Introduction

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) application implementation methodology is composed of well-defined processes that can be managed in several ways to guide you through an application project. This methodology provides the tools needed to effectively and efficiently plan, conduct, and control project steps to successfully implement new business systems. The implementation methodology defines an organization’s business needs at the beginning of the project and maintains their visibility throughout the execution. It defines time-sensitive business events, and maps each event to the corresponding business and system processes. Using this method, the business community gains an accurate understanding of the business requirements to be met by the final system. This was designed with scalability in mind. From the largest, multinational, multisite, multientity projects to the smallest, limitedsize, constrained-scope projects, the implementation methodology provides the scalability that your project demands. It also allows you to tailor your own approach to match your organization’s specific needs. This methodology is also flexible and extensible. The implementation methodology activities are conducted in phases. These phases provide quality and control checkpoints to coordinate project activities that have a common goal. During a project phase, your project team will simultaneously be executing tasks from several procedures. The tasks against each phase are organized into processes. Each process represents a related set of objectives, resource skill requirements, inputs, and deliverable outputs. There are 13 processes in all, divided into seven phases.