General Guidance - hdbk11030011

DOE-HDBK-1103-96

GENERAL GUIDANCE

3.1 Why Conduct Needs Analysis? With today's shrinking DOE budget and the emphasis

and requirements placed on training programs, needs analysis is essential. The rationale

for conducting this important activity is to provide an effective and efficient validation of a

request either to develop training or to examine possible solutions to a performance

problem. Much of today's training has been developed based on a facility's perceived

training need rather than an analytically determ ined training need. Therefore, the training

developed does not always address the training issue, yet training programs are

developed at a tremendous cost to DOE. A needs analysis can often not only limit the

amount of unnecessary training developed, but also provide possible solutions to

performance problems other than training.

needs analysis is to examine possible training and non-training solutions for problems in

an existing or a new training program. When undesirable performance occurs, training is

often blamed for that performance. Results of an investigation almost always reveal that

training is not adequate. In response to this, training organizations immediately develop

training to correct the undesirable performance, yet in many instances, after training has

been developed and implemented, the undesirable performance is still present. By using

needs analysis to systematically examine what people or programs are expected to do

and gathering data to reveal what they are actually doing, we receive a clear picture of

the real problem. When the problem is accurately defined, the analysis activity then

generates a report detailing the problem, the causes, and the recommended training and

non-training solutions.

3.3 Who Should Be Involved? The people who should be involved in the TTNA process are

those subject matter experts (SMEs), supervisors, job incumbents, engineers, and

instructional technologists who are familiar with the specific job position and the problem

in question. Depending on the job, SMEs from similar facilities might also participate.

TTNA is usually conducted to clarify a training request or review existing training

programs. The most common types of requests include:

Verify a training/qualification program with the requirements of an Order.