from the various locations.

Can the analyst safely assume anything about the target audience? What the analyst can safely assume about audience members and will hand off to the designer will have a major impact on the content configuration created in the downstream activities in the Design Phase!

Sources of Target Audience Data
Where does all of the Target Audience Data come from?

HR/Personnel Departments
HR may have current, actual figures on population sizes, historical trends, education and experience backgrounds, and records of previous T&D experiences - but -
· A Human Resources Information System may or may not exist and may or may not sort to the analyst’s needs
· Access may be denied
· Data may not be accurate - or reflective of the future state

The typical and logical sources may indeed be Human Resources or the Personnel Department. However, sometimes those sources don’t have the data readily available, and extracting it from their systems can be problematic. And sometimes the T&D requester or leadership of the business unit that will be affected by the T&D resists sharing data unless they understand that the analyst’s need to know, along with the costs associated with the analyst’s ignorance, are neither minor nor manageable. And it at best reflects the current state - not where the data may be a year from now. Only the customer can provide that insight - and they could be wrong too!

Data Challenges
Determining who has the Target Audience Data needed within a company has always been harder than I ever imagined it should be. For some reason, HR systems aren’t always able to provide us with the current numbers, let alone historical trends or future intentions.

Conducting the Target Audience Data Analysis
To conduct the Target Audience Data analysis, either the analyst or project manager (assume it’s the analyst) has three main alternatives. The analyst may use one of these or all three.

First, the analyst can ask the customer representatives if they have this data, are willing to share it, or where else the demographic insights can be found. The analyst must be prepared to explain why, where, and when he or she needs this data. Another way to get much of the Target Audience Data is to find out whether Project Steering Team members―as customer representatives―are likely to have it, then to ask them during the Phase 1 gate review meeting.

Second, the analyst can meet with an HR/personnel representative to explain project needs and ask for data.

A third way is to ask Analysis Team members during the Analysis Team meeting.

How much detail should the analyst gather at this point? Knowing that there are 123 sales reps, and that during the next week two of them will be let go and then three hired, is far too much detail. Knowing there are between 100 and 150 is close enough. But knowing that the sales reps are located in 25 sales offices versus two could make a large impact in the configuration, packaging, and deployment of the T&D. And knowing that due to recent acquisitions, job titles vary greatly but job performance is basically consistent will help tremendously in other analysis and later design efforts.

Conclusion
The insights gained from the Target Audience Data effort are used to
• Clarify role responsibilities in the Performance Model effort of the Analysis Phase.
• Impact the design configuration of T&D content.
• Select appropriate deployment methods for Events and Modules later in the Design Phases of Curriculum Architecture Design or Modular Curriculum Development.

The systems and tools in your Enterprise and clients' possession may or may not easily give you what you really need in terms of coming to an adequate understanding of the target audience. There may be a lot of work ahead in getting what is needed.

T&D Is Product Management
If you don’t know your T&D customer well, you won’t be able to readily and appropriately figure out how to package and distribute your T&D products most effectively. That’s bad business and, more accurately, bad product management. This is especially true when tackling a CAD - Curriculum Architecture Design effort. Where the modularity of the content, the content configuration, is either appropriate to the diversity of the primary and secondary target audiences - or it is not.

The PACT Processes are covered in lean-ISD - available as a hardbound book for $75.00 and as a Kindle book for $7.99 - both at amazon.com -- and available as a free PDF at http://www.eppic.biz/ - and there are about 100 other, free references/resources related to PACT (the ISD methodology-set) as well as to EPPI (the HPT/Performance Improvement methodology-set that is the parent to PACT), which is the Enterprise Process Performance Improvement methodology that I developed concurrent with PACT.

So that mastering PACT would lead to an easier mastering of EPPI!

# # #

Now Available as Kindle Books - "lean-ISD" and "T&D Systems View"

2008-06-15T10:11:00.006-05:00

I got my Kindle about a week ago after hearing Thiagi talk about them on that Video from UMBC. I had been interested - but Thiagi pushed me over the edge. I did read about the pro's and con's (con: too easy to inadvertently turn the page when you weren't really ready yet to do so). Such are the risks of early adopters.

I downloaded 3 books ($9.99 each) until I decided that rather than build up a library - I should read a book or two first. So half way through my first book - I decided to upload two of my books - both available in hardback on Amazon.com) - and make them available via Kindle as well.

