A few years ago I worked with an organization to build computer-based-training modules to teach Java. My team and I worked with a professor from the Education Psychology department at Texas A&M to study how computer-based training could actually be effective. I think these ideas are equally as applicable to instructor-led training.

The challenge was to include content in the course if and only if it added discernible value toward the course’s objectives. To make sure the progress is discernible, we used a method of task-analysis to iteratively define finite activities for each task until we reached an elemental task in each branch of the tree. What you tend to end up with is a tree of dependent objectives and activities that describe everything needed to accomplish the goal of the course. In addition, each sub-objective directly correlates to a parent objective that implicitly provides value toward the ultimate purpose of the course.

This top-down approach to lean course development involves a lot of questions to determine the next activity, etc. I made a note of a few of the questions I tend to ask myself and thought I would share them.

* Determining the root node of the task analysis tree
- Why are we offering this course?
- Why will people pay money to attend this course?
- What do customers expect to get from this course?
- What would make customers recommend this course to their peers/friends?

* Determining the children of a particular node in the task analysis tree
- What do you have to know before you can… (perform parent task)
- What action could someone perform to demonstrate that they know how to…
- How do you know they understand how to…
- Does the ability to perform… get someone closer to being able to… (for each parent node)
- Does this ad discernable value toward the objectives above?

When this process is followed rigidly, the result is a very interesting arrangement of shapes that lend themselves very easily to chunking into sections. Start with the lowest clump of activities, moving up the tree and you have the sections of your module/course. The root of each section can be your course objectives, and the tasks inside each section can be the objectives for that section. The objectives are finite and measurable and represent distinct value to your customers. Plus, the objectives are fine-grained, concrete, and comprehensive enough that it is easy to strictly tie the content of the course directly to those tasks.

This is a simple task analysis example I did for a computer-based training module on Java methods [http://ahurst.com/images/methodsTA.png]