Agile Instructional Design: The Big Questions

The only constant is change. It’s aphilosophical quote that rings true for many of us. And, for many of us, thespeed of change is only getting faster and faster. As eLearning professionals,how can we possibly keep up with the rapid pace of change and continue to design, develop, and deliver effective learningsolutions? How can we ensure our learners transfer knowledge and skills toon-the-job competence and perform effectively at every changing moment?

AGILEinstructional design is one possibility. AGILE (all caps) is an acronym thatrefers to five core methodologies applied to instructional design. This methodology,pioneered by performance-support practitioner and industry thought leaderConrad Gottfredson is related to but is not the same thing as agile softwaredevelopment, which I discuss in the next section of this article.

Increasing our agility with an AGILEapproach

Those of youfamiliar with software development processes may also be familiar with the Agile Manifesto. Much hasbeen written about agile methodologies, especially Scrum, Lean, and Kanban, which share several key elements: valuingone set of priorities, short iterations, transparency and accountability, andbuilt-in quality. Keep in mind that these are software development methods.

AGILE instructionaldesign, according to Gottfredson, is built upon similar values andrepresents five core methodology areas—align, get set, iterate & implement,leverage, and evaluate. Given the fact that we’re tasked to prepare ourlearners to meet the demands of our ever-changing business environments,instructional designers can also come to value the strengths of such aniterative approach. AGILE instructional design was “founded upon the need oftoday’s organizations to be agile and adaptive,” says Gottfredson.

Figure 1: AGILE instructional design, defined by ConradGottfredson, PhD, is an iterative approach to design and development

As we’lldiscuss in this case-study series, AGILE instructional design is not a completedeparture from the well-known ADDIE model. It is, however, a process of designand development that allows learning teams to more rapidly deploy a corelearning solution, with a complementary performance-support system.

Why your project teams need pigs andchickens

Let’s saywe’re scoping a project—operation breakfast: bacon and eggs. We’ve decided touse AGILE instructional design and build our project team with pigs andchickens. Wait, pigs and chickens?! As project team members, pigsare completely committed to the project’s outcome, as they must make theultimate sacrifice to provide the bacon. On the other hand, chickens areinvolved in the project via egg production, but only in a non-sacrificial way. (Pleasenote: No animals will be harmed in this series of articles!)

Our projectteams are the same. We need both pigs andchickens. We need those pigs—the process owners, primary SMEs, design anddevelopment team members, etc.—to provide and review content, move the projectforward, and take responsibility for the outcomes. But, we also need chickens.We need our executive teams to have visibility of our projects. We need to gatherinput from related stakeholders, both internal and external. As chickens, theseindividuals are certainly involved in our projects and may provide consultationor other guidance, but they’re not as committed to the overall outcome as thepigs.

Think aboutyour current projects. Do you have a good balance of pigs and chickens? If not,how could you change the balance of power? Have you ever allowed chickens toderail your project momentum? Throughout this case study series we’ll look atthe composition of a successful eLearning project team, through the lens ofAGILE instructional design.

Answering the big questions

This casestudy will also seek to answer a few additional questions regarding AGILEinstructional design:

• Can eLearning teams really move content through the design anddevelopment process more quickly?
• How do delays to other projects impact our AGILE instructionaldesign work and timelines?
• How is the SME relationship impacted?
• Looking at the big picture, how can we best define a framework forhandling and managing feedback and input?

Those of youresponsible for creating software training are likely already familiar with theagility required to meet project demands. For those of you not as familiar withthat world, we’ll look closely at AGILE instructional design to determine if itis a process that gives us a greater ability to respond to our changingenvironments and needs—and keep up with today’s rapid pace of change. Staytuned!