WGU MAT2 – Technology Management
Task 3 Submission
Prioritization Use Case: ERP
Our organization enterprise resource planning software has been tasked to be prioritized
with a potential upgrade or replacement. This project potentially effects all facets of the
organization, including the human resources, manufacturing, customer relationship management
and financial departments. As a result, a proper IT prioritization scope has been warranted.
A1/A1a: Decisioning and evaluation
The concept that the ERP system needs overhaul has been decided by stakeholders. The
prioritization will be affected based on the overall scope of what the decision is: whether to
upgrade the entire system or to replace it with a more up to date system.
The organization’s decisioning workflow focuses on major aspects of prioritization:
where the idea comes from, whether the business needs it now because of a compliance or
business need and it’s financial and implementation disruption of business.
, The workflow address significant concerns for any prioritization technique for an
organization. Projects that come directly from management or have a direct effect on regulatory
or legal compliance should be prioritized as highest (Machavarapu, 2006). Then, considerations
should be made on how the project benefits the company, with cost savings being one of the
most important (“Is your IT prioritization process working?”, 2012). While revenue stream is
important, it is also imperative to consider other projects and whether this new project will either
disrupt other projects or disrupt the nature of the business, identified as “Disrupt other
priorities?”. It is important to make sure that the projects that have the least disruption and
biggest corporate benefit are prioritized over projects that cause upheaval; limiting thrashing
and” aiding continuity and within-project focus” is important for projects to be successful even
as prioritization augments over time (Austin. et. al, 2009).
The aging of the ERP system has areas that need to be considered. Because of the legacy
nature of its technological background, the lack of updates could mean that the product is out of
compliance in terms of technology (PCI-DSS compliance) or is utilizing a database or operating
system that is at risk of being sunset by the manufacturers (Myers et al., 2013). These needs
should be addressed prior to prioritization as they will affect the workflow decisioning. It is
important to focus on the value of the existing ERP system; “[just because an ERP system is old
doesn’t mean it isn’t doing its job or that it needs to be fully replaced” (Myers et al., 2013). The
current users are adept at the system, and therefore the business need to upgrade is less about the
end users requesting a change to better do their jobs, but an overall long term decision to benefit
the company and all the users involved in the ERP system.
Using the workflow, we can follow the logical planning of the importance of this project.
In the decision to upgrade the system; we can follow the tree that:
Task 3 Submission
Prioritization Use Case: ERP
Our organization enterprise resource planning software has been tasked to be prioritized
with a potential upgrade or replacement. This project potentially effects all facets of the
organization, including the human resources, manufacturing, customer relationship management
and financial departments. As a result, a proper IT prioritization scope has been warranted.
A1/A1a: Decisioning and evaluation
The concept that the ERP system needs overhaul has been decided by stakeholders. The
prioritization will be affected based on the overall scope of what the decision is: whether to
upgrade the entire system or to replace it with a more up to date system.
The organization’s decisioning workflow focuses on major aspects of prioritization:
where the idea comes from, whether the business needs it now because of a compliance or
business need and it’s financial and implementation disruption of business.
, The workflow address significant concerns for any prioritization technique for an
organization. Projects that come directly from management or have a direct effect on regulatory
or legal compliance should be prioritized as highest (Machavarapu, 2006). Then, considerations
should be made on how the project benefits the company, with cost savings being one of the
most important (“Is your IT prioritization process working?”, 2012). While revenue stream is
important, it is also imperative to consider other projects and whether this new project will either
disrupt other projects or disrupt the nature of the business, identified as “Disrupt other
priorities?”. It is important to make sure that the projects that have the least disruption and
biggest corporate benefit are prioritized over projects that cause upheaval; limiting thrashing
and” aiding continuity and within-project focus” is important for projects to be successful even
as prioritization augments over time (Austin. et. al, 2009).
The aging of the ERP system has areas that need to be considered. Because of the legacy
nature of its technological background, the lack of updates could mean that the product is out of
compliance in terms of technology (PCI-DSS compliance) or is utilizing a database or operating
system that is at risk of being sunset by the manufacturers (Myers et al., 2013). These needs
should be addressed prior to prioritization as they will affect the workflow decisioning. It is
important to focus on the value of the existing ERP system; “[just because an ERP system is old
doesn’t mean it isn’t doing its job or that it needs to be fully replaced” (Myers et al., 2013). The
current users are adept at the system, and therefore the business need to upgrade is less about the
end users requesting a change to better do their jobs, but an overall long term decision to benefit
the company and all the users involved in the ERP system.
Using the workflow, we can follow the logical planning of the importance of this project.
In the decision to upgrade the system; we can follow the tree that:
