20 questions to ask when formulating a bi strategy and roadmap

© 2012 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

20 Questions to ask when Formulating a BI strategy and Roadmap

Dr. Bjarne BergComerit Inc.

2

In This Session …

• We will take a look at the top-20 questions that should be considered as part of a BI Strategy.

• We will look at project sizing, staffing, tool selection and technical architecture.

• We will explore BI-Self Service and Service Level agreements and take a look at a real project's way of demonstrating success.

• After this session you will be able to start formulating your own BI strategy to guide your implementation.

3

What We’ll Cover …

• Planning, Scoping and Sizing the SAP BI Initiative• BI Program Training• BI Service Level Agreements (SLA)• Picking the Right BI Tools• BI Self-Service Implementation and Limitations• Milestone Plans and Change Management• Wrap-up

4

#1: Align Your BI Strategy with your Company's Strategy

• What are the drivers for the project?• Why do you need visibility – increase revenue, decrease

expenses, increase competitive advantage (how? and how do you measure this?)

• Who are the company’s customers – what do they have in common? Who are their vendors (your competitors)?

• How can the company’s customers be segmented? What changes are occurring in the customer base? Where is the company heading?

The enterprise data warehouse should sets the stage for effective analysis of information to make strategic decisions and identify competitive advantages

(proactive and not retroactive!)

5

#2: What Data Warehouse Strategy Employ

• Typically the current state of Data Warehousing (DW) is a combination of centralized and decentralized resulting in inefficiencies

• Moving to a centralized DW should enable future projects to reduce costs by leveraging common hardware, standardizing on software, and leveraging a pool of technical resource (is your project a cost-saving project?)

• How can you provide information not data for decision making (KPIs?)

6

#2: What Data Warehouse Strategy Employ (cont.)

• For example, project X provides an end-to-end BW/BI solution that empowers decision making to help provide better customer service and deliveries to increase profitability – How?

1. Increased accuracy of reports2. Timely information in an interactive, easy to use manner3. Standardized reporting method and shared tools4. Access to enterprise-wide information5. Continuous monitoring of KPIs; profitability and

margin analysis • The goal is to give users the information when they need it

and in a format they understand so they can execute day-to-day decisions and be more productive

7

Defining the Scope

• For the first go-live, keep the scope as simple as possible, in an area with solid standard BW content (i.e., Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, G/L, or COPA)

• You have only three dimensions to work with:

If one of these dimensions changes, you have to adjust at least one of the others or the quality of your BI Initiative will suffer

8

#3: Writing the Strategic Plan for Your Enterprise BI Effort• Table of Content• Executive Summary• Background• Strategy

Motivator of change (why?) As-is state of systems and reporting To-be state of enterprise data warehouse Benefits of the enterprise data warehouse Proposed scope Proposed architecture Proposed rollout plan Proposed project organization Proposed support organization

• Resources Internal resource assessment External resource assessment Training needs Recruitment

The strategic plan should contain these sections:

• Vendor overview and /or selection Hardware Software Partners

• Budgets Detailed budget Proposed funding approval

• Limitations, Assumptions, and Risks• References

9

The Living BI Strategy – How to Make It Work …

• A BI strategy is a living document that is subject to change• It is not a one-time effort that is ignored after the first

change (many create a strategy only to file it in a drawer)• The strategy should be clearly communicated to all team

members and the business community• Change control approvals are needed to make the

strategic planning process work in reality

A periodic review should be scheduled (e.g., quarterly) to monitor how well the

implementations follow the strategy

10

#4: Pick a Formal BI Methodology — You Have Many Choices• Accelerated SAP (ASAP) methodology is not your only choice• Even though they are harder to manage on a large BI project,

consider RAD, JAD, or EP (scum/agile) based on the time to delivery and impact of failure

Joint Application Design(JAD)

Rapid Application Development(RAD)

Extreme Programming(EP)

System development Lifecycle based methodologies

(SDLC)

Impact of FailureLow High

Low

High

Time to Delivery

When to Select Different Methodologies

Source: Bjarne Berg, Data Management Review 2004

Look at what your organizational partners have done.

You may know more about RAD than you think!

#5: The Project Scope and Project Sizing – What to BuildBy outlining high level deliverables we can make a set of assumptions for a bottom-up project sizing in terms of labor hours, customization and number of BI reports and dashboards. This example is for a BI program with 3 projects.

