Traditional and Modern Methodologies in ERP Systems Implementation Using Microsoft Dynamics-GP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems implementation is typically viewed as a customization or an integration effort to fit an organization’s business processes or existing systems. However, ERP systems implementation may also be considered as a lifecycle from inception to completion, which is likely to benefit from the use of formal systems development methodologies, including traditional methodologies (e.g. Systems Development Life Cycle, and Object Oriented Analysis and Design) and modern methodologies (e.g. Extreme Programming, and SCRUM). This research examines the use of systems development methodologies in ERP implementations and the extent to which such methodologies aid the successful implementation of ERP systems. The findings are based on reports by multiple project teams adopting different methodologies in implementing Microsoft Dynamics –GP -based ERP systems for real-world organizations

Secure activity resource coordination: empirical evidence of enhanced security awareness in designing secure business processes

Systems development methodologies incorporate security requirements as an afterthought in the non-functional requirements of systems. The lack of appropriate access control on information exchange among business activities can leave organizations vulnerable to information assurance threats. The gap between systems development and systems security leads to software development efforts that lack an understanding of security risks. We address the research question: how can we incorporate security as a functional requirement in the analysis and modeling of business processes? This study extends the Semantic approach to Secure Collaborative Inter-Organizational eBusiness Processes in D’Aubeterre et al. (2008). In this study, we develop the secure activity resource coordination (SARC) artifact for a real-world business process. We show how SARC can be used to create business process models characterized by the secure exchange of information within and across organizational boundaries. We present an empirical evaluation of the SARC artifact against the Enriched-Use Case (Siponen et al., 2006) and standard UML-Activity Diagram to demonstrate the utility of the proposed design method

Socio-technical management of software testing in information systems projects

Brazilian companies that develop software for information systems are aware of the pressing need for continuous improvement in process quality. Towards aligning business processes with software routines implemented in an information system, one should address the institutional practices of software testing. From a socio-technical perspective and with the help of two theoretical models developed in this study to outline and guide the testing activities from a managerial and process-based perspective, in-depth interviews with ten experts in software quality and software testing enabled us to identify and validate analytical categories that mediate the relation between those two models. The result was the development of an organizational structure to support managers, developers and customers in software projects for enterprise information systems.Na indústria brasileira de desenvolvimento de software para sistemas de informações, observa-se sensibilidade das empresas quanto à necessária melhoria contínua na qualidade do processo produtivo. Uma das formas de tratar a qualidade do desenvolvimento de software - na expectativa de alinhar os processos de negócio do cliente às rotinas computacionalmente programadas no sistema de informações - dá-se por meio do teste de software. O teste de software busca institucionalizar práticas de gestão de projetos e desenvolvimento de produtos de software, com o objetivo de localizar os problemas - e não garantir a sua inexistência. A partir de uma perspectiva sociotécnica e dos modelos teóricos SET (gerencial) e ST-TS (processual) desenvolvidos nesta pesquisa para um melhor entendimento e orientação das atividades de teste, entrevistas em profundidade com dez especialistas em qualidade e teste de software permitiram a identificação e validação de categorias analíticas que mediam a relação entre fatores desses dois modelos, disto derivando-se o modelo organizacional VAST para auxiliar gestores, desenvolvedores e clientes em projetos de software para sistemas de informações empresariais

A Design Theory for Secure Semantic E-Business Processes (SSEBP)

This dissertation develops and evaluates a Design theory. We follow the design science approach (Hevener, et al., 2004) to answer the following research question: "How can we formulate a design theory to guide the analysis and design of Secure Semantic eBusiness processes (SSeBP)?" Goals of SSeBP design theory include (i) unambiguously represent information and knowledge resources involved in eBusiness processes to solve semantic conflicts and integrate heterogeneous information systems; (ii) analyze and model business processes that include access control mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access to resources; and (iii) facilitate the coordination of eBusiness process activities-resources by modeling their dependencies. Business processes modeling techniques such as Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) (BPMI, 2004) and UML Activity Diagrams (OMG, 2003) lack theoretical foundations and are difficult to verify for correctness and completeness (Soffer and Wand, 2007). Current literature on secure information systems design methods are theoretically underdeveloped and consider security as a non-functional requirement and as an afterthought (Siponen et al. 2006, Mouratidis et al., 2005). SSeBP design theory is one of the first attempts at providing theoretically grounded guidance to design richer secure eBusiness processes for secure and coordinated seamless knowledge exchange among business partners in a value chain. SSeBP design theory allows for the inclusion of non-repudiation mechanisms into the analysis and design of eBusiness processes which lays the foundations for auditing and compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley. SSeBP design theory is evaluated through a rigorous multi-method evaluation approach including descriptive, observational, and experimental evaluation. First, SSeBP design theory is validated by modeling business processes of an industry standard named Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) approach. Our model enhances CPFR by incorporating security requirements in the process model, which is critically lacking in the current CPFR technical guidelines. Secondly, we model the demand forecasting and capacity planning business processes for two large organizations to evaluate the efficacy and utility of SSeBP design theory to capture the realistic requirements and complex nuances of real inter-organizational business processes. Finally, we empirically evaluate SSeBP, against enhanced Use Cases (Siponen et al., 2006) and UML activity diagrams, for informational equivalence (Larkin and Simon, 1987) and its utility in generating situational awareness (Endsley, 1995) of the security and coordination requirements of a business process. Specific contributions of this dissertation are to develop a design theory (SSeBP) that presents a novel and holistic approach that contributes to the IS knowledge base by filling an existing research gap in the area of design of information systems to support secure and coordinated business processes. The proposed design theory provides practitioners with the meta-design and the design process, including the system components and principles to guide the analysis and design of secure eBusiness processes that are secure and coordinated

An Empirical Investigation of the Effectiveness of Systems Modeling and Verification Tools

The article presents an empirical investigation of the effectiveness of systems modeling and verification tools. The authors believe that the biggest reason that best practices and tools do not deter system failure rates is that needs are often misinterpreted by designers and users. Projects often fail because their are poor specifications of user requirements. Software design can not be completed properly until designers understand a system and its needs and can translate those needs into technical requirements

An Empirical Investigation of the Effectiveness of Systems Modeling and Verification Tools

The article presents an empirical investigation of the effectiveness of systems modeling and verification tools. The authors believe that the biggest reason that best practices and tools do not deter system failure rates is that needs are often misinterpreted by designers and users. Projects often fail because their are poor specifications of user requirements. Software design can not be completed properly until designers understand a system and its needs and can translate those needs into technical requirements