GOVERNANCE STRATEGIES FOR ENTERPRISE APPLICATION SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATIONS

Enterprise application system implementations are highly complex implementations that automate several business functions, such as financials, accounting, supply chain, customer services management, human resources management and reporting among others. This study aims at providing an alternative view of organization's enterprise application system (EAS) acceptance. Despite the large body of literature, there are still empirical inquiries to investigate the EAS system implementation from adopters' perspectives and how to identify risks in a multi-stakeholder and dynamic environment. The thesis consists of three essays on various aspects of relationship between enterprise application implementation in a multi-stakeholder environment and project governance. Valid measurement scales for predicting organization's acceptance of enterprise systems are in short supply. The first essay develops and validates new scales for two specific variables, integration and inter-dependency risks. These variables are hypothesized as key determinant for organizational success of enterprise application implementations by mitigating risks involved in a multi-stakeholder environment. A model of organization acceptance of enterprise systems was developed using these two scales and then tested for reliability from a total of 365 users and nine application groups. The measures were validated using ten different direct measures with reliabilities between 0.72 and 0.96. Integration risk was significantly related with perceived ease of use, consultant's product knowledge and training provided to the end users. Inter-dependency risk was significantly correlated with perceived usefulness, consultant's industry and product knowledge. Both integration and inter-dependency risks are significantly related with success of the new enterprise application. This study would benefit project executives by offering valuable managerial insights that enable them to appreciate and improve integration and inter-dependency of stakeholders. Implications for theory and practice are discussed for two sub-groups: that less experienced resources treat risks differently than more experienced resources, and business applications compared to technical enterprise applications. Academic community has not addressed governance of enterprise application projects that involve dynamic environments and how to mitigate integration and inter-dependency risks. In the second essay it is argued that acceptance of the system from end users is not enough? Adopters of new enterprise wide information technology solutions get most benefit when the solution continues to be adaptable when business, environment or other organizational priorities change - therefore making an implementation sustainable. The second essay discussed characteristics of sustainability of enterprise application implementation from organizational perspective. A case study was used to validate the characteristics of sustainability. The thesis sought to demonstrate the causal relationship between the organization's preparedness for sustainability and the emergence of implementation problems. The study extracted insight into the criticality of certain factors and the type of problems making decisions under weak governance situation. The third essay develops determinants for project governance success of enterprise application implementations by mitigating risks in a multi-stakeholder environment. This essay develops and validates new scales for five specific variables. Definitions of five variables were used to develop a model that was presented for content validity and then tested for reliability from a total of 117 project executives globally. The measures were validated with reliabilities between 0.73 and 0.94. Relationships between five measures were broken down to meaningful components and a three tier project governance structure was proposed to mitigate integration and inter-dependency risks in a multi-stakeholder environment

Enterprise resource planning systems implementation as a complex project: A conceptual framework

