10 pages related to (ERP , IT) and ( MBA,IT )
Mahboubeh
EnterpriseResourcePlanning.edited.docxBehraaaaaaaaaad.docxRunning Head: ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING
Enterprise Resource Planning
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Common Mistakes
1. Lack of end-user participation
Each software being developed is intended for a certain group of people. This group of people is chosen on the basis of their likely use and need of certain information systems being developed (Josh, 2020) 16 Famous ERP disasters, retrievable from https://www.cio.com/article/2429865/enterprise-resource-planning-10-famous-erp-disasters-dustups-and-disappointments.html. There is what an end-user of a software program likes from such program. Furthermore, each end-users have certain features that they expect to be available with new software being developed. This implies that they have very important information that they can give as an intervention during the development of a software program.
However, all sixteen firms did not exercise end-users participation during the development of their respective software. Neglecting to involve the intended end-users of these problems meant that the firms were ignoring the input of end-users on why and how software should be developed. The end-users of a product being redefined or newly developed have knowledge of why they need such software. They know the problem that such software should solve or improvement thatshould be made on such software. Therefore, neglecting their contribution implies that a firm with a software development project does not have a comprehensive knowledge of why a new software is required or what should be featured in the new software. All of these firms failed before or after the completion of their projects because the resultant software programs were not interactive with end-users. Furthermore, the participation of end-users prepares them to adopt the newly developed software. Since all these companies neglected their end-users, the resultant software programs were met by internal resistance by the intended end-users. If the software was not rejected, they did not serve the comprehensive purpose that end-users were looking forward to. Therefore, this software was ineffective and incompetently developed according to the end-users point of view.
2. Negligence of the role played by past data.
This was the second mistake that most of these firms made. The contribution of past information in an organization is very important. Trends and inferences from the past are equally important as the present operations of an organization. In any case, an organization neglect the significance of its past performance, this is where the failures of an organization start (Josh, 2020) 16 Famous ERP disasters, retrievable from https://www.cio.com/article/2429865/enterprise-resource-planning-10-famous-erp-disasters-dustups-and-disappointments.html. The point at which an organization assumes the relevance of it past performance, it exposes itself into making less informed decisions.
This was a mistake in which most of these firms got trapped. Most of these firms were assuming that they were developing completely new information infrastructure. These firms capitalized on the sense of fresh software and failed to appreciate the value of the past life of an organization. Most of these firms were trying to come with completely fresh information infrastructures, and at this stage, most of them were establishing their failure. Every data collected by an organization counts. This counts from the profitability of an organization, the future performance, and more analytic of importance to an organization.
3. Under preparation
The process of developing a new information infrastructure is very sensitive. An organization that is developing new information infrastructure software needs to be prepared to adapt to the new and freshly developed information software program. Otherwise, if an organization is not readily prepared, there is a high likelihood that the resultant software will overpower an organization. In this case, an organization might not have adequate resources to maintain the newly and freshly developed software. Additionally, an organization might be having a skilled labor force supply to work with the newly developed software (Josh, 2020) 16 Famous ERP disasters, retrievable from https://www.cio.com/article/2429865/enterprise-resource-planning-10-famous-erp-disasters-dustups-and-disappointments.html. This is how an organization find itself in possession of software program that it cannot sustain.
This was the case with these sixteen firms; most of them were not ready for the newly developed software, and for this reason, they were overwhelmed by this software. Some of these firms were overpowered by their respective projects before their conclusion, while other projects failed as soon as they were completed. If these firms assessed how prepared they were, most of them could have avoided their respective project. Some of them could have posed their project to buy enough time to get everybody ready for the new software programs to be developed.
Lessons learned
From the failures of these firms, there are many lessons that one can learn. An organization that has an IT project can simply reflect on these organizations before commencing with the process of executing such projects. From these lessons, a firm intended to start a project of this nature can decide whether to pause a project or withdraw it completely. This can usher in a strategic and well-planned process of carrying out a project of this nature. Furthermore, this can expose an organization with this kind of project from conducting some common mistakes that were done by these firms, as discussed above. Some of the lessons learned from these failures include but not limited to;
· It is necessary to document the lifetime process of a project
· It is very important to observe legal regulation from the start to the end of projects lifetime
· The data used for guidance purposes should be clean and secured.
