Consulting Project Phases – Support, Documentation and Training

Support, Documentation and Training

In addition to the requirement and testing documents that have been created, as a consultant, you will also be responsible for creating hand-off documentation as projects and phases complete. These documents will include how-to guides, user manuals, quick reference guides, support strategies and general training material. The actual training artifacts you are on the hook for delivering in regards to documentation will be outlined in the original SOW. It is good to keep blank templates with you in your tool belt as you go from project to project as it will allow you to spin these documents up faster and provide a good list of must-have items to document for every type of project.

You may also be responsible for the actual training portion of the project. For larger, more structured projects, there will be a dedicated training and change management team whose responsibility will be to create all material and ensure that all the new shiny items you have worked so hard to stand up get adopted and used correctly. Many times, projects will fall apart post-deployment if there is a failure in adoption. If the processes and tools seem too difficult for the client due to not having the correct training and understanding, they will quickly complain to their leadership and revert to their old ways of doing their job since that is familiar and seem easier. Helping ease the pain of change is a very critical role for projects and it is not to be undervalued to keep the project from falling apart in the final mile.

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