Ensuring a Smooth Flight: Effective Training for Digital Transformation Teams

As we’ve stated throughout this series, ensuring you have the right people on your digital transformation (DX) project team is critical for achieving project success. In previous articles, we covered how to build a high-performing project team and how to tailor a change management strategy to fit your organization’s needs. Today, we will explore the significance of training your project team members prior to kick-off, ensuring they are fully equipped to steer the project toward success.

A successful DX project – similar to an airplane – demands a well-coordinated team to ensure a safe and effective takeoff, flight and landing. Where an airplane requires roles such as pilots, co-pilots, mechanics, security personnel, and flight attendants, a DX project requires a well-trained team of steering committee members, business process owners, business analysts, architects, and more.

Each role must have the skills and training necessary to deliver on their assigned responsibilities, collaborate with other teams or team members, and maintain alignment on the project methodology and requirements.

Keep in mind this is not end-user training, which we will address later on. This article focuses on training the project team in their project responsibilities so they can effectively lead in their role and drive this DX initiative forward.

This training will ensure each project team member knows what the expectations are for their role, has the practical skills to fulfill those expectations, and equips them to show up as leaders throughout the project.

Maximizing Project Success through Effective Role Training

The importance of training your project team cannot be overstated. Although your employees are likely intelligent and capable (which is why you hired them), their everyday responsibilities will vary significantly from the roles they will take on as part of a digital transformation project team.

It’s critical to provide them with the necessary training on how to perform the duties within their project roles, and how those duties align with the overall project objectives.

Effective role training within a DX project will help you:

• Enable Your Team to Perform Their Duties: Each role on a DX project team requires specific skills and knowledge, from Project Manager to Solution Architect and beyond. Providing your team with essential training equips them with the skills and knowledge needed to successfully complete their required duties.
• Set Expectations for Project Execution: Clearly defining roles and responsibilities from the outset helps team members understand the project’s strategic vision and their specific contributions. This understanding ensures everyone is on the same page, paving the way for a streamlined execution process.
• Hold People Accountable to Those Expectations: With well-defined roles, accountability is easier to manage. Team members know what is expected of them, and role training helps reinforce their commitment to meeting those expectations, thereby increasing individual and collective responsibility.
• Bridge the Gap Between Project Role and Day-to-Day Role: Often, the roles within a DX project can differ significantly from an employee’s typical daily responsibilities. Role training helps bridge this gap by providing the necessary skills and knowledge to adapt to their new project-specific roles, ensuring smooth role transitions and minimizing disruptions.
• Sharpen Existing Skills: For team members who have not been involved in DX projects recently, role training acts as an essential refresher. It brings them up to speed with the latest methodologies, tools, and best practices, ensuring they can contribute effectively.
• Ensure Quality & Continuity: By offering a structured approach to role training, teams can maintain high standards of quality. Specific steps and processes are laid out during training, which helps prevent errors, promotes efficiency, and upholds the overall integrity of the project.

Balancing Industry Best Practices with Project-Specific Training

The approach to training within a Digital Transformation (DX) project should be comprehensive and tailored to the specific needs of each team role. Leadership of the project role training sessions could vary; architects, project managers, or senior leaders outside of the immediate project team may take on the role of trainers, depending on the specific expertise required for the role in question.

The best project role training combines industry best practices with what works for your organization. While industry best practices provide a solid foundation for understanding the expected standards and principles, your organization may need to customize those strategies to effectively apply them to your project’s unique approach, processes, and methodology.

As the project team training plan is being built, you will need to consider your team members, their skills and experiences, best practices surrounding the systems or processes being implemented, and your specific project methodology to ensure your project team is well-equipped to execute on the project plan.

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Key Objectives for Effective Team Training

No matter the role, the setting – external or internal – or the approach, the project training should accomplish these primary goals:

• Role Specific Training: Ensuring that every team member has a clear understanding of their specific role and responsibilities within the project and has the skills necessary to perform the required job duties.

• Equipping Team Members: Providing the necessary tools and knowledge for team members to execute their roles effectively.

• Best Practices: Educating team members on the best practices relevant to their roles to ensure efficiency and high-quality output.

• Methodology Alignment: Aligning all team members with the project’s methodology, fostering a unified approach to project execution.

• Tool Utilization: Training team members on the specific tools relevant to the project, ensuring that everyone can use them effectively and efficiently.

If every role receives specific, targeted training that accomplishes the goals laid out above, your project team can collectively move forward with confidence, precision, and a shared vision for success.

Essential Training Areas for Primary Roles

Let’s look at some examples of primary project roles and their essential areas for training. The examples provided are not comprehensive, however, as your project team will consist of many other roles. These examples are simply a starting point for developing a customized training plan tailored to your team’s needs, their designated project roles, and the unique activities within your project methodology.

Steering Committee (SteerCo) Members

The training of Steering Committee (SteerCo) members is crucial for the success of a DX project. Although not involved in daily activities, their role is essential for providing effective sponsorship and leadership.

SteerCo members impact the project through strategic decision-making, risk mitigation, and issue resolution. Proper training enables them to make informed decisions and address challenges effectively, benefiting the project with strong leadership, clear vision, and cohesive decision-making. Conversely, inadequate training can lead to misalignment and ineffective sponsorship, jeopardizing the project’s success.

