Service Definition Document
Cloud Solutions
Table of Contents
PROJECT INITIATION – ONBOARDING PROCESS .................................................................. 3
Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................................................3
Key Project Roles and Responsibilities throughout the project ..................................................................................4
Vetasi Value Added Project Methodology Outline of KEY Steps ................................................................................5
Phase 1 - Planning and Definition .....................................................................................................................................6
Phase 2 - Design ................................................................................................................................................................10
Phase 3 - Build ...................................................................................................................................................................15
Phase 4 - Enable ................................................................................................................................................................21
Project Initiation – Onboarding Process
Introduction
Vetasi knows that a well thought through approach before starting an implementation process is a solid
investment, which will represent the greatest chance of delivering success.
Vetasi’s Value Added Project Management methodology is based on recognising this, Vetasi uses a Value
Added Project Management methodology for all its projects. This implementation methodology has been
derived from others such as Prince2, SSADM, etc. but offers a much reduced project burden to suit the
size of our customer installations but nevertheless retains a rigour to ensure projects are delivered
relentlessly to time and cost.
Vetasi consultants understand that one of the key benefits of Maximo is its ease of configuration and
implementation, the methodology reflects that.
Implementation, upgrade, improvement and support of Maximo and Syclo solutions are the only type of
projects Vetasi performs and we aim to do this as well as we can by constantly improving and learning
from each project we perform.
Key Project Roles and Responsibilities throughout the project
Throughout the project key roles are the Business Project Leader, the Maximo Project Manager and the
Vetasi Engagement manager.
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Business Project Leader
• Manages the Change Approval Board (CAB) and Change Request Board (CRB)
• Ensure that Client staff are available when required
• Ensure project processes involving client staff are adhered to
• Accountability for client budget and timeline
• Ensures that project stays focused on the requirement specified by the business
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Maximo Project Manager
• Manages the IT resources allocated to the project
• Ensure project processes are adhered to
• Accountability for total budget and timeline
• Responsible for project communications
• Responsible for project risk management
• Responsible for quality of deliverables
• Ensures that project stays focused on the requirement specified by the business
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Engagement Manager
• Ensure the correct Vetasi resources are allocated to the project at the right time
• Ensure project quality processes are adhered to so that project delivers to the quality
standards set by Vetasi and the client
• Accountability for Vetasi communications, budget and timeline
• Ensures that project stays focused on the requirement specified by the business
Vetasi Value Added Project Methodology Outline of KEY Steps
Planning
Definition
&
Design
Build
Deploy
Key Project Roles
Sponsor
System Architect
System Architect
Deployment manager
User Representative
Technical
Consultants
Hardware
Steering Committee
User Representative
Business Consultant
Technical
Consultants
Software
Project Administrator
Training and
Consultant
Testing
Key Project Activities
Agree Mission
Agree Value Points and
Benefits
Agree Coding Standards
Agree
Criteria
Agree Scope
Review Current System
and Business Process
Technical specifications
Data Migration
Agree Change Control
Gap Analysis
Technical Infrastructure
Delivery
Process Documentation
Agree Roles
Enhance
Processes
Create
Environment
Acceptance Testing
Agree Resources
Specify New Software
Configuration
Test Plan
User Training
Agree
Risk
Management Plan
Specify New Software
Enhancements
Unit Test Reports
Roll out
Agree Quality Plan
Specify Interfaces
Training Plan + Roll out
Plan
Support Contract
Agree Project Plan WBS
L1
Create
Plan
System Test Report
Formal Handover
Agree Budget and Value
Proposition
Design
Value
Proposition Review
Build Value Proposition
Review
Value
Review
Business
Acceptance
Test
Infrastructure
Proposition
Phase 1 - Planning and Definition
Vetasi’s methodology slots in after a selection phase by the client. The planning and definition phase will
ensure the client and the Vetasi project phases synchronise and move forward together.
Key Project Roles and Responsibilities in this phase
In this phase it is essential to set up clear accountability for and communication lines to all members of the
project. Clearly defined escalation lines are key to ultimate success.
