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108 Chapter 4 • Development Life Cycle

The organizational structure must coincide with the project governance. The project owners,
a project steering committee, and project executive must develop the hierarchy and determine who
is responsible for each system implementation component. A number of staff is most often
assigned to the implementation from existing business organizations. It is recommended that
organizational structures for the functional and technical staff on the project report to project leads
and not to their home departments. The ERP implementation project should provide “backfill”
staff to departments that have assigned staff to the project to ensure business can continue without
interruption and free up staff assigned to the project to work full time on the project without also
having to continue with duties from the home department.
As is often the case, ERP implementation project organizations are created just for the project;
however, this is changing. Companies are finding more and more that a modified project organiza-
tion is needed to support the ERP and ensure ongoing progress. Many businesses now have a project
management organization within IT to provide the project management necessary for company
projects. The functional, technical, and change management staff for the project will likely consist of
existing staff from the business, new hires, and consultants. The creation of the project organization
and having them work together as a team takes effort and should not be overlooked. The staff in each
area must be skilled to accomplish the tasks assigned to them and to develop a strong sense of pro-
ject teamwork for the overall success of the ERP implementation. The development of the team is
the responsibility of the project management office along with the leads in each area.
The organization structure is divided into several areas, the first of which is the project
management office. This group can consist of many staff, and their goal is to ensure that the
project is moving forward and meeting the implementation goals and objectives. In major ERP
implementations, this group will consist of the project executive, project manager(s), project
schedulers(s), and administrative staff. The project office works closely with the leads in each
area to measure progress. Project measurement, even though at times seemingly tedious, is the
only way to identify if a project is meeting deadlines and staying on schedule. Although anec-
dotal or qualitative data are good, quantitative data provide insights to the project that would not
surface if not in place.
The next level within the project organization is the leads that manage a project team. The
leads are a direct link to the staff working on the project. They provide the input to management
and coordinate team activities. Lead positions are sometimes the most difficult positions to fill
on a project. The combination of management skills and in-depth knowledge of a functional or
technical area is not easily found.
The teams are next, and they are broken out into several logical areas: The functional
team(s) is usually broken out by ERP functional components with a team of knowledgeable staff
in each area. The key to this area is an overall lead to ensure that the cross-functional issues are
being addressed. It is important to remember that ERP systems will cross functional boundaries. It
is the cross-functional lead’s responsibility to ensure that the data and procedures that cross
organizational boundaries are addressed during the implementation. The technical area will
consist of an infrastructure team that installs and implements the hardware and software on which
the system will run, including servers, operating systems, network gear, and operational software.
The development team will work with the ERP system to develop or modify the software to
meet the goals of the system. This team will vary in size depending on the decision to modify or not
modify the system. The conversion team is critical. Conversion needs both knowledgeable legacy
system staff on it and a knowledgeable ERP staff to convert the legacy data to the new system
accurately. Conversion is usually the most complex and time-consuming activity within the project
(i.e., critical path). The last area is reporting. The retrieving of data and reporting information out of