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

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”

In Part 2… • The blueprinting phase • Leveraging the standard content • Modeling for your solution • Deliverables • The realization phase • 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

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

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

Area Area Observation Observation SAP BI BW Benefit Benefit Cost of Ownership Cost of Ownership Maintaining a custom developed SAP is responsible for Substantial maintenance cost savings BI solution is complex and maintenance of the expensive. product. Cost Avoidance Cost Avoidance Updating extract programs BW – R/3 integration points are maintained and tested by SAP Substantial cost savings, by when upgrading R/3 is not having to redevelop new expensive. extract programs for each SAP upgrade Web strategy Web strategy Web delivery requires rapid data BW is closely integrated Enables web initiatives to get delivery of high consistency with with R/3, and can deliver closer to the source data, the source system. data that reflects the both in time and consistency. source system at short time intervals. Reconciliation Effort Reconciliation Effort A substantial portion of the data BW is “ closer ” to the Users spend less time on warehouse effort is spent on source system, and more reconciling data, and more reconciling information accurately reflects data time analyzing it. Information Access Information Access Business users need a high Load times in BI are Users get earlier access to Availability solution less than traditional, information custom- developed data warehouses Example Business Benefits of SAP BI

Example Business Benefits of SAP BI (cont.)

Real-time Inquiry Operational Reporting Management Information Lightly Summarized More Summarized More Ad Hoc ERP DW Dividing Line What Logically Belongs in a Global BI System? 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…

The Global Target Architecture – An Example Meta Data Source Data OperationalData Store DataWarehouse Extract Transform Access Managed Query Env. Purchasing R/3 Data ExtractionTransform and Load Processes Marketing& Sales OLAP Legacy Systems Translate Corporate Summarize Data Subsets by Segment External systems Product Line Batch Reporting Calculate Summation Location Messaging SummarizedData Attribute Finance Data Mining Synchronize Supply Internet Reconcile Data Marts Vendor Provided Data Warehouse and Decision Support Framework

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

CONTINUE CHANGE Alternative Global BI Approaches TOP-DOWN APPROACH BOTTOM-UP APPROACH 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.

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.

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. The Six Global Dimensions (cont.) 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…

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?

The Six Global Dimensions (cont.) Do all team members and end-users communicate as effective in English? Training Documentation • Do we need multi-language training and documentation? • Does basic conversational English mean that users can read and understand technical training material and documentation? • Have you installed Unicode on your BI system?

What the user wanted How designer implemented it How customer described it How analyst specified it 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: • 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, doesn’t mean it is wise or desirable from a business perspective.

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 requestprocess. This typically includes a benefit-cost estimate for each change request and a formal approval process. Change management is done to manage scope, timelines and competing business requirements. Put in place a process for capturing feedback & requests.

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

Prioritizing the Enterprise Global Scope (Example) Plan multiple implementations, and write a long-term outline. Control change with a formal change request process.

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 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.

Writing A Global Milestone Plan • Use milestone plan to illustrate dependencies and high-level tasks 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

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

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 • 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

Developing Your Staffing Plan:Lessons Learned (cont.) • Project time and cost estimates should be based on team’s experience level • 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! (we will take a second look at this when we do the budgeting!)

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)…

Basis and functional R/3 support 4-5 team members and normally 3-6 months duration depending on scope 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)

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

Project sponsor/ Steering Committee Project Manager SAP BI Architect Portal developer(s) Sales Team Finance Team Material Mgmt. Team Business analyst/(sub-team lead) Business analyst/(sub-team lead) Business analyst/(sub-team lead) SAP BI developer SAP BI developer SAP BI developer Presentation developer(s) Presentation developer(s) Presentation developer(s) Basis and functional R/3 support ETL developer ETL developer ETL developer Example: Large Global BI Project for Multiple Subject Areas • E.g., global Sales, Finance, and Material Management Note: These are roles, not positions (sometimes one team member can fill more than one role) 15-25 team members and normally 6-18 months duration depending on scope

Coordination of Multiple Data Warehouse Projects Tight Central Control (24%) Loose Cooperation (38%) Independent (38%) 88% Successful 30% Successful 100% Successful How Tightly Should Multiple Global BI Projects be Controlled? The relationship between global control and success: Source: The Conference Board Survey

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. We will now look at an example how this process works in the real world Create the Milestone Plan and Scope Statement first, before attacking the budgeting process!! 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

1. Size SAP BI Effort Based on the Scope – Real Example Remember that your sizing also has to be based on the team’s experience and skill level.

2. Prioritize the Effort 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

3. Use Project Estimates & the Timeline to Create Project Load Plan 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).

4. Result: Good Input for the Staffing Costs and Planning Use this information to plan for training, on-boarding, and staffing This spike in resource needs is due to an overlap in the delivery schedule Now might be a good time to review that decision… 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.

Global On-Boarding and Training Don’t underestimate the value of in-house, hands-on training in addition to formal SAP training classes. 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,

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

Writing the Workplan • The Workplan • 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. 400 to 1000 line-item workplans are not unusual for mid-size and large SAP BI implementations 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://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/articles/PM05_Berg_Writingasolid.ppt

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).

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).

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

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”)

Monitoring Progress • 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.

Monitoring BI Quality and Formal Approval Process: Example Integration Testing Create Technical specs Create Functional specs No System Testing Complete? No Yes Unit Testing Complete? Yes Configuration Peer Review Yes Peer Review Approved? No Yes Approved? No Structured walkthrough Complete? Yes Structured walkthrough No Complete? No Yes

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 essential to make sure that the system meets users’ requirements

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)

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