To execute your business, your company has set up an organizational structure, hired the right people (hopefully), delegated responsibility and incentivized desired behaviors. Operating within a defined structure helps your business avoids chaos, and keeps the right people working towards the right goals.

If companies need structure to achieve organizational goals, it stands to reason that they would also need structure to achieve ERP implementation project goals. The sad fact is that too many companies underestimate the importance of IT projects structure… and an ill-defined structure is a leading cause of IT project failure.

IT project structure needs to enable effective execution, rapid decision-making and knowledge transfer.

We developed an organizational model that has been applied in ERP projects over 33 years. Keep in mind that the basic model is always shaped to fit the particular circumstances of the project and company. In general, the project’s organizational structure is formed of the following layers:

• Steering Committee – with executive level responsibilities
• Core Team– with managerial and functional implementation responsibilities
• End-Users – the ultimate project “client”

In next week’s ERP implementation tip, I’ll talk about the Steering Committee, membership requirements and member responsibilities.

Good luck with your ERP implementation projects!

Your POV (post comments below)

• How formal was your ERP project's organizational structure? Did you use a formal org chart? Or, was the structure based on a looser, less formal "understanding"?
• How was your project's organization structured?
• Did the structure hold together throughout the project?
• Would you use a different structure next time? How so?

In this series of weekly ERP project management tips, we walk you through an ERP implementation project using Pemeco's "Milestone Deliverables" project management methodology.

You can buy our project management book and CD of template forms "Milestone Deliverables: The Hands-On Approach to Implementing ERP Projects" here.