A comprehensive guide to plan, manage, & execute a successful global SAP BI Implementation Project Part 1

Dr. Bjarne Berg MyITgroup

In Part 1

Writing your SAP BI business case and determine global architecture Defining the global scope of your implementation Writing a milestone plan Developing your global staffing plan Budgeting On-boarding, training and global staffing issues Writing your workplan Monitoring the progress and risk of your global project Monitoring quality / instituting a formal approval process Why you need an SAP BI user acceptance group
2

In Part 2

The blueprinting phase

Leveraging the standard content Modeling for your solution Deliverables Best practices for managing the implementation of ODS and InfoCubes Managing the environments and transports Managing unit, system, integration & stress testing of SAP BI Executing the cut-over to production Conducting end-user and power user training Establishing the end-user support organization Post-implementation review and next steps
3

The realization phase

The implementation phase

What Well Cover

Writing your SAP BI business case and global architecture Identifying your requirements, scope, and plan-of-attack Staffing your project: lessons and examples Budgeting: how much? and for how long? Final preparations: on-boarding, writing the workplan, etc. Wrap-up

Writing the Overall Business Case for a Global Project

The business case must be aligned with some concrete multi-national business benefits The best way to write a business case is to align it with one of these areas:

Money Strategy Reducing time and effort of delivery Improved information quality and access for end users

Example Business Benefits of SAP BI

Area
Cost of Ownership

Observation
Maintaining a custom developed BI solution is complex and expensive. Updating extract programs when upgrading R/3 is expensive. Web delivery requires rapid data delivery of high consistency with the source system.

SAP BI BW
SAP is responsible for maintenance of the product. BW R/3 integration points are maintained and tested by SAP

Benefit
Substantial maintenance cost savings
Substantial cost savings, by not having to redevelop new extract programs for each SAP upgrade

Cost Avoidance

Web strategy

BW is closely integrated Enables web initiatives to get with R/3, and can deliver closer to the source data, data that reflects the both in time and consistency. source system at short time intervals. BW is closer to the Users spend less time on source system, and more reconciling data, and more accurately reflects data time analyzing it.

Reconciliation Effort

A substantial portion of the data warehouse effort is spent on reconciling information

Information Access

Business users need a high Availability solution

Load times in BI are less than traditional, custom- developed data warehouses

Users get earlier access to information

Example Business Benefits of SAP BI (cont.)

Area
Faster Deployment

Observation
Need to increase time to deliver new applications and enhancements existing areas

SAP BI

Benefit

Typical use of 60-80% Reduced development of pre-delivered time for new decision content increases support areas development speed SAP BI is the cornerstone of SAPs New Dimension product offerings Through use of summaries, TREX, and the new accelerator, SAP BWs architecture lends itself to faster query performance Enables closer integration with other SAP modules

Integrated Products SAP continues to offer new products and modules that the organization might wish to leverage in the future Query speed Business users need fast access to their data

Users get the data they need quickly to perform their job functions

Example Business Benefits of SAP BI (cont.)

Area
SAP Strategy

Observation
It is the organizations SAP strategy to leverage investments in the SAP to the fullest extent, and maximize SAP resource utilization. The organization must be able to leverage industry standards to enable business users to access data in a variety of ways The organizations competitors and some of the organizations business areas are installing SAP BI

SAP BI
SAP BI is a SAP product, and is based on standard SAP NetWeaver technologies (Basis, ABAP, etc.)

Benefit
Strategic fit and synergy with SAP. SAP Basis, ABAP, etc. resources can be used across SAP projects, including SAP BW. Simplifies user access to data, expands options for using standard presentation and web tools, or developing your own. Enables the organization to leverage industry solutions and know-how.

Tool Standardization

Microsofts ODBO application interface and Java (SAP BI 3.5) are supported by a variety of major presentation and web tools. Increased industry resource pool and knowledge of SAP BW

Industry Trend

What Logically Belongs in a Global BI System?

