City Research Online

Abstract

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as business system integration evolves in the post-implementation phase due to the change in business requirements caused by competitive environments. Uncontrolled or poorly managed changes may lead to low quality, chaotic systems and data that are difficult to use and maintain. Constructivist approaches to effectively manage post-implementation change in ERP systems from the design-related standpoint are currently lacking. Research in this field mostly focuses on CSF (Critical Success Factors) of the post-implementation phase rather than providing a well-structured approach for managing the changes. Thus, this thesis is designed to close this gap by devising methods and tools for controlled ERP post-implementation change management to support stakeholders, such as business analysts and developers, in assessing the impact of the modification.

Our methodology draws a parallel approach between ERP post-implementation change management and traditional engineering change management in product design and proposes a framework for impact analysis of ERP post-implementation modifications. The framework defines a meta-model of the dependencies among ERP entities such as business processes, functions, and data. Based on the identified dependencies, the framework allows to automatically analyse the impact of a proposed change through a set of impact analysis mechanisms. Then, evaluate the scope and depth of a proposed change through a set of impact assessment metrics.

As part of the evaluation process, our framework has been embedded in a software tool i.e. decision support system to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. Then, provides an empirical study to validate the research method and the tool through a panel of ERP experts and end users. The result confirms that our framework provides scientifically grounded method to manage ERP post-implementation modification in a controlled manner. The application of our approach improved change impact analysis and reduced the risk associated with post-implementation change management in future.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Departments:	Doctoral Theses School of Science & Technology > School of Science & Technology Doctoral Theses School of Science & Technology > Computer Science

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