A framework for enhancing University Enterprise Resource Planning System requirements elicitation involving the stakeholders
Abstract
Enterprise Resource Planning requirements elicitation at universities is a torrid task to the ERP developers. The stakeholders are given an ERP system which they are supposed to adopt and use. Evidence from literature attests that ERP requirements elicitation at universities is a challenge. Universities are complex organisations with different stakeholders with diverse requirements which the ERP system should accommodate.
Universities currently use ERP systems to coordinate their various operations. Requirements elicitation in ERP systems at Universities has been given little attention and that has led to many ERP projects failing or being delivered late. In a survey sent to three universities in Zimbabwe by the researcher most participants acknowledged the importance of stakeholder’s involvement during ERP requirements elicitation but most participants pointed out that they were not involved during this elicitation stage. The purpose of the study was to identify the weaknesses of the existing ERP requirements elicitation frameworks, examining the needs of the university during the ERP requirements elicitation process. The study developed an improved ERP requirements elicitation framework to assist universities during requirements elicitation.
The study was guided by the Soft Systems theory, Activity theory, Domain theory and the Stakeholder theory. These theories helped in developing the proposed conceptual framework to assist universities during the ERP requirements elicitation process. The study utilized the pragmatism philosophy and exploratory sequential mixed methods to validate the proposed ERP requirements elicitation framework. In the first phase, the qualitative approach used interviews to gather data from 12 participants who came from four study units. The qualitative analysis generated themes which were used to formulate hypothesis which were tested in the second phase using the quantitative approach. A total of 275 responses were received from the quantitative approach which came from the four study units. Exploratory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the measuring instrument, summated scales were used to perform T-tests, ANOVA and regression tests. The results of the qualitative and quantitative were integrated to ascertain whether they corroborate the literature.
The findings suggest that the needs for a university during ERP requirements elicitation are as follows: The organisational sociological perspectives need to be examined as social structures do have a bearing on the knowledge used within the organization. Stakeholder’s perceptions need to be taken on board during ERP requirements elicitation process. Stakeholders need to be classified according to their roles during ERP requirements elicitation so that crucial roles are not left out in the process. The elicitation technique(s) employed by the requirements engineer may
augment in making the unknown known during the ERP requirements elicitation process. The domain knowledge for an institution need to be examined so as to preclude missing ERP requirements. The study recommends the involvement of stakeholders during the ERP requirements elicitation process. The study recommends that requirements elicitation is a social activity and there is a need to examine the sociological perspectives of the stakeholders so that holistic ERP requirements may be extracted. The study also recommends that there is a need to use different elicitation techniques during ERP requirements elicitation so that overlooked ERP requirements may be extracted from the stakeholders.