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How a methodology works?. As we talked earlier, the methodology can divide the entire implementation into smaller and more manageable groups of activities.
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How a methodology works? As we talked earlier, the methodology can divide the entire implementation into smaller and more manageable groups of activities. A methodology should encompass all the components that go on to provide a complete business solution, rather than merely implementing the software package.
It should ideally incorporate the following five tracks which run throughout any ERP implementation life-cycle: 1- Business process analysis. 2- Change management. 3- Technical infrastructure development. 4- Programming for enhancing package features. 5- project management.
The previous five tracks would incorporate activities spread typically across four broad sections or stages which are a part of any software implementation: analysis, design, construction and implementation.
Analysis Analysis encompasses such activities such as a project charter development, 'as-is' analysis of business processes and target envisioning or the 'to-be' model. The aim of this exercise should be to arrive at a set of critical success factors that should henceforth be 'success-or-failure' criteria for the implementation effort. This phase should also see the determination of the implementation strategy, the sequence in which the ERP package will be implemented and rolled out to various business units.
'As-is' analysis would typically follow strategy alignment. Here, the existing business processes of the organization are studied and documented. While the functional teams ( the finance or the logistics team, for example) conduct as-is analysis, the project management should look at finalizing a detailed project plan and a quality plan for the project. This can be referred to as the project work plan development phase.
This is followed by 'to-be' analysis by the functional team. The team needs to carefully marry the existing processes with the package functionality and industry best practices-the goal is to devise an optimal process that can be supported by the package. During this phase, the functional teams should also map the envisioned processes to the package features and come out with gaps, special reports, forms or interfaces with existing system that will continue to function in parallel with the ERP package.
Design • Design mainly consists of configuring the ERP package as per the analysis specification and developing design specification for custom code objects. • This phase is the heart of the project. While the functional teams configure the system, the custom development team will study the gaps identified during the 'to-be' phase and develop specifications in consultation with the functional teams
Once the gap analysis is complete, the development team will start designing the modules that will augment the standard functionality provided by the package. • During implementation, the number of gaps that you decide to approve for development should be minimized. This is where most projects slip- too many gaps identified too late in the day prove to be their undoing.
Custom code design will primarily focus on the following objects: • Custom reports to meet client-specific requirements. • Interfaces to existing application which need to exchange data with the ERP system. • Modifications to the package programs.
Construction • Construction deals mainly with development of custom code objects such as reports, forms, interfaces with applications and data migration routines. • The construction stage primarily involves custom code construction and unit testing by the programming team. It is imperative for the functional team to start conducting end user training after design stage.
It is better for this training to be 'process driven' with people trained only on that part of the package which figures in his or her daily task list. • Subsequent to this, the system should be put through a thorough test on a simulated environment, resembling the production environment.
Implementation • Implementation deals with setting up the production environment and making sure that hardware/software/networking infrastructure is in place. • The implementation stage performs the last few critical activities necessary for system live-processing.
These mainly involve setting up the ERP front-end on individual workstations, configuring printers, testing the connectivity and promoting the tested system to production.
