The Training Context
The training program was a 2-week residential course. The purpose was
to teach technicians how to install and initialize Maxidata servers and as
sociated hardware, a fictitious brand for the company’s largest and newest
server, and some highly complex peripheral equipment that enabled the
server at the customer’s site to communicate with other internal server elements and external databases. Initialization of the hardware boxes was crucial, as without proper initializing codes and settings, they would not operate effectively or at all. Initialization is a complex process taking a minimum of several hours during which certain parts of the client’s server must be shut
down temporarily.
The course itself included technical presentation of complex material
and an intensive set of application exercises on a simulator that enabled participants to practice initialization of various hardware and configurations.
The simulation portion of the course was vital to success, as this was where
the technicians practiced various and complex procedures. A key portion of
this instruction was practice in using a large technical manual, particularly
in using the manual as a reference guide to input troubleshooting codes and
in interpreting the many different code variations the server could repeat
back in response to each test procedure. It is important that the course was
limited in attendance due to the reliance on the practicing simulator. Usually
no more than 16 technicians could take the course at one time. The cost of
the server was prohibitive. Sales had informed the training department that
they were lucky to have the server for training at all. In fact, there had been
suggestions from training skeptics to tear it out and sell it to a customer;
these suggestions were barely fended off by the training department. In
short, training capacity was limited and would stay limited