Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Breaking the Tie

Imagine yourself sitting at a football game. The two teams have battled hard for four quarters and the clock ticks down to 0:00, and in the end the score is tied.

Next, imagine that the game officials huddle at midfield knowing the game cannot end in a tie. However, there was no definition from the governing body prior to game time as to how a tie would be broken in the event one occurred.

The officials huddle for a while, and then start to throw out options. One says, “What if we let the mascots arm wrestle and the winning mascot’s team wins.” Another says, “What if we have the bands’ drum majors throw their batons as high into the air as possible, and the team of the one who throws it the highest while still catching it wins.” Yet a third says, “We’ll let each team's kicker kick one field goal from as far back as they want, with the one who successfully makes the longest kick winning.” Finally, a fourth says, “What’s wrong with the game ending in a tie anyway?”

You get the picture. Without a clear understanding prior to starting the game as to how ties will be broken, chaos reigns. So you might ask, “What does this have to do with selecting ERP software?”

Well, I get to participate in a lot of software selection processes. And in an alarming number of those selections, there is no plan as to how to structure the evaluation (i.e., no rules for the game) and in an even higher number of evaluations, there is no pre-defined method to come to a final decision as to the winning solution (i.e., no rules set up for breaking ties).

My recommendation, when you and your team set out to evaluate and select new ERP software for your business, have a pre-defined, analytical decision process paying particular attention to defining rules as to how the team will break ties. It is frequently the case where there is not a unanimous decision as to the preferred solution, or to use a boxing term, there is a “split-decision.” When organizing your team, have discussion up front as to the overall rules of engagement including how to break ties, and then stick to that decision.

And, if your team cannot come to a decision as to how to evaluate options, it is unlikely that you’re going to be able to reach a decision as to which solution to implement, and further, will not likely have good decision-making processes to keep an implementation moving along successfully. Defining the evaluation rules of engagement including tie breaking methodology should be a good litmus test as to whether or not your team is ready to proceed with software selection and implementation.