Real-time Inquiry

Operational Reporting

Management Information Lightly Summarized

More Summarized More Ad Hoc

ERP

DW

Dividing Line

Five years ago, with version 3.0B, BI became increasingly able to report on operational detailed data. But some reports still belong in R/3 or other transactions systems
9

The Global Target Architecture An Example

Meta Data
Source Data

Extract

Operational Data Store

Purchasing Marketing & Sales

Transform

Data Warehouse

Access
Managed Query Env.

R/3 Legacy Systems External systems Messaging

Data Extraction Transform and Load Processes

Corporate Product Line

Summation

Translate Summarize Data Subsets by Segment Summarized Data

OLAP

Calculate
Attribute Synchronize Reconcile

Location Finance Supply

Batch Reporting Data Mining

Internet
Vendor Provided

Data Marts

Data Warehouse and Decision Support Framework 10

What Well Cover

Writing your SAP BI business case Identifying your requirements, scope, and plan-of-attack Staffing your project: lessons and examples Budgeting: how much? and for how long? Final preparations: on-boarding, writing the workplan, etc. Wrap-up

11

Alternative Global BI Approaches

TOP-DOWN APPROACH BOTTOM-UP APPROACH

CONTINUE

Build a global data warehouse for the company, and proceed sourcing local data from old legacy systems driven from a top-down approach.

Focus on a bottom-up approach where the BI project will prioritize supporting and delivering local BI solutions, thereby setting the actual establishment of the global Data Warehouse as secondary, BUT not forgotten.

CHANGE

12

The Six Global Dimensions

There are six core global dimensions you must consider before embarking on a global DW strategy. Project management is important, but its only one of these dimensions. Failure to account for the others may result in project failures.

Source: Peter Grottendieck, Siemens

For each dimension, articulate an approach, constraints, limitations and assumptions before you start your project.

13

The Six Global Dimensions (cont.)

Be aware that US management styles can often come across as very aggressive and authoritative. To get local buy-in, assign meaningful leadership roles to local managers.

Intercultural Know How

Culture, language, attitudes and politics can get in the way of a global project Make sure you have a blend of local resources in leadership roles and consider local consultants instead of bringing in US resources
14

The Six Global Dimensions (cont.)

One of the first steps is to make sure you have reliable connectivity and bandwidth to move the data each night

Infrastructure Prerequisites

What happens if the data movement fails? How can you get access to backup tapes? Can the bandwidth handle end-of month high volumes? What infrastructure do each source site use?

15

The Six Global Dimensions (cont.)

Do all team members and end-users communicate as effective in English?

Training

Documentation

1. Do we need multi-language training and documentation?

2. Does basic conversational English mean that users can read and understand technical training material and documentation?
3. Have you installed Unicode on your BI system?
16

Identifying Your Business Requirements

One of the first steps is to gather the right requirements. This is done in a variety of ways, depending on which methodology you employ. It is a complex process involving:
1.
2. 3. 4.

Discovery and Education Formal communication Reviews Final approvals

An SAP NetWeaver implementation involves more than just black-and-white technical decisions; just because something is technically feasible, doesnt mean it is wise or desirable from a business perspective.

What the user wanted

How customer described it

How analyst specified it

How designer implemented it

17

Defining The Scope Of Your Global SAP BI Implementation

First, determine what the local and shared business drivers are, and make sure you meet these objectives. Define the scope in terms of what is included, as well as what is not included, make sure everyone is at least heard. In some cultures, process is as important as outcomes. Make sure you obtain approval of the scope before you progress any further. All your work from now on will be driven based on what is agreed to at this stage. As part of the written scope agreement, make sure you implement a formal change request process. This typically includes a benefit-cost estimate for each change request and a formal approval process.

Note

Change management is done to manage scope, timelines and competing business requirements. Put in place a process for capturing feedback & requests. 18

Defining The Scope Of Your global SAP BI Implementation (cont.)