Key members of this part of the project are:
 Project Sponsor(s)
• Takes the politics out of the project
•
Manages the Steering committee / Project Board
 Steering Committee members
• Change Review board (CRB)
• Change Control Board (CCB)
• Project board
(PB)
 Project administrator
• Book meetings, workshops, CAB, CRB and PB meetings
• Collate data for reports
• Enable and maintain communications activities
Planning and Definition Phase activities
Within the Planning and definition phase, the project planning workshop will develop the following. This
need not be onerous task as Vetasi has templates that can be adapted by the client to complement the
clients own documents.
The components of this phase relate to the creation of (if necessary) and the agreement on:
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The Project Mission
Statement of Work - Contract Review
Change Management
Roles and Resources Definitions
The Communication Plan
The Risk Management Plan
The Quality Plan
The Project Plan and Reports
The Project Value Proposition
Agree The Mission - Clear Mission statement from the planning workshop
The project mission statement formalizes the request from a sponsor for responding to a business need.
The project Mission is usually a short document that refers to some other more detailed documents such
as a "new offering request" or a "Statement of Work". It may also be used to support a request for
additional scope within a program.
Agree The Scope - Review scope in the planning workshop
The Project Scope Document contains the results of the SOW or proposal review activities. Those results
are used as a starting point to build the project plan. The reasons for formalising a scope document are:
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Formalize the understanding of the Mission Statement by the delivery organization.
Provide the plan elements in order to control the activities within Scope.
Give an initial description of the project planning activities.
Provide the plan elements in order to control the Planning activities.
Gather the fundamental characteristics of the project in a unique document.
Agree Change Control - Set up Change review and Change Control Board
Issue and Change management includes the processes required to control all the unforeseen changes
and issues that inevitably arise during the course of a project and may jeopardize quality, and
deadlines. Therefore, the management of issues and change is a critical factor in the success of a
project.
The primary focus of Issue and Change management is on those issues that arise and changes that are
introduced during the course of the project by the client and the deliverables organisation.
Requirements changes, changes to the content of deliverables, or changes to due dates are
examples of this kind of change introduced by the client. Similarly, changes initiated by the delivery
organization, must be controlled using the same approach.
It is not Vetasi’s intention to use the Change Control Mechanism to generate Extra Revenue to Vetasi as
the delivery partner in this project. In fact it is company policy to log minor changes for impact only
purposes and not propose additional costs to the project for no delivery impact changes.
Agree Roles and Resources - Assign key personnel agree resource structure
A clear aware of the key roles and personalities that occupy these roles is essential to the project success.
Keys roles are defined in the Vetasi Value Added Methodology and this activity insures that these roles
are clear to all members of the Project and clearly communicated to the overall community affected by
the deliverables of the project
Agree Communications Plan - Meeting Structure, Reporting and Reviews
The communication plan formally defines all internal and external project communications.
The Communications must include:
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Weekly project reporting (Vetasi have a well-defined weekly project report)
Project Financial report (Vetasi have a defined monthly value earned report)
Project meeting (Vetasi recommend start of day meetings for all their project members)
Project review Board (Vetasi recommend bi-weekly project review board meetings)
Agree Risk Management Plan - Risk Assessment from Planning Workshop
The Risk management plan is the collection of the project’s mitigation, contingency and reserve plans for
dealing with identified risks. Each individual plan addresses a single risk or a class of risks. Because a
single risk or a class of risks can have more than one planned response (e.g., a risk can be addressed by
both a mitigation and a contingency plan), there is one risk response plan (entry) in the Risk management
plan for each planned response for each identified risk or a class of risks.
The purpose of the Risk management plan is to document all the plans associated with a risk or set of
related risks.
Agree Quality Plan - Define Roles and Responsibilities
The project quality plan is designed to enable the project team to keep track of all the quality related
documentation and deliveries.
