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Chapter 4 • Development Life Cycle 109

the new system has a steep learning curve. The reporting team will need to develop a reporting
framework and initial set of reports that need to be included in the system implementation. As with
most conversions from a legacy system to an ERP there will be hundreds, sometimes thousands, of
reports that have been written for a variety of purposes. Identifying and prioritizing the reports is a
job in itself. You will find that many of the reports will not be necessary in the ERP system so
prioritizing reports and even eliminating reports from the inventory for a Go-live is essential to
ensure that the company’s needs are being met with the implementation. As the implementation
progresses, the reporting team will need to continue to develop reports and/or provide the tools and
training necessary to easily retrieve data from the system.
Last, the change management team will be the glue that provides the link back to the compa-
ny and keeps the project in the forefront. Change management will develop both the training plan
and a communications plan for the project. Their role is to provide project implementation informa-
tion to key areas within the organization. Change management should use all communication
methods available to them to ensure the message is getting out. This includes e-mail, Web, letters,
and presentations. Presentations are especially helpful because they are much more interactive.

PROJECT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Identifying and describing roles and responsibilities for project staff is necessary to ensure there
is accountability within the project. Project staff will be made up of a variety of people from
different parts of the organization along with external staffing (consultants). Defining roles, often
used as job descriptions on a project, will be the responsibility of the project management office.
Each member of the project team will need to know what is expected of them, who they will
report to, and what they will be evaluated on. Table 4-4 is an example of project roles along with
the defined activities for each and the skills to fill that role. Note that there will be more detail to
the information in the table in Appendix A in this chapter.

IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT
ERPs are becoming more and more ubiquitous in the business landscape as they become critical
to the long-term positioning and success of today’s businesses. As companies look to ERP
systems, there is a steady stream of painful and, more times than not, unsuccessful attempts at
implementations. The strategy used for the implementation along with the ancillary decisions as
to what implementation accelerators to use and which, if any, third-party applications to select all
factor into the overall approach. There are several areas that positively increase the chances of
implementation success.
First and foremost, it is critical to have solid top management commitment. ERP imple-
mentations typically address fundamental business operations. If senior management is not
committed to the project, it will eventually lose backing and fail.
Given the complexities of ERP implementations, it is also important to have strong and
experienced program management. Program management is the glue that keeps the project
together and provides leadership. If the project does not have a strong leader, it can flounder and
not achieve goals within the boundaries of scope, schedule, and cost. Along with experienced
program management, it is important to have experienced ERP consultants. By using people who
have previously implemented the technology, the project leverages the knowledge gained and
starts further up the learning curve.