Agility and system documentation in large-scale enterprise system projects: a knowledge management perspective

The growth of the agile approach usage comes with a deemphasis on formal documentation (explicit knowledge) and an increased reliance on personal interactions (tacit knowledge) for knowledge transfer. However, the sharing of tacit knowledge poses challenges. The agile approach is prone to knowledge hoarding, as well as knowledge loss from employee turnover and reassignment during periods of significant organizational changes. This study proposes a model that frames documentation and personal interactions as co-agents of system knowledge transfer. We report the preliminary confirmation of crucial antecedents along the dimensions of codification and personalization strategies to support our model. We present a set of findings on current practices, as well as a set of knowledge-sharing issues on system documentation based on three main categories. The first category incorporates system development approaches applied in large-scale enterprise systems projects. The second and the third categories comprise eight knowledge management themes, classified into the dimensions of personalization and codification for knowledge sharing and document practices. Finally, we put forward five propositions based on our findings.publishedVersio

Critical Success Factors for ERP Consultancies. A case study

ERP implementation is a complex and expensive project for organisations because it touches upon social, behavioural and technical issues. This article presents an in-depth case study of an ERP consultancy in order to comprehensively understand ERP implementation from the consultancy’s perspective. Interviews were conducted with consultants, project managers, senior managers and other employees. The interview responses indicate that both the client and the consultancy measure success in terms of quantifiable units of time, cost and scope. In addition, qualitative measures of client maturity and client satisfaction are central to achieving project success for the consultancy when implementing ERP systems. Through incorporating critical success factors (CSFs) in the project methodology, the consultancy can ensure repeatable implementation processes, which contribute to a higher probability of success for both the consultancy and its clients. This study contributes by identifying consultancy CSFs: project management, IT environment, training and education, change management, and maintenance and support. Furthermore, the client’s maturity, and the management of client expectations are identified as unique CSFs for the ERP consultancy. This study will be beneficial for ERP consultancies, practitioners and researchers

Justifying an ERP Investment: Critical Success Factors for Transformation Investments

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects often lead to disappointing outcomes, even downright failures, which is not in keeping with the vast investments they require. It is argued in this paper that a lack of managerial focus on the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for ERP implementation at the outset of their project (however well captured they have been in the literature to date) is the root cause of organisations not achieving the expected outcomes from their Transformation investment. This paper examines the ERP project implementations of four organisations where data and observations were collected over a two year period. From this rich body of empirical evidence, we propose to contribute to our collective understanding of the CSFs for ERP implementation that play a key role in ensuring that investments in ERP packages (Transformation investments) have a greater likelihood of producing desired project outcomes. This research paper also contributes to increasing the perceived usefulness of CSFs to managers and practitioners and illustrates the fact that organisations should undertake self-assessment exercises to improve their preparations for ERP project implementations

Towards a Model for Evaluating Organizational Readiness for ERP and Data Warehousing Projects

The need for an integrated enterprise-wide set of management information pronounced Data Warehousing the ‘hot topic’ of the early-to-mid 1990’s, however, it became unfashionable through the mid-to-late 1990s, with the approach of Y2K and the widespread implementation of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. However, in recent times, the re-emergence of Data Warehousing, coupled with ERP implementations, to address the limitations and unrealised benefits of ERP systems in the area of reporting, provides researchers and managers with new challenges. This paper lays the foundation for a model of organisational prerequisites for enterprise-wide integration projects. The model is aimed at the ‘Intelligence’ phase of managerial decision making for such projects and should help managers assess their organisation’s readiness for ERP and data warehousing projects .The main objective of the paper is to present a literature-based model which lists the key prerequisites that organisations should assess prior to undertaking these expensive projects

Organizational & knowledge challenges faced during an ERP implementation: The case of a large public sector organization

Many large organizations are now dependent on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for their daily operations. ERP systems allow enterprises to integrate various processes across different functional areas in an attempt to increase productivity, efficiency and to sustain their competitive edge. However, despite the various positive outcomes of adopting ERP systems, the implementation process poses a number of challenges for organizations. The implementation process is described as costly, complex and risky whereby firms have not able to derive benefits from the systems despite huge investments. This research reports on the case of a failed ERP implementation in a large South African organization and looks into the organizational and knowledge challenges that contributed to the failure of the ERP system. While ERP implementations within large organizations have been well researched, there has been relatively fewer studies focusing on the organizational and knowledge challenges faced by organizations. The study seeks to close the identified gap, hence contributing to the existing body of knowledge

Assessment of critical success factors transformation in ERP projects

The high value of ERP projects for business, as well as the high risks associated with these projects implementation, requires studying the success drivers of ERP projects and developing a methodology to assess potential transformation of success factors into risk factors in a phased project diagnosis on different life cycle stages. The paper defines and systematizes the key factors, which influence the results of ERP system implementation. The main approaches used are as follows: logical modeling, statistical techniques, heuristic techniques, such as questionnaires, interviews of representative groups of IT project managers, human resource managers, heads of technical and business units, that allowed to authors prove the most important critical success factors relating to human resources management. Research of the 22 autonomous critical factors grouped by key players and activities; the authors defined two independent criteria that determine the nature of critical factors effects on project results and present a methodology to assess the potential human-related (“soft”) critical success factors of ERP projects and their transformation into factors of risk. The results could be of use to business executives, business consultants, managers and professionals, providing them with an effective tool to identify and eliminate causes that threaten the project success. © 2016 Pecherskaya et al