What We’ll Cover … Selecting an approach to use for your project

Tips for Writing a Solid and Realistic Work Plan for Your SAP NetWeaver BI Project
Dr. Bjarne Berg

What We’ll Cover … Selecting an approach to use for your project Defining project milestones Allocating appropriate resources Using SAP Solution Manager Taking advantage of SAP Best Practices BI tool Leveraging the SAP Best Practices work plan Wrap-up

The Gray Areas of Methodologies
First step in determining how to write a work plan is to pick a methodology for your project While Accelerated SAP (ASAP) is normally the default method, there are alternatives There are several dimensions when multiple methodologies can be employed (i.e., when time to delivery is moderate, or when the impact of failure is moderate)

A Brief Look at ASAP ASAP for SAP NetWeaver BI is based on many of the same ideas and approaches found in the ASAP methodology for SAP R/3 Source: SAP

What is ASAP? Fill in the Blank vs. Start from Scratch
Examples for Accelerators: Fill in the Blank vs. Start from Scratch • Project plan, estimating Fill in the Blank • Design strategies, scope definition Versus • Documentation, issues DB Start from Scratch • Workshop agenda • Questionnaires • End - user procedures • Test plans • Technical procedures • Made easy guidebooks (printout, data transfer, system administration …) Source: SAP

Project Preparation — Some Key Observations
Project charter: Represents an agreement on, and commitment to, the deliverables of the project, as well as project time constraints, resources, standards, and budget. Scope: Sets the initial definition of the project. Project plan: This is the first cut. It focuses on milestones and work packages. Core Activities 1.1 Initial Project Planning 1.2 Project Procedures 1.3 Training Preparation 1.4 Project Kickoff 1.5 Technical Requirements Planning 1.6 Quality Check Project Preparation Project team organization: Sets the “who” of the project. This decides who will be involved and what their goal is. Standards and procedures: Sets the “why” and “how” of the project. Standardizing how meetings are run, how documents are handled, etc., meaning that everyone understands what is going on. Source: Pauline Woods-Wilson

Project Preparation — The Scope Statement
Scope statement should include: Technical source systems and modules (e.g., SAP R/3 CCA) Technology components (SAP NetWeaver PI, SAP NetWeaver BI, SEM-CPM, SAP APO, XML, etc.) Functional purpose (profit loss statement, sales analysis, etc.) User community (location, organization, types, numbers) Access interfaces (Web portal, cockpit, Business Explorer (BEx), Crystal, third-party) Security (encryption, single sign-on, data level security, role security, etc.)

Project Preparation — The Scope Statement (cont.)
Scope statement should include (cont.): Hardware components (development environment, test, QA and production, Unix, NT, Web servers, app servers, leverage of existing infrastructure) Impacted organizations Retirement of legacy reporting systems (if any) Project language and documentation system Remember to include in the scope statement, what is not included in the scope and make sure it is agreed to before the project starts.

Project Preparation — The Milestone Plan
Project plan: This is the first cut. It focuses on milestones and work packages. The first work plan should consist of only core tasks, milestones, and their critical dates Resources are simply referred to by their role instead of individual names individuals (update later when resources are assigned) To write the first cut project plan, you need to have determined scope, resource need/availability, and time

Project Preparation — Milestone Dates
The milestone plan should be published and posted on the walls. Do not “hide it” in the project manager’s drawer. Project plan: This is the first cut. It focuses on milestones and work packages. The Milestone Plan should consist of all major phases, start and end dates, and duration The plan should also include special project dates and events such as workshops, project reviews, approvals, etc.

The quality of the people is much more important than the number
Resources — Roles SAP NetWeaver BI projects consist of a team of highly-skilled individuals The quality of the people is much more important than the number A skilled developer can accomplish correctly what three novice developers will mess up in the same amount of time Think of the project team as a set of roles, not individuals A person may fulfill more than one role during the project Project Resources Program/Project Manager Application Consultant Application Team Member Technical Consultant Technical Team Member Technical Team Lead Help Desk Provider and Manager Business Process Team Lead Training and Documentation Lead Customer Project Sponsor You should staff your project based on the needs, not based on who is available at a given time. Sometimes the right decision is to delay a project until the right people can participate.

Team Organization — Small Project for Single Subject Area
These are roles, not positions (sometimes one team member can fill more than one role) This is a good organization for teams that use Joint Application Development (JAD) or Rapid Application Development (RAD) as their development methodology. The development is interactive, scope is small, and the timeline for each implementation is short. Larger projects can create multiple project teams working on dedicated areas. However, very tight coordination is required to pull this off in practice. Basis and functional SAP R/3 support Four to five team members and normally three to six months duration depending on scope ETL = Extract, transform and load

Team Organization — Mid-Sized SAP NetWeaver BI Projects
This organization by roles is useful on mid-sized projects using system development lifecycle methodologies such as ASAP. It is scalable, but business analysts must be given direct access to developers to make this work in practice. Basis and Functional SAP R/3 Support These are roles, not positions (sometimes one team member can fill more than one role) Eight to ten team members and normally two to four months duration depending on scope

Team Organization — Large SAP NetWeaver BI Projects
This organization is grouped by functional areas. It is very scalable for large projects, but requires solid coordination between the architect and the developers on each sub-team. Sometimes both a front-end and back-end architect are used on very large projects. Project Sponsor/ Steering Committee Project Manager 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) BI Developer BI Developer BI Developer Presentation Developer(s) Presentation Developer(s) Presentation Developer(s) ETL Developer ETL Developer ETL Developer Basis and Functional SAP R/3 Support Fifteen to twenty-five team members and normally six to eighteen months duration depending on scope

SAP Solution Manager: Don’t Build Everything from Scratch
Implementation Platform Solution Monitoring Service Desk E-Learning Upgrade Change Request Management Tools Implementation Content Roadmaps Services Best Practice Documents Content SAP Active Global Support Gateway to SAP Service Delivery Platform Source: SAP You can incorporate many shared documents and tools into your project. Your work plan should reflect the time savings of using these accelerators. SAP Solution Manager is delivered as part of your annual maintenance fee.

SAP Solution Manager: What Is Useful for BI?
Project Preparation Business Blueprint Configuration Testing Training Define project Define customer solution based on SAP processes Configure processes Test processes Define e-learning units and create learning maps Set up system landscape Synchronize customer settings Project Administration Issue Tracking/Monitoring/Reporting Roadmaps Change Management Green areas indicate material that can be leveraged in SAP NetWeaver BI All items in SAP Solution Manager are not equally useful for the BI project team. However, some material can be used. Collect the material and make it part of the deliverables for you team. Write work plan tasks that directly reference the BI tasks you decide to use. SAP Solution manager Version 3.2 SP8 or higher is required to upgrade to SAP NetWeaver 7.0.

SAP Solution Manager: EarlyWatch Reports Are Great!
Provide a simple way to confirm how your system is running and to catch problems Are a “goldmine” for system recommendations A copy of a full 40 pages from a real report is included on the conference CD

SAP Solution Manager: EarlyWatch Reports Sample
Run them periodically and read the details Let’s take a look at a real EarlyWatch report from a mid-sized company that has been running SAP BW for the last few years

SAP Solution Manager: EarlyWatch Reports Sample (cont.)

SAP Best Practices for Business Intelligence
Is a new tool with consolidated access to documentation, hints, white papers, recommendations, tools, and a sample work plan All based on BI scenarios Gives you many templates and a work plan Is intended for mid-sized enterprises that need rapid implementation or by large companies that need to create a corporate template for their subsidiaries New SAP customers can also combine this with the Baseline Package or an industry-specific version of SAP Best Practices SAP Best Practices for Business Intelligence supports predefined scenarios that handle core BI business requirements.

SAP Best Practices for Business Intelligence (cont.)
This tool has been enhanced over the last two years, and has several BI specific project accelerators that you will not find in SAP Solution Manager. A test drive is available at

An Option — Work Plans Based on Deliverables
The best practice documents are organized around scenarios that simplify the collection of tools Many of your team’s deliverables can be downloaded here. You can incorporate them specifically into your work plans.

