Purpose And Scope


Technical Purpose

The technical purpose of software implementation is to complete the installation of the software in as little time as possible without disrupting the business and staying within budget. Another related purpose is that the software correctly reflects the business rules and policies that control the company’s operation in each location. This is a very tall order. Let’s give an example of a policy. In one Southeast Asian country a package was going to be installed. Before installation, the features of the package were presented to the local management. A key capability of the software package was control. Nothing could be shipped to a customer unless there a signed order was received. A local manager indicated that for valuable, long-time customers they shipped based on a telephone call or fax because of the long-standing relationship. The presenters said that this could not be accommodated. Therefore, they would have to change their local policy. The local manager indicated that they would lose business. He was overridden. When the software was installed, customers started to leave; they refused to fit in with the process imposed by the system. Desperate to keep the company going, the local managers reverted to the old process. They then had a clerk input the data after the fact into the ERP. The result worked, but there were no benefits for the local office—only additional work and pain.

Business Purpose

From a business perspective, the goal is to achieve new, effective business processes and standardization through the installation of the software. The thinking is that it is too hard, if not impossible, to manually control work in remote countries overseas. So if they are using the same system for the standard processes, the software will act to enforce standardization.

This is the correct business purpose. However, it often is not achieved because the implementation is ended almost immediately after the software is installed. There is no follow-up or measurement, and insufficient attention to business process change to mesh the local culture and business rules to those expected and imposed by the software.

Political Purpose

Many firms make the mistake of not having any political purpose; they are satisfied with the technical and business purposes outlined above. It is in these situations where the most problems occur. There are a number of useful political goals, including:

  • Build a better understanding at headquarters about operations out in the field.

  • Identify clearly the areas where the local rules and factors must be followed. There is some flexibility in that not every local business rule has to be slavishly adopted.

  • Create a collaborative environment for the project that will increase communications among locations.

  • Support simplification in business processes across the organization, including headquarters.

Scope

Scope is an interesting subject. This can be narrow or broad. Narrow scope consists of the software itself. Broad scope might include the software, business processes, policies, and organization structure. Something in the middle would delete the organization from the scope. This middle ground is the most successful.

However, there are factors that get in the way and impact the scope as the project progresses. The two key factors are time and money. Tasks take longer to do. People have to perform their normal tasks as well as work on the software implementation. The budget soars as more consultants climb on board. Together these act to narrow the scope to the software.




International Project Management
International Project Management: Leadership in Complex Environments
ISBN: 0470578823
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 154

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net