1. Documenting projects stages of development
Documentation of different stages of an IT project is very important because of the many benefits that an organization enjoys due to well sort out documentation. An organization should have a pre-drawn draft of different stages and faces through which a project should be taken through. Documentation of the project enables the organization involved to track the progress of an IT project. A successful project should be progressing within a certain bracket. This bracken is the margin at which a project should be, in that the lag time of the time at which a project is ahead of the documented project. If a project is ahead, it could be a signal that a project will be a success, but if a project lags too much behind, this could be an equally important signal that a project might be a failure by the time of its completion (Purwinarko&Handoyo, 2020, June).
Furthermore, documentation of a project is important because it helps to track how well resources are being used by the team involved. The use of resources, especially financial resources, is a sensitive function of a team responsible for a certain project. Having well-documented project stages illustrated how resources should be used. By comparing the performance of resources and what is documented, an organization can detect where resources are well utilized and where they are embezzled. Proper utilization of resources could signify the possibility of a project's success, and embezzled funds could be signaling that a project might fail. This gives an organization ample time to adjust the utilization of resources before it is too late. Furthermore, it gives an organization enough time to withdraw from a project which could be demanding exaggerated figures of capital input to meet all faces of developing an information software program.
Documentation of a project is also important because it enables an organization to assess how well different goals are being met during the progress of a project. A project that is not able to meet predetermined goals is destined for failure. Therefore, instead of investing too much in such a project, it is wise to withdraw when it is still early before an organization incurs too many losses that could be a burden to bear. Furthermore, proper documentation acts as a reference point of giving guidance on what should be done pertaining to a project. An organization can use this documented project to guide a team responsible for the development of software to be used in an organization.
2. Observation of legal regulations
The government has very significant control over the project. This implies that an organization is closely supervised by the government when it is being engaged in any IT project. This implies that there is a need to be on the lookout on how the operations of a project meet the legal regulations. This is because there are any consequences that an organization can suffer in the event; it does not conform to these regulations (Cho &Crompvoets, 2018). Therefore, observations of the legal regulations that are underlying for the integrity of a project is necessary to avoid disruption of a project. This becomes necessary to ensure that an organization does not suffer any unnecessary delays that might be a result of legal confrontations of organizations' activities.
Further, conforming to legal regulations is important because it ensures that an organization avoids being fined to settle disputes between the offended party. A lawsuit that results from a failed project can be expensive for an organization. Such a lawsuit can be filled by anyone who feels that an organization neglected its legal responsibility during the execution of a certain project. This saves the extra cost that could be used in the settlement of such legal confrontation. The cost saved by e used for further advancements of a project by an organization.
In addition, conforming to legal regulations is important because it secures the reputation of an organization. The movement an organization has been exposed to a legal confrontation; it attar so much attention from the public. Attention in such scenarios is very dangerous because it could damage the reputation that such an organization has. Therefore, avoiding any instances where an organization is subject to a legal suit as a result of illegal IT projects. To ensure that an organization protects its reputation, it is worth it to conform to all legal regulations that bound an IT project.
3. Use of clean and secure data
This is the third lesson from which the failure of these sixteen organizations has shown. Clean and secure data is one that is not biased. Biased data is one that is segmented on a discriminatory basis. Take, for instance, segmenting data on the basis of its age. Ata is very important in times when it was recorded. Therefore, segmenting data can result in having certain data that is comprehensive enough to guide in the process of decision making. If an organization is using such data, there is a high likelihood of making wrong judgments based on bad and misleading conceptions from resultant inferences.
Secure data is one that is free from any form of compromise. To ensure than an organization is using secured data, it must ensure that the new information system being developed have the capacity to meet security requirements. This was why some firms failed in their projects. This was because they did not exercise proper security enhancement, ensuring the development of new software programs. This was also the dam reason why some firms were being confronted through a lawsuit because they had not secured all data during the transition to the newly developed software programs.
