Using the paper developed in Weeks One and Two, add an additional 3 to 4 pages (1,050 to 1,400 words) describing your user acceptance testing plans for ensuring the Business Enterprise Software performs at an acceptable level.

Running head: Strategies for Implementation

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Developing The Project Communication Plan

A project communication plan is used to facilitate effective and efficient communication with the various stakeholders during its implementation. An effective communication plan includes certain key elements such as communication objectives, important content for the dissemination, target audiences and the methods to be used as well as the frequency. A good two-way channel of communications is crucial for the success of the implementation of an ERP system or any other system in general. Good communication can be used to inform all key stakeholders on the progress of the project as well as reveal omissions and misallocation of resources early enough to allow for rectification and revision.

For this case, a communication plan will be used to keep all the stakeholders and managers informed and updated on all the happenings and progress of the ERP system implementation process. There are several forms of communication that will be used to communicate to all users on how their jobs will change, how they will be trained to use the new system and many more activities such as key milestones achieved and the overall implementation progress. The first form of communication will be through status reports, and these reports will constitute of content such as expected risks that could affect the system and what deliverables will be aligned with risk mitigation and contingencies put in place in case of the risk materializes. These reports will be sent electronically to key stakeholders such as the company's CEO, CFO, and IT director on a weekly basis.

The second form of communication will via newsletters and emails, and these channels will work well for disseminating announcements since the company has a broad target audience which is geographically distributed in different locations. This technique will be used to provide information relevant to the project progress as well as information about the ongoing and upcoming activities throughout the ERP implementation process. These emails and newsletters will be sent on a weekly basis to the IT director, the systems administrator, sales and advertising director as well as the web developer.

The final form of communication will be through meetings where stakeholders who include the IT director, the systems administrator and their teams will be briefed weekly on the progress of the implementation process through face-to-face meetings. On the other hand, the executive will receive the overall updates on a monthly basis which will start with a visual presentation of the project progress and later a discussion to deliberate on the milestones achieved and any challenges encountered or projected to occur in the future.

Milestones are an integral part of any project, and they provide a way to gauge on the implementation process as well as the transition of processes from one phase to another. For this case, specific project milestones will be used in determining where the implementation stands and they include the initial phase where the scope will be defined, expectations set, timelines developed and cost estimates prepared. Another milestone will be at the stage where user training will be undertaken, and users are given a walkthrough of all proposed businesses processes. The third milestone will be at the point where data is migrated from the old system to the new ERP system.

Types of Documentation That Will Be Required To Support the Future System Operation

After the system is fully rolled out, the major task of supporting its day to day usage begins, and during this phase, the technical support teams and the IT department can refer to support its intended usability. For this case, there will be several user and technical documentations in place and the first one will be the User Requirements Specifications (URS). This document will be used to describe business needs required from the system by the users. The URS will not be a technical document and will be used to provide general knowledge of the new system to all intended users during its operational phase.

Secondly, a technical specification document will be used to support the future system operation. This document will be to describe all parts of the overall system design and this will include interfaces and the data types required which includes input and output data types. This document will incorporate solutions to all expected technical problems and will specify relationships with other system components and their responsibilities and dependencies.

Lastly, there will be a functional requirements specifications document which will describe all the activities and operations that the new ERP system will perform. Some of the functional requirements to be included in this document will include the descriptions of which type of data will be entered into the system for all departments in the company. Another requirement to be documented will be the descriptions of how each screen or form will perform all operations. Finally, the requirement of individuals authorized to enter data into the system will be incorporated in this functional requirements specifications document.

The Change Control Process

Projects undergo change at any stage of implementation, and the executive and managers should understand the importance of the change control process which ensures that any changes along the implementation process flow smoothly. For this case, the change control process to be used will include documentation of the change request, formal assessment, and justification for the change and the risks and benefits expected. The process will also incorporate a planning stage where the project implementation team will create a detailed plan for design and implementation. The process will then include the design and testing phase where the team will design the program for the system change and tests. The final step will involve implementation and review of the change by the stakeholders to ensure that it has been implemented as planned and will be easily reflected on the system.

Outsourcing is a great option for companies which lack the required expertise and personnel to implement an extensive ERP system such as the one to be adopted by the company in this case. Some of the tasks that can and will be outsourced during the implementation process include producing the technical specification documents, data conversion or migration, and system testing. Outsourcing of the above tasks to the vendor or any other proven firm can ensure that the few employees at the company continue performing their day-to-day responsibilities using the current system without disruptions.

Consulting or outsourcing as it’s known has its benefits since individuals or firms who offer these services tend to be specialists in their field of work and therefore guarantee the delivery of reliable and state of the art ERP systems. Additionally, the outsourcing option is less expensive than hiring full-time employees since the company won’t be committed to annual salaries and benefits. However, outsourcing has its own challenges which include difficulty in finding a reputable and dedicated firm that will offer the high-quality services expected of them.

On the other hand, the benefits of an in-house team are that the executive has control over all activities to be performed including building a team of their own for the implementation process as well as overseeing all budgetary responsibilities. The in-house option also saves on costs that would have been used to hire external consultants who are paid by the hour. However, use of in-house services comes with several cons, and the first one includes the lack of innovation. Due to familiarity with the same work environment and equipment, employees tend to lack the necessary innovation skills that are possessed by consultants who spend their time exploring new technologies and equipment. Additionally, it would require more technical personnel when adopting in-house services for intensive tasks such as development and data migration.

References

Tambovcevs, A., & Tambovceva, T. (2013). ERP system implementation: benefits and economic effectiveness. publication. editionName, 215-221.

Nicolaou, A. I. (2004, July). ERP systems implementation: drivers of post-implementation success. In Decision Support in an Uncertain and Complex World: The IFIP TC8/WG8. 3 International Conference (pp. 589-597)

Aladwani, A. M. (2001). Change management strategies for successful ERP implementation. Business Process management journal, 7(3), 266-275.

Fui-Hoon Nah, F., Lee-Shang Lau, J., & Kuang, J. (2001). Critical factors for successful implementation of enterprise systems. Business process management journal, 7(3), 285-296.