Note: This preliminary estimate is based on a solid skill set of BW and BOBJ developers, a new BW implementation

ETL/DTP DSO IC Masterdata Web Excel PPT Standard Ad-hoc Re-design1 OpEx - ETL 4 Enhancements H - - - - - - - - - -2 OpEx- DSO (LVL-1 w.o. & DTP) 4 New M H - - - - - - - - -3 OpEx - DSO Reportable 3 New H - - - - - - - -4 OpEx - New Cubes 4 New - - H - - - - - - -5 OpEx - Masterdata attribution 5 Redesign - - H - - - - - - -6 OpEx - BOBJ and reporting New - - 6 22 30 1 30 10 -7 FAST - ETL 4 Enhancements M - - - - - - - - -8 FAST - DSO (LVL-1 w.o. & DTP) 3 New H H - - - - - - - - -9 FAST - DSO reportable 3 Enhancements H - - - - - - - - -

10 FAST - Masterdata changes 2 Enhancements - M - - - - - - -11 FAST - InfoCubes 4 New - - H - - - - - - - -12 FAST - BOBJ and Reporting New - - - 6 18 12 1 28 8 -13 Metrics - ETL 5 New H - - - - - - - - - -14 Metrics - DSO (LVL-1 w.o. & DTP) 4 New H H - - - - - - - - -15 Metrics - DSO reportable 3 New H - - - - - - - - -16 Metrics - Masterdata changes 3 New - - - H - - - - - - -17 Metrics - InfoCubes 4 New - - H - - - - - - - -18 Metrics - BOBJ and Reporting New - - - - 8 28 16 1 22 2 -19 OpEx Phase -2 Enhancements 1 Enhancements L L L L 2 7 5 5 1 -20 FAST Phase -2 Enhancements 1 Enhancements L L L L 2 6 2 5 1 -21 Metrics Phase -2 Enhancements 1 Enhancements L L L L 3 6 3 5 1 -

ID Application Area Development Strategy

WebI reports (Estimated #) Analysis reports Dashboards (#)

BW enhancements (H/M/L)Quantity (estimated)

Proj-1Proj-1Proj-1Proj-1Proj-1Proj-1Proj-2Proj-2Proj-2Proj-2Proj-2Proj-2

Proj-3 Proj-3 Proj-3 Proj-3 Proj-3 Proj-3 Proj-1 Proj-2 Proj-3

Real project example Fortune-20 Energy Company

Use Project Sizing BenchmarksWe base our assumptions on average development time for each of the area based on complexity.

Naturally some may finish earlier, while others may take longer, so these numbers are average based on experiences with from 50 BW and BOBJ projects during the last decade.

Note: Many New BI program managers underestimate testing and changes of reports and Dashboards during User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

The testing time for the BW work is separated as its own estimate, while the RAD sessions are included in the BOBJ assumptions.

ETL & mapping

DSO/DTP

IC MD ItemRequirements

BuildRAD

sessionsCut-Over Total

High/New 260 300 280 180 Dashboards 110 11 280 21 422Medium 230 260 240 140 Analysis 32 14 24 4 74

Low 220 180 160 68 WebI 24 7 11 2 44

Front-end Hours (incl RAD sessions)BW Development Hours

Real project example

#6: Look at a BI Project as a Holistic Effort

This estimate is at a +/- 15% accuracy. A more details sizing exercise should be undertaken at the beginning of each phase and staffing plans updated accordingly

WebIETL/mappin

gDSO/DTP IC Masterdata Web Excel PPT

New & adhoc

1 OpEx - ETL 1040 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 312 208 229 89 358 394 447 3,077

2 OpEx- DSO (LVL-1 w.o. & DTP)

920 1200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 636 424 466 182 729 802 912 6,272

3 OpEx - DSO Reportable 0 0 840 0 0 0 0 0 0 252 168 185 72 289 318 361 2,485

4 OpEx - New Cubes 0 0 1120 0 0 0 0 0 0 336 224 246 96 385 424 482 3,313

5 OpEx - Masterdata attribution

0 0 0 900 0 0 0 0 0 270 180 198 77 310 341 387 2,663

6 OpEx - BOBJ and reporting

0 0 0 0 2532 1628 2220 74 1760 760 1643 0 531 2123 2336 2654 18,260

7 FAST - ETL 920 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 276 184 202 79 316 348 396 2,722

8 FAST - DSO (LVL-1 w.o. & DTP)

780 900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 504 336 370 144 578 636 722 4,970

