The Workbook Approach:
Getting New Users up to Speed in a HEP Offline Environment
CERN Computing Seminar, 1 September 1999
Joseph Perl - SLAC Computing Services
Abstract
The Workbook approach is an efficient way to introduce members of a
HEP collaboration to their collaboration's offline environment. It
was first developed in SLD where offline experts were losing too much
time on individual user assistance. The approach was extremely
successful there and has since been replicated for BaBar.
Information is presented in the form of a workbook, a connected series
of exercises. Imagine the world of offline software as a workshop
full of tools. The workbook has the user pick up each tool in turn,
do something simple and useful with that tool, and then put that tool
down and move on to the next.
- Purpose
- How to use
- Commitment
- The Quick Tour section
- Each subsequent major section takes the user to a new level of detail
- Meta sections
Implements the Commitment to the User
- Keep the user moving along
- Keep the examples as simple and uncluttered as possible
- Show the expected output
- Use simple language
- If done correctly, the document pays off before the main writing
has even begun
Conclusions
Done correctly, the Workbook quickly becomes the most useful software
document in the collaboration
- It frees experienced users from teaching duties
- It gives new users satisfaction where before they had frustration
- It unifies the user base, teaching common methods of working
- It provides a useful reference for experienced users
- It provides a useful suite of reference jobs both for the
collaboration and for the individual user
References:
Author:
Joseph Perl
Last edited by:
Jenny Williams
Last modification: 11 Mar 2001
Last significant update: 30 August 1999
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