As stressed throughout this report, adopting and implementing XML for Web site management is not just a concern for the technical staff. All the individuals involved in the process need to understand how XML works and how it may change their individual processes and job functions. That is why training was more broad-based in the Testbed and not restricted to one topic, format, or group.

Without this broad-based training, key players may be left out of the process or not actively engaged in the activities surrounding workflow improvements. A shared understanding by all affected parties also helps to diminish the tendency for turf conflicts and communication problems. That is why the Testbed provided some level of technical XML training to all staff, not just the programmers, and required everyone to attend and participate in project management and business process analysis sessions. Everyone benefits when knowledge is shared.

As one program person stated, “I had not ever really been formally through a process like that. So for me, it helped me a lot. A business case was something I had heard of, but I really didn’t know the pieces that all went together to make a business case. So that to me, all the pieces, once they kind of jived in my head, they were all really useful. I did go to the one training for XML, only stayed like two-thirds of the day because, again, while I’m not a programmer I got enough to understand what they were trying to do but it certainly wasn’t my job to have to do that, so I didn’t have to be an expert in it, I just needed enough of an understanding to be able to contribute to the discussion that did impact me, which was the content development portion.”