1. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 1 The EB Group, LLC OBIEE Projects Best Practices Presentation

2. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 2 Presentation Agenda The presentation is designed to show Best Practices that lead to highly successful OBIEE projects which deliver the most business functionality in a timely manner at the lowest possible cost: Project Management Best Practices: Uncovering the fab four OBIEE Business Requirements: It is not about the reports Out of the Box: How to use the OOTB metrics for your organization In the Box: How to use the In the Box metrics for your organization Outside the Box: How to find it, integrate it and deploy it Data Architecture: Architect a Data Warehouse that fits your needs today and in the future Training and Deployment: Tips and Tricks for both training and deployment 2

3. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 3 OBIEE Project Management Best Practices The following OBIEE Project Management Best Practices have stood the test of time and many successful project deliveries: OBIEE Project Duration: The Full Project Life Cycle of an OBIEE implementation should not exceed 90 days OBIEE Project Scope: Must be clearly defined and not directly related to only reports but instead should focus on Facts, Dimensions and Subject Areas Scope within the Box: Focus on the functionality that is included within the Out of the Box Solution and expand the scope to include modifications to the Out of the Box Solution by utilizing metrics that are already included within the Box. Functionality vs. Terminology: Focus on what is provided in terms of metrics and how they are organized into Subject Areas and rename them as required into your terminology. 3

4. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 4 OBIEE Project Management Best Practices Project Management Toolkit (The Fab Four): Have the following items already created and the project staff trained on how to use them within the implementation. Weekly Status Report Project Plan with both Milestones and Inch Pebbles Weekly Build Schedule Business Requirements Catalog Inch Pebbles: An Inch Pebble is a mini-milestone that is one week or less in duration and when added together with other Inch Peebles results in a Milestone that is completed. Weekly and Public System Builds: Every week the development, test and/or production systems are built with the latest software that is currently available from the development team. This system can be accessed by the entire project team to validate progress and provide early feedback. Learning: The project team will likely encounter errors and situations that they do not currently have the required knowledge and/or skill set to solve the problem and these items require a team approach to problem solving. 4

5. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 5 OBIEE Project Management Best Practices Deliver Weekly: The project plan must be built in such a manner that reflects weekly delivery of either Project Milestones and/or Inch Peebles this helps the team to know if they are on-track for delivery each week versus missing a major milestone without the time and resources to recover for an on-time and on-budget project delivery. Fab Four Weekly Validation: All items within the Fab Four must be validated on a weekly basis using the OBIEE system as the baseline for the validation. For example if you are 50% completed with development and a total of 4 subject areas were in scope then you should be able to see 2 subject areas that are now completed within the system. Testing and Training: Allocate both time and qualified resources to test the system and do not go to production until User Acceptance Testing is completed and the SMEs have signed off on the final software release. Training should be conducted as close to the actual production release as possible and include training guides on-line for self training following the deployment. 5

6. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 6 OBIEE Business Requirements Best Practices The following OBIEE Business Requirements Best Practices have stood the test of time and many successful project deliveries: Do Not Focus on Reports: Become a Big Thinker that focuses on a new multi Dimensional World that OBIEE delivers to your organization not your existing 2 Dimensional Static Reports. 2 Dimensional Reports: Your existing reports in use today by your organization most likely provide facts and dimensions with little or no user interaction. Using OBIEE in a successful implementation will lead you out of this world and into the new world. Multi Dimensional World: In this world we can look globally at the entire organization including customers and internal organizational business processes. We can then begin drilling down in the details, aggregating up to the summary data, drilling right into the customer data and drilling left into the organizational business processes. This world is highly interactive that delivers the right data at the right time in which to model and make mission critical business decisions. 6

7. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 7 OBIEE Business Requirements Best Practices Subject Areas: Focus your efforts on defining Subject Areas that provide the mission critical Facts and Dimensions that can support the delivery of the new Multi Dimensional World. Understanding How Subject Areas Work: Your new Multi Dimensional reports will be based on the Subject Areas that you have defined within your business requirements so make sure that they are complete since reports are contained within a single subject area. Make it Fun and Interactive: Use the super awesome “This, That and The Other” methodology to define your business requirements. Have Single Business Requirements Catalog: Use this sample template as your starting point for a Business Requirements Catalog that moves you into the new world. What Do I Measure: Know your Facts and how they are sourced. What Do I Measure Things By: Know your dimensions the depth of the dimensions and granular detail of data. 7

8. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 8 OBIEE Out of the Box Best Practices The following OBIEE Out of the Box Best Practices have stood the test of time and many successful project deliveries: A Single Subject Area: Work through the Out of the Box System One Subject Area at a time. Modify the Terminology: Change the presentation layer so that the terminology presented to the users within Answers matches terms that are in use within your organization. Create your Usage Matrix: Use the Repository Documentation Tool as your starting pointing and break it down by Subject Area and then added columns for usage of the data elements as well as a data population column to let you know if the data is coming over from the source system(s). Light it Up Early: Before you go over the Out of the Box Solution setup both Informatica and the DAC and pull over the data into the DW and light up the Dashboards and Reports to see what you got coming into the system. 8

9. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 9 OBIEE Out of the Box Best Practices Disable not Delete: Use the security model to disable (hide) the Out of the Box Dashboards and Reports that do not want to use instead of deleting them just in case you change your mind or if you want to use them in the future as a template for new custom Dashboard or Report. Variables Are Your Friend: Review all of the Dynamic and Static Variables within the RPD and make them fit your needs. Reuse the Security Model: Best Case integrate with your existing system security model (Siebel, EBS, etc.) or just start off with the Out of the Box Security Model. 9

10. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 10 Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 OBIEE In the Box Best Practices The following OBIEE In the Box Best Practices have stood the test of time and many successful project deliveries: What is In the Box: In the Box is the easy method to rapidly customize your system to fit your Business Requirements by focusing your efforts on the metadata layer (Repository) by expanding and customization of the Subject Areas within your system. What is not In the Box: If it requires a modification to the Physical Layer or Informatica (ETL) then it is not in the box. Usage Matrix: The Usage Matrix that you created in the Out of the Box Sessions now really pays off since you now understand the Subject Areas and the facts and dimensions within the system. Not all Data Elements are the Same: Understand the context regarding on how and the correct association that you want to integrate the new data into your Subject Areas. 10

11. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 11 Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 OBIEE In the Box Best Practices SME Working Sessions: Use your SMEs to help you build your Subject Areas they understand the relationships within the data and what is important for them to measure and analyze. Keep Looking: The majority of what you are looking is there it is often under a name that you might not expect. Get a Toad: Using a data management tool like Toad will certainly uncover what you looking for much quicker than just a SQL based approach.. 11

12. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 12 Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 OBIEE Outside of the Box Best Practices The following OBIEE Outside of the Box Best Practices have stood the test of time and many successful project deliveries: Risk in the 1 st Release: The highest level of effort on an OBIEE implementation is right here therefore do not attempt to be all things to all people in your first release. The twenty or so data elements that you might try to integrate within your system may make you lose focus on the 1500 plus data elements and metrics that you have already done via the Out of the Box and the In the Box approaches. Know the System of Record: Integrate the required data elements with the system of record for the data element. If you cannot determine the system of record for the data then do not integrate it until that is determined. Custom Folder: Copy everything that you are going to modify here first before you make any changes and then and only then make your modifications/additions within the custom folder. Maplets: Remember that they may be used by more than the one or two specific processes that you are working to modify, so rename them before you modify them in your custom folder that way you will not break what is already working. 12

13. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 13 Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 OBIEE Outside of the Box Best Practices The DMR is your Friend: Use the Data Model Reference to understand the OBIEE DW model. Small Development Effort with Frequent Testing: Take a few data elements at a time and get them working within the development environment this makes the testing and correction process much simpler than a big bang approach. Double Check: Before you begin any of this type double check what is already within the system to make certain that it does not already exist. Poor Design: No matter how good the development process is with a poor design you will not be successful so take your time in design and make certain the solution is solid before development begins. 13

14. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 14 Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 OBIEE Data Architecture Best Practices The following OBIEE Data Architecture Best Practices have stood the test of time and many successful project deliveries: One small bite at a time: Moving to an Enterprise Data Warehouse solution will not be accomplished overnight so take it one bite of the apple at a time. Data Marts: Over time Data Marts will become a view into your Enterprise Data Warehouse. Star Schemas: Star Schemas currently provide the most efficient design and performance benefits for your Enterprise Data Warehouse. Know your Data: A great design will not be possible unless you fully understand the lifecycle of the data and what the system of record is for each data element. 14

15. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 15 Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 OBIEE Training and Deployment Best Practices The following OBIEE Training and Deployment Best Practices have stood the test of time and many successful project deliveries: Avoiding the Big Bang: By building the system weekly and getting the SMEs involved in the project with a hands on approach the training and deployment goes smoother since you have already developed your OBIEE system “Champions”. Three Training Tracks: Technical, Power User and Business User. Technical Training: Focused on your Information Technology Staff and the duration of the training can last from two days up to a total of 4 weeks. Power User Training: Designed for the SMEs that will develop Dashboards and Reports using OBIEE Answers. This training will normally last one to two days. Business User Training: Designed for Business Users that will utilize the system. This training will normally last 4 hours. 15

16. Confidential The EB Group, LLC ©2008 16 Questions? Thank you!