Peta Darke

Identification of Necessary Factors for Successful Implementation of ERP Systems

The identification of factors which are necessary for successful implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is of great importance to many organizations. ERP systems have to be configured and implemented, often by a team of business analysts and consultants over a period of months or years. The process is lengthy and expensive, and may include extensive business process re-engineering. Given that the investment in these systems, including both the package and associated implementation costs, is measured in millions of dollars, failure to meet deadlines and budgets may result in substantial company loss. However, the literature on the ERP implementation process, and the factors which either facilitate or impede its progress, is not extensive. This research reports the first stage of a research program which seeks to understand successful implementation of ERP systems. The objective, of the first phase was to identify what factors are necessary for successful ERP implementation, where success is understood as adherence to time and budgetary constraints. To accomplish this objective the authors studied 42 implementation projects by interviewing 10 senior members of multiple’ ERP implementation teams. Based on these interviews, 10 candidate necessary factors for successful implementation of ERP systems are identified. Of these 10, three are of paramount importance. They are management support of the project team and of the implementation process, a project team which has the appropriate balance of business and technical skills, and commitment to the change by all stakeholders. The next phase of the research will involve in-depth case studies to explore the relationship between these factors and broader contextual and process issues.

Stakeholder viewpoints in requirements definition: A framework for understanding viewpoint development approaches

Requirements definition is a critical activity within information systems development. It involves many stakeholder groups: managers, various end-users and different systems development professionals. Each group is likely to have its own ‘viewpoint’ representing a particular perspective or set of perceptions of the problem domain. To ensure as far as possible that the system to be implemented meets the needs and expectations of all involved stakeholders, it is necessary to understand their various viewpoints and manage any inconsistencies and conflicts. Viewpoint development during requirements definition is the process of identifying, understanding and representing different viewpoints. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for understanding and investigating viewpoint development approaches. Results of the use of the framework for a comparison of viewpoint development approaches are discussed and some important issues and directions for future research are identified.

User viewpoint modelling: understanding and representing user viewpoints during requirements definition

There has been increasing awareness of the impact of the early stages of systems development on the quality of information systems. A critical early activity is requirements definition, when the requirements for an information system are determined. Traditional requirements capture techniques do not support the collaborative nature of requirements definition or the emergent nature of requirements themselves. This paper focuses on viewpoint development as a means of resolving some of the difficulties of requirements definition. It proposes a user viewpoint model for capturing and representing the viewpoints of users during requirements acquisition. The model can facilitate communication and interaction between analysts and users and help build a shared understanding of requirements. It can be used to structure the requirements acquisition process. The model provides for evaluation of requirements acquisition techniques to guide the selection of appropriate techniques for developing user viewpoint models. The paper reports a multiple‐case study of requirements definition efforts that examined user viewpoint development in practice and used the cases to validate empirically the concepts of the user viewpoint model. The implications of the case study findings for requirements definition practice are discussed, and some areas for future research are identified.

Improving the Quality of Entity Relationship Models - Experience in Research and Practice

This paper is an extension of previous research which developed a framework for evaluating and improving the quality of Entity Relationship models. The framework has now been used extensively in research and practice, including application in two of the largest commercial organisations in Australia. The experiences gained have been used to further develop and refine the framework. This paper describes how the framework has been used to: (a) quality assure data models as part of application development projects (product quality); (b) reengineer application development procedures to build quality into the data modelling process (process quality); (c) provide automated support for the evaluation process (Data Model Quality Advisor); (d) investigate the differences between data models produced by expert and novice data modellers. The results show that use of the framework has the potential to significantly improve research, practice and teaching of data modelling.

Understanding corporate data models

Corporate data models are widely used to support data management within organisations. However, both IS professionals and business users find them difficult to understand. This paper describes a methodology for designing and representing corporate data models that uses explanation and visualisation mechanisms to improve understanding, and reports a case study of the use of the methodology in the development of a data warehouse. The methodology was shown to be effective in that a high quality corporate data model was designed and then understood and utilised by all the participants. The model was used as an active, hypertext interface to the first prototype of the data warehouse. The case study findings indicated that: scenarios are useful for eliciting information requirements and explaining abstract concepts in the model to business users; graphical icons and subject area partitions are effective means of visualising the model and lead to improved understanding of the model by business users; and design rationale is an effective means of explaining the evolution of concepts in the model for specialist data modellers.

A Framework for Selecting Appropriate Requirements Acquisition Techniques

The identification of complete and accurate system requirements that reflect users’ actual needs is critical for the development and implementation of effective information systems (Davis, 1982; Mittermeir et al., 1987; Teng and Sethi, 1990). Inadequacies in requirements have been identified as a major factor in information systems failures and in user dissatisfaction with systems (Lyytinen and Hirschheim, 1987; Teng and Sethi, 1990). Identification of users’ requirements typically commences during requirements acquisition, the early part of requirements definition, and involves analysts and users working together to establish an understanding of the application domain, its organisational environment, and the users’ information processing needs (Valusek and Fryback, 1987; Byrd et al., 1992). Information accumulated during requirements acquisition forms the basis for the requirements specification which should describe appropriate and desirable properties of a system to meet the users’ identified needs (Greenspan et al., 1994).

Incorporating Context to Improve Understanding of a Data Warehouse

Data warehouses provide the necessary data infrastructure for executive information systems and decision support systems. The design of a data warehouse is a complex and critical activity within the data warehousing process. The corporate data model has been proposed as a tool to support data warehouse design. Although corporate data models are widely used to support data management within organisations, both information systems professionals and business users find them difficult to understand. This paper describes a data warehouse design approach which is intended to facilitate stakeholder understanding by making explicit use of explanation and visualisation mechanisms to incorporate context into the representation of the data warehouse design, and reports a case study of the use of the approach in practice. Three important fmdings about the use of the explanation and visualisation mechanisms emerged from the case study. First, design rationale is an effective means of explaining the evolution of concepts in the data warehouse design for specialist data modellers. Second, scenarios should be used for elicitation of information requirements and to explain abstract concepts in the model to business users. Third, graphical icons and subject area partitions are effective means of visualising the model and lead to improved understanding of the model by business users.