What is the right choice for my organization, Customized or Non-customized Training?

Software Development Training increases the effectiveness of the most valuable asset to any software development organization, its people. Training objectives can range from (1) providing industry best-in-class concepts and techniques that employees can apply on an as needed basis in their jobs, to (2) providing specific how-to instructions on how the employees will conduct their work activities through organization-specific procedures.

Non-customized (off-the-shelf) training aims to achieve the first objective above and can be very effective for all levels of organizational process maturity.  This type of training gives the attendees good information about standard practices and techniques and exposes the employees to new ideas that they can apply in their work.  Applying these new ideas is discretionary, often requires interpretation for deciding how and where to implement new techniques, and is done on an as needed basis. On a few occasions, the organization may decide to apply some of these ideas in a standard way for the organization and develop new or improve existing work procedures to incorporate these new ideas. Some of the challenges faced in applying the newly learned concepts to the employees’ day-to-day activities stem from the fact that taking the initiative to change “the way things are done” takes tremendous energy and high level of sponsorship. Non-customized training is therefore most effective with an organization with reasonable process maturity which is looking to increase the employees’ perspective on what else can be done.

The highest level of training customization involves the development or new or enhanced organization policies and procedures and training employees on these procedures. This type of training will incorporate industry best-in-class concepts into specific organizational procedures that will be mandated to the employees. This type of training provides a workbook for how things will be done when the employees return to their desk the next day. This ultimate degree of customization is highly effective with organizations that are seeking to make a jump from a lack of standards and effective processes to a standardized and effective way for conducting business.

The level of training customization can be adjusted to meet objectives that lie between these two extremes. The most basic level of customization would be to incorporate the organizational terminology into the training materials to make it easier for the employees to link these concepts to their day-to-day activities. A second, higher, level of customization would be to provide some new templates or enhance existing templates that the employees can use in their jobs when they return to their desks. These templates will be used by all employees and provide a uniform way of communication. The highest level of customization includes the development of processes and procedures that include process definitions and templates, and will train the employees step-by-step on how they will conduct business the following day.

If you think that customized training can best meet your training objectives, SMS is ready to respond promptly to understand your needs and objectives, and will design and deliver the best in customized training.  Please contact us so we can discuss how to meet your training objectives.