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Inside an SAP Business Intelligence Project, Part 1: Best Practices for Planning and Project Management Dr. Bjarne BergCOMERIT 2010 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

In This Session Get expert advice on how to budget, scope, and manage an SAP business intelligence project Ranging from SAP BusinessObjects implementations to leveraging portals

Hear best practices for writing a solid business case for your BI initiative, defining reasonable scope agreements, creating a rollout strategy, developing budgets, picking the right front-end tools, and creating a project organization that matches scope and delivery plans2In This Session (cont.)Walk through real examples of four SAP customers that have implemented SAP BusinessObjects dashboards and cockpits, and learn how to avoid their top 10 project pitfalls, including performance and user interface deploymentExplore functional specifications and requirements, and glean insight into which reports should remain in SAP ERP and which can be leveraged by your SAP business intelligence and SAP BusinessObjects front-end toolsTake home best-practice functional specification templates, staffing templates including roles and responsibilities, and decision flow charts for SAP business intelligence projects33What Well Cover Planning your SAP business intelligence project Organizing your BI initiativeTop 10 lessons learned by four SAP customers that have implemented SAP BusinessObjects dashboardsGetting started with your BI projectWrap-up4Planning Your SAP Business Intelligence Project The business caseScope agreementMilestonesSteering committee

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6Writing the Business Case The business case must be aligned with some concrete 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

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7Business Case Ideas Users get earlier access to informationLoad times in BW are less than traditional,custom- developeddata warehouses Business users need a high availability solutionInformation AccessUsers spend less time on reconciling data, and moretime analyzing itBW is closerto the source system, and more accurately reflects dataA substantial portion of the data warehouse effort is spent on reconciling informationReconciliation EffortEnables web initiatives to get closer to the source data,both in time and consistencyBW is closely integrated with ERP and can deliver data that reflects the source system at short time intervalsWeb delivery requires rapid data delivery of high consistency with the source systemWeb strategySubstantial cost savings, bynot having to redevelop newextract programs for eachSAP upgrade BW ERP integration points are maintained and tested by SAP Updating extract programswhen upgrading ERP is expensiveCost AvoidanceSAP is responsible for maintenance of the product Maintaining a custom developed BI solution is complex and expensiveCost of OwnershipBenefitBI ObservationAreaInformation AccessReconciliation EffortWeb strategyCost AvoidanceCost of OwnershipBenefitSAP BI ObservationAreaSubstantial maintenancecost savings

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8AreaObservationSAP BI BenefitFaster DeploymentNeed to increase time to deliver new applications and enhancements to existing areasTypical use of 60-80% of predelivered content increases development speedReduced development time for new decision support areasIntegrated ProductsSAP continues to offer new products and modules that the organization might wish to leverage in the futureSAP NetWeaver BW is the cornerstone of SAPs BI product offeringsEnables closer integration with other SAP modulesQuery speedBusiness users need fast access to their data Through use of summaries and the SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator, the blade architecture lends itself to faster in-memory query performance Users get the data they need quickly to perform their job functionsMore Business Case Examples

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9AreaObservationSAP BI BenefitSAP StrategyIt is the organizations SAP strategy to leverage investments in SAP to the fullest extent, and maximize SAP resource utilizationSAP BI is an SAP product, and is based on standard SAP NetWeaver technologies (Basis, ABAP, kernels, etc.)Strategic fit and synergy with SAP. SAP Basis, ABAP, etc., resources can be used across SAP projects, including SAP BITool StandardizationThe organization must be able to leverage industry standards to enable business users to access data in a variety of ways Interfaces such as ODBO and MDX and Java are supported by a variety of major presentation and Web tools. SAP BusinessObjects tools can be integrated rapidly via native: connectionsSimplifies user access to data; expands options for using standard presentation and Web tools or developing your ownIndustry TrendThe organizations competitors and some of the organizations business areas are installing SAP BI Increased industry resource pool and knowledge of SAP BIEnables the organization to leverage industry solutions and know-howThree More Business Case Examples

9The Scope Agreement DimensionsFor the first go-live, keep the scope as small as possibleFor example, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, G/L, or COPAYou have only three dimensions to work with, if one of these dimensions changes, you have to adjust at least one of the others

10There is a limit to how far you can compress timelines:Brooks law states that "Nine women cannot make a baby in one month* TimeScopeResources(people, technology, and money)* Frederick Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month, Addison-Wesley, 1975)

1011The Scope Agreement A Discovery ExerciseDetermining the scope is done in a variety of ways, depending on which methodology you employ. It is a complex process involving:Discovery and education Formal communicationReviews Final approvals

An SAP BI implementation involves more than black-and-white technical decisions; just because something is technically feasible, doesnt mean it is wise or desirable from a business perspective.