9 FAST - DSO reportable 0 900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 270 180 198 77 310 341 387 2,663

10 FAST - Masterdata changes

0 0 0 280 0 0 0 0 0 84 56 62 24 96 106 120 828

11 FAST - InfoCubes 0 0 1120 0 0 0 0 0 0 336 224 246 96 385 424 482 3,313

12 FAST - BOBJ and Reporting

0 0 0 0 2532 1332 888 74 1584 760 1282 0 423 1690 1859 2113 14,537

13 Metrics - ETL 1300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 390 260 286 112 447 492 559 3,846

14 Metrics - DSO (LVL-1 w.o. & DTP)

1040 1200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 672 448 493 193 771 848 963 6,627

15 Metrics - DSO reportable

0 900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 270 180 198 77 310 341 387 2,663

16 Metrics - Masterdata changes

0 0 0 540 0 0 0 0 0 162 108 119 46 186 204 232 1,598

17 Metrics - InfoCubes 0 0 1120 0 0 0 0 0 0 336 224 246 96 385 424 482 3,313

18 Metrics - BOBJ and Reporting

0 0 0 0 3376 2072 1184 74 1056 1013 1552 0 516 2065 2272 2582 17,763

19 OpEx Phase -2 Enhancements

220 180 160 68 844 518 370 0 264 442 525 138 186 746 820 932 6,413

20 FAST Phase -2 Enhancements

220 180 160 68 844 444 148 0 264 442 466 138 169 675 742 843 5,802

21 Metrics Phase -2 Enhancements

220 180 160 68 1266 444 222 0 264 568 565 138 205 819 901 1024 7,044

Total 6,660 5,640 4,680 1,924 11,394 6,438 5,032 222 5,192 9,089 9,436 4,159 3,493 13,973 15,371 17,467 120,171

Unit test

System test

Integration test

Rollout

Development Tasks

Project mgmt

BasisInitiative total hrs

ID Application AreaBW enhancements (hours) Dashboards

(hrs)

Analysis reports (hrs)Testing and Deployment

Requirements

Supporting tasks


#7: Give Estimated Labor Hours by Projects

This creates a ‘menu’ that Senior leadership can select from while seeing the overall relative size of the projects from an efforts perspective

36,070 , 30%

29,033 , 24%35,809 , 30%

19,259 , 16%

Estimated Labor Hours

OpEx

FAST

Metrics

Phase-2 enhancements (all tracks)

Project-1

Project-2

Project-3


Estimated Labor hours by Activity – all projects

Presenting the data also by Different tasks provides an guidance on how to staff the project and how many resources may be required.

18,904 , 16%

28,278 , 23%

9,089 , 8%32,837 , 27%

4,159 , 3%

9,436 , 8%17,467 , 15%

Estimated Labor Hours Backend BW and ETL

BOBJ front-end

Requirements

Testing

Basis

Project management

Roll-out


Estimated Labor Hours by Track and Activity

This estimate is at a +/- 15% accuracy. A more details sizing exercise should be undertaken at the beginning of each phase and staffing plans updated accordingly

2,566

6,020 5,682

2,847

1,324

9,856

5,243

2,230

4,900

6,410

2,262

1,070

7,933

4,220

3,726

6,100

7,762

2,772

1,342

9,785

5,205

-

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

Estimated Labor HoursReal project example

#8: Estimate the Full-Time Employee (FTE) by Project

Estimate the FTE by 1,620 hours available for real project work per employee, not the hours the employee works overall (i.e. 1,680 or 1,920)

Project-1, 20.70 , 34%

Project-2, 20.50 , 34%

Project-3, 19.80 , 32%

FTE Equivalents

ActivityEstimated

Labor HoursProject 1 - Requirements 2,566 Project 1 - BW Development 6,020 Project 1 - BOBJ Development 5,682 Project 1 - Project management 2,847 Project 1 - Basis 1,324 Project 1 - Testing 9,856 Project 1 - Rollout 5,243 Project 2 - Requirements 2,230 Project 2 - BW Development 4,900 Project 2 - BOBJ Development 6,410 Project 2 - Project management 2,262 Project 2 - Basis 1,070 Project 2 - Testing 7,933 Project 2 - Rollout 4,220 Project 3 - Requirements 3,726 Project 3 - BW Development 6,100 Project 3 - BOBJ Development 7,762 Project 3 - Project management 2,772 Project 3 - Basis 1,342 Project 3 - Testing 9,785 Project 3 - Rollout 5,205


