Identifying high performance ERP projects

Learning from high performance projects is crucial for software process improvement. Therefore, we need to identify outstanding projects that may serve as role models. It is common to measure productivity as an indicator of performance. It is vital that productivity measurements deal correctly with variable returns to scale and multivariate data. Software projects generally exhibit variable returns to scale, and the output from ERP projects is multivariate. We propose to use data envelopment analysis variable returns to scale (DEA VRS) to measure the productivity of software projects. DEA VRS fulfills the two requirements stated above. The results from this empirical study of 30 ERP projects extracted from a benchmarking database in Accenture identified six projects as potential role models. These projects deserve to be studied and probably copied as part of a software process improvement initiative. The results also suggest that there is a 50 percent potential for productivity improvement, on average. Finally, the results support the assumption of variable returns to scale in ERP projects. We recommend DEA VRS be used as the default technique for appropriate productivity comparisons of individual software projects. Used together with methods for hypothesis testing, DEA VRS is also a useful technique for assessing the effect of alleged process improvements.     

Risk assessment in ERP projects

Conducting Risk Management of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects is an ambitious task. ERP projects are complex undertakings for business enterprises, as the associated risk factors include myriad technological, managerial, psychological and sociological aspects. Moreover, such factors are often tightly interconnected and can have indirect effects on projects. Such features make Risk Management more difficult, uncertain and important than in traditional projects, especially in the Assessment stage.The aim of this paper is to propose an innovative technique to support Risk Analysis in order to provide a better, more structured and systematic understanding of the major relations amongst various risk factors, on the one hand, and between risk factors and the specific effects associated with ERP projects, on the other. A real case study regarding a multinational company and involving a panel of experts and practitioners is presented to illustrate application of the method.     

Intangible benefits valuation in ERP projects

The development, implementation and ownership of information systems, especially large‐scale systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), has become progressively longer in duration and more cost intensive. As a result, IS managers are being required to justify projects financially based on their return. Historically, information systems have been difficult to quantify in monetary terms because of the intangible nature of many of the derived benefits, e.g. improved customer service. Using the case study methodology, this paper examines an attempt by a large computer manufacturer to incorporate intangibles into traditional cost–benefit analysis in an ERP project. The paper reviews the importance of intangibles, lists intangible benefits that are important in ERP projects and demonstrates the use of a scheme through which they can be incorporated into traditional evaluation techniques.     

Modeling risk based maintenance using fuzzy analytic network process

The study deals with the problem of maintenance policy selection for an industrial unit. Maintenance policy selection is a multiple criteria decision making problem. Criteria considered here are ‘risk of equipment failure’ and the ‘cost of maintenance’. The maintenance policies considered are Corrective Maintenance (CM), Time Based Maintenance (TBM), Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) and Shutdown Maintenance (SM). For modeling, fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) has been employed. Chang’s extended analysis has been applied to deal with the fuzzy variables and the preferred maintenance policy alternative is found out using FANP analysis. The methodology was applied to a unit of a chemical plant and the suitable maintenance policy was found out for each of the 13 equipment of the unit. The results were compared to the earlier study using Analytic Hierarchal Process and Goal Programming (Arunraj and Maiti, 2010) vis-a-vis the existing practices. The results show that CBM is preferred when the risk possessed by an equipment is very high while CM is preferred in those cases where risk is low and cost is the main consideration. But in cases where both cost and risk are somewhat equally important, TBM is the preferred option.     

基于DSSA的ERP建模研究

软件体系结构作为描述系统高层设计和实现更广范围内软件重用的手段,己成为软件工程领域研究的一个热点。文章在对特定领域的软件体系结构(DSSA)讨论的基础上提出了一个基于DSSA的、具有层次风格的企业资源计划(ERP)模型——XK-ERP-II及其开发环境。并对XK-ERP-II模型进行了详细的讨论,实际应用表明,该模型是高效可行的。     

How to staff business-critical maintenance projects

The team size of a maintenance project depends on the rate at which maintenance requests arrive and the importance of servicing each request quickly. The second factor, quantifying the team's “level of preparedness” forms the basis for a five-step method for staffing maintenance projects. The author illustrates the method using data from a real project     

