In answer to my own question, I found some awesome answers.
10. What are the relative pros and cons of the four different systems implementation strategies (i.e. phased, pilot, parallel, big-bang)? Programmed Instruction, Learning, Or Teaching Phased adoption is a strategy of implementing an innovation (i.e., information systems, new technologies, processes, etc.) in an organization in a phased way, so that different parts of the organization are implemented in different subsequent time slots.
Pros: • The conversion will be done in parts. Time is available for adjustments • Negative influences that arise at the start are less critical • No ‘catch-up’ period is needed. • Time for the users to adapt is longer • Technical staff can concentrate on part of the system or some of the users. Cons: • Several adjustments are needed • Training sessions are confusing for users as they are asked to work with the new and the old system • Several changes in documentation • The duration of the project • System delivery milestone is unclear • Correctness and completeness of the dataset has to be checked several times • A ‘fall back’ to the old system is becoming more difficult every new phase. • The implementation may appear unclear to the employees and other users. Risks: • Complexity of the implementation • Prone to make mistakes • Fall back impossible in later phases
Parallel adoption is a method for transferring between an old (IT) system to a target (IT) system in an organization. In order to reduce risk, the old and new system run simultaneously for some period of time after which, if the criteria for the new system are met, the old system is disabled. The process requires careful planning and control and a significant investment in labor hours. The reason for an organization to choose for parallel adoption in favour of a pilot conversion, big bang or phased adoption is often a trade-off between costs and risk (Andersson, Hanson, 2003). Parallel adoption the most expensive adoption method (Chng, Vathanopas, 2002, Microsoft, 2004, Anderson et al., 2003), because it demands from the organization that two systems run parallel for a certain period. Running two systems simultaneously means that an investment in Human Resources has to be made. Besides a good preparation of the (extra) personnel, that has to go through a stressful period of parallel running where procedures cross each other. (Rooijmans, 2003, Eason, 1988) Efforts should be placed on data-consistency and preventing data corruption between the two systems. (Chng et al. 2002, Yusuf, 2004 ) Not only for the conversion process itself, but also in training them for handling the new system.
When it is necessary for the new system to be implemented following a big bang approach, the risk of failure is high (Lee, 2004). When the organization demands heavily on the old (legacy) system to be changed, the trade-off between extra involved costs for a less risky parallel approach, should be in favour of those extra costs (Lee, 2004), despite this, we see that ERP adoption follows a big bang adoption in most cases (Microsoft, 2004, Yusuf, 2004). Big bang adoption is the adoption type of the instant changeover, when everybody associated with the new system moves to the fully functioning new system on a given date (Eason, 1988). When a new system needs to be implemented in an organization, there are three different ways to adopt this new system: The big bang adoption, phased adoption and parallel adoption. In case of parallel adoption the old and the new system are running parallel, so all the users can get used to the new system, and meanwhile do their work using the old system. Phased adoption means that the adoption will happen in several phases, so after each phase the system is a little nearer to be fully adopted. With the big bang adoption, the switch between using the old system and using the new system happens at one single date, the so called instant changeover of the system. Everybody starts to use the new system at the same date and the old system will not be used anymore from that moment on The big bang adoption type is riskier than other adoption types because there are fewer learning opportunities incorporated in the approach, so quite some preparation is needed to get to the big bang (Eason, 1988). This preparation will be described below, illustrated by the process-data model of the big bang adoption.
This means that an organization should think clearly about their implementation strategy and integrate this decision in their Risk management or Change management analysis.
1 comments:
In answer to my own question, I found some awesome answers.
10. What are the relative pros and cons of the four different systems implementation strategies (i.e. phased, pilot, parallel, big-bang)? Programmed Instruction, Learning, Or Teaching
Phased adoption is a strategy of implementing an innovation (i.e., information systems, new technologies, processes, etc.) in an organization in a phased way, so that different parts of the organization are implemented in different subsequent time slots.
Pros:
• The conversion will be done in parts. Time is available for adjustments
• Negative influences that arise at the start are less critical
• No ‘catch-up’ period is needed.
• Time for the users to adapt is longer
• Technical staff can concentrate on part of the system or some of the users.
Cons:
• Several adjustments are needed
• Training sessions are confusing for users as they are asked to work with the new and the old system
• Several changes in documentation
• The duration of the project
• System delivery milestone is unclear
• Correctness and completeness of the dataset has to be checked several times
• A ‘fall back’ to the old system is becoming more difficult every new phase.
• The implementation may appear unclear to the employees and other users.
Risks:
• Complexity of the implementation
• Prone to make mistakes
• Fall back impossible in later phases
Parallel adoption is a method for transferring between an old (IT) system to a target (IT) system in an organization. In order to reduce risk, the old and new system run simultaneously for some period of time after which, if the criteria for the new system are met, the old system is disabled. The process requires careful planning and control and a significant investment in labor hours.
The reason for an organization to choose for parallel adoption in favour of a pilot conversion, big bang or phased adoption is often a trade-off between costs and risk (Andersson, Hanson, 2003). Parallel adoption the most expensive adoption method (Chng, Vathanopas, 2002, Microsoft, 2004, Anderson et al., 2003), because it demands from the organization that two systems run parallel for a certain period. Running two systems simultaneously means that an investment in Human Resources has to be made. Besides a good preparation of the (extra) personnel, that has to go through a stressful period of parallel running where procedures cross each other. (Rooijmans, 2003, Eason, 1988) Efforts should be placed on data-consistency and preventing data corruption between the two systems. (Chng et al. 2002, Yusuf, 2004 ) Not only for the conversion process itself, but also in training them for handling the new system.
When it is necessary for the new system to be implemented following a big bang approach, the risk of failure is high (Lee, 2004). When the organization demands heavily on the old (legacy) system to be changed, the trade-off between extra involved costs for a less risky parallel approach, should be in favour of those extra costs (Lee, 2004), despite this, we see that ERP adoption follows a big bang adoption in most cases (Microsoft, 2004, Yusuf, 2004).
Big bang adoption is the adoption type of the instant changeover, when everybody associated with the new system moves to the fully functioning new system on a given date (Eason, 1988).
When a new system needs to be implemented in an organization, there are three different ways to adopt this new system: The big bang adoption, phased adoption and parallel adoption. In case of parallel adoption the old and the new system are running parallel, so all the users can get used to the new system, and meanwhile do their work using the old system. Phased adoption means that the adoption will happen in several phases, so after each phase the system is a little nearer to be fully adopted. With the big bang adoption, the switch between using the old system and using the new system happens at one single date, the so called instant changeover of the system. Everybody starts to use the new system at the same date and the old system will not be used anymore from that moment on
The big bang adoption type is riskier than other adoption types because there are fewer learning opportunities incorporated in the approach, so quite some preparation is needed to get to the big bang (Eason, 1988). This preparation will be described below, illustrated by the process-data model of the big bang adoption.
This means that an organization should think clearly about their implementation strategy and integrate this decision in their Risk management or Change management analysis.
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