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Earlier this year, PTC released Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire. This major upgrade brings more than 400 enhancements and new features to Pro/ENGINEER users. With such extensive changes, making the move to Pro/E Wildfire requires a well-planned training program.
Typically, customers upgrade to a new version of Pro/ENGINEER within 6-18 months following the release. At CADTRAIN, we find that approximately 20 percent of our customers upgrade within the first 6-9 months. This means that while some companies have already migrated to Pro/E Wildfire, there are many more that haven’t.
User acceptance of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire is highly dependent on the quality of the software, the upgrade and communication plan, access to support resources, and the availability of training. For both early adopters and companies planning the transition, training is particularly critical to success.
There are many Pro/E training resources available. Ranked from lowest to highest cost, the four basic approaches to consider when upgrading to Pro/E Wildfire are:
1. On-the-job training (OJT) and free resources. To help with the transition to Pro/E Wildfire, PTC offers numerous free acceptance aids including a Quick Reference Card, Menu Mapper, Wildfire Release Notes and Wildfire Primers from both PTC and CADTRAIN (http://cadtrain.com/products/wildfire_primer.html). Other free resources include the PTC Tech Support site and the PTC/USER e-mail exploder. Free resources, combined with on-the-job training and internal user group meetings, can work well for some companies. This approach does, however, entail significant business costs in terms of lost productivity for users who do not come up to speed quickly.
2. OJT, free resources, and purchased self-study materials. With this upgrade approach, companies typically document what’s important to the design and development team, review the free resources and make them available to users. In addition to internal user groups, which communicate what’s working and what’s not, this basic training is enhanced with self-study materials including e-learning update courses, books, videos and other tutorials.
3. OJT, free resources, purchased self-study materials, and instructor-led training. Comprehensive training includes all of the approaches already mentioned, plus formal update sessions conducted either in-house by company training staff or Pro/ENGINEER trainers, or off-site at Pro/ENGINEER training centers. Instructor-led training is often supplemented with mentoring, coaching, and one-on-one support.
4. OJT, free resources, purchased self-study materials, instructor-led training, and validation. Some companies add an internal “validation” step. Before users are given access to Wildfire, they must show they have completed a certain amount of upgrade training such as self-paced e-learning, formal instructor-led training, or in-house seminars. This validation does not necessarily mean taking a test, but may simply be a procedural step to ensure the user has received a minimum level of training before gaining access to Wildfire. Ensuring that users have had appropriate training is a good way to reduce the number of support calls.
With so many training options available, which approach works best? At CADTRAIN, we have found that the best results come from a blended learning environment—a combination of Instructor-led training, e-learning, and the use of available resources and support. In fact, some companies have started to use e-learning content as the course work for their own instructor-led training courses. By doing so, the same content can be delivered as self-paced training or presented with the guidance of an instructor.
In the ideal blended learning situation, new Wildfire users would have access to e-learning materials several weeks before attending an instructor-led training course. By the time the course begins, they would have basic familiarity with the topic and are free to explore—with the instructor’s help—the finer points of the software. Upon returning to the job, users have the e-learning materials available as a refresher and they build confidence as their experience with Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire increases.
Whichever approach best suits your company, keep the following guidelines in mind when developing your Pro/E Wildfire training program.
- Be sure to communicate your upgrade and support plan to your users.
- Pre-sell the benefits of the upgrade.
- Try to keep the upgrade timeframe to less than three months.
- Don’t assume that everyone learns the same way.
- Offer sufficient training alternatives for the different types of learners.
- Allocate as much training time as you possibly can.
- Host in-house user groups to review what’s working well and where additional help is needed.
Dave Cohen is vice president of CADTRAIN, a leading provider of Pro/ENGINEER e-learning products worldwide. He can be reached by email at dcohen@cadtrain.com.
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