Establish and Document the Application's User Documentation and Training Materials

This chapter explains how to establish and document the User Documentation and training materials that help people work with an Application.

Definition

User Documentation is documentation that explains how users interact with an Application to perform their work, such as user guides, how-to instructions, FAQs, training materials, and descriptions of screens and functions.

Why User Documentation and Training Matter

An Application that users cannot use effectively does not deliver its value. Poor User Documentation and training lead to errors, workarounds, low adoption, and a flood of avoidable support requests. They also concentrate knowledge of how to use the Application in a few experienced users, creating the same key-person risk that affects technical knowledge.

Establish User Documentation and Training

During the Training and Education phase, and with the Business Application Owner:

• Identify the Application’s user groups, including business users, administrators, and support staff, and what each needs to know.

• Create User Documentation for each group, covering the tasks they perform and the functions they use.

• Create training materials and determine how training is delivered, for example instructor-led, self-paced, or embedded help.

• Determine how users get help, and how training is provided to new users after go-live.

For vendor-provided Applications, supplement the vendor’s generic documentation with documentation of how the enterprise has configured and uses the Application.

Document and Share User Documentation and Training Materials

Publish User Documentation and training materials in the Digital Library, or within the Application itself, where users can find them, and link to them from the Application Documentation. Update them with every Release that changes what users see or do, and publish Release Notes for users as described in the chapter “Establish and Maintain the Application’s Release and Change History.”

Best Practice: Establish and Document the Application’s User Documentation and Training Materials

It is a best practice to both establish and document the solution for helping people use an Application: create User Documentation and training materials for each user group, publish them where users can find them, and update them with every Release that changes the user experience.

Benefits: Good User Documentation and training raise adoption, reduce errors, and cut avoidable support requests, so that the Application delivers the value it was built for. Keeping them current with each Release prevents the confusion and support spikes that follow undocumented changes.

Connections to Related IF4IT Practices and Inventories

The Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Best Practices describes the Training and Education phase. The Service Catalog Best Practices addresses how users find and request the services Applications support.