18

#9: Be Aware of the Many Pitfalls of BI Efforts• Failure to break from as-is environment

Treating legacy systems as “requirements” Comparing and replicating old reports and

system functionality• Underestimating development effort of complex requirements

ERP is different than most legacy systems, as is reporting Failing to understand sources of information. (i.e., sales

reporting) can come from sales orders, deliveries, billings, A/R, G/L, or COPA

• Single Sponsor Lack of corporate ownership and executive buy-in No succession plan and the Enterprise BI Program often

becomes an “orphan”

19

#9: Be Aware of the Many Pitfalls of BI Efforts (cont.)

• Failure to quickly disable legacy reporting systems• Creates competing systems, politics, and no

real cost savings• Removes urgency and creates slow user

adaptation• Overly complex architecture and lack of

enforcing of standards

Technology is seldom the reason why BI programs fail; organization and strong leadership is paramount

20



#10: Plan for Developer Training before the Project StartsDashboard Core - 2 days (BOX-310)This course is intended for inexperienced SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 developers who need to create and distribute interactive and connected dashboards. Participants will gain the detailed knowledge necessary to design a dashboard that can be used to facilitate the decision making process. Participants will become familiar with methods for connecting their dashboards to popular live data sources. Participants will be able to shorten their development time using templates, themes and best practices when designing dashboards.

Analysis Edition for MS-Office 1-day (BOAN-10)Audience: Consultants, Project Team Member, Power Users Learn the basic functions and navigation options of Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office. Learn the special functions and layout design options of Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office.

BI 4.0 Web Intelligence Report 2-days (BOW-310)The target audience for this course is report designers who need to access and analyze information using Interactive Analysis and BI launch pad. Participants will gain the comprehensive skills and in-depth knowledge needed to access, analyze and share data using SAP BusinessObjects Interactive Analysis and BI launch pad. After the course, participants will be able to efficiently and effectively manage personal and corporate documents to access the information they and report users need, when they need it. They will be able to design reports using Interactive Analysis and share their analysis with other users.

• Make sure your internal staff if well trained before the project starts.

• These 3 official SAP BusinessObjects classes should be taken by all project team members.

• Schedule these together as a one-week training class.

#11: Conduct Hands-on Workshops for continued education

Plan for Hands-on Workshops 2-3 months after the formal training is completed to get advanced concepts answered

WebI workshop - 2 days: Covers WebI development as basic, intermediate, and advanced development concepts. Client covering facilities and PCs and cost is based on consulting charges and travel costs for facilitator regardless of how many attends (normally max. 12).

Xcelsius (Dashboard) workshop - 1 days: Covers Dashboard development as basic, intermediate, and advanced development concepts. Client covering facilities and PCs and cost is based on consulting charges and travel costs for facilitator regardless of how many attends (normally max. 12).

Many do not know what questions to ask during first-time training. It is important to have follow-up training after 2-3 months of hands-on working with the BI

tools. This makes the team really productive!

23



24

#12: Selecting Objective Measures for the BI SLA

Measures drives behavior, so be careful when selecting them. They should be: Simple to understand and easy

to calculate Meaningful and drive the

behavior you want to encourage

Controllable and immune to manipulations

Instruments that collect measures must be consistent overtime and as automated as possible

Sites such as the free on-line “KPI-Library” as over 6,000 standard measure definitions based on the SEC, API, ISO, FASB, GAAP, IEEE and other organizations

25

Standardized - BI SLA Performance Measures

Standard measures exists for SLAs. These include

First-Level Call Resolution (FLCR) Average Call Answer Time (ACAT) Percentage Calls Re-opened within Two weeks (PCRT) Percentage of Training Type Calls (PTTC) Number of Tickets Escalated to level-2 support (NTE2) Percent of Tickets Escalated to level-2 support (PTE2) Number of Tickets per Service Employees (NTSE) Number of Service Employees per User (NSEU) Average Service Employees Training Level (ASET) Percent Service Employees Certified (PSEC) Turnover Rate of Service Employees (TRSE) End User Satisfaction Score (EUSS) Number of System Failures (NOSF) Number of Critical System Failures (NOCF)

26

More BI SLA Performance More Measures

Additional measures:

You can create balanced BI-SLA scorecards by assigning weights.

