Phil Holliday Journal Entry #2

I recently performed a needs and task analysis when I was creating a training course for one of our commercial banking departments. We are rolling-out a new investment management application in early April, and all of our portfolio managers (PM’s) will be upgraded to a new platform to track and maintain client accounts. In order to decide whether or not training was necessary, we had to learn as much as possible about the upgrade and compare it to the current system configuration. I setup meetings with our IT and production departments to discuss all of differences between the old and new systems. They helped me chart out all of the major procedural changes that will result from the new system, while also explaining the processes and functions that will remain the same. I took that information to the PM supervisors and asked them to rate the changes based on the level of impact they will have on their staff. Because the feedback from the supervisors was fairly consistent, I was able to pinpoint the key procedures that would be affected by the upgrade. I also sent surveys to the portfolio managers and their supervisors to find out what kind of questions or problems they were having with the current system. I wanted to see if there was any current training or procedural issues that could be addressed if we decided to implement a training program for the upgrade.

In order to understand the impact of the software upgrade, I also analyzed the staff that will be affected and the tasks that they perform within the application. I gathered lots of information about the tool through informal discussions with PM’s. They explained the importance of the data retrieved and showed me how financial decisions are made based on the figures that the application produces. At this point, I was unknowingly performing a task analysis as I compared that information to all of the actions that PM’s make on an account each day. I had to understand whether or not every PM managed accounts in a similar fashion, or do they each have investing ideologies that they apply to their job? Did this software’s usefulness depend on the PM’s investing styles? I wanted to know exactly what the participants would need to understand about the application if we decided to offer training on it. What did they need to be able to do within the application in order to do their jobs successfully? In order to analyze the task at hand, I set up additional meetings with the supervisors, and spoke to experienced PM’s to better understand the tasks that ALL portfolio managers have to perform within this tool. I also needed to identify the level of impact the new application would have on the way they currently performed each task and begin listing the knowledge and skills they had to have to perform certain functions.

Once I compiled and organized all of my feedback and research, I met with my supervisor to discuss training options. We needed to decide if this upgrade warranted classroom training, a web-based tutorial, or a detailed email explaining the changes. Because we were dealing with a tool that controlled client assets, and because there was going to be new functions in different screens within the application, we decided that a web-based, self-guided training module would be the most effective solution. Since I didn’t receive any feedback from the PM’s that would warrant training on existing issues, I could focus the lesson on the upcoming upgrades and create a training course that provided detailed illustrations on how the changes will affect their daily transactions.