Vicious and virtuous cycles in ERP implementation: a case study of interrelations between critical success factors

ERP implementations are complex undertakings. Recent research has provided us with plausible critical success factors (CSFs) for such implementations. This article describes how one list of CSFs (Somers & Nelson, 2001) was used to analyse and explain project performance in one ERP implementation in the aviation industry. In this particular case, poor project performance led to a serious project crisis but this situation was turned around into a success. The list of CSFs employed was found to be helpful and appropriate in explaining both the initial failure and the eventual success of the implementation. CSFs in this case appeared to be highly correlated, ie changes in any one of them would influence most of the others as well. The reversal in performance after the project crisis was caused by substantial changes in attitudes with most of the stakeholders involved, such as top management, project management, project champion and software vendor.

[1]  Frank F. Land,et al.  Viewpoint: choosing appropriate information systems research methodologies , 1987, CACM.

[2]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Organizational Learning: A Theory Of Action Perspective , 1978 .

[3]  Jeffrey K. Pinto,et al.  BALANCING STRATEGY AND TACTICS IN PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION. , 1987 .

[4]  Stephen Swailes,et al.  Organizational Change , 1997 .

[5]  M. Janson,et al.  Packaged Software: Selection And Implementation Policies , 1996 .

[6]  M. Piturro.  How Midsize Companies Are Buying ERP , 1999 .

[7]  Michael W. Nicholson,et al.  Rational Analysis for a Problematic World , 1990 .

[8]  Tony Hindle,et al.  Rational Analysis for a Problematic World , 1990 .

[9]  Uday R. Kulkarni,et al.  Critical success factors for software projects , 1998, ICIS '98.

[10]  IvesBlake,et al.  Executive involvement and participation in the management of information technology , 1991 .

[11]  W. E. Riggs,et al.  Critical Success Factors in Manufacturing Resource Planning Implementation , 1991 .

[12]  T. O. Jeffries,et al.  Systems Analysis and Project Management , 1969 .

[13]  Barry Richmond,et al.  Systems thinking: critical thinking skills for the 1990s and beyond , 1993 .

[14]  Linda S. Lotto.  Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods , 1986 .

[15]  Colin Eden,et al.  Messing about in problems: An informal structured approach to their identification and management , 1983 .

[16]  Zbigniew H. Przasnyski,et al.  On Information Systems Project Abandonment: An Exploratory Study of Organizational Practices , 1991, MIS Q..

[17]  K. Eisenhardt.  Building theories from case study research , 1989, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[18]  J. Sterman.  Business Dynamics , 2000 .

[19]  Prasad Bingi,et al.  Critical Issues Affecting an ERP Implementation , 1999, Inf. Syst. Manag..

[20]  H. Bradbury,et al.  Handbook of action research : participative inquiry and practice , 2001 .

[21]  Linda Duxbury.  The corporation of the 1990s: Information technology and organizational transformation , 1993 .

[22]  Colin Eden,et al.  Messing about in problems , 1983 .

[23]  D. J. Kurpius,et al.  The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization: Book review. , 1993 .

[24]  L. Willcocks,et al.  Second-Wave Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: The Role of the CIO and IT Functions in ERP , 2000 .

[25]  Ben Light,et al.  A Critical Success Factors Model for ERP Implementation , 1999, IEEE Softw..

[26]  Gary James Jason,et al.  The Logic of Scientific Discovery , 1988 .

[27]  Leslie P. Willcocks,et al.  Enterprise resource planning: the role of the CIO and it function in ERP , 2000, CACM.

[28]  P. Senge.  THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE , 1997 .

[29]  Vlatko Čerić,et al.  Rational Analysis for a Problematic World: Problem Structuring Methods for Complexity, Uncertainty and Conflict , 1991 .

[30]  Mark Lycett,et al.  Information systems development: a perspective on the challenge of evolutionary complexity , 1999 .