A project consists of numerous activities and if we visualise each of these as a blade of hay we can think
of the project as a hay stack. However if any activity does not match up to the expected standard that
blade of hay turns into a needle, so the quality plan is designed to enable the team to quickly identify the
needles in the haystack and hopefully ensure that they do no harm!
Vetasi’s framework quality plan points to the key documents and reports that identify and monitor the
quality of the project deliverables and point to their respective repositories and owners.
The quality plan is designed to ease the task of the quality reviewers and ensures all the key elements of
the project have an associated quality target and audit dates are set and agreed.
Agree Work Breakdown Structure - Build the Framework Plan and Cost Structure
Vetasi uses a number of Gantt charting tools to ensure the project activities are monitored and the timeline
is properly managed.
The most commonly used is Microsoft project. A proposed initial outline MPP is attached to this proposal.
Agree Budget and Value Proposition - Review the Target Benefits and their Realisation
Vetasi prefers to work with the client on a Benefits Realization Plan which relates the scope of the project
to the benefit the client proposes to realise from carrying out the project.
The Benefits Realization Plan is used to track, measure, and report benefits achieved through various
projects/initiatives.
A properly defined and executed Benefits Realization Plan will:
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Maximize the achievement of the benefits defined by the client in the Project - Business
Case
Motivate key sponsors to push for a successful implementation of benefit drivers and
measure results
Place the ownership of benefits realization on the appropriate operational business
personnel, not just project personnel
Increase the flow of communication between the business teams/groups and the project
team
Highlight potential issues before significant impact
The Principles and Critical Success Factors of a Benefits Realization Plan are the following:
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Clear Metrics
o Clearly defined metrics linked directly to driving benefits identified in business case
o Quality data available to feed metrics
Active Executive Involvement
o Gain buy-in from the Executive Committee early in the process
o Maintain Executive Committee involvement throughout the benefits realization
process
Routine Reporting of Progress
o Define, baseline, and agree on the key metrics to track progress from the beginning
of the Benefits Realization process
o Report at the conclusion of each project phase to Executive Committee and Process
Owners
Phase 2 - Design
Having created the project environment and verified the scope in planning and definition phase it is
important that the design ensures that Business and Technical change go hand in hand to deliver the
optimum solution to our clients.
In this phase the business and the technical members of the team work together to create a solution that
meets the requirements of the projects. This phase is lead by the business members, and key roles are:
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The user representatives or champions as Vetasi likes to call them – specialist from
each area of the business that will be impacted by the delivery of the requirements. These
members are ideally full time project members which their day to day roles mainly
delegated for the period of the project.
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The Business Consultants – Vetasi staff with experience of implementing systems as
required in similar environments coupled with an in depth knowledge of the functionality of
Maximo and its associated products, with a knowledge of what can effectively be achieved.
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The System Architect or Lead Business Consultant – who orchestrates the delivery of
the design and ensures through peer reviews that the system is cohesive and effective
The technical consultants play a supporting role creating the Technical Infrastructure
Plan and ensuring the team are prepared for the next phase
Design Phase activities
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Agree Value Points and Benefits
Review Current System and Business Process
Gap Analysis
Enhance Business Processes
Specify New Software Configuration Requirements and functions
Specify New Software Enhancements Technology
Specify Interfaces
Create Technical Infrastructure Plan
Design Value Proposition Review
Agree Value Points and Benefits
It is important that the design team is fully aware of the benefits that are to accrue from the projects.
The project manager should therefore ensure that the project objectives are clearly communicated and
that the teams main motivation is to deliver the benefits driving the project.
Any effort to generate additional benefits that may be identified should be encouraged; but be managed
through change control so that the client management can evaluate the necessary decisions to enable
the realisation of any additional benefits.
Review Current System and Business Process
These reviews are carried out through Business Process Alignment Workshops
Vetasi have a standard set of Best Practice Business processes which, we feel, make best use of the
Maximo solution. Clients may very well have some excellent business practices that they wish to conserve
and Vetasi as a learning organisation are constantly willing to learn from our customers what works ‘best’
in different environments. However, working practices do not live in isolation from the systems that support
them and the focus of these alignment workshops is to identify and compare existing client processes and
Vetasi processes.