BEST PRACTICE: Pick 10-12 initially and add more as the relationship matures

Mean Time between Failures (MTBF) Mean Time between Critical Failures (MTCF) Mean time to Provision (MTTP) Mean time to Repair (MTTR) Percent Up-time Per System (PUPS) Percent Down-Time Per System (PDPS) Percent Call-back to Customers (PCBC) Cost per Service Ticket (CPST) Cost per Service Employee (CPSE) Cost per Serviced System (CPSS) SLA Operating Efficiency (SLAOE) SLA Operating Effectiveness (SLAOF) Employee Turnover Rate (EMTR)

27

The BI SLA Components

The BI SLA sections should include: Duration of SLAParty definitionsCommunication channelsRoles and ResponsibilitiesLegal obligations & jurisdictionFinancial obligation & payment termsService level definitions

Systems and priorities Users and priorities Processes and priorities

Security requirementsReporting and EscalationsTermination clausesContact lists for operations

Source: The SLA Toolkit, 2012

28

Secret: You can buy SLA Templates from On-Line Vendors

Some vendors provide complete toolkits for generic SLA agreements that you can use to ‘fill-in the blanks” Prices typically range from $199 to $999

Source: www.service-level-agreement.net , 2012

Source: www.sla-world.com/check.htm , 2012

There are even detailed checklists to assure that you don’t forget to include critical items in your SLA such as legal remedies, jurisdictions, intellectual property rights etc.

Simpler, free templates can be also downloaded on-line at: www.continuityplantemplates.com/files/it-service-level-agreement-templates.docx

29

#13: The BI Users also has Responsibilities under the SLA

The BI users should also have specific responsibilities under the SLA. These should be spelled out in detail. This include:

All BI users must read and sign a formal corporate security policy and enterprise data sharing rules.

BI users will use only specified telephone numbers, web site and email addresses to request support (no ‘work around’)

Each BI user must attend a 2 hours BI training sessions before receiving a log-on.

Each BI power user must attend a specific training session on Crystal, WebI, Analysis, Xcelsius etc., (each software used).

It is in the BI Program and users best interest in having clearly defined user responsibilities.

30



31

#14: Use Data Visualization - SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

• Dashboards can be built using the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards tool (formerly known as Xcelsius)

• It is an easy way to present data in graphical and simple navigation

#15: Design your Mobile Dashboards Differently

• Pick a mobile platform that you will support (Android, Apple, etc.) and design towards that platform.

• Mobile dashboards makes most sense when executives, managers and leaders have mobile devices that have sufficient display area (not phones)

• All dashboards are most useful when compared to something. This dashboard is relative to a business plan

• Notice that all graphs can be displayed many ways and that color coding is consistent across dashboards

Number based Dashboards

• Dashboards can also be highly formatted and static with little user interaction

• In this dashboard, we included some KPIs and only the balance sheet for an organization, instead of using Crystal reports for this sort of work.

Not all dashboards have a high degree of navigation and imagery. For finance dashboards, presenting the numbers

in a meaningful way may be more important.

34

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis — Excel Interface

• The SAP BusinessObjects Analysis tool exists in both: MS Office edition OLAP edition (web)

• The MS Office edition supports both Excel and PowerPoint

Image source SAP AG

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis — PowerPoint Interface

35

The tool has a query panel and can embed “live” BI analysis in the Microsoft Office applications Excel and PowerPoint

36

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis — Web Edition• The edition for OLAP (Web edition) is great for analysts who want to interact with the data and also add their own calculations, formatting and charts

• The output from this analysis can be shared with others within a department or logical grouping of employees who need to see the information

This is not a basic reporting tool, but an analysis tool

37

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Exploration Tool

• SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is a tool that is intended for rapid interactive analysis of large volumes of data

• Think of it as a BI search engine• The tool works by indexing large volume of data on dedicated server blades using SAP HANA or SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator technology

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is accessed through pre-built Information Spaces. These define what fields are available in the exploration and what users can navigate on.

The core benefit of Explorer (accelerated version): IT IS REALLY FAST!

