Hadiya Nuriddin’s newest book, Quality Management in Learning and Development, approaches quality management at a much deeper and more systematic level than the typical method in our field. Instead of doing a little review right before launching a training program, this approach is a way to focus on quality through your entire process.

I was fortunate to receive a review copy of this book prior to its release. Here’s the quote I provided with my early review:

Looking to move away from endless review cycles, inconsistent learning design, and haphazard quality processes? L&D managers, senior IDs, and anyone working to improve the training their team creates will benefit from following this systematic, sustainable, and proactive approach to quality management.

Check out the praise from many others in the field on the ATD page for the book. You can also order the book on Amazon.

I use Amazon affiliate links for books. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but if you purchase through my link, I earn a small amount of money to help pay for hosting this blog.

Plan for Quality from the Start

In many organizations, instructional designers are responsible for making sure that their deliverables are error-free and that everything works. Some teams use peer reviews with other IDs; a smaller number of teams have dedicated editors and QA reviewers. If you’re really organized, you might have a checklist for reviewing courses. But most of the time, all of that work happens near the end of the process. It’s often an afterthought.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone else in the field. My “Quality Assurance Checklist” published through the Learning Guild is very much a tool to use at the end of the process.

Hadiya flips this all around and explains why we should start planning for quality right from the start by creating guidelines and systems to support the process. This means backing up to the beginning and thinking more deeply about what quality means to your organization. After all, if you’re looking for an output of quality, you need an input of defining quality at the beginning, right? In the book, this is called the “quality-first mindset.”

Overcoming obstacles

One of the things I appreciate in this book is that it doesn’t pretend that this is going to be easy and that everyone will automatically be on board with this shift to a quality-first mindset. Hadiya speaks from experience about anticipating obstacles and resistance. She’s honest about the challenges about trying to plan and implement a new system while your team also works on all of your regular projects. One section is titled, “Assume the Project Will Be Deprioritized,” so you know this isn’t naive idealism.

Templates and resources

Throughout the book, you’ll find templates, examples, and other resources, such as:

• Project template
• Worksheets
• Sample timelines
• Role definitions
• RACI chart (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed)
• Sample issue tracker

The included case study helps you envision how the quality management process works in practice.

Get the book!

If you are looking for a way to streamline your processes and improve what your team produces, read this book now.

If you’re looking for more reading, check out my list of 50+ instructional design and elearning books.

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Related Tags: book review, Hadiya Nuriddin, quality assurance Continue Reading Previous 50+ Instructional Design and Elearning Books: Updated for 2023