I wasn't too sure how they would "show up" - given that graphics/diagrams aren't displayed on the pages as they are on paper. This morning I downloaded the two as "samples" first - before I plunk down $7.99 each for them.

Here are the covers of the hardbound books - now available on Amazon.com's Kindle...

Of course they are available as "free" PDFs at http://www.eppic.biz/ as well!

So they are now available - as hardcovers - as free PDFs - and as a Kindle books. And of course - they are overviewed in audio Podcasts on the web site referenced above.

# # #

Redundancy - Unless "By Design" - Is an Unnecessary Life-Cycle-Costs Multiplier

2008-06-13T06:52:00.008-05:00

ETA = Existing T&D Assessment
The intent of assessing existing T&D is to salvage, as appropriate, all of the previous T&D that meets the needs articulated and captured in the analysis meeting. The goal is to avoid reinventing T&D that is already in place. Effectively conducting this portion of the analysis effort saves organizational resources by recycling reusable T&D.

ETA attempts to avoid "inadvertent redundancy" - unless "by design" - that is, redundancy deliberately done for reinforcement or remediation purposes.

I believe that "ETA" is a key, value-added step missing from most ISD/ID (Instructional Systems Design/Instructional Design) methodologies - regardless of whether it is part of a "Rapid" approach or not. In RADD, the PACT-version of "really accelerated PACT" - it is still a key step...

I believe in a RADD approach to ISD after a PACT CAD - Curriculum Architecture Design - effort has concluded. The content configuration provided by the CAD enables all sorts of rapid content development approaches by ISDers and "even" SMEs/MPs (Subject Matter Experts/Master Performers) - but I wouldn't leave the analysis and macro-design to them.

Without a CAD prior, most rapid development efforts would, over time, most likely end up creating a "collection of courses" with tremendous overlaps and gaps. That would increase first costs - to develop all of that redundancy in the first place - and then increase life cycle costs to inventory, administrate, deploy, and maintain all of that redundant content over the long haul.

Yikes!!!! Where is the logic in that?

In the PACT Processes for T&D/ Learning/ Knowledge Management - it always happens in Phase 2: Analysis - for each of the three levels of design that PACT is...

Why bother?
For the R of it...as in Returns...as in ROI...Return on Investment.
What RETURNS?

These Returns...

The PACT Processes use a "data-logic" approach to ISD, whether done Rapidly or more cautiously. The PACT Processes are indeed accelerated, being accomplished in shorter cycle times than traditional ISD/ID due to their use of this data-logic and the defined processes of PACT with specific roles to be assigned, and the use of teams of Master Performers and Subject Matter Experts who were carefully selected by the key stakeholders - for political as well as credibility purposes.

The data-logic map of PACT follows...

ETA Data Generation
After analyzing performance requirements and knowledge/skill enablers, existing T&D can be assessed for its fit within the architecture designed by Curriculum Architecture Design, Modular Curriculum Development, or Instructional Activity Development. The PACT analysis process by which this happens is called the Existing T&D Assessment (ETA).

The goals of the Existing T&D Assessment are to
1. Reuse everything in the T&D inventory that fits, using the T&D as is in the new Curriculum Architecture Design, Modular Curriculum Development, or Instructional Activity Development project.
2. Identify what to fix if the T&D doesn’t quite fit; the T&D will need to be modified/updated for use in the CAD, MCD, or IAD products.
3. Throw away the T&D that doesn’t fit (at least for the audiences we are analyzing!); the existing T&D will not be used at all.

The Performance Model and Knowledge/Skill Matrix data points provide a “bill of materials” for the content of the ideal, blue sky Curriculum Architecture Design, or for a piece of a curriculum. They also provide a set of shopping criteria to be used to assess existing T&D. The criteria can also be used to procure T&D in the marketplace. PACT's CAD methods deliver blended "content configurations" and development/acquisition approaches for both build and buy.

The data of the Performance Model and Knowledge/Skill Matrix are used to investigate and assess learningware currently in the organization’s T&D inventory. In some instances, learningware from outside the organization is assessed. Using the Performance Model and the Knowledge/Skill Matrix means that the assessment is grounded in data, not simply opinion.

Who Does What
The key players in the Existing T&D Assessment are the PACT analyst (or the PACT project manager) along with representatives from the T&D supplier organizations. The analyst is usually the best person to represent the PACT side of things, unless the project manager was in the analysis meeting and understands the data in the Performance Model and Knowledge/Skill Matrix.

