The State of Tennessee's Enterprise Resource Planning Solution

Project Methodology
Analysis & Design

The Design Stage is the most critical step in the functional configuration of the Edison system.  During this stage, the project team considers system requirements and how they are met by the new system. Then, the team creates a high-level business process design to document the future business processes. The major steps of this Stage include the following:

1. Demonstration Configuration enables the Edison Project Team to get early exposure to the Edison software. The software’s delivered configuration is used to demonstrate the product as part of the Requirements Verification sessions. The sessions strive to give the team a first glimpse of the look and feel of the software, although without specific Tennessee configuration.
2. Requirements Verification Sessions allow the project team to fully understand and agree upon the set of requirements comprising the scope of the Edison system.  The Requirements Verification Sessions consist of multiple meetings, all in a working session format, where exchange of ideas and knowledge from all participants is encouraged.
3. Initial Tennessee Configuration of the system will be performed in order to facilitate Fit Gap Sessions and System Design (or Business Process Design) with the specific Edison set up.
4. Fit/Gap Sessions provides the opportunity to discuss and analyze Edison software requirements. This discussion is a key step in gaining direction on which requirements are met via delivered functionality and which require workarounds, customization, and/or modifications. Sessions involve reviewing lists of requirements and comparing those lists to delivered software functionality to confirm if the software fits the requirement, or if it is a gap.  In cases where a gap is identified, the group may discuss alternatives including workarounds and modifications.
5. Business Process Design is the process where decisions are made regarding the future business processes for the State of Tennessee.  This process consists of very small and focused working sessions that primarily involve the State of Tennessee and MAXIMUS configuration consultants. If certain business process decisions are identified as having significant impact to the State, the configuration consultants and configuration leads shall provide information and a recommendation to project management and the Project Steering Committee.  Project Management or the Project Steering Committee shall analyze the information and provide a decision within a timeframe that allows business process design to continue unimpeded.
6. Golden Configuration is a database environment containing the most complete and accurate configuration of Edison.  This baseline, or so-called “golden”, instance provides a means of separating the latest approved configuration while allowing other environments to be used for testing hypothetical configuration ideas.