For the first go-live, keep the scope as small as possible

e.g., Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, G/L, or COPA

You have only 3 dimensions to work with:

Scope

Resources
(people, technology and money)

Time

Warning

If one of these dimensions changes, you have to adjust at least one of the others
19

Prioritizing the Enterprise Global Scope (Example)

2004 2005 2006 July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb MarApr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Procurement details & summary receipts Contracts Settlements Inventory Sales Master Agreements Contractor General Ledger A/R & Credit Mgmt SNOP Cost Procurement Inventory Planning Source Analysis (enhancements) Sales opportunity Tax-severance & processor Blueprinting Realization Cutover and go-live

Plan multiple implementations, and write a long-term outline. Control change with a formal change request process.

20

Selecting A Methodology

Many times, there are several potentially right choices

i.e., when time-to-delivery is moderate, or when the impact of failure is moderate. Also be aware of local variations of the methodologies

When to Select Different Methodologies

High

Joint Application Design (JAD)

System development Life-Cycle based methodologies (SDLC)

The diagram is intended to illustrate the differences among the appropriateness of each methodology. The decision is clearer in the extreme. In practice, however, there are gray zones where more than one answer may be correct.

Time to Delivery

Extreme Programming (EP)

Rapid Application Development (RAD)

Low Low

High

Impact of Failure

21

Writing A Global Milestone Plan

Use milestone plan to illustrate dependencies and high-level tasks

July
7/16 7/23 7/30 7/2 7/9 8/6

August
8/13 8/20 8/27

September
9/10 9/17 9/24 10/1 9/3

October
10/15 10/22 10/29 10/8

November
11/12 11/19 11/26 11/5

Dec.
12/10 12/3

Environments

Post this plan on the walls and in the hallways of ervyone affected. Dont hide it in the PM's office in a different country. Keep it under 30 items

Content Migration (POC)

Report Designer & Query Designer (POC)

Visual Composer (POC)

Analysis Process Designer (POC)

BI Accelerator (POC) SAP ETL, Daemon & XI (POC)

Migration CIM to integrated planning

Wrap Up

BI Environment install & verification BI Accelerator Install & verification Portal Environment install User security migration and testing PCA ODS and Cube creation G/L line item ODS and Cube creation Data loads Query replication Data validation Query validation Testing and demo Scope definition Blueprinting Realization Testing and demo Scope definition Blueprinting Realization Testing and demo Scope definition Blueprinting Realization Testing and demo Scope definition Realization Testing and demo Scope definition Blueprinting Realization Testing and demo Scope definition Blueprinting Realization Testing and demo Address outstanding issues Re-testing Outstanding items & lessons learned

22

What Well Cover

Writing your SAP BI business case Identifying your requirements, scope, and plan-of-attack Staffing your project: lessons and examples Budgeting: how much? and for how long? Final preparations: on-boarding, writing the workplan, etc. Wrap-up

23

Six ways to organizing the Global BI development effort

Option
1 2 3 4 5 6

Benefits

Risks

Single site Distributed analysis Distributed analysis and design Co-located analysis and design Multiple co-located analysis and design Fully distributed development

The more distributed the SAP BI development effort becomes, the more difficult it is to maintain communication and get cohesive requirements.
24

Developing Your Staffing Plan: Lessons Learned

Developer training should start early for all project team members
SAP R/3 skills are not easily transferable to SAP BW

Note

Hands-on experience is needed Its very hard to learn while being productive

The quality of the team members is much more important than the number of members

An experienced SAP BI developer can accomplish in one day what 3 novice developers can do in a week The tool has a steep learning curve

25

Developing Your Staffing Plan: Lessons Learned (cont.)

Project time and cost estimates should be based on teams experience level
(we will take a second look at this when we do the budgeting!)

Plan on formal knowledge-transfer from external resources from day one

Link inexperienced members with experienced ones

Have identified go-to resources available in all areas

Make a list!
26

Sleep, Travel and Time Zones..