The purpose of this paper is to investigate current literature on critical success factors (CSF) and risk factors (RF) of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation and provide a systemic explanation of complexities involved in such implementation. This study will compile literature that highlighted possible references to CSFs of ERP implementations, definition of complex projects and ERP are compared with project management and project governance impacts. By analyzing highly likely CFS and RFs mentioned in literature, CSF and RFs will be mapped to project complexities involved in any ERP implementation. This is an exploratory study as it is based on literature review to understand ERP implementation and validations. The future research needs to include data collection from ERP adopters and longitudinal analyses of trends based on advances in ERP project management and governance capabilities in different ERP implementations. This article will be significant contribution to current body of knowledge because it helps us understand ERP application implementation as a complex project instead of linear system as currently documented in the literature. This article has outlined the conceptual revisions needed to extend the new project management approach from its current linear way of looking into project management of ERP projects. The article suggests that ERP project management is best understood within the context of environmental complexities. This paper is the first attempt to explore ERP implementations based on current enterprise environment and how to meet those CSF and RFs from complexity perspective. Santrauka Straipsnio tikslas – išnagrineti dabartinius literatūros šaltinius apie imones ištekliu planavimo sistemos igyvendinimo kritinius sekmes ir rizikos veiksnius, pateikti sistemiška kliūčiu, su kuriomis galima susidurti igyvendinant sistema, paaiškinima. Ši analize grindžiama tokiais literatūros šaltiniais, kuriuose kalbama ar užsimenama apie kritinius imones ištekliu planavimo sekmes veiksnius, sudetiniu projektu apibrežima, o imones ištekliu planavimas lyginamas su projektu valdymo poveikiais. Labiausiai tiketini analizuojamieji kritines sekmes ir rizikos veiksniai, mineti literatūroje, bus atvaizduojami tarp projektu kliūčiu, itrauktu bet kuriame imones ištekliu planavimo igyvendinimo etape. Tai yra aiškinamasis tyrimas, nes grindžiamas literatūros apžvalga imones ištekliu planavimo ir valdymo klausimais. Tolesniam tyrimui reikia surinkti duomenis iš ištekliu planavimo sistema idiegusiu imoniu ir atlikti ilgalaike pažangos tendenciju analize, valdant ištekliu planavimo projektus, bei ivertinti skirtingu imones ištekliu valdymo planu igyvendinimo galimybes. Šiame straipsnyje pateikiama daug žiniu apie imoniu ištekliu planavimo sistemos igyvendinima kaip kompleksini projekta, o ne šiuo metu literatūroje pateikiama linijine sistema. Straipsnyje numatyti konceptualūs taisymai, norint nuo dabartinio linijinio požiūrio pereiti prie naujojo imones ištekliu planavimo projektu valdymo požiūrio. Pažymeta, kad ištekliu planavimo projektu valdymas geriausiai suvokiamas aplinkos sudetingumo kontekste. Šis straipsnis – tai pirmasis meginimas ištirti imones ištekliu planavimo igyvendinima esamoje imones aplinkoje ir bandymas susidoroti su kritiniais sekmes ir rizikos veiksniais atsižvelgiant i kylančias kliūtis. First Published Online: 10 Feb 2011 Reikšminiai žodžiai: kompleksiniai projektai, imones ištekliu planavimas, projektu valdymas, koncepcinis modelis, kritiniai sekmes veiksnia

Identifying areas of knowledge governance for successful projects

Projects undertaken in the project-based industry are characterized by multiple stakeholders, uncertainty, and complexity due to the unique nature of each project. These differences also extend to knowledge movement from one project to another. Increased knowledge creation resulting from project implementation is expected to lead to numerous benefits. These benefits encompass reusability of lessons learned, as well as knowledge of strategic, operational, organizational, and managerial aspects of the firm. By adopting a unified knowledge creation framework, firms seek tangible and intangible benefits such as cost reduction, improved productivity, enhanced efficiency, and business growth. A case study was used to identify problem areas of knowledge creation and align corporate and project objectives. Incorporating a comprehensive knowledge creation plan in the organizational memory infrastructure can be a significant stride toward improving overall project management efficiency and increasing the organization's productivity and profitability in the industry. This stream of research will allow researchers to further refine knowledge creation success models. The paper will also draw practitioners’ attention to areas where investment is needed to improve the knowledge governance process

Organizational governance to integrate sustainability projects: a case study

Sustainable development represents a major challenge of the 21st century. Organizations use projects to implement strategic corporate objectives, exploring sustainable development from a project management perspective is imperative. While current project management techniques are well defined in terms of content and process to manage the budget-scope-time constraint, availability of organization resources and ability to adopt project governance strategies in a changing business environment, like incorporating sustainability in business process is ambiguous, literature has not explored how to cope with a normative situation like sustainability. We consider Small-to-Mid-Size-Construction-Organizations (SMSCOs), which makes up the largest portion of the project-based industry and are most impacted by new government regulations, as our population of interest. This paper addresses two primary objectives in relation to organizational resources available for SMSCOs: to identify an organization's shortcomings in undertaking a sustainable project, and to identify means for improving organizational readiness to cope with governance of sustainable projects. A case study with a SMSCO to understand activities, resource availability, and how to improve organization readiness to undertake projects related to sustainability is discussed. A conceptual framework is presented for the adoptive project governance process to ensure resource constrained organizations like SMSCO's can align better to govern such projects. First published online: 28 Jan 201