IMPLEMENTATION METHOD AND EXPERIENCES

WEEK 6: IMPLEMENTATION METHOD AND EXPERIENCES

Paper details:

Please re-write the following and add some to it and cite a reference:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the installation methods our book describes?
1. Direct Installation “Cold Turkey”
2. Parallel Installation (Old system runs with the new)
3. Single Location “Pilot Approach”
4. Phases Installation “Staged Incremental”
Share examples of when each of these methods should be used. Defend your selection. Also, if you have any implementation experience, please share your own experiences.

There are four approaches to system installation that can be undertaken:
• Direct installation: it is “cold Turkey” approach, where the new system is installed directly in place of the old exiting system, where working on the old system is ceased right when the new one is installed. For instance, a company switching from paper based information keeping directly to system based information keeping.
Advantages: it provides a lower cost installation, and the interest in making the installation successful is also very high to ensure smooth work flow. In situations where the existing systems and the new system cannot coexist, only this kind of approach is feasible.
Disadvantages: any operational error will directly impact the users and the organization, and in case restoring old system is needed, the time taken will be high. It is a time consuming approach where the visibility of the benefits of the system installation is delayed until the whole system is installed.
• Parallel installation: here the new and the existing old systems coexist, and the old one runs with the new system. Say for instance, the paper based information recording is continued in parallel to the system based information recording to ensure no information is lost of system faces any operational glitches.
Advantages: this kind of approach is safer as the new system can be checked against the old one for effectiveness and ease of use and the impact of any operational errors in the new system are minimized as the old system also processes the same data.
Disadvantages: The new system will have some aspects that cannot be compared against the old one. Also, since there is duplication of efforts, this approach is very expensive and confusing to be maintained. Hence, the benefits of the new system e also delayed and in some cases this might not be feasible due to cost and system size constraints.
• Single location installation: this is a pilot approach which offers a middle of the road solution to the above discussed approaches. Here a series of single location installations or pilot projects are done, where locations might be different branch offices, factories, or departments. For instance, implementing system based information recording in one department, and once all the information recording is system based, moving on to the next department.
Advantages: this approach offers the scope of learning for the new system usage, and highlights any problems that can occur, and those issues can be fixed as we move on from one location to the other. Since the scope of implementation I limited, the potential harm and cost from the system operational errors is minimized. Success of one pilot implementation can be set as benchmark and can be used as the motivation for the other locations to convince the users to accept the new system.
Disadvantages: the burden on the system implementation staff is high as different sites require data sharing and extra programs that need to be created to bridge the two systems.
• Phased installation: in this approach there is a staged, gradual, incremental implementation based on the system’s functional components. For instance, the new system based information recording is started only for production information in the company.
Advantages: system development can also be done in phases aligned to the implementation schedule. The potential harm sue to failure is limited and risks is spread over time. Part benefits can be realized at the early stages of system development and implementation. Phases make the implementation smaller and more manageable.
Disadvantages: the old and the new systems need to be linked to enable data sharing, hence programming efforts are higher. The conversion is constant and long which might become tedious for the users.