RISK MANAGEMENT

Kartik Pahwa(10343)
Akhila Nanjala(10432)
P Shirisha Bhavani(10471)

Introduction
In order to optimize the business processes, the ERP

implementation has become common practice for many

organisations.
This paper presents an actor-dependency-based technique for

analysing and modelling early phase risk management to

explore the risk associated with the project.
The paper illustrated this approach sing a case study of US

Army ERP implementation.

As per authors expectations, this approach is valuable because

using this approach one can plan and reason about the
opportunities and risks associated with the new system; also,
this approach will help to avoid the failure of implementation
project.

Risk Management:
As mentioned in the paper, Risk is possible

problems in the project associated with the

uncertainty of the possible outcomes i.e., project
delay or fail.
The risk management is nothing but mastering the

environment and making things happen in the

planned way i.e., accomplishment of determined
goals, inside the right timeframe and budget.
There is a need to quantify all the probabilities of the

possible outcomes, evaluate the benefit or the loss

and then, choose the path that leads to the best
expected value.

Agile Project Management:

Involves extra risks compared to conventional ERP

Implementation.
Continuous testing and review should take place.
User and Implementation partner should be in

continuous contact.
Proper flow of information must be there to ensure

correct requirements and feedback being transferred

to the Implementation team.
Aim: To deliver working software by setting up some

kind of priority on the functionality being implemented

in the ERP System.

Modelling dependencies between

strategies:

RE(Requirements Engineering) methodologies can be used to model

II.

Organizational goals
Processes

III.

Relationships

IV.

Actors

I.

Actor dependency using i*

i* modelling language allows to model both as-is and to-be

situations.
It covers both actor-oriented andgoal modelling and

answers the questions- WHO and WHY, not what.

Using i* approach, organizations can optimize, improve,

and increase enterprise productivity.

Modelling dependencies between

strategies:
This model basically describes dependencies amongactors.
There are four elements to describe them:

goal
II. soft goal
III. task
IV. Resource
I.

Actors depend on each other for goals to be achieved, tasks to be

performed and resources to be furnished

Risks involved(signify those goals and undesirable tasks that may lead

to a risky output) :
I.
II.

risky goals
risk task

For example, a development team with poor java knowledge will have

risky goals like developing the product without considering the

quality, and risky tasks like the introduction of bugs due to poor
development skills of the team.

Modelling dependencies between

strategies:
Two actor-dependency diagrams are used :
I.
II.

the strategic dependency model (SD)

the strategic rationale(SR) model

All dependencies comprise of :

depender
II. dependee
III. dependum
I.

Depender depends on a dependee to get dependum.

An SD model describes a network of dependency relationships

among various actors in an organisational context.

An SD model consists of a set of nodes and links connecting the

actors. Nodes represent actors and each link represents a

dependency between two actors. The depending actor is called
Dependerand the actor who is depended upon is called
theDependee.

Modelling dependencies between

strategies:
An SR models allows modelling of the reasons associated with

each actor and their dependencies, and provides information

about how actors achieve their goals and soft goals.
Compared with SD models, SR models provide a more detailed

level of modelling by lookinginsideactors to model internal,

intentional relationships.
Intentional elements (goals, soft goals, tasks, resources)

appear in the SR model not only as external dependencies,

but also as internal elements linked by means-ends
relationships and task-decompositions.
Themeans-end linksprovide understanding aboutwhyan

actor would engage in some tasks, pursue a goal, need a

resource, or want a soft goal; thetask-decomposition
linksprovide a hierarchical description of intentional elements
that make up aroutine.

Modelling dependencies between

strategies:
Actors:

Actor association:

Elements:

Links:

Contribution Links:

The Study of change management in US

Army ERP Implementation:
United States Army (USA)

main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for landbased military operations.
largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of
seven U.S. uniformed services.

The primary mission of the army is "to fight and win our Nations

wars by providing prompt, sustained land dominance across the full

range of military operations and spectrum of conflict in support of
combatant commanders.
The army is a military service within the Department of the Army,

one of the three military departments of the Department of

Defense.
The army is headed by the Secretary of the Army, and the top

military officer in the department is the Chief of Staff of the Army.

The highest ranking army officer is currently the Chairman of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Army department had huge number of soldiers

Modelling:
First, the actors involved in the process

are to be identified and analyse the

dependency among them.
Actors could be external and internal.
In our case:
I.
II.

External actors: Government, Citizen and

Suppliers
Internal actors: Institutional Army,
Operational Army and Implementation
partner

Dependencies and roles of

actors:
Government : governing body to facilitate the physiological and safety

needs to the citizens of US, with the help of Defence bodies like U.S
Army, Navy and Air force.
Citizens : persons who get security from Government with the help of

defence system.
Suppliers : materials suppliers responsible for supplying materials to

the U.S Army as per the demand raise by them.

Institutional Army : army personnel working at the ground level in the

office to perform financial, human resource management etc. activities.

Operational Army : responsible for warfighting and intelligence

activities.
Implementation Partner : company responsible for implementation of

ERP system.

Model Sponsor:

This figure shows the position of sponsors. This position

covers the following roles:

I.

II.

Convey the importance of continued engagement to their

successors during transition since ERPs requires sustained
leadership, but army leaders rotate often, and one ERP
implementation could span two or even three sponsors.
Continuous Engagement with the process to make it successful.

System Integrator:

This shows the Implementation partner as an agent

occupying the position of a system integrator.

This position covers the role of bringing in the

experience as well as tools and methodology to be

used in the implementation since the army can be
resistant to change since it is bound by history and
culture.

Modelling Leader:

This shows leader as an agent covering the role of

being an agent of change by showing willingness to

change as well as making others recipient to change.

Modelling Operational Army:

Communication is very important in implementation of ERP since many

stakeholders involved in this process.