People

crossing 4 or more time zones need over 36 hours to adjust! This increases to over 72 hours when crossing 6 or more time zones. Some simple rules to address this:

Create a "project time" in the middle. I.e. for European and US projects, middle time would be Eastern US time +3 hrs, and European central times less 3 hours. No meetings would be scheduled between 8-11am in Europe, nor between 2-5pm in the US.

Source: Leveraging resources in global software development Battin, Crocker, Kreidler, Subramanian, Software, IEEE

Fly to the destination the day before, or allow at least 4 hours downtime for sleeping and showering at the hotel. Dont schedule meeting times around when people are traveling. Keep each trip over 5 days minimum to adjust for sleep, or risk running the team "into the ground" Plan extended weekends for family time for staff after a long trip (including consultants)

27

Example: Small local SAP BI Project for Single Subject Area

E.g., Billing, Inventory, or Accounts Payable

Note: These are roles, not positions (sometimes one team member can fill more than one role)

Project sponsor Project Manager Business team Business analyst Presentation developer Technical team

SAP BI Architect ETL developer

Basis and functional R/3 support

4-5 team members and normally 3-6 months duration depending on scope
28

Example: Mid-sized global SAP BI Project, Single Complex Subject

E.g., Global Cost and Profitability, international cross organization or consolidated billing
Project sponsor/ Steering Committee Project Manager SAP BW Architect Business Analyst(s) Extract, Transforms and Loads Data Management (InfoCubes & ODS) Presentation Developer(s) Sr. Presentation developer Presentation developer

Note: These are roles, not positions (sometimes one team member can fill more than one role)

Sr. Business analyst Business analyst

Sr. ETL developer ETL developer

Sr. SAP BI developer SAP BI developer

Basis and functional R/3 support 8-10 team members and normally 2-4 months duration depending on scope 29

Example: Large Global BI Project for Multiple Subject Areas

E.g., global Sales, Finance, and Material Management

Project sponsor/ Steering Committee

Project Manager SAP BI Architect Portal developer(s) Sales Team Finance Team

Note: These are roles, not positions (sometimes one team member can fill more than one role)

Material Mgmt. Team

Business analyst/(sub-team lead) SAP BI developer Presentation developer(s) ETL developer

Business analyst/(sub-team lead) SAP BI developer Presentation developer(s) ETL developer

Business analyst/(sub-team lead) SAP BI developer Presentation developer(s) ETL developer

Basis and functional R/3 support

15-25 team members and normally 6-18 months duration depending on scope

30

How Tightly Should Multiple Global BI Projects be Controlled?

Coordination of Multiple Data Warehouse Projects

The relationship between global control and success:

Tight Central Control (24%)

Loose Cooperation (38%)

Independent (38%)

88% Successful 100% Successful

30% Successful

Source: The Conference Board Survey

31

What Well Cover

Writing your SAP BI business case Identifying your requirements, scope, and plan-of-attack Staffing your project: lessons and examples Budgeting: how much? and for how long? Final preparations: on-boarding, writing the workplan, etc. Wrap-up

32

SAP Business Intelligence Project Budgeting Process Steps

Size the SAP BI effort based on the scope Prioritize the effort Map the effort to the delivery schedule Plan for number of resources needed based on the scope, delivery schedule and the effort.
1. Create the Milestone Plan and Scope Statement first, before attacking the budgeting process!!
Tip

1. 2. 3. 4.

2. Start the budgeting process by estimating the workload in terms of the development effort. Refine based on the teams skill experience and skill level
33

1. Size SAP BI Effort Based on the Scope Real Example

Customi zation Tech. Dev. infocube Extraction and Report transforms and roles Security and scheduling Web development User support/ planning Project mgmt System docs Tech infraand admin & manuals structure Bus. Analysis, training, req. gathering, change mgmt. Total Hours