Source: Gooy_GUI, 200711

12Defining The Scope Of Your SAP BI ImplementationFirst, determine what the business drivers are; Then meet these objectivesDefine the scope in terms of what is included, as well as what is not includedMake sure you obtain approval of the scope before you progress any further. All your work from now on will be 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. Source: Gooy_GUI, 200713Change Management Process Change Request formComplete?NoReviewRecom-mended?SubmissionChange Request formNoYesApproved?NoScheduledDevelopedUnit TestedDev. environmentSystem testedDev. EnvironmentIntegration testedQA environmentApproved?Approved?Approved?Moved to productionNoNoNoYesYesYesYesYesIT responsibleBusiness responsibleSr. mgmt. responsible13The Change Management Form Page 1To make this process work, you need a formal instrumentThe instrument can be online (i.e., a Web page), electronic (Word document), or a paper-based systemThe form should contain at least these fields14The front page that the requestor fills out

14The Change Management Form Page 2This page is used by the system administrator or the project teamThe purpose is to have controlled changes that are scheduled and tested appropriately1515The back page that the system admin and approver fill out

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Do You Have a Plan? The Six Dimensions of BI Management There are six core global dimensions you must consider before embarking on a BI projectProject management is important, but its only one of these dimensionsFailure to account for the others may result in project failures.Source: Peter Grottendieck, SiemensFor each dimension, articulate an approach, constraints, limitations, and assumptions before you start your project.1616What Well Cover Planning your SAP business intelligence project Organizing your BI initiativeTop 10 lessons learned by four SAP customers that have implemented SAP BusinessObjects dashboardsGetting started with your BI projectWrap-up17Organizing your BI initiativeBudgetingProject team organizationUser Acceptance Testing (UAT) and Rapid Application Development (RAD)1818Budgeting Process StepsSize the SAP BI effort based on the scope Prioritize the effortMap the effort to the delivery schedulePlan for number of resources needed based on the scope, delivery schedule, and the effort19Create 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 teams skill experience and skill level

191. Size the SAP BI Effort Based on the Scope Real Example20

Remember that your sizing also has to be based on the teams experience and skill level.

20212. Prioritize the EffortThe next step is to prioritize and outline the effort on a strategic timelineMake sure your sponsor and the business community agree with your delivery schedule

21223. Use Project Estimates and the Timeline to Create Project Load PlanThere are 480 available work hours per project member per quarter. Knowing this, we can plan the number of team members we need

22234. Result: Good Input for the Staffing Costs and PlanningMany 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.

Use this information to plan for training, on-boarding, and staffingThis spike in resource needs is due to an overlap in the delivery schedule

Now might be a good time to review that decision23

How Tightly Should Multiple BI Projects be Controlled?Source: The Conference Board SurveyThe relationship between control and success according to a conference Board Survey of 89 BI projects.88% Successful30% SuccessfulLoose Cooperation(38%)Independent(38%)Tight Central Control(24%)100% SuccessfulCoordination of Multiple Business Intelligence Projects242425Six Ways to Organize your BI Project Team

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

25Example 1 Small Project Team Organization26Four to five team members and normally three to six months duration on each go-live depending on scopeBI Basis and functional SAP ERP support

These are roles, not positionsSometimes one team member can fill more than one roleMany companies fail to formally assign roles and responsibilities.

As a result, they have many jack of all trades and masters of none.Business AnalystPresentation DeveloperBusiness TeamBI ArchitectETL DeveloperTechnical TeamProject ManagerProject SponsorETL = Extract, Transform, and Load 26Example 2 Medium Project Team Organization27This model scales well to teams of up to 12-15 peopleBasis and functional ERP support8-10 team members and normally 2-4 months duration depending on scopeProject sponsor/ Steering Committee Project ManagerSAP BIArchitectBusiness Analyst(s)Extract, Transforms and LoadsData Management(InfoCubes & ODS)Presentation Developer(s) - cockpits & queriesSr. Business analystBusiness analystSr. ETL developerETL developerSr. SAP BI developerSAP BI developerSr. Presentation developerPresentation developer27Example 3 Large Project Team Organization28BI Basis and functional SAP ERP support

15-30 team members and normally 6-18 months duration between each go-live Portal Developer(s)BI ArchitectBusiness Analyst/(sub-team lead)BI DeveloperPresentation Developer(s)ETL DeveloperSales TeamBusiness Analyst/(sub-team lead)BI DeveloperPresentation Developer(s)ETL DeveloperFinance TeamBusiness Analyst/(sub-team lead)BI DeveloperPresentation Developer(s)ETL DeveloperMaterial Mgmt. TeamProject ManagerProject Sponsor/Steering CommitteeIn larger teams, you need to create functional teams, instead of the previous technical team models. This is to avoid islands of teams that are not really integrated2829On-Boarding ,Training, and SAP Courses

Dont underestimate the value of in-house, hands-on training in addition to formal SAP training classes.

