No such thing as a minor update to an elearning module

I recently made some “minor updates” to an elearning module. The process wasn’t so minor. To wit…

The module was built around a company policy. A new version of the policy had just come out, and after reading it, I determined there were three pieces of content that would have to be altered in the elearning module. Three pieces of content? That shouldn’t be a big deal.

I shared the module storyboard with stakeholders and highlighted the content that I felt needed to be updated, given the new policy. After some prodding, the stakeholders made their comments. Their feedback, however, brought to light some inconsistencies in the new policy which required two meetings to iron out.

Finally clear on the module content that needed to be updated, I began making the edits, and realized that one of the pieces of content was mentioned four times. Developers underestimate the effort involved in making changes to a module, because they aren’t as familiar with the content as they were when first developing it. Time away from the content creates a type of distance. And everything looks easy from far away.

 After spending eight hours more than I had planned working in the updated content in the least damaging way to module’s structure, it hit me again. There’s no such thing as a minor update.