Infragistics Training

Question

We are a somewhat advanced user of this technology but have had to learn it by trial and error. We are looking for formal training either online or instructor-led that is worth the cost. How is the vendor's offering? Any other recommendations?

Answer 1

As a former technical trainer that worked for a world-known training provider (I won't mention their name because I am about to dis them) I would recommend you go directly to Infragistics. If you go to one of the well-known training providers, they will probably sell you training on this. They will grab one of their technical instructors and have then train up on the topic, and then that person will come out and train you. So the instructor you get will not be a subject matter expert. There is always the off chance that there is an instructor with a wealth of experience in Infragistics, but I really doubt it.

The company at which I worked routinely tasked me to teach subjects with which I was unfamiliar. I am a .Net developer, but would have to teach crazy subjects to make the company money when they did not have .Net classes booked. For example, once I had to teach advanced Excel to a class. When I got on site I learned that what they really wanted to know about was Excel pivot tables, and my company had just sold them an advanced Excel class. I had never used pivot tables before and had no clue how they worked. Did I ever come off like a tool! More importantly, the customer got nothing useful out of my time. You know how often I use Excel? An hour or two a month. But since I was a senior technical trainer, I was supposed to know everything there is to know about Excel in one week. My point here is that you will get someone like me; fairly competent in some technology, but probably not Infragistics.

Having said all of that, I would also be wary of receiving training from Infragistics. If you are an advanced user group, you may already be more competent than the trainer that is sent for instruction. I would make sure you detail specific topics that you wish to learn, the importance of these topics, and make sure the training contract you sign contains verbiage regarding this (IANAL). Make sure they understand what you want and that you will be unsatisfied with anything less. That will probably cost you more, but it might mean you get a senior trainer that can at least research the topics you need help on before they arrive.

Edit:

Just to be clear, I have no experience, at all, with Infragistics training or the company in general other than using some of their controls on a past project. They might have the best training in the world. I am making a generalization about vendor training. As I mentioned, I used Infragistics controls a number of years ago on a WinForms project and thought they were very nice.