Agile

Learning
Design for
Beginners
Designing learning at the
speed of change

By: Jennifer Bertram

Director of Instructional Design
 Table of Contents

Why not ADDIE? 3

Managing the work 7

Getting started 9

Links 10
 Why not ADDIE?

Using ADDIE methodology gives learn-

ing designers a framework we can use to
manage the process of creating a learning
solution and ensures that we complete the
critical tasks to create something thats in-
structionally sound.

Pay no attention to the man behind

the curtain! We remember this scene
from the movies, and in the past have treat-
ed our instructional design the same way. Diagram of the old, rigid ADDIE model
We tell our clients or stakeholders, Dont
look at what were doing. Wait until its built
until you look. But agile instructional design
is different. Its about telling our stakehold-
ers, Come join me behind the curtain and
work with me to create something great.
If you are looking for a more efficient way Flowchart of the new, flexible Agile process
to work with the vendors who create learn-
ing solutions for your organization, agile What it doesnt do is help us manage the
learning design can help. If you are a vendor realities of our daily work lives where con-
who provides learning solutions to other in- tent shifts like sand, procedures are updated
ternal or external groups, agile can help with frequently, and leaders change direction.
that, too. Weve found that agile learning de- Creating a linear plan at the beginning of
sign leads to happier clients, better deliver- a project with fixed milestones and timelines
ables and a more balanced workload for our is usually an exercise in futility. The begin-
project teams and subject matter experts. ning of the project is the time when we know

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the least amount of information about it. So, if not more. Without strong communication
rather than working our way through ADDIE, within a development team and with a client
were going to complete all of the same in- or stakeholder, agile just doesnt work.
structional design steps, but do it incremen- Agile comes to us from the software de-
tally, iteratively, and collaboratively. velopment world, and one of the principles
is individuals and interactions over pro-
Agile learning design allows you to: cesses and tools.
Create more creative, learner-focused
courses. What does collaboration look like in
View your stakeholders as partners, not a development team?
someone to keep at arms length.
Plan for and respond to changes. Our agile team has worked hard to become
Uncover requirements, preferences, and more collaborative and ensure that every-
changes earlier in the design and devel- one has a voice. In the past, the individuals
opment process. on the team would throw things over the
fence to each other and often it would result
in miscommunication and frustration.
Weve created some guidelines for the team
to help us ensure that were communicating
well:

We will all plan on working in the office

at least one day a week. We believe that
having face-time aids in communication
and makes it easier for us to collaborate
as a team.
Well use group IM chats if theres some-
thing that we feel like the whole group
Dont get too focused on any of the jargon needs to know or weigh in on.
surrounding agile. At its core, agile helps teams Well avoid using email. It stinks as a com-
work incrementally, iteratively, and collabora-
tively. munication tool. It slows things down and
doesnt allow for conversations to hap-
Collaborative Design pen. Face-to-face, IM, or phone are our
preferred tools. (This is one of our teams
Agile instructional design focuses just as favorite rules!)
much on communication as it does process,

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 We want to have no surprises at internal its intentional, not an oversight.
deliverables. What that means is that the Let them know how much time it will take
team will work together to agree on func- to look at the feature. In general, our cli-
tionality, graphics, and flow. We believe ents have found that they are looking at
that we come up with better ideas when smaller pieces, more often.
more than one person is involved in mak- Look for ways where you can have them
ing the decision. look at things with you. Tack on 10 min-
utes at the end of a meeting and show
Its been a change in behavior and taken them what youre working on. Or if you
time, but now individuals catch themselves have regularly scheduled status meet-
when they communicate in ways that arent ings, come prepared with some show and
efficient or dont involve the right people. tell to get their reactions and feedback.