Deliverables for Your Work Plan
Sales analysis example gives an overview of what SAP NetWeaver BI has to offer, how to build it, and best practices for a variety of technical designs These are tools and accelerators that you can download and make deliverables in your work plan.

An Option — Create Your Work Plan Based on Scenarios
Each scenario is described in a process overview document

Keep the Work Plan at a Manageable Level
Don’t load too many details into the work plan Explain what needs to be done, not how to do it SAP Best Practices for BI has installation guides to assist The installation guide has step-by-step scenario-based documentation. Do not replicate minute steps in the work plan; keep it at a high enough level where it is useful, but not a burden to maintain.

What Versions Does It Support?
SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 The SAP Best Practices tool was developed for SAP BW 3.5, and later updated for SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 SAP BW 3.5 Source: SAP – Jan, 2007 While installation recommendations are based on SAP BW 3.5 or SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0, most management tools, accelerators, and the sample work plan are not version-specific.

The Sample Work Plan You can download the work plan from the Project Support area.

The Work Plan — Some Background
The work plan on the SAP BI Best Practice CD (and on the Web site) is a Microsoft Project project plan file (.mpp) The work plan is only an example that you need to modify to fit your project’s scope, resources, and timelines The example is based on a rapid development of a single subject area over a five week period However, the tasks and their dependencies are relevant to larger projects that may require substantially more time

The Work Plan — Some Background (cont.)
The resource plan assumes that 11 roles are filled on the project (two part-time) This includes two consultants and one project sponsor Project Resources Program/Project Manager Application Consultant Application Team Member Technical Consultant Technical Team Member Technical Team Lead Help Desk Provider and Manager The work plan is an example and should not be used as a “cookie cutter” for your work plan. Sound judgments must still be applied. Business Process Team Lead Training and Documentation Lead Customer Project Sponsor

Project Preparation — Some Key Observations
Project charter: Represents an agreement on, and commitment to, the deliverables of the project, as well as project time constraints, resources, standards, and budget. Project plan: This is the first cut. It focuses on milestones and work packages. Scope: Sets the initial definition of the project. Core Activities 1.1 Initial Project Planning 1.2 Project Procedures 1.3 Training Preparation 1.4 Project Kickoff 1.5 Technical Requirements Planning 1.6 Quality Check Project Preparation Project team organization: Sets the “who” of the project. This decides who will be involved and what is their goal. Standards and procedures: Sets the “why” and “how” of the project. Standardizing how meetings are run, how documents are handled, etc., means that everyone understands what is going on. Source: Pauline Woods-Wilson

Project Preparation Phase
While short in duration, do not spend too much time on the project prep phase It is easy to get intimidated by the many unknowns Rely on your consultants, but keep the momentum Spending more than 15% of your project time in this phase is a sign of analysis-paralysis.

Project Sizing — 1. Base It on the Scope (Real Example)
Remember that your sizing also has to be based on the team’s experience and skill level.

Project Sizing — 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

Project Sizing — 3. General Guidelines
Plan to spend 15% of the project time on project prep, 25% on blueprinting, 45% on realization and 15% on go-live. There is a risk of spending too much time on design and short changing development time, which often causes project delays. Accept that you will not have answers to all questions until you see the data and queries.

Project Preparation Phase — Dependencies
Key to project prep phase is the level setting of all parties One-day workshop with stakeholders, managers, and sponsors Dedicate some time early in the workshop to demo SAP NetWeaver BI and discuss capabilities of the tool set A one-day workshop can remove project confusion and delays, help in getting the right requirements, and avoid missing “low hanging fruit.”