Each T&D supplier is given the chance to nominate various training and development products as being appropriate to the needs identified and captured in the Performance Model and the Knowledge/Skill Matrices.

The outputs of the Existing T&D Assessment effort are the completed ETA forms...

Inputs and Likely Sources for the Existing T&D Assessment
Key inputs may come from existing course catalogs or from ISD personnel knowledgeable about the company’s T&D. It is sometimes a difficult task to gather all of the T&D and find the right people to speak for the T&D that may be applicable to the project’s needs.

The analyst can speed the effort by contacting likely sources prior to conducting the Existing T&D Assessment and forewarning them by describing the analysis process, the information needed, and when it will be needed.

I've had several instances where selecting the right content from many options - as the 27 2-hour modules on Active Listening that one client confronted in their conduct of the ETA effort. And that was for only one of the K/S Items out of over 800 Knowledge/Skills Items on the K/S Matrices for their CAD effort.

Tasks Performed during an Existing T&D Assessment
The tasks performed during an Existing T&D Assessment effort are generally performed by the analyst, although in some cases the project manager may do them.

First, the analyst contacts the likely sources of T&D prior to the assessment. The sources may include outside vendors of T&D, but most often this effort is limited to internal sources - at least in my experience. In a large company, this can be quite an effort; the project planner/manager or ISD team should not underestimate the ETA task’s cycle time or the number of hours the task may actually take. It helps a great deal to know the possible extent/number of content offerings that one is likely to confront when one reaches this stage within Phase 2 (Analysis) of the PACT Processes.

Once the analyst has documented the Performance Model and Knowledge/Skill Matrix data, advance copies can be sent to the T&D suppliers. The analyst needs to be sure the suppliers understand the format of these analysis outputs and how to interpret the data on them.

It is likely that the T&D Suppliers (internal and external) will not familiar with the Performance Model and Knowledge/Skill Matrix data organization - it is very different from traditional ISD/ID - and helping them see the big picture prior to reviewing these tables and lists of sometimes very "dense" data - will lead to their understanding and ability to search backwards from their own lists of available content to look for matches - as well as start with the requirements and work forward from that starting point.

When meeting with the T&D suppliers, the analyst reviews the courses and other T&D that the suppliers believe meet the needs documented. Then the analyst fills out the Existing T&D Assessment forms.

Finally, the analyst includes the Existing T&D Assessment data in the Analysis Report and in the presentation for the Project Steering Team gate review meeting. This meeting occurs at the end of Phase 2 in the 3 levels of design of PACT: Curriculum Architecture Design, Modular Curriculum Development, and Instructional Activity Development.

Another Approach
There are other ways to conduct the T&D assessments.

You could send out your data with a set of instructions and ask providers to nominate their T&D as they see fit. This is somewhat problematic, as suppliers tend to see many of their offerings as perfect fits. They won’t necessarily understand (or want to understand) your data as well as someone might who was present during the analysis process. And the suppliers may be rewarded by their own organizations for making sure that their square courses are seen as fitting your round peg holes of need.

You could also survey all or some of your target audience and their leaders/managers to uncover fits of "content" to defined need.

Conclusion
The Existing T&D Assessment saves organizational resources by identifying T&D that may be reused as part of newly designed curriculum.

That assessment is only as good as the insight regarding the need is. And in PACT, that insight is driven via the data of the Performance Models and of the Enabling Knowledge/Skill Matrices.

Wrapping Up This and the 3 Prior Postings on the PACT Analysis Data
The Existing T&D Assessment is the last of four types of analysis that occur during the PACT Analysis Process. The others are
• The analysis of Target Audience Data
• Performance modeling
• Knowledge/skill analysis

Together, these four types of analysis provide the project team with everything they need to know to proceed with the next phase of the project. However, after these analyses have been performed, there are a few items to take care of before proceeding to those next phases–and those items are covered in the book "lean-ISD" - available as a free 404-page PDF at http://www.eppic.biz/ -

See the book for the more formal, controlled PACT Processes - and see elsewhere in past Blog Postings here about RADD - my PACT version of Rapid Analysis-Design-Development.

