In some cases the availability of needs assessment data may be limited. Although HRD practitioners may feel that it will be difficult to design effective training programs, sometimes they must improvise and make the best of such suboptimal situations. At the same time, every effort should be made to persuade management of the importance of conducting needs analysis and prioritizing HRD needs, as time and resources allow.

It is important to stress at the outset that program design can be a lengthy process. HRD professionals must simultaneously accomplish several other critical tasks throughout the design process. Objectives define what participants will be expected to learn or do as a result of participating in the HRD program or intervention. Statements of HRD needs are often not detailed enough to be used as specific program outcomes. Rather, they state the problem at hand, and, ideally, include a diagnosis of the problem’s causes. Objectives, in contrast, should state the outcome the program is intended to produce.