ERP Implementation the Blindspot in Software Engineering
The primary focus of software engineering (SE) has been on bespoke work, but many organisations now adopt a strategy of using Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) products and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to meet their requirements. The availability of extensive pre-existing functionality i...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2010-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Algorithms & Computational Technology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1260/1748-3018.4.4.481 |
| Summary: | The primary focus of software engineering (SE) has been on bespoke work, but many organisations now adopt a strategy of using Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) products and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to meet their requirements. The availability of extensive pre-existing functionality in these should reduce risk and improve performance and hence SE has not focused on this area. However, the Standish Group1 estimates only 10% of ERP implementations succeed with full functionality. Modern SE processes are comparable to those adopted by ERP business implementers, but do not overtly address ERP specific issues. Hence, they offer insufficient guidance to organisations and practitioners. The key issue is that, given pre-existing functionality, organisations need to make significant strategic and tactical decisions about whether to change the business to fit the system or whether to change the system to fit the business. This paper examines the current level of software process support for ERPs and the consequent implications for research. It analyses these issues from a theoretical and practical perspective, by relating the experience of ERP implementation to current and emerging SE processes. |
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| ISSN: | 1748-3018 1748-3026 |