Measuring Sustained Management Support in Erp Implementation Projects

Measuring Sustained Management Support in ERP Implementation Projects: A GQM Approach
José Esteves Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya Barcelona, Spain jesteves@lsi.upc.es Joan Pastor Universidad Internacional de Catalunya Barcelona, Spain jap@unica.edu Josep Casanovas Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya Barcelona, Spain josepk@fib.upc.es

Abstract
Some researchers have studied the critical success factors in ERP implementations, out of which sustained management support is cited as the most one. Up to this moment, there is not enough research on the management and operationalization of critical success factors within ERP implementation projects. This paper presents a proposal for monitoring sustained management support in ERP implementations. In order to develop a set of metrics for such a monitoring task, we have used the goals/questions/metrics approach. As a result, we propose a GQM preliminary plan with different metrics to monitor and control sustained management support while implementing an ERP system. Keywords: Enterprise Resource Planning, critical success factors, metrics, GQM, Implementation, management support

1. Introduction
Nowadays, one of the paradigms within the enterprise information systems area is the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. An ERP system is an integrated software package composed by a set of standard functional modules (production, sales, human resources, finance, etc.) developed or integrated by the vendor, that can be adapted to the specific needs of each customer. The current generation of ERP systems also provides reference models or process templates that claim to embody the current best business practices by supporting organizational business processes. Some researchers are using a critical success factors (CSFs) approach to study ERP implementations (Esteves and Pastor 2001). However, little has been done in relation to the management and the operationalization of these CSFs. Sustained...