The former approach, PACT, is appropriate for larger efforts, where the deliverable is something more than a 2-hour module. RADD is more appropriate for "instructional one-offs" or the shorter Events/Modules post CAD - Curriculum Architecture Design.

# # #

Systematically Deriving the Enabling Knowledge/Skills From the Performance Model Data

2008-06-06T07:01:00.005-05:00

Identifying enabling, performance-based knowledge and skills is critical to the design and development of high-impact T&D/ Learning/ Knowledge Management. The systematic PACT knowledge/skill analysis effort follows immediately after the performance modeling effort.

The goal of knowledge/skill analysis is to derive systematically the enabling knowledge/skill (K/S) items and document them on Knowledge/Skill Matrices. The items documented are the enablers that lead to the ideal, high-performance state. These are knowledge/skill items that are not just thought to be needed, but known to be needed. The Knowledge/Skill Matrices link each knowledge/skill item to the performance that it enables (as described in the Performance Model). Thus, the Performance Model ensures that the discrete knowledge/skill enablers in the Knowledge/Skill Matrices are performance relevant. And, in turn, the performance orientation is passed on to the design work products for which the Knowledge/Skill Matrix is an input.

To develop a Knowledge/Skill Matrix, knowledge/skill items are identified and listed on a matrix chart. The process uses a list of predefined knowledge/skill categories, covered later in this chapter. Additional data points are gathered for each knowledge/skill item on the matrix; these are captured in the columns on the right-hand side of the matrix.

The data in the columns of the Knowledge/Skill Matrix is captured live by the facilitator during the same two- or three-day meeting in which the Performance Model is built. The Knowledge/ Skill Matrix in the next diagram...

A list (typically customized for a project) of predefined knowledge/skill categories allows the analyst to control the brainstorming session. By structuring the brainstorming effort in this way, the analyst can keep individual knowledge/skill items closely linked to performance as described in the Performance Model.

The Knowledge/Skill Matrix lists knowledge/skill items that enable performance. Each knowledge/skill item listed on the left of the Knowledge/Skill Matrix is linked back to a specific Area of Performance on a Performance Model. See the Link to Area of Performance section of the first diagram above.

The columns on the right side of the Knowledge/Skill Matrix give a richer insight into the enabling knowledge/skill items. It's more important to know the following about each enabling K/S than just it's label.

The select/train column differentiates those items that are attended to (if indeed they are) by the selection process, not the training process. If the knowledge/skill item is supposed to be taken into account during the candidate selection process, the item should not be an issue for the T&D system. (It won’t be an issue if the selection system really screens for these enablers. However, if some people get the job without having the required enabler, there is a residual T&D implication to deal with.) The analyst marks training items with a “T” and selection items with an “S.”

The criticality column gives an assessment of the importance of the knowledge/skill item. Critical items should definitely be included in high-priority T&D Modules and Events, as prioritized in the last phase of the Curriculum Architecture Design effort, or should receive extra emphasis in Modular Curriculum Development and Instructional Activity Development projects. The analyst marks each item as H, M, or L (high, medium, or low criticality) as the Analysis Team dictates.

The difficulty column indicates how hard the Analysis Team assesses it will be for the target audience to grasp the awareness, knowledge, or skill related to this knowledge/skill item. The analyst marks each item H, M, or L.

The volatility column is an assessment of the amount of maintenance required by the content covering the knowledge/skill item. Volatility impacts packaging and deployment/distribution strategies. For example, an ISD professional might not want to put a volatile piece of content on CD-ROM and have to update it quarterly unless the distribution savings are so great that it would still be a good business decision to do so. Also, later in the design process, it’s a good idea to avoid placing volatile and nonvolatile content in the same T&D Module; separating the two types of content reduces life-cycle maintenance costs for T&D products. The analyst marks this column H, M, or L.

The final column, depth, indicates the depth of coverage needed for the eventual/potential training to cover the knowledge/skill item sufficiently for the learners to know how to apply it to performance. The analyst and team may decide that the appropriate depth is at the awareness level (A), the knowledge level (K), or the skill level (S).

As mentioned, the Knowledge/Skill Matrix lists knowledge/skill items and links them back to the Performance Model. Usually this linkage is made at the Area of Performance level, but it could be at the output or task level. (Outputs and tasks are listed for each Area of Performance in a Performance Model.) Some of our clients found it useful to link each knowledge/skill item to the role for each task. We usually link to the Area of Performance and will use the Design Team members’ knowledge of the more detailed linkages during the design process to accomplish what this more detailed effort would have accomplished earlier.

