Report on a Software Development Project for Remote ERP Access

This report provides an in-depth analysis of a software development project undertaken for Company X, a mid-sized production house, to enable remote access to their ERP system during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project involved developing a module to allow secure remote access, addressing the limitations of the existing ERP system designed for in-office use. The report details the project's adherence to the software development life cycle, the involvement of stakeholders from various departments, and the crucial role of organizational change management. It examines the impact of group norms, collective empathy, and collaboration on the project's success, emphasizing the importance of employee involvement in all phases. The report also references research on organizational change and software development teams, highlighting the significance of positive attitudes and adaptability to change within the organization. The project's challenges included adapting to remote work and ensuring the smooth integration of the new module while managing group dynamics. The report concludes with a discussion of the lessons learned, emphasizing the importance of considering group norms in software development projects and the need for employee involvement throughout the software development life cycle.

The example of a software development project that I have worked on that I will use is the same as the one used in the
previous discussion. The context of the project is that we worked on a project for company X which is a midsized company
of about 80 employees. The organization is structured according to departments and each employee belongs to at least one
department. Company X is a production house involved in the production of documentaries and drama series for mainstream
media. For a long time, the culture of the organization X was that all employees had to report to the office and work on the
projects from the office. Work out of the office did not involve access to the company’s ERP system.
The key situation that faced the company came after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. After the COVID-19 pandemic
had affected most of the world Company X knew it was a matter of time before the worldwide shutdown would hit the
country. This is because most governments were enforcing lockdown measures and this meant employees were required to
work from home. Therefore, Company X was forced to adopt a remote working procedure for its employees. However, there
was the challenge that their ERP system was designed to be used within the organization’s network. This meant that the
change that was established required the company’s employees to work from home. This is the context in which we got to
work with company X.
Our role as company Y was to undertake the upgrade of the REP system through developing a module that would enable the
ERP system to be accessed remotely and securely. The contractor who had worked on the ERP system was not able to work
on the project because he was out of the country and he could not assemble a team. However, his input was required to
enable the project to run smoothly. The structure of my organization was set in such a way all the members had worked
before and as a result, they were used to working together. The software development project followed all the conventional
phases of the software development life cycle.
There were about 25 individuals from company X that were involved in the project. They were derived from different
departments from whom the requirements of the system being developed where required. According to Lenberg, Wallgren,
and Feldt (2016), organizational change is bound to affect every company. However, they go further to state that change is
usually faced by obstacles when the employees of the company form groups which have a mentality against the change.
According to them, the software developers are the ones who have the highest level of adoption of change. This means that
we as company Y had to work with the IT personnel from company X to advocate for change. Each group was made up of
about 4-6individuals. In each group, there was also an addition of a person from the IT department. The reason that a
member of the IT department was added to the groups when collecting requirements was to help them impact the positive
attitude towards change. The study was supposed to take about 2 weeks and as a result, each team was met at different times.

Furthermore, we had also worked remotely on other projects and as a result, it was easier to work on this project. We were
also able to team up with the IT department in gathering user requirements. The collaboration with the IT team makes it easy
to interact with the individuals in the company X. An important factor to consider is that organizational change is fostered by
the group norms. This means that individuals within the group each behave according to the general values. This means that
the norms of the group could be set to be able to handle change if the members are trained to adapt to change. According to
Akgün, Keskin, Cebecioglu, and Dogan (2015), collective empathy is also another important factor in the adoption to
change. According to them, the collective empathy that comes out of change in a group can affect the work done. This
means that when the members of the group can empathize with their peers they will work to help them achieve a given goal.
This was a key factor that promoted collaboration among employees from both companies.
There is also the fact that collaboration among teams is paramount for the success of any project. According to Stray, Fægri,
and Moe (2016), there is a trait in groups whereby each member feels obligated and indebted to contribute to the success of
the team. This means that working with the employees from company X on the project meant that we were able to develop
new bonds. This meant that they could feel the change brought by the new module in the ERP as part of their initiative. As a
result, they would be more comfortable to face change later on once the module was ready. However, as expected, some
group norms did not support change. They could not work well with new members.
In conclusion, group norm is an important factor that affects software development projects. From the discussion above it is
apparent that change in organizations is bound to happen. As a result, group norms will also be part of the organizational
change; especially one brought about by a software development project. This is why it is important to involve the
employees of a company in most of the phases of the software development lifecycle, not just requirements gathering. From
my experience working with company X, I was able to understand group norms and how they affect the output of a project.

References
Akgün, A. E., Keskin, H., Cebecioglu, A. Y., & Dogan, D. (2015). Antecedents and consequences of collective empathy in
software development project teams. Information & Management, 52(2), 247-259.
Lenberg, P., Wallgren, L. G., & Feldt, R. (2016). An Initial Analysis of Differences in Software Engineers Attitudes
Towards Organizational Change. 2016 9th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of
Software Engineering.
Stray, V., Fægri, T. E., & Moe, N. B. (2016). Exploring norms in agile software teams. n International Conference on
Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, 458-467.