Book Image

User Training for Busy Programmers

By : William Rice, William Rice
Book Image

User Training for Busy Programmers

By: William Rice, William Rice

Overview of this book

If you need to write a successful software training course and are unsure of how to start, then this book gets right to the point with clear, concise directions for developing an end-user software course. This step-by-step job aid walks you through the process of developing a successful, instructor-led software class. There are many good books on training theory. This book takes a more practical, condensed approach for when you don't have time to learn training theory. It is based on fifteen years of technical writing and training experience. In under 100 pages, the book guides you through the process of developing an end-user software course using a method that is tested, proven, and based upon sound instructional theory.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Prepare Software for the Exercises


Congratulations! You have a detailed plan for the course, and the buy-in on that plan from those who are depending upon you. At this point, you are almost unstoppable.

Your next task is gathering the data files and applications needed for the exercises. In our auto insurance processing example, you would need the following:

  • The claims-processing application

  • The correct configuration for the application with proper processing rules for whichever type of claims and locations will be used in the exercises

  • Customers added to the application’s database

  • A user ID for the application, with the same access rights that your students will have

You need to compile a similar list of software requirements for your class.

After compiling your list of requirements for the training environment, install the software on the computer that you will use to develop the training exercises. Then, before you start developing the exercises, take a snapshot of the training system. That...