Avoiding similar failures
The failure of a project should not be anything that ever comes across the management team or an organization. The management team should be thinking about how to make sure an IT project is a success regardless of the number of difficulties that such a project goes through. In an event I was the CIO in any company, there are some things which I could have done to avoid failure like ones suffered by these sixteen organizations. These things could have been as follows:
1. Seeking for strict observation of legal regulations
Some of these companies failed because they did not put emphasis on the importance of following the law. These ushered such companies into a death trap of the project which they had started. Failing to follow the legal regulations is very dangerous. This is because the law has the ability to order for cancellation of a project, and this implies a loss of all resources that were invested as at the time the project is being canceled. As a CIO, this could be the first thing to watch closely during a project. This implies that as a CIO, I could also ensure that any kind of contract that a third party or involved to is in conform to the law. This is because there are third parties whose intention is to render one into financial losses by offering illegal contracts during the lifetime of a project. By ensuring strict observation of the legal regulation, I could be protecting an IT project in question against any uncertainty that can result from the illegal proceeding of the project.
2. Documentation of project stages
Furthermore, as a CIO, I could recommend documentation of the project from the tart in question. Documentation of a project has different importance, as discussed above. Therefore, facilitating documentation of a project could be necessary to ensure that a project is tracked strategically on its progress. Tracking of project progress is very important because it allows us to assess how realistic and achievable is an IT project. With proper documentation in place, it could be easy to ascertain when the project is driving from its core course, which could render it to its failure. Furthermore, having documented progress stages could be necessary to ascertain how well resources are being used. With a documented project, it becomes easy to ascertain where resources are being misused. Furthermore, it allows for an assessment of whether a project is still worth it to invest in it.
3. Encourage the use of past data.
Furthermore, if I was a CIO, I could have avoided any incident where I could have neglected the relevance of past data. This was what some firms were doing, and the results were a terrible failure of the resultant project. As a CIO, I know the value of past data. Past information is very important to any organization because it is on the basis of past information. An organization can make future forecasts and predictions. Furthermore, past data is equally important because it serves the purpose of assessing inferences form the purposes. This can be, therefore, be used for comparison purposes between the current project in progress and any past project that an organization has ever undertaken. It is on this basis that a company can be able to ascertain a project that is promising success and a project that high likelihood of failure.
In addition, I would ensure that all third parties who are used in any IT project have met legal qualifications and have a good reputation. This is because there are some third parties from who an organization can outsource resource input from just to cause more chaos. Assessing the reputation of such an organization is very important because it is on this basis that I could ascertain a reliable organization to use as a third party during an IT project.
4. Involvement of intended end-users
Last but not least, I could encourage the involvement of end-users during the entire process of an IT project. The end-users of any project are aware of what needs to be improved and the problem that software should solve. Through their inclusion, it could be easy to establish a successful and facilitate acceptance by the end users after its completion. There are some projects which are rejected by the end-user in cases they do not meet their expectations.
Conclusion
IT projects are very sensitive to any fault of the strategy used during the execution of such a project. There are some common mistakes which are made by an organization that is undertaking IT projects, and these results in failure of such projects. Some of the common mistakes that are done by the organization are failure to include end-users during the process of developing an IT project. The second common mistake that is done during development software in IT projects the negligence if the role that is played by past data. This exposes an organization into scenarios of making less though of decisions. The third common mistake that most organizations can make in their IT projects is being underprepared to work with a newly developed software program.
From the failure of these sixteen firms, there are many lessons that one can grab and learn from them. One of his lessons is that when one has an IT project, it is very important to ensure that it follows legal regulations. The second lesson that is demonstrated by these failures is that past data is very important even in-migration from old t new IT software programs. The third lesson from these failures is the need to document an IT project for the need for the strategic management of such project throughout its lifetime.
From these failures, I have identifies different interventions that I would embrace to avoid failure of an IT project, given that I am the CIO. One of these is to ensure that legal regulations are strictly observed. The second intervention is to ensure that there is proper project documentation and to ensure that resources are closely monitored to avoid their misuse.
REFERENCES:
Purwinarko, A., &Handoyo, M. Z. E. (2020, June). Development of information systems for academic final project documentation. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1567, No. 3, p. 032036). IOP Publishing.
Cho, G., &Crompvoets, J. (2018). The INSPIRE directive: some observations on the legal framework and implementation. Survey Review.
