The Process
The parallel adoption process can not be represented without paying attention to the steps before the actual conversion, namely the construction of a conversion scenario and the identification and testing of all the requirements. Therefore the process is explained by going through all the identified processes in figure 1, while addressing the common activities that are necessary for any of the identified conversion strategies briefly.
Figure 1 gives an overview of the parallel adoption process. The left side depicts the flow of activities that contribute to the process. Activities that run simultaneously are preceded by a thick black line. When the parallel running of activities is over, the activities are joined again in a similar black line. When there is no arrow from an activity to another, this indicates that they are aggregates of a bigger activity above. The activities are divided in five main phases:
- Define implementation strategy, that deals with the kind of implementation strategy should be executed. * Pre-implementation, which has to do with constructing a planning of all aspects and requirements involved in the implementation.
- Prepare organization The organization should be prepared properly according to the previous phase.
- Conversion deals with the actual conversion process and closing the conversion process; proceeding with the new system.
The main phases are subdivided in other activities that will be described briefly in tables 1-1 to 1-4.
The right side of the model describes the data involved in the processes. Some of these concepts, depicted as a pair of overlapping open rectangles, can be subdivided in more than one concept. A pair of overlapping closed rectangles indicate a closed concept which means that it can be subdivided in more concepts, but it is not of further interest for the parallel adoption process. The diamond shapes figure indicates that the concept linked to it, serves as an aggregate concept and that this concepts consists of the other concepts. Finally the open arrow represents a super class-subclass relation. The concept linked with the arrow is the super class of the concepts that are linked to it. This syntax in figure 1 is according to Unified Modeling Language (UML) standards. The concepts in figure 1 are defined in table 2. More context for these sub activities in the process will be given underneath the tables.
table 1-1: Pre-implementation
| Activity | Description |
| Define implementation strategy | The implementation strategy is determined in this early stage. (Brown, Vessey, 1999) |
| Create master implementation script | The first initial requirements analysis is made, consisting of the requirements below. (Venture, 2004) |
| Construct Time planning | A first time-planning of the implementation process is being constructed. (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Define Organizational requirements | The organizational requirements are defined here (Rooijmans, 2003). |
| Define IT requirements | IT requirements are determined (Rooijmans, 2003) |
table 1-2: Prepare organization
| Activity | Description |
| Install requirements | In order to prepare the organization, the defined requirements are installed. The organization is being prepared and the IT installed on test-machines. (Rooijmans, 2003, Eason, 1988, Microsoft, 2004) |
| Test requirements | The requirements are tested to see if the organization is ready for the implementation (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Redefine master implementation script | The master implementation script is refined with the new information gathered in the process with the activities below. (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Define criteria indicators | In order to test the new system, criteria indicators are being created. (Rooijmans, 2003, Microsoft, 2004) |
| Formulate workaround/rollback plan | Also, a workaround plan with a rollback scenario is made. With these plans, the organization can respectively attempt to correct the mistakes that are made and fall back if the implementation in a certain stage of the process fails. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Perform (segmental) Test conversion | In very complex organizations it can be beneficial to perform a test conversion, before going “live”. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
table 1-3: Conversion
| Activity | Description |
| Make catch ups | The conversion process is started, a number of activities run parallel. During this stage, catch ups are being made using the old system. The old system is leading, but the new one runs parallel. All changes in the system, have to be put in the new system. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Control system | The system is being controlled at all times by the control system. With the defined indicators and system run characteristics, errors and mistakes are tracked down. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Run leading old system | The old system is leading; processing the actual data. |
| Run new system | The new system is running parallel with the old system and is closely monitored. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Translate catch ups in new system | If the criteria are met, the catch ups are translated and transferred in the new system and the conversion process comes in its next stage. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Execute workaround / rollback strategy | If the criteria are not met, the workaround strategy or rollback strategy is performed, depending on the nature of the errors. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Make catch ups | Catch ups are made for safety purposes, even when the new system is leading. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Run old system | The old system runs as a backup, for safety purposes |
| Run leading new system(1) | The new system is leading and in full operation. All the transactions and changes in the system are being handled here. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
table 1-4: Closing parallel adoption
| Activity | Description |
| Run leading new system(2) | All catch ups and controls are closed down. The new system is the only system in operation. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
| Disable old system | The old system is not necessary anymore and is disabled. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) |
The concepts from figure 1 are defined in table 2-1 below.
table 2-1: Concept definition list
| Concept | Definition |
| IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY | The strategy that will be chosen to implement the new system. The options are big bang, phased, parallel adoption, pilot conversion or a combination of those four. (Turban, 2002, Rooijmans, 2003) |
| IMPLEMENTATION SCRIPT | Raw version of the actual conversion scenario, consisting of organizational requirements, IT requirements and an initial time planning. (Venture, 2004, Eason, 1988) |
| ORGANIZATIONAL REQUIREMENTS | Requirements from within the organization that should be present for a successful implementation. They deal with optimizing (changing) the organization for the new system. Issues involved can be: Human resources management, changing organograms and new business structures. (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| IT REQUIREMENTS | The information Technology requirements are the software and hardware requirements, platform choices, taking into account budget and existing systems. (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| TIME PLANNING | A planning in which activities are assigned a time-period wherein they should be completed, providing an overall picture of the implementation project with regard to available time. (Eason, 1988) |
| REQUIREMENTS | |
| CONFORMITY | Conformity is all about meeting requirements.(ISO 9000) |
| CONVERSION SCENARIO | The redefined implementation script, taking into account the Conformity tot the requirements. Furthermore the conversion scenario consists of a workaround and rollback plan. The conversion scenario is the blueprint of the implementation project. (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| WORKAROUND STRATEGY | A backup plan; strategy taken on, in the conversion scenario to prevent errors in the conversion process and attempt to work around them, so that the implementation can still be successful. (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| CRITERIA INDICATORS | Quantifiable and measurable criteria with regard to the requirements, to determine if the implementation process was successful. (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| ROLLBACK PLAN | Plan that facilitates in reversing the direction of the replication in order to go back to the old system without loss in data or information. (Microsoft, 2004) |
| TEST CONVERSION | Segmental test conversion, before the actual conversion takes place with as goal to be better prepared against uncertainties or problems in the actual conversion process. (Microsoft, 2004) |
| OLD SYSTEM | The old system: when leading = true; the old system handles the system transactions live:
The principal functioning entities comprising the product, e.g. hardware, software. Also an organized and disciplined approach to accomplish a task, e.g., a failure reporting system (ISO 9000) |
| NEW SYSTEM | The new system (goal): The new system, when leading = true; the new system handles the system transactions live. The principal functioning entities comprising the product, e.g. hardware, software. Also an organized and disciplined approach to accomplish a task, e.g., a failure reporting system (ISO 9000) |
| CONTROL | The overall control system comprising performance indicators as well as a reliability assessment and catch ups. The control system is very broad and is the central command system of converting the old system and managing the new one during the parallel adoption process. (Rooijmans, 2003, Microsoft, 2004) |
| PERFORMANCE | Quantifiable assessment of performance of the old and new system serves as input for the control system. (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT | A quantitative assessment of the reliability of a product, system or portion thereof. Such assessments usually employ mathematical modeling, directly applicable results of tests on the product, failure data, estimated reliability figures and non-statistical engineering estimates. (ISO 9000) |
| CATCH UPS | Catch ups consist of automatically or non-automatically created back-ups of the system using the old system, to be translated in the new system. (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| AUTOMATIC CATCH UPS | Automatically created catch ups (Rooijmans, 2003) |
| CATCH UP BY HAND | Catch ups created by manual input (Rooijmans, 2003) |
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