PERA Enterprise Integration Principles

PERA offers some simple principles that apply to any enterprise, and that can make implementing enterprise systems more understandable, profitable, and predictable.

Although there are deep mathematical and philosophical reasons behind these prinicples (see PERA presentations and papers), they can be expressed simply. In this introduction, I will describe these principles, and provide links to more detailed discussion of each principle.

If you don't know where you are going, you probably won't get there.

PERA provides a structured approach to Enterprise Master Planning and implementation.

PERA also provides a rich set of recommended planning work processes, example documents and reference materials.

• We don't have time - resulting in major schedule impacts from unexpected problems.
• We dont have enough budget - resulting in cost overruns from surprise costs.
• We don't expect problems - resulting in genuine surprise at problems encountered.

Unless an enterprise, program, or project is an exact copy of a recent one, the more a corporation invests in planning, the more certain their return on investment.

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There are only 3 major components of any enterprise: Physical Plant Production Facilities People and Human Organization Control and Information Systems PERA provides an Enterprise life cycle model which clearly defines the roles and relationships among physical plant, people, and information systems. Tell me more.

Each enterprise may be broken into clearly defined "Phases" The following are crucially important rules of project management associated with project phasing. Define clear "deliverables" at the end of each phase Don't proceed to the next phase before formal signoff by all interested groups. Don't backtrack on information defined in the previous phase unless the design is unsafe or won't work. Once Preliminary Engineering has begun, there is no such thing as a change that reduces cost. Tell me more.

There are 2 basic rules of project management: Divide and Conquer Don't Cut it Where it is Thickest

It is said that the only way to eat an elephant is to get a lot of help. Similarly, major projects must be divided into smaller parts which can be accomplished in parallel by different teams (Divide and Conquer).

Unfortunately, the more information which must be shared between different teams, the more difficult will be the coordination and management. It is therefore critical to divide the project into sub-projects in a way which minimizes flow of information across sub-project boundaries (Don't cut it where it is thickest).

The PERA Architecture provides natural interfaces at which to make these divisions.

Enterprise Systems must be effectively integrated with Physical Plant Engineering and Human and Organizational development.

PERA provides a life cycle model which demonstrates how to integrate Enterprise Systems, Physical Plant Engineering and Organizational Development from enterprise concept to dissolution.

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We believe the PERA methodology presents the best alternative for a "GERAM" or General Enterprise Reference Architecture Methodology. PERA is compatible with ISA 95, ISA 108, and a number of other ISA and IEC Enterprise Integration standards.

We welcome your comments

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