Bonjour,

Implementing an ERP system is a risky endeavor for various reasons. In this third part on managing risks, we discuss two elements that can decrease your risk: documentation and testing. As I often say, suffer now or suffer more later.

As we scramble to get to the finish line, it is not unusual to see documentation postponed until a later time. Let’s do the work first, we’ll have time to document later. Or not.

Taking the time to properly document is part of a solid methodology. The benefits are numerous. Documenting forces you to think about what you are trying to accomplish and brings clarity to the process. It helps put everybody on the same page and ensure the targets are understood by all. It also improves Change Management as it is a form of communication.

Moreover, should you lose a player along the way or introduce a new person to the project, good documentation will help get the newcomers up to speed. With documented processes, procedures, deliverables, user guides and ultimately better training and understanding, your operations will be less impacted once you go live.

Finally, this documentation should remain alive and updated as long as the system is in place, this way it can also be used as a training tool and a repository of knowledge.

Testing and documenting go hand in hand as the adage “do what you say & say what you do”. Testing will not only help you validate customizations, processes, and data integrity, but it will also improve the quality of your documentation.

As part of our methodology, we typically perform functional testing when configuring and learning the system, unit testing and user acceptance testing for any customization, and process testing before going live. Process testing can also be called integrated testing or piloting. This thorough battery of tests is the acid test before go-live. It is crucial in determining readiness.

Please don’t hesitate to write if you have questions or comments.

Cordially,

Sylvain.