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Subject:Re: FWD: Who is my audience? From:Smokey Lynne L Bare <slbare -at- JUNO -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 29 Oct 1997 10:18:29 -0500
>From a similar situation at our local, national Big 10 university....
...friends of mine just went through the same scenario which you are now
facing. Depending on your succession scope plan, which I don't know, I
can share with you that some of the larger schools have gone towards
PeopleSoft and Folio VIEWS. Both seem to fit well in these environments.
These two tools should help you take care of the issues #1 and #2. The
feedbacks seem to be based on problems with internal 'training' issues.
Though the software vendors have offered training, most universities seem
to decide to use business consultants to do the implementation. In our
case here, the consultants outsourced and used a FL-based company for
SBT, and training material design. It was half written before the
software conversion, no usability studies done on time allocations of
univ. staff and faculty for learning a tool, and most importantly, it was
way down the list by the business office in priority.
The tools maybe wonderful, but if the scope of the project is not
strategically created from the design phase through the
post-implementation (even postmortem) phases, you may be in for some
major headaches.
In my humble opinion, I would align myself with a business prof and have
h/she assist you in story boarding your documentation specificities
(based on your role only). Once this is done, you will have covered 'thy
self', and provided the necessary information making a wise decision,
based on the replies from this list and the professor's input. Once you
have the necessary information in front of you, you be amazed at how easy
it is to form an opinion as to what direction you wish to go. The tools
mentioned were designed to cover multi-purpose users. I would present
your scenario to both vendors, and let THEM make recommendations.
Whether you utilize their products or not, you have gained valuable
information for future information architecture design decisions.
Hope this helps...good luck...just remember to document what you do!