The analysis will be carried out in different streams as appropriate to the proposed implementation (e.g.
Maintenance, Inventory, Purchasing, Finance Integration, Service Desk etc.)
The process involves intensive workshop sessions are held where the Vetasi consultant will walk through
the client’s business process in detail with the core team, using the latest version of Maximo. This
exercise is extremely interactive and will involve prototype data loading, prototyping of Workflows, screens
and database configurations to get as close a match as possible between the desired business process
and the standard Maximo product. Identifying appropriate workflows and screen and non screen
configurations can be adapted to enable simplified use of Maximo and reducing the impact of future
upgrades.
During this exercise, the degree of business change will be discussed:
Where gaps are identified, solutions will be discussed and agreed. These solutions may result in either
amendment to the business processes or configurations to the Maximo solution
Gap Analysis
Formal documentation of the gap analysis identified in the previous activity. A formal Document which will
form part of the design specification will be produced, this will detail the
Business process Changes by relating the to be changed process to the proposed new business
processes. This will include definition of user interfaces with Maximo as well as proposed KPIs, reports,
and details of suggested interface points with other systems.
This step includes the presentation of the Gap Analysis documents to Client’s management for their
approval. Approval is especially required if there are significant changes to existing business process that
may have impact beyond simple implementation of the system
Enhanced Business Processes
This step involves the formal definition/View and documentation of the new Business Processes after the
delivery of the project. Manual aspects of these processes will be reviewed again and finalised in the
training preparation of the build phase.
The amount of Business change in implementing a Maximo solution can obviously be small or large
depending on the existing business process and the size of the business. The Business's capability of
accepting and embracing change will also be a factor; for instance where a common Maximo system is
implemented across sites that have alternative ways of working may be difficult. Indeed it is these "people"
issues that often dictate the speed of implementation of the Maximo system. Maximo is a system that is
easily tailored and can therefor be readily adapted to a particular client's environment. Vetasi have many
years experience and recognise the difficulty in creating an effective balance between a heavily modified
Maximo and a tailored standard Maximo. Our approach is to "guide" clients towards standard work
practices fully supported by the out-of-the-box Maximo solution. Where this is not possible, the cost of
implementing and customising Maximo will be increased.
The Business process review also addresses the matters related to Organisational roles and
responsibilities, groups and Security profiles which will be defined to ensure that only those allowed to
perform certain functions are given appropriate access to the Maximo system elements. As part of the
review user profiles are defined to be allocated security authorisation according to the roles they fill.
Specify New Software Configuration Requirements and Functions
The documents that outline the New Software configuration are referred to as Requirement/ or Functional
Specification documents.
The Purpose of a Configuration Requirement specification is for a non IT professional person to
understand the changes or new proposed facility in the system. The document should therefore avoid all
technical IT or system terminology. The reader should clearly see his existing business process and how
the development proposed in this spec will change it, both in terms of the features of the Maximo solution
and the underlying processes behind the user interfaces.
A functional specification tends to be used in a more IT centric environment where the user does
understand the basics of the technology used to deliver the solution. So here technical details can be used
such as Data base definitions, and communications protocol as well as SQL and possibly Java
statements.
The key to how much "technology language" should be used is determined by the target audience so
Vetasi is writing for non IT staff use the Configuration Requirements spec. For more IT centric staff Vetasi
will use the Functional spec.
Both Specifications are derived from the Business Process Alignment Workshops. They detail changes to
the out-of-the-box Maximo elements.
They will highlight:
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Maximo Applications to be used (eg Contracts, Service Desk etc.)
Customisations to the base product (where absolutely necessary)
Interfaces (eg. SAP, Microsoft Project)
Workflows
Changes to Database elements (new tables, indexes, new columns etc.)
Reports (changes to standard reports and new reports)
Application Set up values (eg Work Order Priority)
Where appropriate, Vetasi may well create separate documents for some of these elements.