Blueprinting Phase — Some Key Observations
Getting the right requirements: Finding out the detailed functional specs of what the users really need and not just what they want Deciding what will be developed in SAP NetWeaver BI and what will be maintained as SAP R/3 reports Map the functional requirements to the standard content and see what can be leveraged and what needs to be extended Core Activities 2.1 Project Management Business Blueprint 2.2 Organizational Change Management 2.3 Project Team Training Business Blueprint 2.4 Develop System Environment 2.5 Organizational Structure Definition 2.6 Business Process Definition 2.7 Quality Check Business Blueprint Create detailed technical specifications and designs of InfoCubes, MasterData, ODSs and high-level architectural designs Create user acceptance group(s) and have them review and give feedback on the system as it is developed ODS = Operational Data Store

Blueprinting Phase — Planning
Lock-down the detailed scope early and obtain formal written approval for your detailed scope statement Implement a formal change approval process Spend some time early on to plan user training and support; also, formalize your team organization

Blueprinting Phase — Planning Dependencies
Many tasks can take place at the same time The trick is to ensure all team members are active and the workload is evenly balanced throughout project Spend some time on resource loading and workload balancing. Not all tasks are dependent.

Blueprinting Phase — Design, Architecture, and Training
Users should be defined in terms of power users, casual users, and executives Each user group will have different interface requirements Spend some time writing the data flow to each ODS and InfoCube Perform a quality validation on your hardware implementation (RAID, O/S, RDBMS, network, BI install, etc.) Define clearly when each datastore has to be loaded (time) and the frequency of the loads.

Blueprinting Phase — Resource Planning
Ideal Years Training Days In-House Experience (if new in Training (minimum) the role) Days BI Developer 2+ 15 3 - 5 ETL Developer 3+ 3 - 5 Presentation Developer 1+ 5 - 10 3 - 5 Project Manager 5+ 3 - 5 Business Analysts 5+ 5 - 10 3 - 5 Plan time on the work plan for early training of your staff members

Blueprinting Phase — Project Management and Test Plans
Ensure you plan detailed procedures for transporting objects between the development, testing, and production landscape Much like an SAP R/3 project, you should plan to test the security/roles, load programs, update and transfer rules, as well as data stores, aggregated delta-enabled extractors, and time-dependent objects You should plan to spend about % of your project time on testing and fixes.

Blueprinting Phase — Project Management, Test Plans, Dependencies
SAP R/3 and BI testing is not different from a methodology standpoint, but the execution is.

Realization Phase — Some Key Observations
Core Activities Project Management Realization Organizational Change Management Training Development and Approvals Baseline Configuration (content activation) System Management Final Configuration (enhancements) Prepare External Interfaces (non SAP R/3) Data Conversion Programs (if any) Development Programs: Provide details of added programming structures End User: Training material, manuals, Web site, on-line help Develop Queries 3.10 Develop User Interface Enhancements 3.11 Determine Additional Reporting Requirements 3.12 Create Structured Reports (e.g., third-party) 3.13 Establish Authorization Concept 3.14 Establish Data Archiving Plan (if applicable) 3.15 Final Integration Test 3.16 Quality Check Realization Configuration: Activate content, make extensions to SAP NetWeaver BI standard content, execute test data and masterdata loads, validate data quality, build and modify transfer and/or update rules Testing: Unit testing by developers, acceptance testing by business analysts, system and integration testing by users

Realization Phase — Development Core Activities
If SAP NetWeaver BI is new in the organization you should seriously consider hiring experienced BI developer(s) or rely on external resources during this phase.

Realization Phase — Development Core Dependencies
Most issues during this phase will be data ETL While you cannot plan for all issues, you can set aside time to deal with them Data cleansing should occur in the source system. (Hint: Cover this in the scope statement.) Source: SAP

Realization Phase — Tracking Progress
Examine the work plan and the hours spent on a task vs. the task accomplished level For example, if a task was scheduled to take 20 hours and the deliverables are 75% complete in the weekly status report, the hours used on the task should not exceed 15 hours To make this work, you need time tracking (by work plan), and you need to manage your projects by tasks accomplished Tasks accomplished should be reported on weekly status reports by each team member Developers have a tendency to quickly report 99% completion, but never formally sign off on their work Monitor the hours used vs. the task completion early in the project to make sure you are on track and can detect issues before they become problems

Realization Phase — Testing Core Activities
“There's no time to stop for gas, we're already late.” Testing is not a waste of time! Business analysts are responsible for planning and executing the system testing of queries.