L M L M L M L L L L L L L L L M M M M

Financials General ledger line item (ODS) COPA Prod cost planning released cost estimates (COPC_C09) Exploded itemization standard product cost (COPC_C10) Cost and allocations (COOM_C02) Cost object controlling (0PC_C01) Order Billing Sales order Acct. Rec. (0FIAR_C03) Deliver Shipment cost details (0LES_C02) Shipment header (0LES_C11) Stages of shipment (0LES_C12) Delivery data of shipment stages (0LES_C13) Delivery service (0SD_C05) Planning and Scheduling Material Movements (0IC_C03) APO Planning SNP Integration Manufacturing Processes Production Orders Cross Applications Total Hours

216 158 216 238 216 238 216 216 216 216 216 216 216 180 216 277 277 277 277 4,298

229 286 229 286 1144 286 229 229 229 229 228 228 228 229 457 832 832 832 832 8,074

188 153 188 216 188 216 187 187 187 187 187 187 187 133 132 216 216 216 216 3,587

101 127 101 126 101 137 101 101 101 101 101 101 101 101 101 127 127 127 127 2,110

132 153 133 153 132 153 132 132 132 132 132 132 132 132 132 153 153 153 153 2,656

134 152 135 152 135 152 135 135 135 135 135 135 135 134 134 152 152 152 152 2,681

100 120 100 120 100 120 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 120 120 120 120 2,040

79 94 79 94 79 94 79 79 79 79 79 79 79 79 79 94 94 94 94 1,606

150 180 150 180 150 180 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 180 180 180 180 3,060

403 470 403 470 403 470 403 403 403 403 403 403 403 403 403 470 470 470 470 8,126

1,732 1,893 1,734 2,035 2,648 2,046 1,732 1,732 1,732 1,732 1,731 1,731 1,731 1,641 1,904 2,621 2,621 2,621 2,621 38,238

Remember that your sizing also has to be based on the teams experience and skill level.
34

2. Prioritize the Effort

Financials General ledger line item (ODS) COPA Prod cost planning released cost estimates (COPC_C09) Exploded itemization standard product cost (COPC_C10) Cost and allocations (COOM_C02) Cost object controlling (0PC_C01) Order Billing Sales order Accounts receivables (0FIAR_C03) Deliver Shipment cost details (0LES_C02) Shipment header (0LES_C11) Stages of shipment (0LES_C12) Delivery data of shipment stages (0LES_C13) Delivery service (0SD_C05) Planning and Scheduling Material Movements (0IC_C03) APO Planning SNP Integration Manufacturing Processes Production Orders Cross Applications
qtr 1 2005 qtr 2 qtr 3 qtr 4 qtr 1 2006 qtr 2 qtr 3 qtr 4 qtr 1 2007 qtr 2 qtr 3

The next step is to prioritize and outline the effort on a strategic timeline

Make sure your sponsor and the business community agree with your delivery schedule
35

3. Use Project Estimates & the Timeline to Create Project Load Plan
2005 qtr 1 Financials General ledger line item (ODS) 866 COPA 946.5 Prod cost planning released cost estimates (COPC_C09) Exploded itemization standard product cost (COPC_C10) Cost and allocations (COOM_C02) Cost object controlling (0PC_C01) Order Billing Sales order Accounts receivables (0FIAR_C03) Deliver Shipment cost details (0LES_C02) Shipment header (0LES_C11) Stages of shipment (0LES_C12) Delivery data of shipment stages (0LES_C13) Delivery service (0SD_C05) Planning and Scheduling Material Movements (0IC_C03) APO Planning SNP Integration Manufacturing Processes Production Orders Cross Applications Total 1,813 qtr 2 qtr 3 qtr 4 qtr 1 qtr 2 2006 qtr 3 qtr 4 qtr 1 2007 qtr 2 qtr 3

866 947 867 1017.5 1324 1023 867 1017.5 1324 1023 866 866 866 866 866 866 866 865.5 865.5 865.5 820.5 866 865.5 865.5 865.5 820.5 952 1310.5 1310.5 952 1311 1311 1311 1311 1,311 1,311

1,732 1,893 1,734 2,035 2,648 2,046 1,732 1,732 1,732 1,732 1,731 1,731 1,731 1,641 1,904 2,621 2,621 2,621 2,621

