ADDIE is a five-step process for building a training programme: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. It is the default project plan most L&D teams and instructional designers use when they turn a skill gap into a finished course, from first conversation to post-launch review.

The five phases on a real project

Take a manufacturer rolling out a new shift-scheduling module to 300 supervisors across three plants.

1. Analysis: confirm the gap is real and that training can fix it. This is where a training needs analysis feeds in. Output: who needs what, by when, and what the supervisor must be able to do afterwards.
2. Design: write learning objectives, pick the format (a two-hour floor session plus job aids, say), sequence the content and decide how you will test it.
3. Development: build the slides, practice exercises, Hindi and Marathi versions, and the assessment. Pilot it with one shift.
4. Implementation: schedule batches around production, train the trainers, load the course and attendance tracking into the LMS.
5. Evaluation: check reactions and test scores at the end, then rostering errors 60 days later. Formative checks also happen inside every earlier phase.

Where it came from, and the main criticism

The model traces back to the Interservice Procedures for Instructional Systems Development, a multi-volume manual that Florida State University’s Center for Educational Technology prepared for the US armed services in 1975. Its phases were analyse, design, develop, implement and control. Oddly, nobody is sure who coined the word ADDIE. Michael Molenda’s 2003 review of the literature found no single original source and described the label as something that spread informally to cover a family of similar models.

The common complaint is that ADDIE behaves like a waterfall. Stakeholders often see nothing tangible until Development, so a misunderstanding gets caught after most of the budget is spent. Michael Allen’s book Leaving ADDIE for SAM (ASTD Press, 2012) proposed the Successive Approximation Model, which builds rough prototypes early and refines them in short repeated cycles. Defenders reply that ADDIE was never meant to be strictly linear and that most failures come from skipping analysis, not from the model.

Frequently asked questions

Is ADDIE only for e-learning?

No. It fits classroom sessions, induction programmes, on-the-job checklists and blended courses equally well. The phases describe how you build learning, not the medium it is delivered in.

How long does a full ADDIE cycle take?

It depends on scope. A one-hour compliance module can move through all five phases in a few weeks, while a leadership programme with pilots can take a quarter or more. Analysis and Development usually take the longest.

Where does Kirkpatrick fit in?

Kirkpatrick’s four levels are a common way to run the Evaluation phase, and the business-results level is what feeds a training ROI estimate.

Should a small HR team bother with it?

Use a light version. Even a two-person team benefits from writing objectives before building slides and from checking results afterwards; skip the heavy documentation. For deciding how much should be a course at all, see the 70-20-10 learning model.

Once a programme has run, put a number on its payback with the training ROI calculator.