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Gaming in ERP, How we’re educating geeks

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CONFENIS 2012
CONFENIS 2012

Pieter-Jan Vandenbossche and Ilse Beerland Gaming in ERP, how we’re educating geeks. How we create business awareness to future IT-professionals.

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Gaming in ERP How we’re educating geeks Beerland Ilse Vandenbossche Pieter-Jan Confenis 2012, Ghent, September 20th, 2012 www.howest.be1
Hogeschool Gent Universiteit Gent 13.200 studenten 25.000 studenten Bruges Kortrijk 2
IT-related bachelors at Howest BPM in bachelors: nMCT Devine DAE TI OM 3
Profile of IT-students • High level of technical skills • Focus on solving problems on a case by case basis • Using technology they know • Are not interested in business economics • Poor communication skills 4
Profile of IT-students Need Coding Solution Need Coding Solution Need Coding Solution 5
… are getting integrated But standalone applications…
…can be outsourced Pure coding jobs… Source: Worldwide wages of a jr. software developer by payscale.com 7
Future IT-professionals • Technical skills • Communication skills • Business proces understanding  Developing integrated solutions that satisfy business needs 8
Course: Business Process Management INPUT OUTPUT 9
Step 0 • Traditional approach  Students can reproduce some course material but do they understand Business processes? 10
Step 1 • Introducing MS Dynamics NAV in courses • Case studies • Final presentation for a professional jury  A first step is made, but students still have problems to see the entire process 11
These lessons are useless for us IT-students ERP software is only used by multinationals Isn’t there a way to teach this more interactively This course does not fit our curriculum
How to get IT-students interested in Business Process Management (BPM) ? • Real-life case studies • Software used in business • Serious game Business Process Game 13
Analysis of existing business games
Analysis of existing business games • A lot of games focus on management skills, while we’re looking for a process approach • Most games deal with a wide variety of processes, but none of them digging deep • Some games are focussed on gameplay while the educational value stays low 15
Step 2 • Business game in the BPM-courses 16
Step 2 • Business game in the BPM-courses  Students experience basic business processes • Then we register these business processes in real ERP-software 17
And do students like BPM now? NO!
But are their BPM-skills improved? Are they aware of it’s importance? YES!
Step 3: towards an ERP-business game… • To avoid click-by-click exercises • To combine the experience of a game with the efficiency of ERP • To increase the content-level 20
So we’re creating a new game • Which is playable in ERP-software • Using the standard business logic • And inserted a gaming layer to the existing software 21
How does it work? 22
Conclusion • Teaching BPM to IT-students is not mission impossible But.. • it asks for a different approach • it’s time consuming • and always work in progress 23
University Contacts • ilse.beerland@howest.be • pieter-jan.vandenbossche@howest.be Howest – Campus GKG Head of department: Roel Vandommele Graaf K. de Goedelaan 5 – 8500 Kortrijk 056 24 12 11 056 24 12 24 www.howest.be www.nmct.be

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Gaming in ERP, How we’re educating geeks

  • 1. Gaming in ERP How we’re educating geeks Beerland Ilse Vandenbossche Pieter-Jan Confenis 2012, Ghent, September 20th, 2012 www.howest.be1
  • 2. Hogeschool Gent Universiteit Gent 13.200 studenten 25.000 studenten Bruges Kortrijk 2
  • 3. IT-related bachelors at Howest BPM in bachelors: nMCT Devine DAE TI OM 3
  • 4. Profile of IT-students • High level of technical skills • Focus on solving problems on a case by case basis • Using technology they know • Are not interested in business economics • Poor communication skills 4
  • 5. Profile of IT-students Need Coding Solution Need Coding Solution Need Coding Solution 5
  • 6. … are getting integrated But standalone applications…
  • 7. …can be outsourced Pure coding jobs… Source: Worldwide wages of a jr. software developer by payscale.com 7
  • 8. Future IT-professionals • Technical skills • Communication skills • Business proces understanding  Developing integrated solutions that satisfy business needs 8
  • 9. Course: Business Process Management INPUT OUTPUT 9
  • 10. Step 0 • Traditional approach  Students can reproduce some course material but do they understand Business processes? 10
  • 11. Step 1 • Introducing MS Dynamics NAV in courses • Case studies • Final presentation for a professional jury  A first step is made, but students still have problems to see the entire process 11
  • 12. These lessons are useless for us IT-students ERP software is only used by multinationals Isn’t there a way to teach this more interactively This course does not fit our curriculum
  • 13. How to get IT-students interested in Business Process Management (BPM) ? • Real-life case studies • Software used in business • Serious game Business Process Game 13
  • 14. Analysis of existing business games
  • 15. Analysis of existing business games • A lot of games focus on management skills, while we’re looking for a process approach • Most games deal with a wide variety of processes, but none of them digging deep • Some games are focussed on gameplay while the educational value stays low 15
  • 16. Step 2 • Business game in the BPM-courses 16
  • 17. Step 2 • Business game in the BPM-courses  Students experience basic business processes • Then we register these business processes in real ERP-software 17
  • 18. And do students like BPM now? NO!
  • 19. But are their BPM-skills improved? Are they aware of it’s importance? YES!
  • 20. Step 3: towards an ERP-business game… • To avoid click-by-click exercises • To combine the experience of a game with the efficiency of ERP • To increase the content-level 20
  • 21. So we’re creating a new game • Which is playable in ERP-software • Using the standard business logic • And inserted a gaming layer to the existing software 21
  • 22. How does it work? 22
  • 23. Conclusion • Teaching BPM to IT-students is not mission impossible But.. • it asks for a different approach • it’s time consuming • and always work in progress 23
  • 24. University Contacts • ilse.beerland@howest.be • pieter-jan.vandenbossche@howest.be Howest – Campus GKG Head of department: Roel Vandommele Graaf K. de Goedelaan 5 – 8500 Kortrijk 056 24 12 11 056 24 12 24 www.howest.be www.nmct.be