| المستخلص: |
Some information technology, enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation projects are failing; and whether this failure is partial or full, it is normally wasting organization’s time, efforts, cost or a combination of these. It is actually painful experience for some of organizations needed to implement ERP applications. This research aimed at identifying Root-Cause Factors affecting the Success of ERP Implementation Project and to identify problems of failed enterprise resource planning (ERP) project implementation (as independent variables). The three root causes identified, viz; communication, Business Environment Readiness and Integration were linked with the dependent variable, i.e. success of ERP project implementation to examine relationship between the independent and the dependent variables. This study adopted quantitative approach. First a pilot study was conducted through interview of 10 samples of CIOs, ERP managers, project managers, etc., who are directly concerned with ERP project implementation to generate variables that was used in the main survey. The interview from the pilot study enable the researcher to identify variables that are mostly related to local market, moreover, additional variables were theoretically identified and adopted in this study. After, the pilot survey a structured online questionnaire instrument was developed which was distributed electronically to the respondents to get their feedback about the relation between failure reasons and root-cause problem. Three hundred and fifty questionnaires were distributed but only seventy completed questionnaires were retrieved and used in this study. The data was analyzed first by categorizing failure reasons into groups based on different factors like root-cause problem based on where each belong to; taking into consideration that enhancing project communication, business environment readiness and project integration are key solutions for root cause problems, as these three factors are considered as major root-cause problems for ERP project’s failure. Findings from this study shows that 42% of the failure’s reasons appear while implementing ERP applications are rooted due to communication deficiency, whilst 40% of failure reasons are due to business environment readiness deficiency and 18% of failure reasons are due to integration deficiency. Therefore, this study recommended that practitioners should; Pay more attention and be careful when it comes to dealing with any party working for your project; before communicating with others, you should think what exactly you want from others?, how do you want it to be done?, when you need it and why?, how to communicate with others?, what time to communicate and why?, and why you should communicate with others?. Make sure the project blueprint (goal and objective) is determined and clear for project manager and others. Put all project’s parties in a cohesive pool and plan properly for it and monitor and control the project carefully. Make sure that the business environment is ready for what the project needs to implement, and make sure it is ready prior to start the implementation, with enough time. The project manager should be proactive, not just reactive. Don’t wait until the problem comes to him. He should look for it always and in all circumstances. Project managers, as practitioners, should keep their eyes open for symptoms of potential failures that might arise during the project lifespan.
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