Specify the Technical Solution for New Software Enhancements
This step translates the Configuration Requirement Specification or the functional Specification
defining the modifications to the software to a Technical Specification. It is an instruction set of how the
developer will enable the additional functionality defined in the requirements / functional specifications. It
therefore should be clear what the programmer should do without restricting his ability to practice his
trade. This document is to be peer reviewed. The developer should work to the standards laid out in the
Vetasi project coding and technical standards.
Specify Interfaces
Software products have a requirement to pass information from one solution to the next. Such interfaces
need careful specification so that they can be supported and maintained in future.
Specifications vary depending on the interface type.
Interfaces are always very specific to the industry involved. Where the Maximo solution fits into the overall
solution each specific implementation will be assessed accordingly. Vetasi has significant experience with
working with 3rd party ERP solutions such as SAP, Oracle e-financials and Infor's Sun accounts. Vetasi
will always recommend use of the Maximo Integration Framework for all Integrations.
Create Technical Infrastructure Plan
The TIP is a key document as it reviews the hardware and operating software (including DB) of the
environment into which the application software is targeted to work.
This Specification deals with all the IT infrastructure, telecommunications and critical computer resource
requirements for all environments within the project. These may be development, test, production and
data load environments that are required to fulfil the project requirements. The Technical Infrastructure
Plan (TIP), known in many companies (confusingly) just as the Technical Specification will outline the
infrastructure specifications, a physical and logical set of system diagrams for each supported
environment and environment control details that show how customisations and data flow through the
systems into production.
To produce this document a Vetasi Senior Technical Architect will work alongside a Lead Technical
Architect from the Client’s IT department. The duration and resource requirements of this track will vary
greatly according to the size of the Maximo installation (Typical size drivers are: is mobile computing
required? How complex are the integration points with existing products is? Is the data a consolidation of
data from many different existing systems? All these will impact the complexity and time taken for system
testing and therefore may affect the duration of the project)
The quality of this document will greatly affect the end user's perception of the performance of the Maximo
Application so it’s a must get right delivery element.
Design Value Proposition Review
It is good practice to review the requirements and proposed solutions after the design phase, so the
methodology provides for this.
Cost benefits should be firmed up so that the true financial justification and associated benefits can be
reported back to senior management.
It is important to use the workshops as a way of capturing benefits data, and creating methods to collect
that data on an on-going basis, so that the timing and amounts of the benefits to be achieved can be fine
tuned
Phase 3 - Build
Having created the design it is now the task of the technical team to construct the software and the
environment according to the agreed design.
This phase also incorporates the preparatory related to data conversion/preparation and training
preparation effort to enable the delivery of the system into the real life business environment. The key
roles in this phase are
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The Technical team lead or Architect – depending on the nature of the project there may be a
number of Technical team leads for differing deliveries e.g. mobile, reporting, Integration as well as
the core product team lead. The technical team leads are responsible for the technical standards,
consistency of delivery and quality of the deliverables and its associated documentation.
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The Configuration manager – usually the client IT department member responsible for the
creation of the IT infrastructure and software environment. More often than not the data migration
and interface team leads report to the configuration manager.
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The training lead – responsible for adapting the standard training materials to the individual
client’s requirements. In this phase the training lead may well train the team that will conduct the
system test and the User Acceptance Test.
Build Phase activities
Vetasi consultants understand that one of the key benefits of Maximo is its ease of implementation. This is
especially true in the build phase. The activities which encompass this phase are:
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Agree Build Standards
Technical Infrastructure Delivery
Technical Build and Documentation
Data and Interface Build
Finalise Test Plan
Technology Delivery
Training and Roll out Plan
System Test Report and Build Plan Finalization
Build Value Proposition Review
Agree Build Standards
Vetasi Technical consultants are aware of the standards that need to apply to Maximo to ensure upward
compatibility to future Maximo releases. Our Coding, Documentation and Configuration standards reflect
this.