1,813

4,232

4,232

2,598

2,598

4,283

4,283

3,573

6,195

2,622

38,238

Note

There are 480 available work hours per project member per quarter. Knowing this, we can plan the number of team members we need NOTE: Remember to plan for different vacation schedules (i.e. in Europe a 3-4 weeks vacation is not unusual).
36

4. Result: Good Input for the Staffing Costs and Planning

Use this information to plan for training, on-boarding, and staffing
Number of team members 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 qtr 1 qtr 2 qtr 3 qtr 4 qtr 1 qtr 2 qtr 3 qtr 4 qtr 1 qtr 2 qtr 3

This spike in resource needs is due to an overlap in the delivery schedule

Now might be a good time to review that decision

Tip

Many companies plan a 60%- 40% mix of internal and external resources for a first go-live. Also, most use $50-$90 per hr for internal budgeting and $90-$170 per hr for external resources.

37

What Well Cover

Writing your SAP BI business case Identifying your requirements, scope, and plan-of-attack Staffing your project: lessons and examples Budgeting: how much? and for how long? Final preparations: on-boarding, writing the workplan, etc. Wrap-up

38

Global On-Boarding and Training

BW Developer ETL Developer Presentation Developer Project Manager Business Analysts

Ideal Yrs Experience (minimum) 2+ 3+ 1+ 5+ 5+

Training days In-house (if new in the training role) days 15 3-5 15-20 5-10 10-15 5-10 3-5 3-5 3-5 3-5

Dont underestimate the value of in-house, hands-on training in addition to formal SAP training classes.
Note

It is also important to provide technical training to the team members in their own language and this is normally best done in their respective countries, 39

Writing the Workplan SAP Best Practices for BI

A sample workplan can be downloaded from the SAP Best Practices for BI web site

A test drive is available on the Web site: http://help.sap.com/bp_biv170/index.htm

40

Writing the Workplan

28-May 29-May 30-May 31-May 1-Jun

ID

TASK

1 SAP Best Practices BI Implementation Roadmap - read Notes 11 Blueprint Phase & Planning Phase 12 Apply for Going Live Check 13 Finalize Project Scope [selected scenarios] 14 Check Content delivered by Best Practices 15 Determine those issues affecting BW Implementation and assign risk to project 16 Present Final Scope to Customer and Get Signoff of Scope 17 Project Planning Phase 18 Set Up Development Environment 19 Define transport Strategy 20 Activate TMS 21 Define Project Organization and Create Teams 22 Analyze Roles and Tasks by Standard Content Areas and Technical 23 Update delivered Project Plan & finalize, including resources assignments 24 Define customer rollout & training strategy for SAP BW 25 Define types of users of the BW 26 Determine Number of users for BW 27 Determine Data Access Requirements

The Workplan
1. 2. 3.

400 to 1000 line-item workplans are not unusual for mid-size and large SAP BI implementations

Write a detailed workplan that references the methodology. Make sure the workplan is detailed enough to track project progress. Progress can be measured by hours used, vs. % of tasks completed.

More Details on workplan writing available here: Writing Solid and Realistic Work Plans for a SAP BI Implementation Project, SAP Project Mgmt Conference 2005,http://cscstudentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/articles/PM05_Berg_Writingasolid.ppt

2-Jun

41

Effort, Duration and Mistakes on Global BI Projects

Source: Planning and improving global software development process by Setamanit, Wakeland, Raffo, May 2006, international workshop on Global software development

Recent research have demonstrated that global projects that spends more days (duration) on similar tasks, have less defects and less re-work. Since team members are more likely to work on multiple tasks not related to the project, longer durations on developing the SAP BI system does not mean more effort (i.e. work hours).
42

Global Project Risk Mitigation Strategies

State 3 items in every design, budget and final deliverable:

L - Limitations (what are the assumed, existing and design limitations)

A - Assumptions (what assumptions are made, and what happens when these assumptions are no longer true?) R - Risks (what are the risks created by this approach, what are the impacts of failure, and how can these risks be minimized)
Developers, designers and business analysts should be forced to write at least one paragraph on each of these item. It forces new thinking as well as the constant questioning of assumptions (which may not be accurate).

