Staff an ERP program around the decisions and deliverables in each implementation phase. The same team should not own discovery, configuration, testing, cutover, and long-term operations by default.
Reviewed August 3, 2026.
Platform experience is necessary, but it is not a complete hiring brief. A Workday integration developer, SAP finance lead, Oracle data conversion lead, and Dynamics 365 solution architect solve different problems. Start with the phase, deliverable, and decision rights. Then add the platform and module evidence.
Phase 1: discovery and operating-model decisions
Discovery should define the business outcome, process owners, scope, governance, and the standards that will control later design decisions. Useful roles include an ERP program lead, enterprise or solution architect, functional workstream leads, and a change lead.
Ask candidates for evidence that they can turn broad goals into an executable plan:
- A scope or process map tied to business owners.
- A governance model that identifies decision and escalation rights.
- A dependency inventory across data, integrations, security, and reporting.
- An example of work the candidate deliberately kept out of scope.
The strongest discovery lead does not merely collect requirements. The person helps the business decide which requirements are essential, which can use the platform standard, and which should wait.
Phase 2: solution design and fit-to-standard
Design needs functional depth and the authority to close process decisions. Staff functional leads for the modules in scope, a solution architect for cross-workstream choices, and specialists for security, integrations, data, and reporting where those boundaries affect the design.
SAP explicitly frames fit-to-standard workshops around validating a reference solution and identifying delta requirements. The practical staffing lesson applies beyond SAP: hire leads who can explain the standard, document a justified exception, and show the effect of that exception on downstream build and support.
Phase 3: configuration, development, and data preparation
Build work expands the need for hands-on specialists. The mix may include configurators, developers, integration engineers, data conversion specialists, reporting developers, and environment or release owners.
Screen each discipline for completed artifacts rather than product vocabulary:
| Workstream | Evidence to request |
|---|---|
| Configuration | Design decision, configuration method, dependency, validation, and transport or release process |
| Integration | Interface contract, authentication, error handling, monitoring, reconciliation, and support ownership |
| Data | Profiling, mapping, transformation, exception handling, reconciliation, and business signoff |
| Reporting | Business definition, data lineage, access control, validation, and operational owner |
| Security | Role design, segregation concerns, approval, testing, and access review process |
Phase 4: testing and readiness
Testing requires business participation, functional authority, test coordination, defect management, and environment or data support. A test lead can organize the work, but cannot replace process owners who decide whether the result is acceptable.
Ask how the candidate linked scenarios to requirements, prepared representative data, triaged defects, controlled retesting, and defined exit criteria. For an integration-heavy program, ask how the team handled failures outside the ERP platform. For a global program, ask how local requirements were represented without duplicating the entire design.
Phase 5: cutover and deployment
Cutover staffing should follow the dependency plan. Typical owners include a cutover lead, workstream leads, data and integration specialists, security administration, communications or change leads, and business decision-makers.
Interview for rehearsals, checkpoints, go or no-go criteria, rollback decisions, and command-center operations. A candidate should distinguish between finishing a task and confirming that the dependent business process is ready.
Phase 6: stabilization and ongoing ownership
After go-live, move from implementation staffing to a named operating model. Product or platform owners need authority over the backlog. Functional analysts need clear business counterparts. Integration, security, and data issues need support ownership and response paths.
Use contractors to close temporary gaps or transfer specialized knowledge. Build permanent ownership where the work continues through upgrades, roadmap decisions, controls, and support. The contract versus direct-hire guide for ERP projects explains that choice in more detail.
Platform-specific hiring briefs
SAP
Name the SAP product, deployment model, module, implementation phase, and required deliverable. Ask whether the candidate worked in fit-to-standard, configuration, extension, integration, migration, testing, or operations. Request an example from the same module and phase, not merely an SAP project.
Workday
Name the Workday application area, tenant context, business process, integration or reporting need, and release responsibility. Workday's Launch materials emphasize predefined approaches and governance. Candidates should be able to explain where they used a standard pattern and where the client's operating model required a documented decision.
Oracle Cloud
Name the Oracle Cloud application, module, implementation responsibility, and security boundary. Oracle's implementation guidance separates implementation-team and implementation-user responsibilities. Your brief should also separate functional decisions, technical setup, data work, testing, and administration.
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Name the Dynamics 365 application, business process, integration landscape, deployment phase, and expected artifacts. Microsoft's implementation guidance stresses strategy, project organization, and solution design. Screen for the candidate's role in those decisions as well as product configuration.
Crosscheck recruiting guidance: Bennett builds ERP searches from four inputs: phase, blocked deliverable, platform or module evidence, and decision rights. That structure makes interview evidence comparable across candidates.
Explore Crosscheck's ERP staffing practice, review Workday HCM consultant criteria or Oracle Fusion consultant criteria, and submit an ERP hiring brief.