What does collaboration look like Incremental Design

with stakeholders or clients?
In the past, we at BLP have sent our clients
a small set of key deliverables for an eLearn-
ing course:

Design document
Script
Alpha (first draft)
Beta (second draft)
Goldmaster (final)
Collaborating with stakeholders means in-
volving them in the idea creation and deci- Each deliverable was usually long and
sion making processes. While most people time-consuming to review.
like that idea in theory, it requires a different Using an incremental approach, we now
way of working. To help your stakeholders, focus on sending clients features to react to
be sure to: rather than an entire course. We also focus
on creating working examples, rather than
Set clear expectations as to what you
documentation.
want them to review. Try giving them a
While we still have set deliverables, were
checklist of questions they should answer.
much more likely to send a screen shot or a
Be sure to tell them whats not included
piece of something for interim reaction than
in the review. If certain features or activ-
before.
ities havent been created, be clear that

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We also share with our stakeholders rough
drawings, prototypes, and mockups. We
Working With Agile
dont worry about making everything pol-
Processes
ished before they see it. As long as we set
expectations well, this allows them to 1) fo-
cus on the functionality, not the graphics
and 2) provide early feedback that helps us
make valuable changes.

Iterative Design

Getting that early feedback is one of the big-

gest benefits of the agile process. It helps us
confirm that our design decisions meet the
needs of the learner and organization. It also Prototype
uncovers faulty logic early in the process.
Because we are providing clients with small
pieces early, they can see the course
or app or game evolve over time and
become closer and closer to right.
This is especially important as we
develop things that are new to both
us and the clients. Creating mobile
apps, games, and higher-level learner
interactions requires more iteration than if Design Proof
were doing just more of the same.

Heres an example activity we iterated over

several stages. While we might have got-
ten to the same place using our previous
processes, we planned on these iterations,
which made all the difference in the world.

Alpha

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 Managing the Work

Wanting to work incrementally, iter- pace of their work in progress limits indefi-
atively, and collaboratively is all well nitely.
and good, but at some point you have to BLP has been using the Kanban approach
manage the work and timeline. for our client projects. Because each project
Agile does not mean there isnt any plan- team has multiple clients and projects go-
ning, but rather that planning is different. ing on at any given time, using a Scrum type
Instead of creating one plan at the begin- method where we try to plan out a two week
ning and using your time and energy trying period is not workable.
to hold everyone to that plan (which never Kanban works really well for our project
works), we spend our time identifying what teams because it allows us to pull work into
work is a value-add and what can be worked our workstream, especially when existing
on based on priorities and availability. projects hit snags or delays.
How you manage that work is flexible and Below is an example of a physical Kanban
can be done using several different meth- board our team used. Having a visual rep-
ods. Two that weve chosen to use at BLP resentation of whats going on helps the
include Kanban and Scrum. team stay focused and know exactly what
everyone is doing when.
Using Kanban to Pull Work
to Team

Kanban is a methodology to con-

trol the amount of work that the
team is working on at any given
time. It was created at Toyota to
help maintain a consistent amount
of work that a team can handle at
any given time.
In Kanban, the team pulls work
onto their plates. The team also BLP has been using the Kanban approach for our
has set work in progress (WIP) limits that tell client projects.

the team and the people they work with how

much work they can do at any given time.
When done correctly, the team can keep the