38

SAP Crystal Reports Is a Pixel Controlled Reporting Tool

• Crystal Reports was one of the leading vendors that became part of Business Objects and later SAP

• Crystal, with its two versions, is great tool for batch reporting of “pixel controlled” formatted reports

• There are some capabilities to do interactive analysis, but it is primarily a tool for structured information access

39

#16: Be Very Selective in what BI Tool to Deploy

• All SAP tools have strength and weaknesses This is a subjective summary of each of the major tools

End User

Power User

Execu-tives

End User

Power User Author

IT Developer Graphing Navigation

External data

External web

services Simplicity OLAPAd-Hoc

querying

Web Application Designer - - - - - -

Dashboard Designer (Xcelsius)

- - - -

Visual Composer - -

Interactive Analysis ad-hoc (WebI)

- - -

Analysis Edition for OLAP (web) - -

Analysis MS edition - -

Crystal Reports - - -

BO Explorer - - - - -

- Limited Support Some Support Good Support

CapabilitiesTool

Long-term

Strategy

DevelopmentTarget User

40

Demo –Documenting Project Success using Dashboards

Real project exampleFortune-500 Company

41



Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and

you feed him for a lifetime

#17: Give Employees the Ability to build their own Reports

• The major decision for an SAP BI driven enterprise is to determine who gets access to each tool

• There is often a temptation for the IT community to want to keep the tools under their domain – that is a mistake

• The IT community should actively work with the power and casual users to improve human capabilities and thereby teach them to become more productive employees

42Chinese Proverb

#18: Teach users to Build BI Workspaces and Modules

Deploy the BI launch pad and teach users to build their own BI Workspaces. This allows them to link many SAP BI tools in the same area, without the need to jump between them.

43In this workspace, we have three Dashboards, one WebI report, one

Analysis report and one Crystal report running at the same time.

The Text Module

Using the Text Module we can add our comments and update them whenever we like.

There are two options:• Regular text• HTML

(this allows you to use HTML tags to format you text

The Compound Module with a Text Module

Using the Compound Module we display many modules together, this include text, dashboards, WebI reports, Crystal reports, and Analysis for OLAP.

Creating a compound modules are so simple, that anyone with Microsoft Word or PowerPoint skills can learn it in less than 5 minutes!!

46



#19: Align Project Scope and Milestones with Technology

The project scope is significant and the work should be tailored to getting to testing phase as soon as possible. Balance your effort with the following proportion:Task Analysis/WebI Dash boarding Crystal ReportRequirements gathering 15% 15% 10%Development & POC 40% 30% 45%Unit Testing 5% 5% 5%System Testing 5% 5% 5%Integration Testing 5% 10% 10%Performance Testing 5% 10% 5%User Acceptance Testing 15% 15% 10%Cut-Over/ Rollout 10% 10% 10%

Note: These are based on labor hours, not project duration. Staffing should be accordingly. The key with BI project is to get to testing as soon as possible and spend 40-

50% of the time on testing and enhancements (JAD, RAD or Agile)

48

Detailed Planning is Required to Meet the Milestone Dates

In a complex project with multiple development environments and releases, it is important to have a well-communicated and detailed chart to make sure everyone is in-sync at all times

Week starting 7/25

8/1

8/8

8/15

8/22

8/29

9/5

9/12

9/19

9/26

10/3

10/1

0

10/1

7

10/2

4

10/3

1

11/7

11/1

4

11/2

1

11/2

8

12/5

12/1

2

12/1

9

12/2

6

1/2

1/9

1/16

1/23

1/30

2/6

2/13

2/20

Mth.End

Conv. Mock

Mock

Cut Over

Mth End

Mockx0V

Mock

MockMth End

Erly Ordr

x0V Conv.

x0Q Conv.Integrated Unit Test

Regression Prior Waves

I/G x0V/x0Q Mig & Rgrs.

R04V1W4

BW 3.5 UpgradeBreak-Fix Window

P x0V/x0Q Mig& Rgrs.

System Test 1 Month.End

Integration Test 2

I/G x0V/x0Q Mig & Rgrs.

Month End

x0V Conv.

Prod. Conv

Early Orders

Integration Test 2

March 2006 / R05Project W1Project X (1)

Nov. 2005 / R04V1W4BW 3.5 Upgrade

Data/Mig

Proto 2 Support Pk

Integration Test 1

Prod. Conv

P x0V/x0Q Mig& Rgrs.

System Test

x0Q Conv.

x0V Mock

Regression Prior Waves Integration Test 1Conversions

Conv.

