Guest View: Training builds more than skills

By Matt Harp

December 15, 2008 —

Let’s face it: Any good salesperson is going to go for the up-sell or the add-on. If you’re like most people, your knee-jerk reaction is to say no.

Software training is one of those add-ons you’ve probably declined over and over again—and indeed, in many cases developers can get by without it. They don’t really need training for business or productivity packages. But when it comes to tools that are essential to the development process, such as application life-cycle management, you can’t afford to do without training.

In most organizations, training is considered an expense rather than an investment. Managers complain that time spent in a classroom is time stolen from more important activities. But that thinking is backward (and I’m not just saying that because I’m in charge of the customer training department for a software company). Investing in training upfront can save you from expensive support calls and rework later on.

It’s a simple fact: When it comes to ALM tools, developers need training. But managers often assume developers are smart enough to figure everything out on their own; after all, isn’t that what makes them good developers? And developers can make things worse by not asking for training, fearing that to do so would be an admission of weakness.

As a result, many developers learn to use a new ALM tool on the job, and that’s a problem for a number of reasons.

First, because they’re focused on understanding the basics, novices aren’t qualified to determine the best way to use a tool. When you’re learning to hit a baseball, you concentrate on simply making contact. You don’t yet have enough knowledge to time your swing and hit the ball to the opposite field. The same applies to learning a development application. Understanding how to create a branch in an SCM tool is much different from understanding the best branching methodology for your process.

Further, self-reliance causes needless tool turnover, but learning from best practices improves your efficiency quickly. It’s much more cost-effective to train on a tool before you use it on a project. If you rush in unprepared, you run the risk of having to redo work because you didn’t properly understand the tool.

I know this from experience because I manage our professional services department as well as the training department. I’m frustrated when developers tell me, “We don’t need training; we’ll figure it out on our own.” I have no doubt that developers can figure out how to use the tool. But my many consulting engagements with customers who were struggling with things they would have learned in training has convinced me that it’s the classic “pay me now or pay me later” situation.

When developers don’t receive training, they often don’t achieve a basic understanding of a tool’s capabilities. Things get worse as new versions of the software are released. Pretty soon, your developers want to switch tools because the current one doesn’t meet their needs. The truth is that they may have the perfect tool and just don’t know it.

Training requires a time investment, and that’s one reason companies resist training. Employees can’t code and train at the same time—and while the former activity brings in revenue, the latter costs money.

Writing code, however, is not the only productive activity a developer can pursue. Investing in a couple of hours’ worth of developer training can eliminate 10 to 12 hours of their playing around with a tool (which isn’t getting the coding job done either). Plus, calling support when you’re knee-deep in a project will be more costly than taking the time earlier in the process to use the tool properly.

Not only must training be done, but it must also be done correctly. When most organizations purchase an application, they opt for individual training: They send one person to a class focused on a defined set of tasks. That person becomes the organization’s “expert” on the tool. Training is a one-time deal for one employee.

That is better than nothing, but it’s not enough. One employee should not have an advantage just because he or she was around when you purchased the software. Whether you create a training document for new employees or send them to a formal class, training should be available for everyone, and it should be an ongoing process.

In my experience, the best type of training brings developers together with their managers, who understand corporate policies, and a trainer who understands the details of the tool. In this setting, the trainer applies his or her knowledge to help adapt the tool to your processes and workflow.

Since it’s not generic training, your team is ready to use the tool when class is over rather than struggling to fit the training examples to the real world.

If you’re still not sold, let me throw in one other benefit of this approach to training. Providing employees with a higher level of training builds loyalty and improves morale.

When employees understand how to work with a tool, they can complete a task. If employees also understand the reasoning behind a task, they can see how their work contributes to the success of the business. Back to my baseball example, learning the proper stance can allow the batter to place the ball in different parts of the field. But knowing when to lay down a bunt rather than swing for the fences can be the difference between a win and a loss.

Developers who understand how a tool fits into the organization’s environment can make the critical link between actions and results. Their job is no longer just about completing a to-do list. They evaluate every action with an eye on the company’s success.

Employees may even start questioning why you do things the way you do. Why do you send a nightly build to QA when they don’t have time to test it? Why do you communicate defect priorities to the client when all that does is result in more work for your support staff?

You want developers who are engaged in the process. Bringing a group together for training not only improves knowledge transfer but also gets employees more invested in the business. The more people you have striving for success, the more likely you are to achieve it.

Matt Harp is manager of professional services at Seapine Software.

Related Search Term(s): professional development

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