INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEMS DESIGN
A virtual assistant for technical documentation
DISCLAIMER: Please note that the project's is strictly fictional and was used for the purpose of the assignment only.
Background & Research
Technical documentation is a major step when conducting a project. It allows employees to access a written/digital database that englobes the mechanisms of essential tasks. However, this database could be outdated, targeted towards a specific group, or employees could simply be unaware of its existence.
In order to get enough information about the subject matter, I did some online research based on key words, such as ‘software knowledge documentation’, ‘documentation of software processes’, and ‘software system documentation’. Furthermore, some papers were very useful to understand this issue more in depth, such as Linda Westfall’s 2001 paper on How to create useful software process documentation, but also Hopinks and Jernow’s 1990 paper on Documenting the software development process.
The SME (Subject Matter Expert) that I interviewed is a software engineer that has been working for an adtech company for over a year. He is relevant because despite his short experience, he was able to learn about the software processes that engineers need to know early in his career thanks to his social skills. He was able to develop relationships with senior engineers who happily shared information whenever needed. The questions that I asked him were about the importance of this technical documentation, the difficulties that engineers go through for not having technical instructional documents and the solutions that they turn to in order to conduct tasks.
In order to get enough information about the subject matter, I did some online research based on key words, such as ‘software knowledge documentation’, ‘documentation of software processes’, and ‘software system documentation’. Furthermore, some papers were very useful to understand this issue more in depth, such as Linda Westfall’s 2001 paper on How to create useful software process documentation, but also Hopinks and Jernow’s 1990 paper on Documenting the software development process.
The SME (Subject Matter Expert) that I interviewed is a software engineer that has been working for an adtech company for over a year. He is relevant because despite his short experience, he was able to learn about the software processes that engineers need to know early in his career thanks to his social skills. He was able to develop relationships with senior engineers who happily shared information whenever needed. The questions that I asked him were about the importance of this technical documentation, the difficulties that engineers go through for not having technical instructional documents and the solutions that they turn to in order to conduct tasks.
Request
Create a training program for software developers that allows them to write, in a minimal amount of steps, complete documentation of development processes that are confined within the company in order to operate systems while saving precious resources.
Business need
The business need is to generate revenue by documenting the coding processes. New hires and interns will be able to find the data needed faster and complete their tasks rapidly and effectively. The company will then be able to meet the deadlines or even present the product to their clients before the deadline, which would allow the company to generate thousands of dollars in revenue by being first in the market and winning against the competitors. Thus, the company will gain new customers from the competitors and keep the current ones, which will generate more money.
Learners
Objectives
Business objective
Given the implementation of a documentation process, the company will be able to keep their current customers and gain an additional 15% new customers yearly from the competitors.
Learning objectives
- Given a need to use an old software system, create an accessible and user-friendly database that contains information about the old systems.
- Given the hiring of inexperienced and uninformed interns, create a process to document newly added code and its processes that is accessible in a maximum of ten steps.
- Given the use of the database and newly added process by several engineers and developers, manage these resources on a weekly basis.
Given the implementation of a documentation process, the company will be able to keep their current customers and gain an additional 15% new customers yearly from the competitors.
Learning objectives
- Given a need to use an old software system, create an accessible and user-friendly database that contains information about the old systems.
- Given the hiring of inexperienced and uninformed interns, create a process to document newly added code and its processes that is accessible in a maximum of ten steps.
- Given the use of the database and newly added process by several engineers and developers, manage these resources on a weekly basis.
Needs Assessment
This document is a needs assessment that provides the background for the project and the goals it must achieve.In this document, I stated the background of the project, the research I did in order to throughly understand the issue that the company tackles, the business need of the company, the performance problem with a current and an ideal scenario as well as the tasks of the learners in their current and ideal performance, the targeted learners, the objectives, the constraints, and the evaluation of the learners linked to the issue in hand.
Design plans
This document explains the medium used in order to attain the learning goals, as well as the reasoning behind it, the description of the medium, the instructional strategy followed and the program structure
Concept map
This concept map is an illustrated explanation that described the relationship between all of the objectives covered in the learning program, and the strategy for presenting those objectives to the learners. It incorporates the design, the objectives, the learners, the instructional strategy and the program constraints.
Training product
This document is a learning program that addresses the needs identified in the project. The training medium used in this project is a two-hours instructor-led workshop. In this guide, the instructor gets to know what the event is about, a description of the workshop, the target audience, the goal, the desired outcomes, how to prepare for the workshop thanks to a checklist, instructors that need to be followed for a successful experience, and helpful tips to wrap up the training program.
Formative Evaluation
This document is a plan for conducting a formative evaluation of these materials.This document presents the strategy used in order to conduct the formative evaluation of the workshopThis evaluation is supposed to be implemented throughout the development of this training program and not after conducting it with the actual learners. It targets the training program, not the participants. This evaluation consists of a usability review, a technical review and an editorial review with samples.