The Tao To Understanding Enterprise It Project Complexity

As exploratory research, the chapter’s aim is to assess if Sun-Tzu’s application of Taoist principles are applicable to the problem domain of Enterprise Resource Planning Management (ERPM). It argues that an ERP’s complexity not only shares conceptually The Art of War’s historical context, but also can be understood to be a disequilibrium force best understood using Taoist principles. Sun-Tsu’s The Art of War (AW) has been adapted successfully to the military domain (MD); and, MD has been adapted to strategic management (SM). If an ERP’s business drivers can be mapped to a firm’s strategic goals, one may conclude Sun-Tzu’s Art of War can be adapted to an ERP implementation (AW?MD?SM?ERP). Therefore, the authors hope to explore the applicability of Sun-Tzu’s Five Factors of Initial Estimation (Five Factors), an Eastern philosophy (a non-linear thought process) to ERP-related Western-oriented project management techniques (a linear thought process).