Applying Project Management Perspective for ERP Implementation: A Case Study

The case-study company is a well-known enterprise whose primary product is precision locknuts in Taiwan. With the rise of sales performance, the legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) system does not provide the degree of reliability and maintainability the case company needed. In order to meet the growing needs of enterprise, the case company faces to the challenge of application integration within the enterprise. The ERP implementation success depends on the rigor of the project management processes. In this research, firstly, case study approach is adopted to investigate how poor project management imperil the implementation of an ERP system. Having learned the lessons from the failure of its first ERP implementation, the case company applies the theory of business process reengineering (BPR) to explore and rationalize the business processes, and design its project management practices to successfully carry out its second ERP implementation. And the goal directed project management (GDPM) principles are applied to develop a proper ERP implementation plan. The summary descriptions of the important aspects of ERP implementation are stated that the sponsor or the client of the project, the goals, and limitations on the project, and time are included. This study explores and identifies the critical elements of project management to provide an effective guidance for the first implementation stage.