Abstract: This paper presents and analyzes an approach for using the systems development life cycle (SDLC) to teach enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation issues. Not only does the SDLC put ERP into perspective, but ERP implementation issues give a substantive and informative context to the SDLC. A review of the literature provides a basis for using the SDLC as a framework for evaluating ERP implementation success and failure. In turn, the successes and failures provide a rich and interesting venue for introducing students to the relevance and implications of ERP applications as well as the SDLC. Such an introduction can be employed as a value-added teaching component in practically any IS curriculum, regardless of whether or not the institution has access to ERP software. Furthermore, the component can be used in a variety of information systems and management classes, including introduction to IS, introduction to ERP, systems analysis and design, project management, and even an MBA-level JS class. The development and analysis of the teaching approach is based on the experience of having employed the approach in an introductory ERP class. The experience reveals lessons learned, and it provides a source of data for mapping numerous ERP implementation failures to the stages of the SDLC.

Keywords: Enterprise resource planning, Systems development life cycle, Teaching case study, Information systems curriculum

Download this article: JISE - Volume 15 Number 3, Page 277.pdf

Recommended Citation: Grenci, R. T. & Hull, B. Z. (2004). New Dog, Old Tricks: ERP and the Systems Development Life Cycle. Journal of Information Systems Education, 15(3), 277-286.