Quick Overview Of Business Software Implementation
Because business software is frequently changed or entirely replaced, it is important to develop processes to control business software implementation. The life cycle of business software includes many phases. This article will be focused on the installation phase of the implementation process. The software may run in a number of different places. The focus here will be on installation of business software that runs on workstations.
The first part of the installation process is, or should be, planning. Planning gives all who are impacted by a change an opportunity to be involved in preparing for the change. It makes it possible to determine time lines for what is happening when. It should make it clear who is responsible for each installation activity. Most of all, it reduces the risk that some essential element of installation may be forgotten.
The planning process should determine the overall installation strategy. Is it going to be a big bang type install where all workstations are converted at once? Is it going to be a phased install, where the software roll out takes places in a series of phases or stages over time? Or is it only going into a few workstations as a pilot install? What is the backout or recovery process if there are problems?
Sometimes network or hardware changes need to be made before the software is installed. Memory upgrades or completely new workstations might be needed. This needs to be complete before the installation of the software begins.
The install, consisting of the following steps, begins after all the steps it depends on are completed. What we call a phased install can also be thought of as a series of installs, each on a different subset of the workstations. Thus, these steps will occur for each of the phases.
Either now or in the planning phase, a list of the workstations to be updated is created. For large organizations, this should be done as late as possible, since they tend to have frequent additions to or deletions from their collection of workstations. A phased install requires a separate list for each phase. If there are a lot of workstations, building this list or these lists should be automated.
Pushing the changes to the workstations comes next. Unless this creates a network overload it can be done anytime, even with the workstation in use. Larger organizations should automate this.
The actual workstation install usually needs to be done when the workstation is not in use. Hopefully it can be done sometime when the department is not operating. If not, then some sort of careful control will be needed. It may be necessary to give the users an extra break while their workstations are updated.
Once the changes have been made, there will usually be some sort of post test or certification. This is usually just done on a few workstations. However, if this is a high risk install, management may determine that all of the changed workstations should be tested.
That is a brief summary of a typical business software implementation for workstations. There are many details not covered here. Each organization seems to have its own unique needs for implementations. Every non routine implementation should go through a planning process to ensure that everything unique is identified and dealt with.Those are the major components of business software implementation. It is not always exactly like this. Organizations always have some unique characteristics that must be accommodated. Unless an install is routine and dead simple, there should always be a plan. Not planning is a great way to have problems.
The first part of the installation process is, or should be, planning. Planning gives all who are impacted by a change an opportunity to be involved in preparing for the change. It makes it possible to determine time lines for what is happening when. It should make it clear who is responsible for each installation activity. Most of all, it reduces the risk that some essential element of installation may be forgotten.
The planning process should determine the overall installation strategy. Is it going to be a big bang type install where all workstations are converted at once? Is it going to be a phased install, where the software roll out takes places in a series of phases or stages over time? Or is it only going into a few workstations as a pilot install? What is the backout or recovery process if there are problems?
Sometimes network or hardware changes need to be made before the software is installed. Memory upgrades or completely new workstations might be needed. This needs to be complete before the installation of the software begins.
The install, consisting of the following steps, begins after all the steps it depends on are completed. What we call a phased install can also be thought of as a series of installs, each on a different subset of the workstations. Thus, these steps will occur for each of the phases.
Either now or in the planning phase, a list of the workstations to be updated is created. For large organizations, this should be done as late as possible, since they tend to have frequent additions to or deletions from their collection of workstations. A phased install requires a separate list for each phase. If there are a lot of workstations, building this list or these lists should be automated.
Pushing the changes to the workstations comes next. Unless this creates a network overload it can be done anytime, even with the workstation in use. Larger organizations should automate this.
The actual workstation install usually needs to be done when the workstation is not in use. Hopefully it can be done sometime when the department is not operating. If not, then some sort of careful control will be needed. It may be necessary to give the users an extra break while their workstations are updated.
Once the changes have been made, there will usually be some sort of post test or certification. This is usually just done on a few workstations. However, if this is a high risk install, management may determine that all of the changed workstations should be tested.
That is a brief summary of a typical business software implementation for workstations. There are many details not covered here. Each organization seems to have its own unique needs for implementations. Every non routine implementation should go through a planning process to ensure that everything unique is identified and dealt with.Those are the major components of business software implementation. It is not always exactly like this. Organizations always have some unique characteristics that must be accommodated. Unless an install is routine and dead simple, there should always be a plan. Not planning is a great way to have problems.
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Comments (1)
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Once the changes have been made,there will usually be some sort of post test or certification.Think so.It just a plan.