Headquartered in Germany, Boehringer Ingelheim has been a family-owned pharmaceutical company since 1885 with more than 50,000 global employees in over 63 countries. The organisation implemented the WorkForce Suite in two phases for all US locations, which consisted of three parts: human pharma, animal health and biopharma.
Boehringer Ingelheim’s Senior Principal Business Analyst and Time Administration Specialist share their recipe for implementation success: the often-overlooked testing and training phases. The test lead role is especially important and is responsible for the training phases, the coordination of test plans, test scripts and tester signoffs. This required end-to-end system testing and defect management, including:
- Organising a team of testers
- Educating the team
- Setting up meetings, conference rooms
- Setting attainable expectations
- Conducting testing debrief after go-live
“It’s extremely important to choose the correct person to conduct your training. You want someone that’s going to be creative, that can help with your training materials and can address the needs of the employees.”
Time Administration Specialist
Helpful Test Rostering Tips
- Set up test data before testing begins
- Work backwards from the go-live date
- Test across all user experiences
- Suggest remote and in-person user acceptance training
- Take training roster, holidays and annual leave time into account
A Well-Designed Test Script…
- Does not include other elements like holidays or time off
- Includes positive and negative tests
- Is clear, concise and simple
- Includes who to log in as
- Has actual numbers for expected results
“Grouping test scripts in some kind of order is important. We ended up with almost 700 test scripts. We used Deloitte as our third-party implementation team and they were wonderful. They had suggested a specific type of folder structure that really helped us stay organised.”
Sandra Mathew | Senior Principal Business Analyst
Motivate Testing Team
- Begin with an ice breaker
- Name the project and create a logo
- Plan team lunches or play games
- Give the team monitors
Communicate Training
- Post signs, emails, internal websites and bulletin board reminders well in advance
- Notify all employees, including remote workers
- Offer multiple training class dates and times
Training Preparation
- What employee types will use the system (non-exempt, hourly, part time, managers, remote)?
- What guides and classes are needed for each employee type?
- What content is needed for system usage, policy and process differences?
“It’s extremely important to choose the correct person to conduct your training. You want someone that’s going to be creative, that can help with your training materials, and can address the needs of the employees.”
Nancy Kurdy | Time Administration Specialist
Key Training Tips:
- Train using “just-in-time” approach, plan around holidays and don’t rush!
- Provide enough training sessions to reach all employees
- Leave availability for employees who might miss rostered classes
- Provide one-on-one assistance during the first payroll processing
- Use PowerPoint training guides as class handouts