[31]  J Swanson,et al.  Business Dynamics—Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World , 2002, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[32]  Robert D. Austin,et al.  Manage ERP Initiatives as New Ventures, Not IT Projects , 1998 .

[33]  Kathy Schwalbe,et al.  Information Technology Project Management , 1999 .

[34]  Joey F. George,et al.  Modern Systems Analysis and Design , 1996 .

[35]  Gustavo Stubrich.  The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization , 1993 .

[36]  R. Daft,et al.  Can Organization Studies Begin to Break Out of the Normal Science Straitjacket? An Editorial Essay , 1990 .

[37]  Chee-Sing Yap,et al.  Engagement of External Expertise in Information Systems Implementation , 1994, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[38]  M. Kendall,et al.  The Logic of Scientific Discovery. , 1959 .

[39]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Systems Thinking, Systems Practice , 1981 .

[40]  Robert P. Marble,et al.  Operationalising the implementation puzzle: an argument for eclecticism in research and in practice , 2000, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[41]  Nancy H. Bancroft,et al.  Implementing SAP R/3 , 1996 .

[42]  Enid Mumford,et al.  Designing Human Systems For New Technology: The Ethics Method , 1983 .

[43]  Mary Sumner,et al.  Critical success factors in enterprise wide information management systems projects , 1999, SIGCPR '99.

[44]  Reginald Wilson.  About the Authors , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[45]  J.S. Reel,et al.  Critical Success Factors in Software Projects , 1999, IEEE Softw..

[46]  John D. Sterman,et al.  System Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World , 2002 .

[47]  Fawzy Soliman,et al.  The role of SAP software in business process re‐engineering , 1998 .

[48]  Jon R. Katzenbach,et al.  The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization , 1992 .

[49]  Toni M. Somers,et al.  The impact of critical success factors across the stages of enterprise resource planning implementations , 2001, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[50]  C. Stefanou.  Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Organizational Key Factors for Successful Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems , 1999 .

[51]  S. Swailes,et al.  Organizational Change , 2006 .

[52]  E.,et al.  GROUPS : INTERACTION AND PERFORMANCE , 2001 .

[53]  John Gill.  Research as Action: An Experiment in Utilising the Social Sciences , 1982 .

[54]  P. Senge.  The fifth discipline : the art and practice of the learning organization/ Peter M. Senge , 1991 .

[55]  William R. King,et al.  Systems analysis and project management , 1983 .

[56]  J. Ruiz Moreno.  [Organizational learning]. , 2001, Revista de enfermeria.

[57]  Andrew P. McAfee,et al.  A path-based approach to information technology in manufacturing , 2000, Int. J. Manuf. Technol. Manag..

[58]  Michael J. Ginzberg,et al.  Early Diagnosis of MIS Implementation Failure: Promising Results and Unanswered Questions , 1981 .

[59]  J. Mingers,et al.  Rational analysis for a problematic world revisited : problem structuring methods for complexity, uncertainty and conflict , 1989 .

[60]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[61]  J GinzbergMichael.  Early Diagnosis of MIS Implementation Failure , 1981 .

[62]  Cynthia Mathis Beath,et al.  Supporting the information technology champion , 1991 .

[63]  T. Davenport.  Putting the enterprise into the enterprise system. , 1998, Harvard business review.

[64]  Hugh W. Ryan,et al.  Managing Development in the Era of Large Complex Systems , 1999, Inf. Syst. Manag..

[65]  Andrew P. McAfee,et al.  A path-based approach to information technology in manufacturing , 2000, International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management (IJMTM).

[66]  Frank Land,et al.  Choosing Appropriate Information Systems Research Methodologies , 2002 .

[67]  Robert D. Macredie,et al.  IT-enabled change: evaluating an improvisational perspective , 1999 .

[68]  Lambertus Hesselink,et al.  Ultra-high-density data storage: introduction , 2000, CACM.