Best practices on training for ERP

Now that I know a little bit about training, let's go back to the important issue: how do I train people for ERP?

Let's see what Google popped up.

Gartner. ERP training best practices. I'm not too proud to look at what our friends at Gartner write (or at least the public ToC). We have a list of best practices:

1. Follow adult learning methodology
2. Role-/process-based training
3. Give end users time
4. Use certification as a gate for system access
5. Built a great team
6. Couple training with change management
7. Management and project team commitment
8. Engage business
9. Superuser involvement in training, pre- and post-go-live

1. And some training program development best practices
1. Needs assessment before course development
2. Use templates and standards
3. Address business function/processes and transactions
4. Actively identify training content
5. Minimize course variations
2. Best practices for sustaining training
1. Assign training oversight responsibility
2. Evaluate training programs for CI
3. Put training the app support budget
4. Retain and nurture trainers with a program
3. Other considerations
1. Match training method to worker and application
2. Design training to extend beyond tech reqs
3. Dedicated staff for training needs assessment and curricula development
4. Training sessions are short
5. Create training intranet
6. Maintain SLA/metrics

Worst practices for ERP training from Panorama Consulting.

• Worst practices:
• Use out-of-the-box training
• Pull resources from training teams
• Focus on transactional training

Best practices for ERP employee training from Inside-ERP and quoting Forrester:

• Problems include too little training, not enough focus on process change, no training post go-live
• Best practices:
• Create a training plan outlining: ownership, details of program to maintain qualified trainers, budget estimates for internal and external resources, who will be trained and what they need to know, how job duties will be covered while employees are training, education timeline and schedule, required documentation and who will prepare it.
• Budget for ongoing training
• Keep documentation up to date
• Prioritize user buy-in
• Tailor training to users
• Invest in post-implementation training
• Evaluate results to identify improvement opportunities

Klee Associates -- Trends and best practices in ERP training:

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• Average SAP training budget = 3.6%
• Cushing Anderson: "Projects allocating 7% of the budget to training were significantly more successful than projects where only 4% of the budget went to training"
• Certifications present good value; high performance team spend less time deploying and fixing and more time maintaining and improving.

Resources www.CLOmedia.com Aligning training with the business: www.brandon‐hall.com/solutions/linking_central.shtml Core principles for a CLO: Core principles for a CLO: http://www.consortiumwi http://www.consortiumwiki.com/CLOHollyHuntley

• Learning governance (via learninggovernance.com) -- improve alignment and build consensus among leaders to increase adoption; manage risk; establish best practices.
• Identify critical skills, inventory currently skills
• Options: simulations, instructor led, virtual instructor led, self-directed elearning, learning on demand, social learning
• Lots of corporate learning systems: saba, cornersone ondemand, plateau systems, sumTotal, learn.com, outstart, IMC, meridian knowledge solutions, mzinga, certpoint, element k, etc.
• End-user metrics: www.knoa.com
• Instructor success:
• Teaching skill
• Ability to handle real world questions
• Background as an implementation consultant
• Quality and detail of training manuals
• Critical knowledge taught in limited amount of time

ISC Technology: Seven pieces of the ERP training puzzle

1. Planning. Deliverables must consider:
1. Prerequisite end user skills education plan to outline skills and knowledge pre-training
2. Staffing plan for training outlining talent mix and committed resources. Assesses gap between required resources and available resources
3. Training delivery plan: needed tools, logistical challenges, infrastructure limitations, delivery mechanisms, timeline
4. Curriculum matrix lists tasks to be trained and information to be presented for each job role in the new environment. It will also serve as a completion checklist
5. Budget
2. Budgeting
1. IDC Learning Services show orgs spend 15% of ERP budgets on training; 17-20% gets better results
2. Gartner -- those than spend less than 13% are 3x more likely to have their projects run over time and over budget compared to those that spent 17% or more
3. Cost categories:
1. Hardware
2. Software (LMS, sandbox, etc.)
3. Tools (WebEx, courseware, etc.)
4. Upgrades
5. Administration
6. Internal staff for job coverage
7. Consultants/training developers
8. Travel
9. Training support (websites, translation, classroom set-up, workstation installation, etc.)
10. Vendor classes
11. Team fun
12. Facilities
13. On-going support
3. Staffing

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2. Training team lead: conducting audience assessment, developing training strategy and plan, contributing project plan items, selecting and securing other team members, developing a project orientation for other team members, contributing to change management strategy; keeping team moving towards milestones, training team on tools and systems, communicating and resolving team and project issues, communicating status, prepping and delivering training presentations to the business
3. Instructional designer: curriculum development, course design, course development for class or web, train the trainer workshop design.
4. Online learning developer: training development tools for web, producing online learning, visually communicating ideas
5. Trainer, grow-your-own or hire them: become familiar with course material, assist instructional designers, load practice data, deliver user training, participate in assessment.
6. Training coordinator: scheduling, tracking completion, scheduling make-ups, adjusting schedules.

