INFO245 Chapter 4: Development Life Cycle

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INFO245 Chapter 4Development Life Cycle
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Course Refresher

• Course has two parallel streams
• 1 - What are critical things that IS and business
  people should understand about Enterprise
  Systems?
• 2 - What do these systems look like and how do
  they work?
• Stream 2 Labs

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Course Refresher
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Course Refresher
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Learning Objectives

• Discuss the key issues in ERP implementation.
• Review the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
  and why it is critically important on an ERP
  project.
• Understand ERP Implementation Life Cycle.
• Discuss the concept of Change Management on ERP
  projects

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The Challenge

• Implementing an ERP system ranges from somewhat
  challenging to incredibly challenging, depending
  on
• Size and culture of the organization
• Extent of change proposed
• Maturity of the organizations management
  processes
• Organizations need (among many other things) a
  process that guides them through the
  implementation of an ERP system

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Implementation Success Factors

• A proven implementation process, or System
  Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Top (business) management commitment financial,
  visibilitytime!.
• IT driven projects fail
• Experienced and knowledgeable implementation
  team
• Project management
• Business SMEs
• ERP-specific SMEs.

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Implementation Success Factors

• Minimize customizations to ERP software
• Dont touch the source code
• Effective training and change management.
• Hidden costs, often overlooked
• Effective and frequent communication with all
  project stakeholders
• Team
• Business users
• Executives

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What is an SDLC?

• Helps an organization execute an Information
  System (or any) project
• Structured process of planning, designing, and
  implementing an information system
• Takes a big problem implementing an ERP system
  and breaks it down into small, manageable parts
• Reduces risks
• Assures quality

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Implementation Alternatives

• ERP
• SAP
• Syspro

We build, consultants build or blended approach
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SDLC Methodology

• Designed initially for custom software
  development build
• Adapted for ERP implementation buy

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Standard SDLC Phases

• Investigation Phase (aka Planning and Scoping)
• Identification of the business problem that needs
  to be solved
• Definition of the scope of the project
• Thorough analysis of the costs and benefits
• Analysis Phase (aka Requirements)
• Thorough analysis of user requirements of the new
  system focusing on the problems of the current
  system.
• Defines what the system needs to do

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Standard SDLC phases (cont)

• Design Phase
• Focus is on the new systems architecture, user
  interface, and reporting requirements.
• Blueprint or technical specifications of the new
  system.
• Defines how technology will address
  requirements
• Implementation Phase (aka Development or
  Construction)
• Acquisition of hardware, software, development of
  custom applications, new system testing
• Training
• Data conversion
• Maintain (aka Support / Operations)

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ERP SDLC

• An ERP development life cycle provides a
  systematic approach to implementing ERP software
  in the changing but limited-resource
  organizational environment.
• Focus is on
• Vendor selection
• Process change
• Software configuration (vs. customization)
• Change management

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ERP Life Cycle

• Investigation Phase (Scope and Planning)
• Define business problem and project scope
• Feasibility analysis
• Benefits and costs
• Organizational readiness
• Identify critical characteristics that the of
  the ERP system must possess
• Showstoppers
• RFP development
• Vendor evaluation and selection

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ERP Life Cycle (Contd)

• Analysis and Design Stage
• Acquire and install software in test environment
• Analysis of user requirements
• Map the differences between the current business
  process and the available processes in the ERP
  software.
• Evaluate among alternatives, select best ERP
  configuration for each business process in scope
• Design new work flows
• Evaluate available reports, select relevant,
  design additional
• Develop strategy for
• Data conversion
• System cutover
• Training

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ERP Life Cycle (Contd)

• Development Stage
• Build the production version of the software to
  be made available to the end-users.
• Means configuring and testing the ERP system
• Change management team works with end-users on
  implementing the changes in business processes.
• Data team similarly works on migrating data from
  the old system to the new system.
• Users are thoroughly trained
• Timing?
• Configure security

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ERP Life Cycle (Contd)

• Implementation
• Focus is on installing and releasing the system
  to the end-users and on monitoring the system
  release to the end-users.
• System conversion (4 options)
• Phased
• Pilot
• Parallel
• Direct Cut or big bang
• Gather feedback received from system usage needs
  to be funneled to the post-implementation team
  for ongoing system support.

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ERP Life Cycle (Contd)

• Operation
• Support users
• Need to keep the core team together!
• Managing of new releases of the software,
  installation of patches and upgrades.
• Managing the software contract with the ERP
  vendor.

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ERP Configuration

• Evaluating all of the options that the package
  provides
• Choosing options that work best for your
  particular needs
• Configuration includes defining
• The activities associated with each process
• Data that must be collected by the system
• Important relationships
• Business rules
• Document content

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Sales Order Process Activities
Capture Order
Supervisor Review? Print Order?
Sales Order Entry
Pick Materials
Pack Materials
Invoice Customer
Post Goods Issue
Print Shipping Doc? Advise Order Taker That
Order Shipped?
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ERP Configuration Sales Order Processing Example
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Comparing and Contrasting SDLC with ERPLC
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Vendor Specific Methodologies for ERP

• Total Solution (Ernst Young, LLP)
• Fast Track (Deloitte Touche)
• Accelerated SAP or ASAP (SAP)
• Business Integration Methodology (Accenture)

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Change Management

• Basic objective is to overcome peoples
  resistance to change
• Resistance to change actually has physical
  roots..
• Routine activities / new activities different
  parts of the brain
• People resist change due to
• Habit
• Cynicism
• Fear
• Loss of power
• Perceived change in organizations culture

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Change Management Process

• Unfreeze
• Introduce Change
• Refreeze

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Change Management Techniques

• Make sure top management is involved
• But together a change management plan
• Build a change management team with the right
  skills and knowledge
• Use consultants
• Continuously communicate
• Why
• What
• How
• When
• Provide excellent training and education on
• New software
• New process

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Change Management Techniques (cont)

• Get users feedback to the change ensure that
  concerns are recognized
• Seek buy-in
• Be persistent
• Understand that you cant win everyone over.plan
  for that.
• Celebrate when change is implemented!

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ERP Training

• What does ERP failures are not systemic mean?
• What specifically is often the cause of failure?
• What is techy training?
• What kind of training do users really need?
• Who needs to be trained?