2930The User Acceptance Group and Its RoleCreate a user acceptance team consisting of five to seven 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 meetingMake this team the focus of your requirements gathering in the early phase, then let this team perform user acceptance testing during the Realization phaseMeet with the team at least once a month during realization to refine requirements as you are building, and have something to show themThis approach is hard to execute when also managing scope, but is essential to make sure that the system meets users requirements

30RAD Approach For Smaller BI and Cockpit Projects In Rapid Application Development (RAD), keep the scope focused and use a simple approach31In RAD, no functional or technical specs are used in this approach. Over 8-16 weeks, multiple user acceptance sessions are used to refine requirements and multiple prototypes are built (think rapid interactive prototyping). Activate standard contentReview data quality issuesCreate 2-3 sample queriesLoad InfoCubeUser acceptance sessionRequest for modificationsIn-scope?RejectionIn-futurescope?Make enhancementsTestDeployYesNoNo31What Well Cover Planning your SAP business intelligence project Organizing your BI initiativeTop 10 lessons learned by four SAP customers that have implemented SAP BusinessObjects dashboardsGetting started with your BI projectWrap-up3233Example 1 Build on a Solid FoundationIn this company, the data volumes were very highTherefore, a set of summary cubes were used instead of building dashboards on top of large InfoProvidersLessons # 1: Make sure you build dashboards on top of summary cubes and data stores where the volume is small and queries can run fast.

34Example 1 Build on a Solid Foundation (cont.)

Lesson #2: Modularize the data and always leverage MultiProviders.

This reduces data replication, decreases the number of data updates, and makes the data available to the end user faster.

You can also use the MultiProviders for other summary reports beyond the dashboards.35Example 2 Compare to PlansLesson #3: Adding forward looking dashboards that are linked to Business Plans (BP), Rolling Estimates (RE), and Prior Year (PY) makes the dashboard more meaningful.

Lesson #4: Create charts that predict where the sales will be each month if the trend continues. This makes the dashboard actionable and tells the users what needs to be done.36Example 3 Provide Numbers, not Just Graphs

Lesson #5: Almost all dashboards should have graphs as well as numbers.

Do not create a visually pleasing dashboard with just images. People are visual as well as numerical oriented.In this example, users can toggle between tables and graphs. This means that the same information does not consume a large space.Lesson #6: Users want to see the details without having to log-on to a separate system. It is not advisable to try to cram too much details in a single management cockpit (max. 500-1000 rows).

Instead, create jump-to reports from the dashboard. This can be to Interactive Analysis (SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence ) or to existing BW Web queries.

37Example 4 Create Drill Downs from Dashboards

38Example Four Online Help and Metadata

Lesson #7: When presenting numbers on charts and complex graphs, you should always provide an online explanation for: What the numbers mean How they are calculated How you read the graphsThis can be developed inside SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder (formerly Xcelsius).Lesson #8: It is hard to build a fast dashboard with many queries and panels without SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator. This provides in-memory processing of queries that is 10-100x faster.

Lesson #9: Pre-running queries into cache via BEx Broadcaster requires more memory than the 200MB default values. Analyze your server and consider increasing the cache to 400MB+.39It Is All About Performance, Performance, Performance

Lesson #10: MDX cache is for OLAP Universes, OLAP cache is for BICS connectors used by SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder. Think how you are accessing the data before you performance tune the system and always conduct a stress test before deploying any dashboards.What Well Cover Planning your SAP business intelligence project Organizing your BI initiativeTop 10 lessons learned by four SAP customers that have implemented SAP BusinessObjects dashboardsGetting started with your BI projectWrap-up40Getting Started Methodology and Functional SpecsTool SelectionReport dispositioning

414142Pick a Formal Methodology You Have Many ChoicesAccelerated SAP (ASAP) methodology is not your only choiceEven though they are harder to manage on a global project due to long communication lines, consider RAD, JAD, or EP based on the time to delivery and impact of failureJoint Application Design(JAD)Rapid Application Development(RAD)Extreme Programming(EP)System development Lifecycle based methodologies(SDLC)Impact of FailureLowHighLowHighTime to DeliveryWhen to Select Different Methodologies Source: Bjarne Berg, Data Management Review 2004Look at what your organizational partners have done.