Areas for Training

1. Meeting Processes: SteerCo members must have a clear understanding of the process and structure of SteerCo meetings. This training ensures that they can effectively contribute by making decisions, mitigating risks, addressing issues, and gathering and relaying feedback from their respective teams.
2. Team Alignment: Training should focus on fostering a cohesive approach among SteerCo members. It is essential that they work collaboratively to drive change and resolve problems. This involves understanding the importance of unified communications and avoiding one-off conversations that conflict with the agreed governance approach, to ensure decisions are in line with the project’s strategic direction.

Business Process Owner (BPO) Training

Proper Business Process Owner (BPO) training enables the successful transition and implementation of new processes. BPOs play a critical role in validating requirements, providing process direction, making decisions on process changes, and championing change within their areas or responsibility. Given their responsibilities, BPOs must be thoroughly trained in the following areas to perform their roles effectively.

Areas for Training

1. Project Methodology: BPOs must be well-versed in the project’s methodology to ensure they can align their work with the overall project framework. This includes understanding agile principles, if applicable, or any other specific methodologies the project follows.
2. Business Terminology: Training should cover the relevant business terminology to ensure BPOs can communicate clearly and effectively within the project context. This facilitates better collaboration and understanding among team members.
3. Requirement Review and Approval: BPOs need training on the consistent process for reviewing and approving requirements. This includes how to collaborate effectively with other team members in building out detailed and accurate requirements.
4. Best Practices in Testing: Training should cover best practices for building test scenarios and test cases. This ensures that BPOs can contribute to rigorous testing processes, helping to identify and resolve issues before project go-live.
5. Expectations at Project Go Live: BPOs must understand what to expect at project go-live, including their roles and responsibilities during this critical phase. This preparation helps in managing expectations and ensuring a smooth transition.
6. Project Tools: Comprehensive training on the specific tools relevant to the project is essential. BPOs need to be proficient in using these tools to perform their tasks efficiently and effectively.
7. Soft Skills Development: Being a BPO can serve as a significant leadership and growth opportunity. Training should include soft skills development to help BPOs take on their new responsibilities with confidence. This includes communication skills, leadership practices, and change management skills.
8. Relying on Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): BPOs do not need to know everything about their process areas. Training should emphasize the importance of relying on SMEs for detailed knowledge and support. BPOs should be comfortable with this collaborative approach to ensure they can lead effectively without being overwhelmed.

Business Analyst (BA) Training

Comprehensive training for Business Analysts (BAs) is crucial for ensuring their effectiveness in managing requirements, documenting processes, and maintaining detailed records throughout the project lifecycle. Their meticulous attention to detail plays a pivotal role in avoiding oversights and ensuring the project’s smooth progression.

Proper training enables BAs to work efficiently alongside BPOs, PMs, Solution Architects, and even external resources like a Business Process Consultant to enhance overall project coordination and success.

Areas for Training

1. Project Methodology: BAs need to be well-versed in the project’s specific methodology, whether it follows agile principles or other frameworks. This ensures they can align their documentation and processes with the overall project plan.
2. Business Terminology: Training should encompass the business terminology pertinent to the project. This understanding is crucial for BAs to communicate effectively with various stakeholders and ensure clarity in documentation.
3. Best Practices for Project Meeting Documentation: BAs must be skilled in documenting meetings accurately and comprehensively. Training in best practices for note-taking and action item tracking is essential to maintain project momentum and accountability.
4. Documenting Requirements: BAs are responsible for creating clear and detailed requirement documents. Training should cover techniques for gathering, recording, and verifying requirements to ensure they meet business needs and project goals.
5. Requirements Management Process: Understanding the complete requirements management lifecycle is vital. Training should include how to prioritize, track, and manage changes to requirements throughout the project.
6. Documenting Business Process Flows: BAs need to accurately document business process flows to visualize and analyze the current state and future improvements. Training should cover tools and techniques for creating effective process diagrams.
7. Project Tools: Proficiency in project-specific tools is necessary for BAs to document requirements, track progress, and collaborate with the team. Training should include hands-on sessions with these tools to ensure BAs are comfortable and effective in their use.

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Empowering People with Effective Team Training

If you were privy to the information, it is unlikely that you would board a plane with an untrained flight crew. Similarly, you shouldn’t embark on a digital transformation journey without a properly trained project team. Team members who receive comprehensive training can effectively face challenges, adapt to changes, and collaborate to achieve project milestones.

This preparation mitigates the risk of misunderstandings, errors, and inefficiencies that could arise from inadequately trained personnel. Without proper training, roles may be misinterpreted, critical tasks overlooked, and project timelines jeopardized.

To avoid such pitfalls and ensure a seamless transformation, it is crucial to invest in training that empowers your team to meet their responsibilities with confidence and precision. For more insights and strategies on achieving success in your self-directed Digital Transformation journey, subscribe to our Digital Transformation Roadmap series. Join us as we explore more comprehensive guides and expert advice to help you lead your organization toward a successful digital future.

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