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What About Scrum? our system, one point equals one day of
By Steven Boller, Marketing Director work. Every team member has a certain
number of story points they can complete
Scrum is the methodology most people in a given sprint, which controls the work-
think of when they hear agile. At BLP, load.
we use Scrum on our product develop- While the sprint reviews and planning
ment team. The marketing team also uses meetings are time consuming, the plan-
its own variation of Scrum. ning of work has to be done eventually,
The Product Dev team decided on anyway. Scrum makes the process more
Scrum because they needed a way to rap- efficient and intentional. The team has
idly evolve our Knowledge Guru prod- been pleased with Scrum so far and can-
uct. Scrum is more focused on the user of not imagine going back.
a product than the process for creating it.
Like Kanban, it allows teams to maximize Our time is being used so much
resources and get everyone working to- more effectively. Scrum holds us all
gether. accountable for doing our jobs. Be-
In Scrum, tasks are completed in short cause work is now done in two week
sprints of 1-4 weeks. Every sprint produc- intervals, we have the flexibility to
es a working version of the product, and allow priorities to change. Agile has
tasks are based on user stories. (Exam- made it possible to complete major
ple: Learners will be able to play an inter- tasks like adding SCORM to Knowl-
active game about using widget XYZ). edge Guru, something that was not
The flow of work is managed with a on our roadmap just a few months
backlog of tasks that will be completed in earlier. This would have been very
the future but have not been assigned. At difficult with an ADDIE or Waterfall
the conclusion of each sprint, the Product methodology.
Dev team conducts a sprint review to ver- Sharon Boller, President and
ify completion of previous stories and pull Chief Product Officer
stories from the backlog to be completed
in the next sprint. Consider whether Kanban, Scrum, or a
Each story is assigned points based combination of the two make the most
on how long it should take to complete. In sense for your team.

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 Getting Started

?
communicate both internally and with stake-
holders requires us to develop new habits
that can be hard to implement.

? Talk about these questions with your team:

? Who can you collaborate with more of-

ten?
Where are the opportunities for more
face-to-face conversations?
It can feel overwhelming to get started with Who on the team needs to take more
Agile, especially when we start talking about ownership for the project?
terms like Kanban and Scrum. To help you Where does the team need to be more
get started, weve provided a few questions flexible and less resistant to change?
and suggestions for you to get a conver-
sation started with your organization and Have a goal
team.
To get buy-in for agile,
Focus on the mindset, not the pro- having answers to these
cess. questions is critical:

Why do we really
want to change?
What does success
look like?
Does our company
environment and cul-
ture support increased collaboration and
flexibility?
Is our company organizational structure
and culture in alignment?
This might seem like the easiest step, but
Does management and leadership sup-
its really the hardest. Changing the way we
port change?

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Start Small
Links

Leaving Addie for SAM Michael Allens

book is really helpful as you think about
conducting design workshops and
sending deliverables to stakeholders.

Transitioning to agile is going to take time. At http://amzn.com/1562867113

BLP, it took us about a year of research, dis-
cussion, piloting, and experimenting before Agile Manifesto The principles and prac-
we were ready to take the plunge as an or- tices of agile development.
ganization. As you work through your goals
and begin working more collaboratively, also www.agilemanifesto.org
consider implementing these practical ideas.
Kanban Learn more about this lean
Conduct project team daily/weekly management system.
stand-ups 10 minutes max (use a tim-
er). Each person should answer these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban
questions:
Whatd you do last week?
What are you going to do this week?
What obstacles might get in your
way?
At the end of each iteration or signifi-
cant deliverable, have the team complete
a retrospective. Celebrate wins, identify
what needs improvement, and leave with
at least one action item.
Create intact project teams. Allow people
the opportunity to develop close work-
ing relationships, get to know each oth-
ers styles, and gain efficiencies from that
knowledge.

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 About BLP

Who we are:
For 20 years, Bottom-Line Performance has
passionately pursued a single goal: create Want to work with us?
the right learning solution for each client Get in touch:
we serve. We are learning experts who are
passionate, collaborative, and committed to
helping our clients create the right learn- www.bottomlineperformance.com
ing solutions for their needs. We are spe-
cialists in project management, multimedia, Phone: (317) 861-7281
and technology design and development.
Our award-winning learning solutions have
helped corporate, non-profit and govern- Fax: (317) 861-1839
ment clients improve sales, reduce costs,
reduce turnover and retain customers. Mailing address:
P.O. Box 155
BLP is certifiedas a woman-owned business
enterprise (WBE) by the Womens Business New Palestine, IN 46163
Enterprise National Council, the State of In-
diana, and the City of Indianapolis.

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