Creating the International Training Management Web Site: A Corporate University Portal That Shares Best Practices

DISAM Journal, Spring, 2001 by Charles E. Collins

Publishing Best Practices

The training management faculty has for many years attempted to collect best practice documents from our international training managers. These were provided in hard copy and later as digital files on computer floppy disks to students attending international training courses. As CD-Rom read/write equipment became available, materials were made available via this medium. We had also begun putting some of the more significant documents on the Defense Acquisition Deskbook (DAD) system. While Deskbook is an excellent system and the folks that host our materials are excellent, the process still takes time. And, we are simply one of many clients who want to get their materials on Deskbook. Thus, it wasn't until our International Training Management web site became available that we really began to collect in earnest materials from the field that represented some of the best practices and examples of how to do it. We went to the entire international training community, to training managers both overseas and in the U.S., and solicited input of their examples of best practices. This was done multiple times by e-mail and input was requested in electronic format as an e-mail attachment. The response was overwhelming, with very excellent materials being provided. Checklists, briefings, and guides for international students poured in. Solutions to problems encountered were quickly offered. It was quite obvious that the folks who were contributing these materials felt as though they were making a real and lasting contribution to the establishment of a body of material that would truly be available to their associates worldwide. And this continues today, now that there is an International Training Management web page that encourages the sharing of these best practices.

Is the ITM Web Page Worth the Time and Effort Involved in Maintaining and Running It?

The preceding clearly shows the value of documenting a new procedural area and adding it to the ITM web page. Again, there are many areas presently in the administration and management of the security assistance training program where procedures need to be documented and published via the internet for all international training managers to see. And, due to the constant changes that occur in the training program, new procedures will continuously have to be documented and published.

The ITM web page does require continuous update and maintenance. All web pages do, if they are to remain viable and worthwhile. Perhaps this is the optimistic way of looking at this issue, but isn't it easier to update something one place only, and then be done with it? Once the change has been made and published, that information is immediately available to all. There is no requirement to republish hard copy and go through the agony and imperfection of manual distribution. The actual work involved in making a change, for example adding a link to a new reference or adding a new document to the web page, is a matter of a few minutes of work. Collectively, a lot of time is involved in updating and making changes. But, this is not a valid criticism, because the value of the entire web page increases as all of these collective changes are made.