Vetasi uses Subversion to ensure consistency of source materials and effective configuration control.
All code and configuration changes are delivered with an install script and a unit test script.
Technical Infrastructure Delivery
This is the creation of the physical infrastructure in which the project will be delivered. The Technical
Infrastructure Plan will be the basic document used as the work instruction to create this environment.
In environments where Validation of processes are key such as the Pharmaceutical Instry there is an IQ
phase which evaluates the quality of the Infrastructure created.
Install Maximo & Related Products
Maximo, BIRT, Syclo, Scheduler, etc. are loaded onto the appropriate target environments.
Vetasi recommend the use of:
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A development Environment
A test environment
A training environment
A Production environment
Databases are sized and tuned for the requirements of each environment.
Technical Build and Documentation
This aspect of the project is delivers modifications and enhancements to the Maximo and associated
technology in a controlled manner. It covers the following areas:
System Configuration: Standing Data Setup, Start-Centre development, Work-Flow Development Data
field additions, Screen-Field additions etc.
Here, the work specified in the Detailed Spec is performed. Although the process will try and limit
configuration, it is inevitable that there will be elements required to support the implementation. Some
changes are minor and are easily configurable such as:
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Re-labelling of Screens to suit Clients terminology.
Hiding of non-required fields on screens.
Creation of extra fields to hold additional data not provided by standard package.
Changing of data field lengths.
Creation of a set of Workflows to meet Business Process
Setting up of additional status values to reflect Client’s work flow.
Workflow
Vetasi have developed a standard set of workflows to support their Best Practice processes.
Maximo Business Objects
Vetasi have technical consultants who can provide enhanced validation and other features not standard in
Maximo through coding additional objects in the Maximo Public Java classes. Though we offer this service
we would recommend that its use is minimised in an initial Maximo installation.
Reports and KPI Generation.
Maximo is shipped with many standard reports and we provide additional reports within the Vetasi
solution. Additional reports can be created with the BIRT tool provided with the Maximo solution. If the
client wishes to use an alternative tool, then this can usually be accommodated but work will be required
to convert the reports to the new tool. As well as being fully integrated into Start Centre, the cost of the
BIRT solution is included in the Maximo licence. So use of BIRT is often the lowest cost option.
Mobile Computing.
If a mobile Computing solution is required then additional configuration / development will be required.
Vetasi is the leading supplier of Syclo Maximo mobile solutions in the UK and has implemented mobile
solutions for Inventory, Work management, Asset discovery, planning and audit applications.
Data Load and Interface Build
Vetasi have built a centre of excellence in their Bristol offices specialising in data load and migrating data
to Maximo from other systems. The scripts and tools available to this team enable them to compete
effectively with offerings for data load from low cost resources from the developing world.
The degree of data work will vary between each project. For instance, a migration from earlier versions of
Maximo to the latest version should be straightforward unless the client is taking advantage of the move to
clean up data. In a new the Maximo installation, all legacy data sources must be considered. Data
migration can be a costly exercise and the value of legacy data must be considered against its cost to
move. Other solutions such as Data Archiving old data should be considered, Vetasi can provide support
in terms of implementing the IBM Optim Solution. A Data Strategy must be agreed between Vetasi and the
Client and execution of this strategy will be planned into the overall Project plan.
Interfaces will be very specific to the industry involved. Where the Maximo solution fits into the overall
solution each specific implementation will be assessed accordingly. Vetasi has significant experience of
creating and with working with 3rd party integration tools to ERP solutions such as SAP, Oracle e-financials
and Infor’s Sun accounts.
Finalise Test Plans
Testing is Boring ... Well its tedious and regrettably necessary .. Testing requires dedication and attention
to detail. This phase is a test of good project management.
The PM has to ensure his team are ready to test in terms of being able to document the numerous
scenarios and diligently check them. In larger projects a specialist test team or even a separate company
specialising in testing software may be engaged. Ultimately the quality of the product and the creditability
of Vetasi will depend on the quality of the User Acceptance Test and the tests preceding that.