You may know more about RAD than you think!42Monitoring BI Quality and Formal Approval Process: Example43Create Functional specsPeer ReviewComplete?Complete?Create Technical specsPeer ReviewComplete?Complete?Structured walkthroughApproved?ConfigurationUnit TestingIntegration TestingSystem TestingStructured walkthroughApproved?NoNoNoNoNoYesYesYesYesYesYesNo

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Sample Info Request FormDocuments requirements in a standardized format and allows for a large comment sectionPrioritizes requirementsConsolidates requirementsSupports follow-up discussions and reviews

44Sample Info Request Form (cont.)Other usesPost the form on the intranet, thereby giving stakeholders an easy way to communicate with the project teamUse the Comment section for language and security requirements, or add a separate section for thisNote the section for dispositioning the requirement45

45What Dashboard and Cockpit Tool to SelectAll SAP tools have strength and weaknessesThis is a subjective summary of each of the major dashboard tools46

46SAP's Vision Who Should Do What ..SAP has a vision of which SAP BusinessObjects tools are appropriate for the different user groups47

Source: SAP4748cuTeam starts by reviewing documentation tool for documentation completenessD1Is report documentation complete? Request additional input from BusinessTeam member Responsible Team member acquires/documents additional informationD2Is this an Intraday report?D3Significantnumberof users?D4 Is the report system resource intensive?D5Does Standard ERPcontentexist?D6DoesStandard BWcontentexist?D7Is it less expensive tocreate inERP?ERP is selected asReporting Tooland documentedin doc. toolBW is selected asReporting Tool anddocumented in doc.toolBW is selected asReporting Tooland documentedin the documentation toolBW is selected asreporting tool and ChangeRequest is submitted ifthe scope changedERP is selected asReporting Tooland documentedin doc. toolERP is selected asReporting Tool and documentedNoYesNoNoYesYesYesNoYesNoD2.5 Does data exist in "in-scope" modelsInfocube/ODSNoYesNoD1a Is this a truereportingneedYesNoCommunicate tobus. leaderA2Total Cost ofOwnershipAnalysisD8Is BI costeffective?YesNoYesYesERP is selected asReporting Tooland documentedin doc. toolD9ERP ToolSelectionProcessNoBW is selected asReporting Tool anddocumented in doc.toolStandardERPABAP/CustomReportWriterOtherQueryReview requirements and identifycorresponding Data Model (InfoCube/ODS) Communicate finaldisposition Communicate finaldisposition Communicate finaldisposition Communicate finaldispositionCommunicate finaldispositionERP team make final disposition Communicate finaldispositionCommunicate finaldispositionBW Team to forward completed detailed report specifications based on selected Reporting Tool - BI or ERPA3Sub-Process Report Consolidation &eliminate if appropriate (winnowing)A4 Baseline reportsAn example of how to decide which reports should be in ERP or the legacy system (refer to printed version)48What Well Cover Planning your SAP business intelligence project Organizing your BI initiativeTop 10 lessons learned by four SAP customers that have implemented SAP BusinessObjects dashboardsGetting started with your BI projectWrap-up4950ResourcesEvan Delodder and Ray Li, Creating Dashboards with Xcelsius: Practical Guide, SAP PRESS, 1st Edition; (September 15, 2010)

Boris Otto and Jrg Wolter, Implementing SAP Customer Competence Center, SAP PRESS, 1st edition; 1st edition (December 1, 2008)

by Frank K. Wolf and Stefan Yamada, Data Modeling in SAP NetWeaver BW 7.1, SAP PRESS, 1st Edition; (August 1, 2010)

7 Key Points to Take HomeDo not jump into a dashboard project. Create a formal strategy, plan, budgets, and scope, and train your staff before you start.Have a formal organization, but do not overstaff. Skills are more important than numbers.Spend serious time on the backend BI system. Not all systems are ready for dashboards Performance is essential.Consider SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator as part of your dashboard project.Rollout interactive analysis (SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence) as part of the dashboard project Details are important and users want drill-down capabilities.Make the first rollout short and focused (12-16 weeks max).Use Rapid Application Development (RAD) as you methodology Anything else does not make sense!5152Your Turn!How to contact me:Dr. BergBberg@ComeritInc.com

53DisclaimerSAP, ERP, 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.