一种ERP系统的远程维护系统

本文提出了一种通过Internet对ERP系统进行远程诊断和维护的系统。该系统能辅助维护人员快速找到问题的症结并进行相应的联机操作,并可通过自动识别补丁邮件和下载安装的方式对ERP系统进行更新。该系统能极大地节省维护和通信的时间及费用,且具有较好的实用性和通用性,文中对系统的功能、结构、工作机理以及实现的关键技术进行了阐述。     

Cost estimation for cross-organizational ERP projects: research perspectives

There are many methods for estimating size, effort, schedule and other cost aspects of IS projects, but only one specifically developed for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) (Stensrud, Info Soft Technol 43(7):413–423, 2001) and none for simultaneous, interdependent ERP projects in a cross-organizational context. The objective of this paper is to sketch the problem domain of cross-organizational ERP cost estimation, to survey available solutions, and to propose a research program to improve those solutions. In it, we: (i) explain why knowledge in the cost estimation of cross-organizational ERP is fragmented, (ii) assess the need to integrate research perspectives, and (iii) propose research directions that an integrated view of estimating cross-organizational ERP project cost should include.

ERP过程建模与仿真优化技术

过程仿真是对企业过程模型进行动态分析的重要技术手段。从企业整体运作过程出发,研究基于过程模型的仿真技术在企业体系改造、体系重构或新体系建设的应用,探索企业业务流程模型通过过程建模系统实现到ERP系统映射的方法。为企业过程建模、优化企业业务流程、业务流程重组和顺利实施、快速应用ERP系统提供一套优秀的应用软件工具和有效的解决方案。     

A multi-agent intelligent system for efficient ERP maintenance

The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an enterprise-wide integrated software package designed to uphold the highest quality standards of business process. However, for the time being, when the business condition has been changed, the system may not guarantee that the process embedded in ERP is still best. Moreover, since the ERP system is very complex, maintaining the system by trial and error is very costly. Hence, this paper aims to construct a support system that adjusts ERP system to environmental changes. To do so, we adopt multi-agent intelligent technology that enables autonomous cooperation with one another to monitor ERP databases and to find any exceptional changes and then analyze how the changes will affect ERP performance. Moreover, Petri net is applied to manage the complexity and dynamics of agents’ behavior. To show the feasibility of the idea, a prototype agent system, ERP/PN, is proposed and an experiment is conducted.     

Implementing risk management on software intensive projects

Rising costs, falling performance, and slipping schedules are common problems on large scale software projects. The authors describe key risk issues and how they were mitigated in one DoD (military) project     

Understanding the influence of integration on ERP performance

This research investigates the influence of five levels of ERP integration on ERP performance in different user-friendly interface groups. The five levels are system-specification, Island of Technology, organizational, socio-organizational, and global integration. We conducted an empirical study that involved 102 ERP professionals, 52 of whom showed low demand for user-friendly interface design while the others showed high demand. The results suggest that system-specification and organizational integration significantly influence ERP performance in the low demanding user-friendly interface group, while system-specification and socio-organizational integration significantly influence ERP performance in the high demanding user-friendly group. The research model explains 50 and 46% respectively of ERP performance in each group.     

Quality evaluation of floss projects: Application to ERP systems

ContextThe selection and adoption of open source software can significantly influence the competitiveness of organisations. Open source software solutions offer great opportunities for cost reduction and quality improvement, especially for small and medium enterprises that typically have to address major difficulties due to the limited resources available for selecting and adopting a new software system.ObjectiveThis paper aims to provide support for selecting the open source software that is most suitable to the specific needs of an enterprise from among the options offering equivalent or overlapping functionality.MethodThis paper proposes a framework for evaluating the quality and functionality of open source software systems. The name of the framework is EFFORT (Evaluation Framework for Free/Open souRce projecTs). It supports the evaluation of product quality, community trustworthiness and product attractiveness. The framework needs to be customised to the analysis of software systems for a specific context.ResultsThe paper presents the customisation of EFFORT for evaluating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) open source software systems. The customised framework was applied to the evaluation and comparison of five ERP open source software systems. The results obtained permitted both the refinement of the measurement framework and the identification of the ERP open source software system that achieved the highest score for each chosen characteristic.ConclusionEFFORT is a useful tool for evaluating and selecting an open source software system. It may significantly reduce the amount of negotiation conducted among an enterprise’s members and reduce the time and cost required for gathering and interpreting data. The EFFORT framework also considers the users’ opinions by introducing relevance markers associated with the metrics and questions in the data aggregation process.     