43

Plan for solving Global SAP BI project issues

Source: Leveraging resources in global software development Battin, Crocker, Kreidler, Subramanian, Software, IEEE

Having IT people engaged in SAP BI global development without providing the right infrastructure, approach and management is a recipe for failure

44

Global Project Risk Mitigation Strategies

Add 15% more project time for travel and adjustments Rotate travel so that the stress is more evenly distributed on the team Plan to spend 5-10 days at the beginning of the project to level set and build trust and social networks before the real work begins.

Create a formal escalation process of issues related to the project and make sure one culture does not dominate. Select a project language formally and make sure all team members are proficient in it.
Spend time rewarding inter-team cooperation and create opportunities for promotion within and outside both teams (cross pollinate)
45

Monitoring Progress

Note

Manage the workplan from a percent complete standpoint on a weekly basis Create weekly status reports with core progress metrics and send to all team members (keep it high-level and tangible) Require monthly status reports from all team members in a fixed format Keep a close eye on the deadlines for the deliverables and make to follow-up personally on late tasks Track percent complete tasks in the workplan against the number of hours, or days worked, to see if you are on-track.
SAP BI is a complex environment that has many dependencies. Late tasks can have significant impacts on the overall project.
46

Warning

Monitoring BI Quality and Formal Approval Process: Example

Integration Testing
No

Create Technical specs

Create Functional specs

No

System Testing
Complete? Yes

Complete?
Yes

Unit Testing

Yes

Configuration Peer Review

Yes No Approved?

Peer Review

No

Approved?

Complete? No

Yes

Structured walkthrough
No Complete? Yes

Structured walkthrough 47

The User Acceptance Group and Its Role

Create a user acceptance team consisting of 5-7 members from the various business departments or organizations
Keep the number odd to assist with votes when decisions need to be made. With fewer than 5 members, it can be hard to get enough members present at each meeting Make this team the focus of your requirements gathering in the early phase, then let this team perform user acceptance testing during the Realization phase Meet with the team at least once a month during realization to refine requirements as you are building, and have something to show them

This approach is hard to execute when also managing scope, but is I essential to make sure that the system meets users requirements s s u e
48

What Well Cover

Writing your SAP BI business case Identifying your requirements, scope, and plan-of-attack Staffing your project: lessons and examples Budgeting: how much? and for how long? Final preparations: on-boarding, writing the workplan, etc. Wrap-up

49

Resources

Dr. Bjarne Berg Home page (70+ articles and presentations):

http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/BB_index_main.htm

Five Core Metrics: The Intelligence Behind Successful Software Management

By Lawrence H. Putnam & Ware Myers

Waltzing With Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects

By Tom Demarco & Timothy Lister

Mastering the SAP Business Information Warehouse

By Kevin McDonald, Andreas Wilmsmeier, David C. Dixon (August 2006 edition)

50

7 Key Points to Take Home

Write the business case around the areas of greatest benefit to more than one user community - think globally act locally!!

Warning: Dont use a shotgun approach, keep it focused

Define your scope in-terms of what is included, and state what is not included and make it clear to everyone from the start

Establish a formal global change control process that is well communicated and that have instruments for capturing feedback
Plan your global project based on the hours required for the effort, and the project teams experience and skill levels. Add 15% more time than you would for a local project.

51

7 Key Points to Take Home (cont.)

Establish milestone dates, and map the work hours required to these dates. Include local vacation schedules and holidays. Be sensitive to local work practices and don't 'enforce' your management style on the team (accept diversity). Establish a formal global on-boarding plan for project resources and make sure they receive appropriate training. Establish a formal process for quality control and approval of deliverables. Communicate often and spend time on team building activities.

52

END OF PART 1. Next: How Do We Deliver What We Promised?

How to contact me: bberg@myitgroup.com

53