This chapter contains the following topic:
The Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne implementation methodology defines specific roles that are involved in the design, installation, and configuration of an ERP solution. These roles are generally divided into four implementation teams:
Technology - installation and upgrades, system administration, security, change management
Development - data conversions, interfaces, custom modifications
Functional - business process, application configuration, integration and testing, end-user training
Systems Integration - data center design, hardware support, network infrastructure, third-party software
Each of these implementation teams is staffed by both consultant and customer roles. As an implementation progresses to completion, the consultant roles diminish, while the customer roles remain and often increase in level of responsibility. It is critical, therefore, that the customer ensures that each role to be assumed by its personnel is adequately trained.
Typically, the technology project team is led by a single consulting role, the technology specialist, and two customer roles, the system administrator and the change management administrator. The technology specialist and system administrator are involved with installing JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and setting up environments, users, security, distributed processing, data replication, and other system administration and operations support topics. The technology specialist and change management administrator are responsible for setting up version control, applying software updates and service packs, reviewing and promoting code and data across change management environments, and deploying code and data changes to the servers and workstations involved in the ERP solution.
The development project team is typically led by a custom solution consultant and staffed by one or more application developers. The custom solution consultant resolves business issues by developing applications. Primary responsibilities include developing a data migration strategy, designing interfaces to legacy and third-party systems, and designing custom modifications with upgrades in mind. The application developers migrate legacy data, code and test interfaces, code and test custom modifications, and integrate all code changes into the ERP solution.
While the change management administrator performs the version control functions that control the acceptance, promotion, and deployment of software changes, the custom solution consultant must help develop the internal procedures for realizing an application development life cycle within your business. In addition, development team members must be aware of change management tools and procedures, as well as how the technology components affect the design and operation of interfaces and custom modifications.
The functional project team is led by a consulting project manager and a customer project manager, and staffed by application specialists and customer process owners. These project members are responsible for the design, configuration, and deployment of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications, as well as the modeling of all business processes that will be realized through the application set. After JD Edwards EnterpriseOne is installed, configured, and rolled out, the application specialists continue in their role as product experts. Although application specialists do not implement technology-level solutions, they must understand how the software handles distributed processing, data replication, environments, and so on, because these application issues influence technology design and configuration. In addition, application specialists and process owners must become expert at troubleshooting potential problems and identifying the difference between a technology issue and an application issue.
The systems integration project team is responsible for many tasks that are outside the scope of services. Third-party consultants provide some of these services and supplement JD Edwards EnterpriseOne staff as CNC consultants, network architects, custom modification consultants, and so on. In addition, customers provide hardware and network infrastructure support.
Implementing the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne system includes many tasks that are outside the scope of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software and services. Systems integration (that is, third-party) consultants provide these services to help you align the infrastructure to optimally support JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications and runtime services, as well as expand the overall business solution with complementary third-party products. These consultants are able to assist with such services as data center design, IT process improvement, and network infrastructure. They are also able to assist with the installation, configuration, and integration of third-party hardware and software products that enhance and extend the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software solution. These project members should be aware of the architecture and technical behavior of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software and of how the various technology components interact with operating systems, database management systems, third-party middleware, and the network.