Realization Phase — Testing Core Dependencies
Have a formal testing process and document the findings. While many issues are easy to fix, it is the lessons learned that will pay off in the long run.

Final Preparation Phase — Some Key Observations
Cutover Plan and the Technical Operations Manual: Describe the details on how to move to the production environment and Go-Live Stress and Volume Tests: Confirm the production hardware’s capabilities End-User Training Document: Describes the delivery of the necessary levels of SAP training prior to going live Source: Pauline Woods-Wilson Core Activities 4.1 Project Management Final Preparation 4.2 Training Final Preparation 4.3 Stress and Volume Testing 4.4 System Management 4.5 Detailed Cutover Planning 4.6 Cutover 4.7 Quality Check Final Preparation Source: SAP

Final Preparation Phase — System Testing
Performance test execution Identify queries to be performance tuned Determine cut-off load (e.g., 40% of expected actual users — not named) Schedule queries to run in background to simulate “real” user load Execute each query while scripts are running Attempt tuning at query level and perform analysis based on benchmarks If needed, build aggregates, indexes, etc. Record findings in a formal tracking tool available to everyone

Final Preparation Phase — System Testing Dependencies
Typical backup strategy Run a full system backup on the weekends and only delta backups each day before the load process starts Make sure that you can actually restore from the backups and that the system has the resources it needs (i.e., Will one application server be enough?) Don’t underestimate the need for system testing for performance and recovery purposes.

Final Preparation Phase — User Training and Support
Types of training: Web-based All users Training Tutorials Instructor-led On-site Power users Executives Vendor-based Developers Support staff Many BI projects succeed or fail based on how good the training and how well the user support is organized and executed.

Final Preparation Phase — User Training and Support Dependencies
This is the time to execute the production support plans and re-organize the project team into a sustainable organization, or plan the hand-off to a support organization if one exists Remember to plan for the integration of your support plans with your organization’s existing support systems and help desk routing

Final Preparation Phase — The “Go” Decision
A formal “go,” “no-go” decision should be made by the sponsor and stakeholders at the end of the final preparation phase Users will not remember if you bring the system online 14 days late, but they will remember if it had major issues Quality is paramount for each go-live.

Final Preparation Phase — Dependencies
You can often cut over to the production box before the go-live If you already have BI users live in-the-box, you can mask the new functionality by not mapping the new queries to the user’s role menu until you are ready If you are already live with other content, plan for a weekend cut-over and spend Saturday to validate the production box. This gives you Sunday to fix any major issues.

Go-Live — Some Key Observations
The last deliverable for the implementation ensures high system performance through monitoring and feedback. We need to execute issue resolution plans and contingency plans. A “lessons learned” session should be held at the end of the project to assure organizational awareness and education. The support organization will take over the system after a pre-determined time period. Some team members may transition into their new roles as support staff. Core Activities 5.1 Production Support 5.2 Project End 5.x Lessons Learned Review This is a critical time when a “SWAT” team that quickly addresses user concerns can make all the difference in how the system is received among the users. Source: Pauline Woods-Wilson

Go-Live Activities Maintain an issue log from two weeks before go-live, until six weeks after the go-live. Conduct a formal post implementation review with team members to learn from the project.

Go-Live — Post Go-Live Activities
Make sure all end-of-project decisions are communicated before the project is closed.

SAP Best Practices for Business Intelligence
Resources Jeremy Kadlec, Start to Finish Guide to IT Project Management (NetImpress 2003, ISBN: B0000W86H2, Digital) COMERIT.NET presentations, tutorials, and articles SAP Best Practices for Business Intelligence

7 Key Points to Take Home Use Best Practice deliverables — don’t create from scratch Download a sample work plan and enhance it Organize your team early and provide training Have a formal scope statement and change process Spend no more than 15% of project time in the prep phase and plan to use about % in total test time (unit, system, integration, and performance) Use strong dedicated BI development resources in realization phase — learning while being productive is almost impossible Don’t keep too much detail in the work plan

Questions? Your Turn! How to contact me: Dr. Bjarne Berg

What We’ll Cover … Selecting an approach to use for your project

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