Training Conv. Training Data Staging

Conversions

Proto 1 Support Pk Apply/Tst

TPR Fix Support Pk

Month. End

Conversions

Mock

P

I

P

P I

P I

I G

PI G

I/GP

G

G

G

7/28-7/29R04I xTS

9/7-9/8 R04P x0V

9/17-9/18R04P x01

10/15-10/16R04I x01

10/5-10/6 R04I x0V

9/14-9/15 R04P x0Q

10/12-10/13 R04I x0V

10/4

9/5R05P xT0 9/22-9/23

R05I xT0

10/18-10/20R05P+spt pk xTS

10/17 spt. Pk xT0

11/10-11/11R05I xT0

12/15-12/16R05I ITC2 Mock Prep

2011, BW 7.3 and BI 4.0 Upgrade

2012, Global Dashboard and HANA Rollout

2011, BW 7.3 and BI 4.0 Upgrade

Real project exampleFortune-500

Manufacturing company

49

#20: Write a BI Scope Agreement & Implement Change Control• First, determine what the 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 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.

RequirementsGathering

(Scope Planning)

Scope ChangeControl

ProjectInitiation

Scope Management Processes

Project ScopeStatement

(Scope Definition)

Project Committment(Scope Verification)

Source: PMI

This typically includes a cost-benefit estimate for each change request and a formal approval process.

50

Change Control Process – Example

Identify change, evaluate need, and

submit, if valid.

Business Teams

Change Control DB

Assign to responsible Track.

Change Control DB

Operating Model Integration Team

Analyze request and estimate

impacts.

Change Control DB

Tracks

Escalate request to next level in

organization for decision/review.

Change Control DB

Make/review decision.

Tracks

PMC / PMOProject Integration Team

Team LeadTracks

Escalation Levels1. Team Lead2. Project Integration Team3. Project Management Org4. Project Management Council

Execute action plans and close change request.

Change Control DB

PMC / ESCPMO

EDGE Integration TeamTeam Lead

Tracks

Change Control DB

Current scope of work?

Update to relevant release and notify

Business. No further action at this time.

Change Control DB

No

Yes



Based onimpact, can a

decision be made at this level?

No

Yes

Communicate resolution to

Business.

Team LeadTracks

WouldBusiness like further

review?

Yes

Identify change, evaluate need and

assign to responsible Track.

Change Control DB

Tracks

No

Change control processes should be formal, with escalation rules that can be used if disputes occur. This example is from a large SAP project that included BI and BW and which needed very strong scope control.

Real project exampleFortune-50

Manufacturing company

51



52

Where to Find More Information• Agile Data Warehousing Project Management: Business Intelligence Systems

Using Scrum, Ralph Hughes, (366 pages, Oct. 2012)• David Lai and Xavier Hacking , SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0

Cookbook (Packt Publishing, May 2011).• Business Intelligence Strategy: A Practical Guide for Achieving BI Excellence

by John Boyer, Bill Frank, Brian Green and Tracy Harris (Nov 1, 2010)• Jim Brogden, Heather Sinkwitz, Mac Holden, Dallas Marks, and Gabriel

Orthous, SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence: The Comprehensive Guide, (SAP Press, October 2012).

• Bjarne Berg and Penny Silvia, SAP HANA an Introduction (SAP Press, October 2012).

• Data Warehouse 100 Success Secrets - 100 most Asked questions on Data Warehouse Design, Projects, Business Intelligence, Architecture, Software and Models by Richard Martin (Jul 29, 2009)

• Waltzing With Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects, by Tom Demarco & Timothy Lister

7 Key Points to Take Home

• Spend serious time on crating a formal BI Strategy that is aligned to the company’s overall objective

• Make sure your strategy has a set of solid sponsors (not one)• Select multiple front-end tools for different users• Size your project based on labor hours and base your budget on

these• Create a 24-36 month implementation strategy and get approvals

for the delivery plan• Staff your team with experienced resources and train

inexperienced staff before the project starts• Create a Program management Office (PMO) and move all major

BI projects under this management for coordination, standards and quality assurance.

53

Your Turn!

How to contact me:Dr. Bjarne Berg

[email protected]

54

Continue the conversation! Post your questions in the BI-BW Forum on Insider Learning Network*

*bit.ly/BI-BWForum

http://bit.ly/BI-BWForum

http://bit.ly/BI-BWForum

http://bit.ly/yTZkvP

DisclaimerSAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, SAP NetWeaver®, Duet™®, PartnerEdge, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Wellesley Information Services is neither owned nor controlled by SAP.

55

20 questions to ask when formulating a bi strategy and roadmap

Documents

bi strategy

biself service

right bi toolsbi

project sizing

enterprise data warehouse

project x

companys customers

better customer service