4. Partnering with the business
1. Super Users. Change management, with project management, will identify departments where there is major process redesign and then identify super users.
2. Super users will spend 50-100% of their time on implementation, up to six months. They do process design, testing, and prep training material.
5. Organizational issues: start early, align leadership, set realistic expectations, communicate specifically and continually, identify new teams and roles early, develop competency
6. Curriculum development. Sim tools might help (STT Trainer, FireFly, Expert Author, InfoPak Simulator, KS Helper)
7. Implementation

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Are engineers still lazy (about information seeking?)

Is short, yes. Cost and utility are still major drivers of information behavior. Interpersonal sources are still very important as is Google.

Allard et al. (2009). Design engineers and technical professionals at work: observing information usage in the workplace. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(3): 443-454.

• Engineers spend 1/4 of time in information work.
• Less than we used to have perhaps due to better searching technology
• Choosing internet as primary information source
• Common themes: internal communication is key; associated cost (ease of access) is also key
• People still talk to colleagues, suppliers, etc. The do, however, use the Internet for both expertise location and to engage in communication
• Internet is important as a source of information
• "Engineers are less likely to feel that they have as much time to spend on information-seeking tasks. This could have huge implications for the innovation process in terms of losing time on projects that might have pertinent research published, but not easily accessible through the engineer's first stop: Google." p. 452
• Software, web/Google, and documents, etc. are big for information use
• Email is important
• Recurring themes: prevalence of internal communication; reliance on peer information; cost of information, particularly ease of access; concerns of quality/trustworthiness.

Pikas (2006). Personal information management strategies and tactics used by senior engineers. Communications of the ACM 49.

• Good literature review
• Themes:
1. Organization and retrieval
1. Memory
2. Journaling over time
3. Commenting software for retrieval and reuse
4. Writing to remember and reporting to retrieve
5. Specific file organization: Personal Handbooks
6. Specific file organization: Technology and project files
7. Seeking information from people: Maintaining a collection of experts
2. Un-organized aspects
1. Organized messes
2. E-mail, the overlooked collection
3. No bibliographic reference databases
3. Information keeping and preservation
1. The nitty gritty is lost
2. The engineer provides the best preservation
4. Use of specialized tools
1. Software, whatever works

• Keep a personal handbook
• "Information" by topic; "Records" by date and function
• Cultivate relationships
• There are not "pilers" vs. "filers" but always a combination of both
• Participant: "the day to day scribbley note stuff that you use just to keep the work going -- most of that will get tossed."
• Blogs -- for Medium-term writing
• ED: So, is Evernote a handbook?

Du Preez & Fourie (2007). The information behaviour of consulting engineers in South Africa.  Mousaion 27(1): 137-158.

• Engineers rely on people, personal files, personal knowledge, Internet, FTP, digital cameras
• Books, codes of practice, acts, and regulations are all important and used frequently. Often retrieved on the Internet
• Trade literature for product information
• Google; document exchange; email; site visit; conferences for developing personal connections
• Cost and time are factors

Training 2015/05/01 #017 -- Test!

Test!

Yes, today was the test. I think it went well but I could have done a few things better like the shiho nage. Oh well. Overall, it was great fun.

We also did a few escapes and rolled a bit.

The escape came from what trapped me last week. Someone has the paper cutter across your throat with a good grip so you can't just push out their arm. Let's assume you are being choked by your partner's right forearm. Reach behind their back with your right arm and try to grab their belt. Then, grab their right elbow so they can't post. Open your guard and sweep them to your left. You might be able to get a head-and-arm triangle.

We also did something similar from mount.

I rolled a bit with a visitor from Iceland. He was new to BJJ but had some background in Aikido and Judo. More importantly, he is a police officer so has ample experience grappling. It was an interesting experience mostly because it didn't feel like a BJJ match. For example, he really never moved to guard. Instead he preferred to use some sort of knee shield to keep distance. It really wasn't a bad strategy and it reinforced a few things for me. Attack should always be the same: control -- shoulders, hips, one side. In retrospect, I should probably have close tight and heavy and used some sort of leg weave to isolate one side. My partner also had great timing so that when I was playing with the arm over side control he was able to overturn me!

We also received our syllabus for the next belt. Something new to work on!

There are a few moves that I could look up:

• aiki otoshi
• kotegaeshi nage tsuki
• kotegaeshi nage ushiro
• koshi nage