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



•
The realization 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
The implementation phase




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
What We’ll 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
4
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
5
Example Business Benefits of SAP BI
Area
Observation
SAP
BWBI
Benefit
Cost of Ownership
Maintaining a custom developed
BI solution is complex and
expensive.
SAP is responsible for
maintenance of the
product.
Cost Avoidance
Updating extract programs
when upgrading R/3 is
expensive.
BW – R/3 integration
points are maintained
and tested by SAP
Web strategy
Web delivery requires rapid data
delivery of high consistency with
the source system.
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.
Reconciliation Effort
A substantial portion of the data
warehouse effort is spent on
reconciling information
BW is “closer” to the
Users spend less time on
source system, and more reconciling data, and more
accurately reflects data
time analyzing it.
Information Access
Business users need a high
Availability solution
Load times in BI are
less than traditional,
custom- developed
data warehouses
Substantial maintenance
cost savings
Substantial cost savings, by
not having to redevelop new
extract programs for each
SAP upgrade
Users get earlier access to
information
6
Example Business Benefits of SAP BI (cont.)
Area
Observation
Faster Deployment
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
Integrated Products SAP continues to offer new
products and modules that
the organization might wish
to leverage in the future
SAP BI is the
“cornerstone” of
SAP’s New
Dimension product
offerings
Enables closer
integration with other
SAP modules
Query speed
Through use of
summaries, TREX,
and the new
accelerator, SAP
BW’s architecture
lends itself to faster
query performance
Users get the data they
need quickly to perform
their job functions
Business users need fast
access to their data
7
Example Business Benefits of SAP BI (cont.)
Area
Observation
SAP BI
Benefit
SAP Strategy
It is the organization’s
SAP strategy to
leverage investments in
the SAP to the fullest
extent, and maximize
SAP resource
utilization.
SAP BI is a SAP product,
and is based on standard
SAP NetWeaver
technologies (Basis,
ABAP, etc.)
Strategic fit and
synergy with SAP. SAP
Basis, ABAP, etc.
resources can be used
across SAP projects,
including SAP BW.
Tool
Standardization
The organization must
be able to leverage
industry standards to
enable business users
to access data in a
variety of ways
Microsoft’s ODBO
application interface and
Java (SAP BI 3.5) are
supported by a variety of
major presentation and
web tools.
Simplifies user access
to data, expands
options for using
standard presentation
and web tools, or
developing your own.
Industry Trend
The organization’s
competitors and some
of the organization’s
business areas are
installing SAP BI
Increased industry
resource pool and
knowledge of SAP BW
Enables the
organization to leverage
industry solutions and
know-how.
8
What Logically Belongs in a Global BI System?
Real-time
Inquiry
Operational
Reporting
ERP
Management Information
Lightly Summarized
More Summarized
More Ad Hoc
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
External
systems
Messaging
Internet
Transform
Data
Warehouse
Access
Managed
Query Env.
Purchasing
R/3
Legacy
Systems
Operational
Data Store
Marketing
& Sales
Data
Extraction
Transform
and
Load
Processes
Corporate
Translate
Summarize
Product Line
Summation
Location
Calculate
Attribute
Finance
Supply
OLAP
Data Subsets
by Segment
Summarized
Data
Synchronize
Reconcile
Vendor
Provided
Batch
Reporting
Data
Mining
Data Marts
Data Warehouse and Decision Support Framework
10
What We’ll 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
Build a global data warehouse
for the company, and proceed
sourcing local data from old
legacy systems driven from a
top-down approach.
BOTTOM-UP APPROACH
CHANGE
CONTINUE
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.
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 it’s 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
What the user wanted
How customer described it
An SAP NetWeaver implementation involves
more than just black-and-white technical
decisions; just because something is
technically feasible, doesn’t mean it is wise or
desirable from a business perspective.
How analyst specified it
17
How designer implemented it
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)
Warning
Time
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 Mar Apr 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)
Time to
Delivery
Extreme Programming
(EP)
Rapid Application Development
(RAD)
Low
Low
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.
High
Impact of Failure
21
Writing A Global Milestone Plan
Use milestone plan to illustrate dependencies and
high-level tasks
Environments
Post this plan
on the walls
and in the
hallways of
ervyone
affected.
Don’t 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
12/10
Dec.
12/3
11/26
11/19
11/12
11/5
November
10/29
10/22
10/15
10/8
October
10/1
9/24
9/17
9/10
9/3
September
8/27
8/20
8/6
7/30
August
7/23
7/16
7/9
7/2
July
8/13
•
What We’ll 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
Single site
2
Distributed analysis
3
Distributed analysis and design
4
Co-located analysis and design
5
Multiple co-located analysis and design
6
Fully distributed development
Benefits
Risks
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
