A model of best practices for project management strategies in an administrative computing system implementation in higher education

The purpose in this research was to investigate the use of project management best practices in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation in higher education. ERP packages are well known information systems in support of all functional areas of an academic institution. However their successful implementation has not only eluded the private sector but the non-profit sector as well. Specifically higher education institutions are different because of their structure of administration and academics. This collegial structure based on academic self governance is unique and therefore poses additional issues. Furthermore, proven project management methodologies and best practices have also by-passed higher education.; The critical success factors (CSF) for ERP implementations were found in the literature. The combination of project management best practices and these CSFs presented an opportunity for forming a best practice model for academic institutions to follow. A survey was administered via the web to gather information from higher educational institutions to see if they not only used these factors but followed any project management methodologies.; Analysis showed that those institutions that followed project management best practices, and instituted factors that were needed for successful implementations, indeed had a successful implementation. This research also produced a model for academic institutions to follow in their administrative computing implementations.