Re: ANON: Feature Incomplete Training Issues

[John Posada <john -at- TDANDW -dot- COM>]

Dear Anon...

My advice is to get used to it and figure out how to work with it.

I don't know if you remember this or are aware of this, but when Microsoft
was doing the rollout debut of Win95 (or was it 98?), they has a BIG
introduction, with it being telecast around the world (if you've ever been
to an MS rollout, you would think it was a circus).

Anyway, there's Big Bill talking while one of his guys was doing the demos.
This is taxing my memory, but if I recall, they either installed or
activated a scanner and the whole thing crashed big time. BLAM!! When you're
pushing Plug-and-Play, this isn't a minor issue. However, he smiled,
laughed, rebooted, and continued on. Hey...S**T happens!

In a previous life, I did technical sales support where I would develop the
demo application to demonstrate the turnkey computer system when the
salesman was able to set an appoint prior to a sale. Sometimes it meant not
showing a feature during the demo because I knew it was particularly weak.
Other times, I gave a warning during the demo that we knew there was a bug
but it would be addressed before delivery, so if they wanted to see it
anyway, be ready for interesting results.

One time during a demonstration at a customer's site, I hit the master power
switch for the equipment on and blew a fuse for the power in the whole wing
of the customer's building.

There's that joke..."I'm glad it crashed...now I have an opportunity to show
you how easy it is to _____" (You fill in the blank.) You have no idea how
many times I've winced as I've pressed the <Enter> key knowing that I have a
50/50m chance of the feature doing what it is supposed to do.

The point is, as you are demoing software, you will always get abnormal
events. Anyone can train and demo software that does exactly what it is
supposed to do all the time. The professionals know how to deal with those
situations real-time.

Remember, you are part of a team. Conduct yourself that way.

Don't you think that the developer would like to give you a polished ap?
Sounds like the developer is trying to accommodate you as best he can, so
don't whine about it.

>
>I'm having trouble dealing with the following and would appreciate
feedback.
>
>I'm tasked with writing training for an internal tool. This tool, currently
>in development, is scheduled for deployment on 2/1/99. I've got an outline
>of the training materials set.  I've written some of the documentation. I'm
>scheduled to give pre-launch training on 1/22/99.
>
>The problem is that the software is not feature complete. Some of the most
>basic tasks don't work because they are not yet implemented or are buggy.
>The developer has promised a version of the software that I can use for
>training by 1/21/99. This version will allow me (and users) to do some
basic
>tasks on 1/22/99--enough to get them started with the software in
>anticipation of the 2/1/99 launch date.
>
>I'm reluctant to provide training and documentation with such a short
window
>of time facing me.  My manager is supportive, yet I don't feel comfortable
>with the present schedule. I don't want to present the training and have
the
>software perform unexpectedly.  QA is minimal on this product--I'm finding
>more bugs than the QA person.
>
>I feel like I'm in the position of a movie reviewer looking at storyboards
>and writing a review of the finished product.
>
>Advice?


John Posada
Bellcore
john -at- tdandw -dot- com


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=