Training employees to use enterprise software can present some significant challenges, security issues, and threats to data integrity. Enterprise software includes CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) applications. Frequently the solution is to use screen captures and animations to simulate the user interactions required for various business processes.
However, typical software simulation applications, such as Adobe Captivate or Articulate Presenter, do not readily provide the full range of documentation needed to support an enterprise software implementation. In addition to interactive transaction simulations, support requirements usually include materials for both classroom and Web-based training, performance support that users can access while using the application, user guides, and user certification. Ideally, the implementing organization would like to be able to create all these deliverables before launching the application and releasing it to users. And getting the deliverables developed with a minimum of time and effort is also highly desirable. Needless to say, this is a challenge!
In this article, I will introduce you to the Oracle UPK (User Productivity Kit), which is a software simulation application with the ability to create in one capture a number of different deliverables, including:
- On-line and classroom training materials, including application simulations,
- Job aids,
- User guides,
- Test scripts (that is, scripts for testing the software),
- HP Quality Center files, and
- Other content needed to ensure user adoption.
This article is not a tutorial on the UPK (although I will provide some high-level information about the product’s functions and method of use). Rather, I focus here on use of the UPK in the context of a software implementation project. In other words, I will outline a project management approach, using UPK, that will reduce content development time and cost, create the needed user training materials, performance support, and certification, and will support definition and testing of user transactions – all before “go-live.”
What is the UPK?
At the end of 2008, Oracle bought the software branch of training company Global Knowledge, including a product known as “On Demand Personal Navigator.” Now rebranded as the Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK), the software has a name that sounds rather industrial, but at least it’s less generic than it was.
Oracle (http://www.oracle.com/applications/tutor/user-productivity-kit.html) describes the UPK as “a collaborative development environment to create system-related assets – the ‘People to System’ documentation.” In other words, UPK helps document business processes and enterprise software (i.e., CRM, ERP, and similar systems). It does this by recording interactions with the user. The UPK can assist various stages of enterprise software implementation, including the training stage, but is by no means limited to just training.
Originally, UPK was designed to capture business processes in Oracle applications (by recording interactions between user and software), and to provide documentation for implementation and production operations. It can also be used with a number of Oracle-supported products, including:
- SAP
- JD Edwards
- PeopleSoft
- Siebel
As an example, this summer (as of June, 2009), the State of Connecticut is implementing the UPK to provide users of CORE-CT (core financial and administrative computer systems) with demonstrations, practice tools, and simulation-based assessments. The first exercises released were for processes within the Accounts Payable, Inventory, Asset Management, and eProcurement modules of CORE-CT.
A developer can install the UPK as a single-user, stand-alone application on one machine. Installed this way, the UPK does not require a connection to an enterprise database. You can also install the UPK for a multi-developer environment. In this latter case, it does require a back-end database for content data. Ideally, Microsoft IIS will be part of the development server in the multi-developer environment. However, if IIS is not available, the Oracle database is supported.
UPK simulations are full-screen DHTML slideshows. They appear as a screen recording would. IIS is not needed for deployment of the player, which is a separate browser-based application. (Incidentally, some users create their simulations with UPK, and then import them into Articulate Presenter for delivery. They seem to prefer these results to using the UPK Display tool.)
You can download a trial version of the Oracle UPK from http://edelivery.oracle.com. (There is a similar application, Simbuilder, which is also available as a trial version from the same site. I mention this in case you want to compare the two for your needs, but I will not address Simbuilder in this article.)
Features
UPK is much more expensive than Adobe Captivate, one of its competitors, but it is not intended for the same uses as Captivate. UPK supports large-scale deployments. It is SCORM-compliant. It has the ultimate goal to provide a coherent, maintainable, up-to-date training solution, usually through a Learning Management System (LMS). By contrast, Captivate doesn’t support usage tracking properly, and is used more on small initiatives.
The only common, important feature that UPK doesn’t have is automatic recording. Recording an interaction with UPK requires a number of separate steps. When ready to begin recording, the developer must start the recorder and then use the Print Screen button to capture all screens and actions. The developer should think in terms of taking a lot of screen shots, rather than too few. For example, the developer must remember to capture all the pull-down menus in Oracle forms. Also, it is important to capture screen shots from other applications that the enterprise app may use, such as MS Word or MS Excel. You can use UPK to capture PowerPoint slides for use in creating explanation frames. UPK also supports placing callouts (Oracle calls these “bubbles”) to explain actions to learners. The explanation frames and bubbles give users the detail they need to understand the process. Editing out mistakes is not difficult.
While this sounds complicated, from a training developer perspective, this is good. It gives you more flexibility to capture exactly what you want. Just remember to hit “Print Screen”!
Development
There are two parts to UPK. The Development Tool (the subject of this article) is the means for capturing interactions and creating the various outputs. The Display Tool is a separate application, a player that delivers the finished slideshows.
The hierarchy in UPK is a directory structure:
Title → Module → Section (or Lesson) → Topic
The Development tool opens in the Outline editor. Each Title must have at least one Module, one Section, and one Topic. The content developer creates these, and records the content for each Topic. In addition to the screen captures and bubbles, the developer also enters descriptive information into two important areas on the associated property sheets: the Concept and the Introduction (more about these a little later in this article).
Learner modes
UPK offers four basic modes to the learners:
- See It! – This mode allows the user to passively watch the transaction being performed.
- Try It! – This is the preferred mode. Using this mode allows the user to interact with the application. It simulates the production environment.
- Know It! – This mode tests users on the knowledge they gained from the training. Users complete the steps for a particular task, and UPK gives them a score, based on how accurately they complete them.
- Do It! – This mode is available in the production environment. It’s an embedded help that can be displayed when the user needs help performing day-to-day tasks.
