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112 Chapter 4 • Development Life Cycle

In order to reduce the chances of unexpected and unpleasant surprises, it is a good heuristic
to minimize the type and number of customizations that are implemented. Any change is a chance
for unexpected and unwelcome surprises and increases the chance of risks becoming reality. It is
also important to empower team members. The more each member of the team can do, the
greater the amount of work that is performed. As part of empowerment, however, it is important
to keep a focus on processes to ensure that the right activities are occurring, the right groups are
involved, and a methodology is being followed.
Along with the actual implementation, it is critical to emphasize training and change
management. The implementation is not successful if the system is not used to its fullest extent.
It is also important to have significant and strong post-implementation support. The job is not
done once the system goes live. ERP applications, when updated and upgraded regularly, can last
for a long time and provide enormous benefits and returns for the entire organization. Finally,
effective and frequent communication will keep everyone on the same page and give the greatest
chance of issues and problems being identified early, one hopes, along with preventing problems
before they are allowed to affect the project.

Summary

•This chapter reviews the systems develop- Comprehensive will take longer and require
ment life cycle—both traditional and alter- more resources as opposed to vanilla,
native approaches—and points out the which can be quick but may or may not
benefits and limitations of the traditional help improve the company’s operations.
and the newer approaches. Reviewing Most organizations may choose a middle-
the five phases of the SDLC approach of-the-road strategy because it will allow
(i.e., investigation, analysis, design, imple- them to maximize their returns on the ERP
mentation, and maintenance) provides the investment.
necessary background to understand the •There are various ERP methodologies. In
ERP life cycle methodologies and see why addition to the traditional ERP implementa-
the SDLC approaches cannot be used with- tion life cycle there are rapid implementation
out changes for ERP implementation. methodologies developed by ERP consulting
•The ERP life cycle has variations from the firms. These are Total Solution, FastTrack,
SDLC process due to various reasons; Rapid-Re, ASAP, BIM, and others. These
however, the key reason is that organizations implementation methodologies are similar,
buy ERP as prepackaged software and then in the sense that they allow you to choose
have to customize them as well as change from among the implementation strategies
their company’s business processes to imple- discussed earlier, with the differences com-
ment these systems. Because ERP systems ing primarily in the staging of the process
are complex systems that impact a large steps and formality of structure.
number of users in the organization, the •Consultants play an important role in rapid
implementation team will need a proper implementation of ERP systems. Rapid or
installation and change management plan. accelerated implementation approaches are
•One of the first steps is choosing an appro- very popular and require the use of experi-
priate implementation strategy. There are enced consultants to leverage the knowledge
three routes for the company: comprehen- of techniques that have worked well with
sive, vanilla, or middle-of-the-road strategy. other organizations. Scripts and wizards