Adam links to a great article about asking the right questions. This has been the frustration that informs many of my posts here: I think our management is asking (and answering) the wrong questions. Adam’s question is a good one; software development is not part of the University’s core mission. Here are a couple of related questions, with some thoughts:

Does our current in-house developed ERP save the University money and other resources, particularly in comparison to what the costs would be if we had a commercial ERP? Does it allow the University to pursue its mission in ways that would not otherwise be possible?

Unless the answer to at least one of these questions is “yes,” we really have no business developing our own ERP. I think that when the BSC says it considers our ERP strategic that is equivalent to saying that the answer to these questions is yes, but perhaps translating “is our ERP strategic?” to questions like this can clarify things.

The great thing about good questions is that answering them leads to more questions. If the answer to these questions is no, the next question should be, “how can we convert to a commercial ERP with the least cost and disruption?” If the answer is yes, then we can start asking questions like “What characteristics of our ERP give it these advantages?”  Answering that question will lead to questions about tools and, eventually, we can get to a point where it makes sense to ask questions like whether a migration to Open Systems will benefit the University. Instead, we’ve been handed the answer to the last question without any plan for how to do it or any real idea of what it means.