One thing Philip did have in hand was a needs assessment conducted by the ISP committee. Surprisingly, the assessment was fairly detailed, noting that 5,000 end-users will be affected by the ISP project. Users were identified as having a variety of learning needs across the spectrum--some having little technical expertise, others being experienced systems engineers.

The more novice users are concerned about the system because it took them years to learn the old one and they don’t want to have to “reinvent the wheel.” A number of the “techies” felt they could pick up the system overnight and didn’t want to sit through hours and hours of training. In all, the committee interviewed twenty-five individuals from each department for the assessment, recommending department managers be trained first so they can effectively address their staff’s concerns about the project.

“Having a needs assessment in hand will help,” thought Philip as he walked back to his car from the meeting, “I should probably first decide on the types of training we can offer to address the committee’s recommendations, then decide on how it could be delivered...”

In addition to the committee, though, Philip knew he needed to take into account the needs of other stakeholders. For example, Kinzie threw another iron on the fire late yesterday when she quipped, “Epler, prompt training is going to make or break the success of this project. How are you going to assure that all users, from payroll to admissions, are going to be able to adapt to the new user-interface?” Kinzie also mentioned she personally established CTI for just this type of project, making Philip wonder if using an outside training vendor is really a possible solution.

Clearly, it will be difficult to meet the needs of everyone along the continuum with just one training solution.

The following questions have been posted to the Discussion Board:

Now that we are all expert project managers , what do you think Philip should do next if he decides to use CTI to produce Web-based instruction? Should he hire additional staff, and if so what would they be doing? What obstacles must Philip overcome in this project? How can he overcome these obstacles?

What change management issues are prevalent in the case? Do you see any individuals employing either contingency or values-based management styles? How could Philip use a values-based approach to implement the types of changes needed for this project?