The below post has been adopted from the IT Hire Wire blog
By Kara Wallace
Bernadette Floyd, Instructional Design Consultant and Project Manager
Hudson IT Learning & Development Contractor
Q: Can your responsibilities make or break the success of an IT project?
A: Absolutely. If the end-users don’t know how to use the system, how successful can the project be? My job is to ensure that the end-users know the correct and most efficient way to complete each task based on their job function.
Q: On a typical project, how do you collaborate with the IT world?
A: It all depends on the type and stage of the project. Often training is not involved at the very beginning of the project. Usually there is some document about the system. I try to read up on that before approaching anyone in IT so that I have a baseline level of knowledge. From there, there may be someone from IT assigned as your point person who will answer your questions. If there is a training database, I’ll work with IT to get the data needed for hands-on practices loaded.
Q: How does someone in your role get up to speed on the various aspects of an IT project?
A: There’s usually some documentation on the system, so the first thing is to review the documentation. From there, I try to get access to the system so that I can try out the functionality. Sometimes there are system walk-throughs that I’ll participate in along with the technical developers.
Q: What was the most unusual IT project you have worked on? Why?
A: In over 10 years, I’ve worked on a lot of interesting projects, not just IT related. I don’t know that I can pick just one and label it unusual. But if I had to, I would say a multi-year project (which many may say is unusual in itself) where I worked in a small room with 8 other consultants. The room was made of cinder blocks and in the back hallway (tornado shelter) of the building. I had the opportunity to develop training for a lot of different in-house systems as well as designing and developing an EPSS, orientations for new employees, and a web-based portal for the customer service group.
Q: How has off shoring effected your work?
A: I’ve had some clients who have opted to offshore. In most cases, the training development has been brought back local. I am happy to say that the quality of our work and our ability to react quickly to changing needs has proven our value to our clients.
Q: What is the most important skill set in order to be a successful Instructional Designer in a systems related project?
A: I think the most important skill is to be flexible. On every project that I’ve worked on, priorities are ever changing. If you can’t adjust then you aren’t going to last long. As a consultant, you must be able to adapt your working style to that of the client and the rest of the team
