Program Management and Complexity of ERP Implementations

Abstract

The central questions of this article are: How can the design of program management contribute to the success of complex software implementations? How do we deal with the complexity that large implementation projects encounter from changes over time and from strong integration needs? These questions become increasingly pertinent as software projects include the implementation of new internet-based IT architectures and business models. To answer these questions, we propose ways that have worked well in recent complex multi-project Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations (“programs”). We start by defining complexity in this context and making it measurable through three dimensions: variety, variability, and integration. We then investigate 15 cases and outline how our framework can be applied to deal with increasing ERP implementation complexity. One of our conclusions is that successful implementation programs leave more room to explore innovative technology but are more rigorous in rolling out proven technology. They differentiate their approaches according to the extent of the different complexities they encounter. In particular, they adjust the number of parallel rollout activities to the static complexity (variety) and organize the alignment of IT and business needs during the parallel activities according to the integration needs.