User Education Report

He looked at the role list on the transparency. "I want to save Bill and Marta for last, so let's go to User Ed. Marilou, how's your work progressing?"

Looking in her project binder, Marilou said, "As you noted in our Developing Phase kick-off last week, Dan, my role is responsible for developing the elements of user support, like documentation and reference cards. I'm also responsible for doing product usability testing."

She pulled a small binder out of her bag. "Here is the beginning of the user documentation. I met with the development team last Friday. They walked me through what they had, and we did some screen captures. I worked on the documentation for those over the weekend." She turned to Bill. "Bill, I can't finish the documentation until you tell me we've got a freeze on the visual interfaces and give me the final screen shots. Is that going to happen soon?"

"I think so," he replied, looking at the project schedule in front of him. "We're supposed to be done with an alpha version this Wednesday. I'll check with the team to see if the interfaces will be frozen by then, and I'll send you an e-mail. If it is, we can get together Thursday morning."

Marilou nodded. "That'd be great."

Dan asked, "What about usability testing?"

"I'm working with Marta on writing some usability test scripts," said Marilou, "but we can't really finish until we get to the first beta." She looked at her notes. "I'm also working with you and Jane to plan the beta testing, which you already know."

Dan nodded. "Sounds good, Marilou. I'm glad you're doing the documentation, because you'll also be doing the user training for the managers. Jane showed me the documentation you did for some special classes, and I must say I'm impressed."