Practice: Organizational Training (OT)
The purpose of Organizational Training (OT) is to develop the skills and knowledge of people so they can perform their roles effectively and efficiently.
Relationships
Goals

The following specific goals are associated with this process area:

SG 1 Establish an Organizational Training Capability

A training capability, which supports the organization's management and technical roles, is established and maintained.

The organization identifies the training required to develop the skills and the knowledge necessary to perform enterprise activities. Once the needs are identified, a training program addressing those needs is developed.

IPPD Addition

Cross-functional training, leadership training, interpersonal skills training, and training in the skills needed to integrate appropriate business and technical functions is needed by integrated team members. The potentially wider range of requirements and participant backgrounds may require relevant stakeholders who were not involved in requirements development to take cross training in the disciplines involved in product design in order to commit to requirements with a full understanding of the range of requirements and their interrelationships.

SG 2 Provide Necessary Training

Training necessary for individuals to perform their roles effectively is provided.

In selecting people to be trained, the following should be taken into consideration:

  • Background of the target population of training participants
  • Prerequisite background to receive training
  • Skills and abilities needed by people to perform their roles
  • Need for cross-discipline technical management training for all disciplines, including project management
  • Need for managers to have training in appropriate organizational processes
  • Need for training in the basic principles of all appropriate disciplines to support personnel in quality management, configuration management, and other related support functions
  • Need to provide competency development for critical functional areas
  • Need to maintain the competencies and qualifications of personnel to operate and maintain work environments common to multiple projects
Main Description

Organizational Training includes training to support the organization’s strategic business objectives and to meet the tactical training needs that are common across projects and support groups. Specific training needs identified by individual projects and support groups are handled at the project and support group level and are outside the scope of Organizational Training. Project and support groups are responsible for identifying and addressing their specific training needs.

Refer to the Project Planning (PP) process area for more information about the specific training needs identified by projects.

An organizational training program involves the following:

  • Identifying the training needed by the organization
  • Obtaining and providing training to address those needs
  • Establishing and maintaining training capability
  • Establishing and maintaining training records
  • Assessing training effectiveness

Effective training requires assessment of needs, planning, instructional design, and appropriate training media (e.g., workbooks and computer oftware), as well as a repository of training process data. As an rganizational process, the main components of training include a anaged training development program, documented plans, personnel with appropriate mastery of specific disciplines and other areas of knowledge, and mechanisms for measuring the effectiveness of the training program.

The identification of process training needs is primarily based on the skills that are required to perform the organization’s set of standard processes.

Refer to the Organizational Process Definition (OPD) process area for more information about the organization’s set of standard processes.

Certain skills may be effectively and efficiently imparted through vehicles other than in-class training experiences (e.g., informal mentoring). Other skills require more formalized training vehicles, such as in a classroom, by Web-based training, through guided self-study, or via a formalized on-the-job training program. The formal or informal training vehicles employed for each situation should be based on an assessment of the need for training and the performance gap to be addressed. The term “training” used throughout this process area is used broadly to include all of these learning options.

Success in training can be measured in terms of the availability of opportunities to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to perform new and ongoing enterprise activities.

Skills and knowledge may be technical, organizational, or contextual. Technical skills pertain to the ability to use the equipment, tools, materials, data, and processes required by a project or a process. Organizational skills pertain to behavior within and according to the employee’s organization structure, role and responsibilities, and general operating principles and methods. Contextual skills are the selfmanagement, communication, and interpersonal abilities needed to
successfully perform in the organizational and social context of the project and support groups.

The phrase “project and support groups” is used frequently in the text of the process area description to indicate an organization-level perspective.

Additional Information

Refer to the Organizational Process Definition (OPD) process area for more information about the organization’s process assets.

Refer to the Project Planning (PP) process area for more information about the specific training needs identified by projects.

Refer to the Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) process area for how to apply decision-making criteria when determining training approaches.