An ERP programme director must be able to connect systems delivery with the way the organisation works. Product knowledge matters, but the hiring brief also needs to address decisions about processes, data, people and accountability.
SAP’s guidance on ERP implementation teams emphasises business participation and support across the enterprise. For hiring teams, that is a useful prompt to assess leadership beyond the technical delivery plan.
Start with your programme’s position
A leader joining before design begins faces a different assignment from someone inheriting a delayed rollout. Explain the platform, programme stage, organisational scope and relationship with implementation partners. Be candid about unresolved decisions.
Identify which outcomes the director owns and which sit with business process owners, finance, IT or the executive sponsor. Accountability becomes difficult to assess when the role is expected to own everything but can approve very little.
Explore a difficult process decision
Ask candidates to describe a situation in which local business preferences conflicted with a common process. Who made the final decision? What evidence informed it? How were exceptions handled? A detailed answer should make the candidate’s own contribution distinguishable from the wider team’s work.
Then explore how the decision affected users and reporting. A design approved in a steering meeting still needs to work for the people using it.
Examine readiness, not just milestones
Discuss how candidates assessed data readiness, testing, training and operational support before a major release. Ask what would have made them recommend a delay, and how they explained that recommendation to sponsors.
A useful assessment scenario gives candidates a programme with conflicting readiness signals. Ask what they would investigate and who they would involve. Avoid expecting a confident answer when the scenario deliberately leaves important information missing.
Ask what happened after launch
Explore the transition into support, the handling of outstanding issues and the ownership of improvement work. Ask which benefits were measured and which remained assumptions.
Your shortlist should show who can make delivery decisions in your circumstances, maintain business ownership and leave a programme that the organisation can sustain.
Further reading: SAP: ERP implementation team structure.
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