Improve ERP Project Based On AS/400 By Using Software Engineering Method

AS/400 is one of classical minicom and most successful commercial application platform. It is widely used in insurance industry, manufacturing, retail, telecom, transportation, energy industry, etc. There are over 28000 commercial applications and over 3000 client/server application. After IBM integrated its server business, AS/400 was named as eServer iSeries.With the growth of software market, some Chinese software vendors also start development on AS/400. Successful case does exist, like the ERP system developed by CASE Software Company. Furthermore, some IBM partner also developed applications for bank or insurance company. On another hand, some software vendors do not obtain the qualification of development on AS/400, and their products shall be improved a lot.Hereby we study how to improve an ERP project based on AS/400 by using software engineering method. This ERP system was designed by a new software company. The system is developed in PowerBuilder, and supposed to connect to AS/400 through ODBC. Though the main part of the system already passed the test in IBM Lab, some parts shall be improved because the develop lack the experience on AS/400 and project management.Hereby we probe into problem detection and elimination, solution test and solve the problem by using software engineering method. In the ERP project mentioned here, there are two kinds of problems– technical problem and project management problem.Technical problems include -Chinese characters input and savingJournal and journal receiver of Test library Test02Variance between actual result and expected result caused by non-program reasonSlow system speedApplication could not access new tables in formal library ERP01Error caused by cross-path problemRemote access solutionProject management problems include–Adjustment on system requirementProject progress control Project target controlCoordination with software vendor and project consultantFinally, comes the conclusion– there is no prefect ERP system. The most important thing is problem detection, solution and prevention. And software engineering method is the most useful tools.