In PACT, we like to defer the details until just when they are needed. The increased cycle time required to link at a lower level may add a day or two (depending on the amount of data generated during the analysis process). And that smells like analysis paralysis!

While many knowledge/skill items can be placed in multiple knowledge/skill categories, it’s preferable to put an item into the best category one time and one time only; this requires some arbitrary decision-making and consistent logic so that similar data falls into the same category. This is important for the reviewers’ sanity and also for the ease and integrity of the later design work.

To accomplish the knowledge/skill analysis, the analyst and the Analysis Team perform six tasks.

First, the Analysis Team reviews the knowledge/skill category list and modifies it if necessary. The team needs to understand the definitions of each category and how to deal with the inevitable overlaps between categories.

Second, taking a single knowledge/skill category at a time, the Analysis Team reviews each Area of Performance from the Performance Model. All enabling knowledge/skill items that the Analysis Team can think of are listed. This is highly structured brainstorming. The knowledge/skill categories are used to focus on types of knowledge/skills, and the Performance Model charts are used to focus and stimulate the thinking of the team.

Third, the team links each knowledge/skill item to all appropriate Areas of Performance.

Fourth, after each knowledge/skill category has been addressed, the analyst returns to the first Knowledge/Skill Matrix and completes all of the remaining columns in the order below.
• Starting with the select/train column, each knowledge/skill item is evaluated to determine if an employee will be screened out if he or she does not possess the knowledge/skill (S) in the selection process, or if training will need to be provided (T). (Note that the selection process must absolutely screen, for if it doesn’t, you’ll eventually confront a T&D issue. If you’re not sure, it gets a “T”.)
• Then the criticality to performance is rated high, medium, or low.
• The difficulty to learn is rated high, medium, or low.
• The volatility of content of the knowledge/skill item is rated high, medium, or low.
• The level of depth that any T&D should go to is defined as awareness, knowledge, or skill.

Fifth, the Analysis Team is debriefed and the meeting is assessed and closed.

Last, the analyst/facilitator packs up all of the data captured on the flip charts to take back to the ISD ranch, or wherever ISD folks go when the meeting dust settles.

The Knowledge/Skill Matrix and Performance Model are crucial to the PACT Processes because of the way they confer a performance orientation onto subsequent ISD work products. The Knowledge/Skill Matrix and the Performance Model are developed during an Analysis Team meeting led (usually) by the analyst.

In PACT, design efforts are where the actual analysis data is massaged into the design - via the facilitated process the designer uses with the Design Team. Every data point ends up in the design - or everyone involved knows "why not."

In the CAD level of design the data ends up in Module Specs - unless the enablers are already covered in Existing T&D that has been assessed as reusable AI: as is - or - AM: after modification. Those Modules are rolled up into Event Specs. And the Event Specs are placed on a T&D Path (a Learning Continuum or Learning Path or Menu).

In MCD and IAD levels of design in PACT the data ends up in Instructional Activity Specs that roll up to Lesson Maps (the reconfiguring of the Module Specs of a CAD if a CAD effort proceeded MCD/IAD) which themselves are part of an Event Map.

All of this is covered in many articles and presentations available at http://www.eppic.biz/ and in my book: lean-ISD available as a free 404-page PDF at the same site.

The PACT Processes for T&D/ Learning/ Knowledge Management are"lean" in that data is captured and used in facilitated processes - assuring that it is Performance-based, Accelerated, Customer/Stakeholder-driven Training & Development, Learning, and/or Knowledge Management type ISD products. Intended to impact performance and reduce cycle times and costs.

# # #

Two Interesting Videos Posted on YouTube - Boggs and Thiagi

2008-06-01T07:56:00.003-05:00

At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9yMXyRBcgY Dave Boggs talks with the Arlington MA PD Chief of Police about their use of the e-Learning in their officer training programs.

And at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYqm8ao1i2c Thiagi talks for an hour and 49 minutes at the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus on his non-ISD approach to design of instruction.

As I have co-presented with Thiagi on his approach to ISD and my approach to ISD (compare and contrast) at several ISPI conferences in the past few years - this is familiar to me. But I happily captured it and downloaded it to my iPod for additional reviews - and then watched it again yesterday! Well worth the time investment!!!

# # #