Timescale of learning Dynamics NAV

sonnguyen

Hi all,

I am planning for my team to learn and take NAV exams in order to get MS Dynamics NAV Developer Cetificates. All of team have technical background, 3-4 years MS Developer experiences (.Net, SL Server...). As I see that standard training courses for these exams is around 18 days length in total:

- Introduction to MS Dynamics NAV 2009 : 2 days
- Finance in MS Dynamics NAV 2009 : 2 days
- Application Setup in MS Dynamics NAV 2009 : 2 days
- C/SIDE Introduction in MS Dynamics NAV 2009 : 5 days
- C/SIDE Solution Development in MS Dynamics NAV 2009 : 5 days
- Installation and Configuration in MS Dynamics NAV 2009 : 2 days

I plan that after completting each course, my team will have the same days for review before taking the relevant exam. It means that we will need around 40 days to study and get certificate.

Anyone can tell me the plan is realizable or not. What is the most difficulty ? What are risks with the plan.

Many thanks

Kind regards,

Son Nguyen Hai

David_Singleton

In 40 days they may be able to get bits of paper, but in no way will they be ready to implement Navision. You need to get on board some one with significant experience, someone that has done 10-20 implementations. Without this in house skill, you will lose money on your first implementations, and get your self in a hole that is very hard to dig out of.

in the current work market, it wont be a problem to find someone. The total cost to your company will be significantly less and you will make profits much sooner.

Alex_Chow

Difficulty is relative. But 40 days of full time studying should be about right.

sonnguyen

Hi,

I am aware that getting certificates is just the first step in human resource dvelopment. We will need more practice, on the job training or work as sub contrators to gain enough expertise before having ourselve implementation.

Do you see any difficulty in studying NAV ? is there any problem with my developers while they have not experience on ERP functionality ? these training course would cover all questions of exams ?

Many thanks.

Luc_VanDyck

sonnguyen wrote:

is there any problem with my developers while they have not experience on ERP functionality ?

Yes, it can be a problem if you don't have any experience with ERP, or with basic Purchase-Sales-Inventory processes.

David_Singleton

I am not sure exactly how to react to this thread.

It is very different to many we have seen of late, in that the poster is clearly willing to invest to train a team of people, and the research done to get this far indicates that he has asked the questions and knows "officially" what is needed to become a certified partner. So from that point it is the best post I have seen all week. Kudos to Son Nguyen Hai for stepping up and doing what is needed to do the job properly. It is great to see someone coming into the Navision world, that is willing to make the investment required and is willing to support his people to get the job done.

On the other hand, it shows just the expectations that are being set to new partners, and in a lot of ways explains some of the appalling questions we are seeing in the Navision community. Even if a new partner does all the training and brings their people up to speed as required by the certification process, *WE* know that this is not enough. Navision is a very different product to others out there. Its whole implementation philosophy is different, it requires consultants with extensive knowledge of ALL the systems features, how the code works, and what to modify and how. There is no compartmentalization in Navision that allows you to have a team of specialist consultants unless you have that one person with the full skill set, and that person is dying out.
I think its a major concern, and it affects us all. But I think this needs its own thread.

einsTeIn.NET

sonnguyen wrote:

I am aware that getting certificates is just the first step in human resource dvelopment.

No, I believe certificates shouldn't be the first step. Because what happens if you don't have a clue about the topic of the certification? You will try to get the answers on internet and con them. Thus customers will see you are certified, but when there are real experts problems you will drop the ball. And as a result of this everyone will have a bad opinion to all certified persons. That will bash the whole business.

sonnguyen wrote:

is there any problem with my developers while they have not experience on ERP functionality ?

For an experienced developer it's quite easy to lern the syntax. I guess this could be done in a few days. But difficulty is that you have to think in another way than normal OOP and you have to understand NAV before you can build real good solutions. Many problems can be solved by knowing standard functionality. Others are only solvable if you know how table relations are and how data flow works.

Alex_Chow

Judging from the original poster's request, I think he/she is trying to earn the ERP competency to start selling NAV. That's why the certification has to come first.

kine

is there any problem with my developers while they have not experience on ERP functionality ?

Main thing you need to have on mind is:

1) NAV is different from standard "applications"
2) Biggest mistake is to start modifying all the standard code just "because it is there and available"
3) To be able to do "big things with one line of code on correct place" you need to have deep knowledge how the system works. Blindly modifying of code is way to the hell
4) You need to have "know-how" about when to tell NO to the customer and you need to be able to offer the correct way how to solve the main reason of some customer's problem

and many others. But as you can see, the main thing you need to have is knowledge about the system... and this is something what the classes and certification will not give you. It is about years of experiences...

einsTeIn.NET

Alex Chow wrote:

Judging from the original poster's request, I think he/she is trying to earn the ERP competency to start selling NAV. That's why the certification has to come first.

Yes, I didn't miss that. But as David already said I believe that is the right way...

David Singleton wrote:

You need to get on board some one with significant experience, someone that has done 10-20 implementations.

Just to start with a couple of unexperienced but certified people is exactly the way to a bad reputation for his company and all other NAV ISVs in the long run.

matttrax

einsTeIn.NET wrote:

No, I believe certificates shouldn't be the first step.

It's a Catch-22. You are right, Certification should NOT be the first step, but you can't get a competency unless you have 3 customer references. You're not going to get customers unless you are certified. That, unfortunately, means certification comes first for most companies.