A multicriteria approach for risks assessment in ERP maintenance

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems cannot remain static after their implementation, they need maintenance. ERP maintenance is a key process required by the rapidly changing business environment and the usual software maintenance needs. However, these projects are highly complex and risky. So, the risks management associated with ERP maintenance projects is crucial to attain a satisfactory performance. Unfortunately, ERP maintenance risks have not been studied in depth. For this reason, this paper presents a general risks taxonomy. It gathers together the risks affecting the performance of ERP maintenance. Moreover, the authors use the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology to analyze the risks factors identified. It helps managers, vendors, consultants, auditors, users and IT staff to manage ERP maintenance better. Results suggest that the most critical stage in ERP maintenance is the first phase, which receives, identifies, classifies and ranks the software modification. The most important hazards in ERP maintenance are the cooperation and commitment of ERP users and managers.     

基于UML的ERP销售管理系统建模

ERP可以打破企业疆界,跨企业规划资源,做到对整个供应链的完善管理.对中小企业而言,目前比较迫切的是企业内部业务的集成控制,本文专注于此,通过将UML应用于销售管理系统建模,以期加快软件开发进程,提高软件质量.     

基于本体的ERP沙盘模拟知识模型构建研究

知识模型的构建是知识管理中的重要环节,本体已经被广泛应用于智能信息检索等领域,构建基于本体的ERP沙盘模拟知识模型可以有效提升沙盘模拟过程中的知识检索效率及知识的共享与利用效果,进一步可提升教学效果。文中在分析ERP沙盘模拟过程中相关知识的基础上,参照本体构建的七步法,首先获取了模拟过程中相关概念及概念间的关系,然后在Prot＆#233;g＆#233;软件中构建了模型及实例,最后使用Prot＆#233;g＆#233;自带的推理工具,对本体模型做了一致性检验及简单的推理实验。     

Project preparedness and the emergence of implementation problems in ERP projects

The problems that organizations face in implementing an enterprise-wide ERP project are linked to their level of understanding of what is involved in such an endeavor and how it influences their initial preparations. We sought to demonstrate empirically the causal relationship between the organization's preparedness and the emergence of implementation problems. We examined four case studies to extract insight into the criticality of certain factors and the type of problems created when no moderating measures were taken by project managers. Consequently, we developed a predictor-outcome model mapping a lack of preparedness with implementation problems.     

Modeling the effects of hot-spot traffic load on the performance of wormhole-switched hypermeshes

Hypermesh is a promising network topology and is suitable for a range of network-based computing systems. Although there are few models reported for hypermeshes with uniform traffic pattern, no analytical model has been reported to deal with hot-spot traffic. Since many parallel applications exhibit non-uniform traffic patterns such as hot-spots, uniform traffic assumption is not always justifiable in practice. In this study, we propose a new analytical model to predict the mean message latency in wormhole-switched hypermeshes in the presence of hot-spot traffic. The proposed model can also calculate the mean latency under uniform traffic load when the hot-spot ratio is set to zero. Simulation results show the validity and the reasonable accuracy of the model even under heavy traffic loads and near saturation region.     

基于P-Agent的虚拟维修样机交互特性建模方法

为了有效提高虚拟维修仿真中的虚拟维修样机部件的实时和自然的交互方式,根据虚拟维修仿真需求和交互支持,提出了基于P-Agent的虚拟维修样机交互特性建模方法.给出了P-Agent的定义与交互模型的定义,围绕虚拟维修中交互的实时性和自然性两大要素展开研究,对通信过程中的交互方式进行了设计,针对通信原语无法支持自然交互存在的不足,对通信原语进行了扩充,使其能够支持P-Agent之间更高层次、更复杂、更多交互协作的交互.仿真过程表明,应用改进的建模方法可以实现良好自然的交互,能够满足实时的虚拟维修仿真交互,具有通用性.