Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Lesson 4:
Companies argue that the output of the analysis strongly depends on the
experience of the consultant. Our experiment indicates that the S
3
C Solution Explorer
particularly supports inexperienced consultants to come up with good quality results
(which were similar to results from experienced consultants).
Lesson 5:
Current usability and utility issues still limit the usage of the S
3
C Solu-
tion Explorer in real-world projects. However, the presented studies revealed its
potential. Consultants were able to work with the S
3
C Solution Explorer without train-
ing and all confirmed that they want to use an improved version of the S
3
C Solution
Explorer in customer workshops.
6 Conclusions and Further Work
In this paper, we present the tool-supported S
3
C approach which was built to over-
come limitations of Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step, an existing approach used for
requirements elicitation and Fit-Gap Analysis within ERP projects. In a first step, we
discussed the limitations of Sure Step which result from the increasing use of software
services in the ERP domain. The high number of services hinders consultants in dis-
covering and selecting appropriate service-based solutions. As a result, projects take
longer which leads to increased costs.
To figure out how to overcome these limitations (RO 1), we asked consultants in
an ERP company about their needs on a tool-supported approach which enables them
to identify relevant service solutions. Considering the identified needs and we identi-
fied SeCSE as a base for our research and realized the tool-supported S
3
C approach
(RO 2). It is based on Sure Step but provides sophisticated service discovery mecha-
nisms and novel tool support for consultants. The S
3
C Solution Explorer enables
consultants to identify relevant solutions while they discuss upcoming requirements
with customers. The evaluation of the benefits and limitations of the S
3
C solution (RO
3) suggests that the tool-supported S³C approach fulfils the consultants' needs and has
the potential to support them in their daily work.
The development and evaluation of the S
3
C solution is the main contribution of our
work. Although our research is focusing on ERP projects based on Sure Step, we
assume that companies in the ERP domain that follow other approaches face similar
challenges. We envision that the tool-supported S
3
C approach will stimulate further
research in the field and support other ERP companies in overcoming the issues raised
by introducing services in the ERP domain.
Our future research will focus on case studies to investigate the benefits and limita-
tions of the S
3
C approach in real-world projects. We plan to evaluate whether the
usage of the S
3
C Solution Explorer leads to more and more complete requirements.
Informed by the results of such studies, we plan to provide an improved version of the
S
3
C tools and more guidance and support for consultants on how to apply the S
3
C
approach.
