A major project, one of several for a client organisation, was due to go live before Anzac Day (25 April). I was designing the training, liaising with the developers as to final layouts, image requirements and general structure of this project. As all training is customised, I was busy designing customised training for this one project. I was not the project contact - just working away on my end, the developer was working on his things - we were frequently communicating between ourselves.
Then came the email - what are you working on? I let them know. Then requested to down tools as the schedule had been changed some time ago and another project was going live before that one. This lead to working a couple of extremely long days to ensure that training for the new project was prepared (and documented). The layout was changed by the client on the final day (after testing) - but that's life and the client prerogative!
When I contacted the client to find out when they would be available for training I included the question:
"Could you please let me know when Emily (and whoever else may need training in these newsletters) would be available - I'm aiming forThursday 24/04 as this is when the first issue of the [newslettername removed] newsletter is supposed to be sent. However, I know that's very short notice, so perhaps early next week if that suits Emily better."The response from the client was:
"Also, what are the [newsletter name removed]? Frances mentioned there is one going out tomorrow but we don't have anything happening. Does this mean LOTD? The first one will go out on Tuesday next week."
OK, confusion at my end! Fortunately our client contact was included in these emails and she responded to clear up the situation "Sorry that date was probably my fault. That's the date I gave for project completion not send."
So, the new project was not really going live on Thursday, but the following Tuesday. It had a completely different name within the client organisation than within ours. And the original project that I had to remove myself from went out live before this one... but that's another item... the requirements for each issue of that are still in a state of flux, so very hard to design training for!
Moral of the story - communication amongst the team to clarify any issues. Make sure you ask questions. Team is everyone working on a project - both internally and client side.
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