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Return on Investment for Training and Documentation
Subject:Return on Investment for Training and Documentation From:"Joanna Williams" <air2jaw -at- ups -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 28 Mar 2002 12:35:13 -0500
Does anyone have any experience with demonstrating the return on investment
for training and documentation projects? The investment part is fairly
straightforward to me since we charge other departments an internal fee for
our services--kind of like doing consulting work for your own company. Its
the return part that I am struggling to quantify and measure. For this
particular project, we are developing a Help system and web-based training
materials for a new release of an existing application. This means that I
will also somehow need to separate the "effect" of the training and
documentation materials from the "effect" of a (hopefully!) better designed
application.
I am thinking of trying to enlist the help of a few actual end users. Have
them attempt to perform certain tasks in the new system without the training
or documentation. Then have another group attempt to perform the same set
of tasks with the documentation and training. I can then quantify the time
savings into dollar savings.
I have never attempted anything like this before, so any ideas or direction
you might have to offer are welcome.
The ideas expressed above do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
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