The unit test plans created in the technical build steps are combined with Vetasi’s standard Maximo test
plans to formulate a system test document.
Vetasi can assist with setting up standard test tools such as the IBM Rational tools if required.
Technology Delivery
The technical aspects of the project are all brought together in this step. The load scripts for
enhancements are tested and applied to the Test system by the system administrator. The data load
routines developed are similarly applied. Configurations are loaded into the test environment. The
interfaces are preloaded and activated.
Each technical object delivered should have 4 components
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A specification of the unit functionality
The actual Unit / Object
A load script
A Unit test script
The construction of the test system is a simulation of the way the live production system will eventually go
together. Documentation is verified and validated
Training and Roll out Plan
The degree of organisational change will, alongside the amount of process change and the experience of
the users dictate how much training is required. Both new Process and Maximo product training may be
required.
Some companies prefer a “train the trainer” approach, other wish to use internal or third party trainers.
Vetasi have a complete set of training materials for Maximo build up from a number of implementations in
both French and English, this can be made available to third party trainers at a cost. Alternatively Vetasi
provide a full training service in all modules of Maximo
Once the training plan is completed the logistics of the complete roll out plan are finalised taking into
account support requirements and specific system requirements for each individual department or site
where Maximo may be deployed.
System Test Report and Build Finalisation
System testing is performed by the product champions together with the training teams before the
configured test system together with its data is handed over to the users for their User Acceptance
Testing, prior to “Go Live”.
Often business will employ a separate testing company to test on their behalf. Vetasi can provide such
services and, in this case, would set up an independent test team to ensure the correct level of rigour is
bought to testing.
Performance, Regression Testing and System Tuning.
The performance of Maximo is dictated by a number of factors: The infrastructure design (Size and
number of servers), the volume of data in each table, frequency of reports etc. Tools are available within
Maximo to tune the system. Vetasi will assist the clients IT team in conducting a performance test before
the system goes live but performance needs to be continually monitored by the IT service provider once
the system is live.
The final part of this step is for the users to sign of the system as production ready. Once this is completed
the system build tools and documentation used to build the test system are reviewed and signed off by the
clients IT department
Build Value Proposition Review
It is essential to review the requirements and proposed solutions after the build phase, so the
methodology provides for this.
Cost benefits should be firmed up so that the true financial justification and associated benefits can be
reported back to senior management.
It is important to use the user acceptance testing as a way of capturing benefits data, and creating
methods to collect that data on an on-going basis, so that the timing and amounts of the benefits to be
achieved can be fine tuned
New opportunities for the realisation of additional benefits should be documented and form the basis of an
additional development phase once the system is established.
Phase 4 - Enable
The enablement or delivery phase of the project deals with the process of gaining end user acceptance,
the full operational handover of the system to the users and the client support organisation and
establishing the ongoing Vetasi support for the product through its life cycle beyond the implementation
phases.
Key roles in this phase are:
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The user representatives or Champions - who will be the ambassadors of the system during the
training and live running of the system. Their previous involvement in the project gives them both a
sense of ownership and a deep knowledge of the application which will be a key to the successful
roll out.
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The Deployment manager (s) – who will take on the role of overall management of the
operational system during the roll out. This individual should be a respected manager from the user
community ensuring that the user community remains receptive to the new system and that key
benefits are realised and monitored through the KPIs within the Maximo system.
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The training team – there roll is key in communicating features of the system and ensuring that
functionality is both familiar to and effectively used by the end users.
Enable Phase activities
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Confirm Acceptance Criteria
Data Migration
Process Documentation Review
User Training
Acceptance Testing
On-going Product Management
Support Contract
Handover, Roll-out and Lessons Learned
Value Proposition Review
Confirm Acceptance Criteria
The end users will not necessarily be aware of what the exact criteria for the success of the project are. It
is therefore an essential step to confirm the criteria for project success.
Company culture usually determines how this is communicated to the larger new Maximo community.
