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22 Chapter 1 • Introduction to Enterprise Systems for Management

Resources Time
Project
Management
Triangle

Scope
FIGURE 1-12 Project Management
shown (see Figure 1-13). One of the foundations in an implementation is communication of the
different project life cycle phases to senior management and staff. All decisions made during an
implementation phase will have an effect (i.e., cost and staffing) on the application management
phase. The product life cycle application management phase is by far the more costly phase.

Role of Consultants
Many organizations are quite sophisticated at implementing systems, whereas others only do it
once or twice every 10–15 years. As stated previously, ERP systems implementations are high
risk. It is critical to assess and understand the organization’s capacity for implementing such a
complex system. The costs of failure are great, and the number of failures is much too high. The
development of a credible implementation plan, budget estimates, and deadlines is critical to a
project’s success.
Applications Management
Implementation Operations and Post Production

Resource Requirements
Resource Requirements Production
High
Production

Med

Low
Base Personnel Go Live Backlog Required Maintenance Upgrades Major

Testing
Development
New Modules
Design & Gap
Project Preview
FIGURE 1-13 Project Life Cycle