LEARNING FROM HIGH RELIABILITY ORGANIZATIONSIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ERP SYSTEMS:A PROPOSED RESEARCH DESIGN

摘要

Information Systems (IS) development has produced some undesirable results, from project mismanagementrnto production of unusable systems. Relevant research suggests that this is not new in the field of IS. The staternof affairs in system development is not entirely dark and gloomy though. Roberts and Bea (2001) suggest thatrnsome organizations have been very successful in their implementation of complex systems. High ReliabilityrnOrganizations (HRO's) not only display an outstanding record of success in the development andrnimplementation of technology, they accomplish this in an environment where mistakes often invite disastrousrnresults.rnWhen a disaster occurs, such as the Challenger disaster, investigations ensue, and findings are made public.rnMore importantly, the way the organization operates changes dramatically. IS project management failuresrnpresent a less magnified version of comparable symptoms found in HRO disasters. The main difference is thatrnit is often not made public, no one is officially blamed, and therefore, no sincere effort is made to improve howrnIS projects are managed.rnEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system development involves a complex merging of technical systemsrn"know how" along with a profound understanding of industry best practices. Failures in ERP systemrndevelopment projects can be catastrophic for the organizations that fail to manage them properly, even if itrndoesn't make front-page news.rnA conceptual framework is proposed and a research design outlined to facilitate a study of the factors thatrndetermine success and failure among HRO and ERP system projects with a view to identifying those factorsrnthat may contribute to a higher success rate amongst ERP system implementations.