Data Migration
The data migration and interface enablement at the go live stage is only a matter of procedure at this
stage of the project. Nevertheless it deserves a step of its own as valid data is the key to the success of
the user interface, Vetasi have had a number of projects to reformat the data and its associated structure
where the initial load was not a success in the primary project. It is therefore essential that the data
structure and the way it interacts within and system and exhibits the user’s view is reviewed as part of this
phase.
The following should be considered:
Source(s) of data
The Target Environment and the sue of the data in that environment
The Data Migration Process will provide for
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Extraction Transport Loading
Verification Conversion
Cleansing Process
Logging of input and output transaction
Consolidation of data from differing sources
Security Considerations
Iterative Nature of the process
Process Documentation Review
The design of the system was driven by the business process and the enhancements and tailoring of
those to ensure that the benefits to be delivered will be realised.
At this stage the processes as known to the end users should be reviewed and the documentation verified
and updated. This documentation may be related to standards the company may adhere to. These may
be of an international nature (e.g. ISO), a safety nature, or a regulatory nature.
This is a key step in the enablement process often ignored at the delivery organisation's and the client's
peril.
User Training
Typically the training staff will have been involved in a number of activities during the implementation
cycle. The training programme will have been designed in the build phase and its content established
during the design phase. The planning and delivery of the User training is therefore critical to this phase,
presence of the users is to say essential.
With the introduction of BIRT reporting product champions may well wish to produce their own KPI and ad
hoc management reports? Vetasi offer a two day BIRT training course to enable them to do just that.
Acceptance Testing
Once the Business Process exercise has been completed, the user acceptance process can be defined.
The degree of User Acceptance will be dictated by the user’s internal procedures and may be onerous or
light depending on the industry. The system tests should have ensured that during UAT no major issues
are uncovered. This process is often run concurrently with user training as users may often be required to
ensure sufficient volume of testing.
The main activity during the UAT is the user sign off. Vetasi Test document templates allow for user sign
off at all steps of the test process.
A formal sign off meeting is an idea Vetasi would support as it can be used to define the responsibility of
the users with respect to system integrity and is an event that infers a celebration of the project success
from an end user perspective.
On-going Product Management
Training for IT support staff should commence prior to Vetasi’s bubble support period. Vetasi offer a 3 day
intensive Maximo system administration course enabling the Clients IT staff to take over the day to day
support from the project team after the bubble support days are completed.
Bubble support is on site support that enables the User Help desk to be supported by Vetasi staff during
the immediate period after the go live date. This presence will ensure ongoing commitment and enhance
adoption by the users at this critical time.
Vetasi will endeavor to use members of the
support team during Bubble support so that
relationship with the team delivering the onproduct and application support is cemented.
Vetasi
the
going
Support Contract
Vetasi, as “Triple A” IBM partners, can offer the equivalent of IBM level 0, 1 and 2 support. Our dedicated
support team works strictly to a demanding set of SLAs and offers support for Maximo and Syclo in
Europe and Africa.
In addition to standard IBM support and Application support Vetasi offer a 24x7 support contract for a
number of clients. We also offer 24x7support for shorter periods; for example when a client may want to
move the application to another server environment.
Details of Vetasi support offerings are outlined below.
Lessons Learned and Handover
The key benefit of ISO9000 is of course the ongoing management reviews and the emphasis on lessons
learned as a part of a continual quality enhancement process.
The lessons learned process evaluates both the positive as well as the negatives of looking at the project
from a learning perspective. The Vetasi lessons learned process seeks to harness the positives and
corrects the negatives. Vetasi will assign key members of its organization ensure negative are not
repeated in future projects.
The handover documentation collates all data that are necessary to prepare, perform a final quality
review, and follow up its results. It can also apply to management and business review.
The Handover documentations should included copies of:
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Quality Reviews documentation
Acceptance testing documentation
Deliverables review documentation
Value Proposition Review
This is the final step in the Vetasi value added Project Methodology. The purpose is to review if the project
has met its business objective and realized the financial benefits for the client.