It’s 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
team’s 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.
Don’t 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
Technical team
Business analyst
SAP BI Architect
Presentation developer
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
Note: These are roles, not
positions (sometimes one
team member can fill more
than one role)
Project sponsor/
Steering
Committee
Project Manager
SAP BW
Architect
Business
Analyst(s)
Extract,
Transforms
and Loads
Data Management
(InfoCubes &
ODS)
Presentation
Developer(s)
Sr. Business analyst
Sr. ETL developer
Sr. SAP BI developer
Sr. Presentation
developer
Business analyst
ETL developer
SAP BI developer
Presentation 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
Note: These are roles, not
positions (sometimes one
team member can fill more
than one role)
SAP BI Architect
Portal developer(s)
Sales Team
Finance 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
Material Mgmt. Team
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
30% Successful
100% Successful
Source: The Conference Board Survey
31
What We’ll 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
1.
Size the SAP BI effort based on the scope
2.
Prioritize the effort
3.
Map the effort to the delivery schedule
4.
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
2. Start the budgeting process by estimating the workload in
terms of the development effort. Refine based on the team’s
skill experience and skill level
33
1. Size SAP BI Effort Based on the Scope – Real Example
Customi
zation
L
M
L
M
L
M
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
M
M
M
M
Tech. Dev.
infocube
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
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
216
158
216
229
286
229
188
153
188
101
127
101
132
153
133
134
152
135
100
120
100
79
94
79
150
180
150
403
470
403
1,732
1,893
1,734
238
286
216
126
153
152
120
94
180
470
2,035
216
1144
188
101
132
135
100
79
150
403
2,648
238
286
216
137
153
152
120
94
180
470
2,046
216
216
216
229
229
229
187
187
187
101
101
101
132
132
132
135
135
135
100
100
100
79
79
79
150
150
150
403
403
403
1,732
1,732
1,732
216
229
187
101
132
135
100
79
150
403
1,732
216
216
228
228
187
187
101
101
132
132
135
135
100
100
79
79
150
150
403
403
1,731
1,731
Delivery data of shipment stages
(0LES_C13)
Delivery service (0SD_C05)
Planning and Scheduling
Material Movements (0IC_C03)
216
228
187
101
132
135
100
79
150
403
1,731
180
229
133
101
132
134
100
79
150
403
1,641
216
457
132
101
132
134
100
79
150
403
1,904
APO Planning
SNP Integration
Manufacturing Processes
Production Orders
Cross Applications
Total Hours
277
277
832
832
216
216
127
127
153
153
152
152
120
120
94
94
180
180
470
470
2,621
2,621
277
277
4,298
832
832
8,074
216
216
3,587
127
127
2,110
153
153
2,656
152
152
2,681
120
120
2,040
94
94
1,606
180
180
3,060
470
470
8,126
2,621
2,621
38,238
Billing
Sales order
Acct. Rec. (0FIAR_C03)
Deliver
Shipment cost details
(0LES_C02)
Shipment header (0LES_C11)
Stages of shipment (0LES_C12)
Remember that your sizing also has to be based on
the team’s experience and skill level.
34
2. Prioritize the Effort
The next
step is to
prioritize
and outline
the effort on
a strategic
timeline
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
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
Note
qtr 2
2006
qtr 3
qtr 4
qtr 1
qtr 2
qtr 3
qtr 4
qtr 1
2007
qtr 2
qtr 3
866
947
867
867
1,732
1,893
1,734
1017.5
1017.5
2,035
1324
1023
1324
1023
2,648
2,046
866
866
866
866
866
866
1,732
1,732
1,732
866
865.5
865.5
865.5
866
865.5
865.5
865.5
1,732
1,731
1,731
1,731
820.5
820.5
1,641
952
1310.5
1310.5
1,813
4,232
4,232
2,598
2,598
4,283
4,283
3,573
952
1311
1311
1,904
2,621
2,621
1311
1311
1,311
1,311
2,621
2,621
6,195
2,622
38,238
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
This spike in
resource needs
is due to an
overlap in the
delivery
schedule
14
12
10
8
6
Now might be a
good time to
review that
decision…
4
2
qtr 1
qtr 2
Tip
qtr 3
qtr 4
qtr 1
qtr 2
qtr 3
qtr 4
qtr 1
qtr 2
qtr 3
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 We’ll 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+
Training days In-house
(if new in the training
role)
days
15
3-5
3+
15-20
3-5
1+
5-10
3-5
5+
10-15
3-5
5+
5-10
3-5
Don’t 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
2-Jun
1-Jun
31-May
30-May
TASK
29-May
ID
28-May
Writing the Workplan
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
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
•
Warning
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
Monitoring BI Quality and Formal Approval Process: Example
Integration
Testing
Create Technical
specs
No
Create Functional
specs
System Testing
Complete?
No
Yes
Unit Testing
Complete?
Yes
Configuration
Yes
Peer Review
No
Approved?
Peer Review
Yes
No
Complete?
Yes
Approved?
Structured
walkthrough
No
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
s
s
u
e
essential to make sure that the system meets users’ requirements
48
What We’ll 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):

•
Five Core Metrics: The Intelligence Behind Successful
Software Management

•
By Lawrence H. Putnam & Ware Myers
Waltzing With Bears: Managing Risk on Software
Projects –

•
http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/BB_index_main.htm
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: Don’t 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
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