Communication must be bidirectional i.e. both top down as well as

bottom up.
The role covered in case of operational army personnel as a

communicator is to receive information and convey the feedback of the

process

Modelling Institutional Army personnel:

Institutional Army also occupy the role of communicator.

The difference between operational army and this is that

the roles covered by their positions are different.

Institutional Army personnel convey information and

receive feedback of the process.

Modeling External Stakeholders

External stakeholders (Taxpayers and

legislators) are modelled by modelling

citizens and modelling government
legislators seperately

Modelling Citizens
Citizens of the
nation occupy the
position of
taxpayers. Their role
is to pay taxes on
time and be
informed about the
spending by the
government.

Modelling government as
legislator
Government
occupies the
position of a
legislator and the
role covered is to
allocate budget,
in this case for
army.

SD Model
After having a look at the various actor

involved in the ERP implementation

process, SD model can be used to model
the dependencies between various
actors.
The hard goal in hand is risk

management.

SD Diagram for the phases of risk

management

Aloni, Dulmin, and Mininno(2007) mentions about the phases of the risk
management. It covers risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation
and risk treatment and monitoring.

SD model representing dependency between

Government and Consultant

The consultant may

be experienced but
the governance
structure is required
to ensure that the
implementation is
successful and as
required.
Thus there exist
dependency
between the
government and the
consultant

SD model Between Operational

Army & Institutional Army personnel

Institutional Army
personnel convey the
required information
about usage of
systems to the
soldiers and receive
the feedback, which
helps in minimizing
the risk of
communication gap
between these two
actors.

SR Model
An SR model can be used to understand the

dependencies between the various actors involved

Army has a history and culture behind it and

hence may be resistant to change. Hence the

internal stakeholders might oppose the change
that is brought about by ERP implementation
To break it the sponsors must himself set an

example by showing his willingness to change and

encouraging others to embrace change. Thus he
can break the resistance and thus contribute to
the goal of risk management.

SR model - Dependency between Consultant

& Institutional Army

SR model - Dependency between Consultant

& Institutional Army
The consultant though he is experienced in ERP, might not

have knowledge of the processes used in Army. His lack of

experience with army might allow processes that are difficult to
understand as well as incorrect processes to creep in thereby
hampering the goal of ERP implementation. It will destroy the
entire objective of ERP implementation and thus acts as a
break to the goal of ERP implementation.
Hence a governance mechanism is required to monitor the

activities and ensure that the process benefit the army. The
Institutional Army can carry out the required governance. This
will ensure that errors do not creep in due to lack of experience
of the consultant in implementing Army projects.
Thus it breaks the break and assists in the objective of

successful ERP implementation.

ERP Implementation for Agile

ERP Implementation for Agile

In this, the actor here are Implementation Partner and Institutional Army

personnel. During Implementation phase, the institutional Army will be

involved for the continuous requirement updates and for review the delivered
working software. Continuous involvement of the Institutional Army in the
process will result in the revised requirements at every stage and ensure the
correct ERP System being delivered at the end.
Communication forms a very important part of ERP implementation process.

It is necessary for successful ERP implementation that the end users are inline with the objectives set by the top management.
The problem in communication may occur due to incorrect information

received by the soldiers. This hampers the risk management process and act
as a break for ERP implementation. This can be effectively handled by
introducing a feedback mechanism which can be used to modify the training
requirements.
Thus there exists dependency between actors and the rationale between this

dependency is to ensure effective communication so to aid successful ERP

implementation.

SR diagram for Risk

management

SR diagram for Risk

management
Model the identified risk factors dependent on the Implementation partner

and Institutional Army as agents

The government has to allocate budget for spending on Army. It may

encounter resistance from people who would not like government

spending on defence. To tackle this opposition, the government needs to
justify the spending.
Thus there exists dependency between the government and the citizens

and the rationale behind this dependency is alignment of objectives.

The consultant will have his expertise in configuration but it leads to poor

functionality as well as poor interface with the existing systems. This will
be a great risk to the success of the project.
The risk can be avoided by having a governance structure which will look

into the functioning of the ERP implementation. The governance structure

ensures that there is customization wherever it is necessary so that third
party interface and poor functionality problems are resolved.

SR diagram for Risk management for Agile

practice

SR diagram for Risk management for Agile

practice
This diagram mentions about the risk factors which

may hinder the risk management for the ERP

implementation using agile principles and values.
Working software delivery by the implementation

team will help the management of risk. Feedback

and review helps the Implementation team to
regularly update and revise the requirements for the
next iteration of the working ERP system delivery.
If the team members involved in the ERP

implementation does not have required expertise

then it will hinder the risk management.

Conclusion
Demonstrated the technique (analysing and modelling organisational risk

management for ERP implementation using i* ) using a case of U. S. Army plans to

implement ERP System. This system will help them maintain the correct data to
take decision in future for war fighting and other data related to operational area
personnel.
The technique can reason about the opportunities, vulnerabilities, changes and risks

that are associated with the implementation. We have tried to differentiate between
the risk management followed in conventional ERP implementation and Agile ERP
implementation.
With the increase in the size of the projects, a large number of modelling elements

might occur that would complicate the individual models. Such complexities can be
tackled by segmenting the complex models at different levels of abstraction.
Thus, because of the simplicity of the applicability of the technique, we believe that

it can be used in complex modelling problems.Further, research is called upon to

assess the usability and scalability of our technique in practice.
Finally, we would like to mention that i* was not designed for studying risk

management. We leveraged the concept of actor dependency of i* and addresses

its limitations for use in risk management by defining the concepts of risk goals and
risky tasks. We recommend further research to extend i* to include other risk
management elements to make actor-dependency-based risk modelling further
simpler.

Thank You