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Project PresentationSethu Lambu

Manager, IS Production Engineering

GBA573 IT Project Management Summer 2004 University of San Diego

Electronic-File Processing System (EFP)

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i2 Trade Service Business

• SBU of i2 Technologies– 10% of company revenues

• Products– For Distributors and Contractors– Pricing Content for MRO products from Electrical, Plumbing,

and Industrial verticals– Attributed Content– Publications– Hi-Tech Component Content Products/Services– Decision support software & content

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SourceElectronic files

ProcessData

Integrate

Deliver

SourceCatalogs

CaptureData

Integrate

Validate

Validate

EDMS

MS Access Tools

Editing, Domain KnowledgeCall Center

FTP, CD

Oracle, Unix, C, Shell

Content Production & Delivery

Integrate

Deliver

Content@ and XPP

Books & XML

CaptureData PubsFormat Publish

Editing, Domain Knowledge

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EFP Problem Statement

• Backlog of 80,000 items over a quarter during peak time.

• Worst case = 250,000 items over 1 year

• Double the resources to clear backlogs

• Need to reduce backlog by 50% in one year

• Need to eliminate this from next year

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SourceElectronic files

ProcessData

Integrate

Deliver

Validate

EDMS

MS Access Tools

FTP, CD

Oracle, Unix, C, Shell

Electronic File Processing - Current

Mfr Data Handling

Pre-Data Input Table

Data Admin Data Input Work

Feedback, Corrections

TO REPLACE WITH THE NEW EFP SYSTEM ….

Each of these areas have their own databases for the same items

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EFP Design

Source data file

EFP database

MD Handling

Pre-DIT

DIT

Admin validation

Reports

EDMS

Design – common database, functional UIs Technology – Oracle 9i, C#, .net Framework

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EFP Benefits

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EFP Project Scope

• Objectives– Solve the business problem: eliminate backlog– Satisfy users– Monitor and demonstrate benefits

• Justification– Current system’s problems highlighted by research in 2003

• Redundancies, Rework, Patchwork, Inefficient UI, Unreliable backup

– Discounted ROI 101.85% plus intangible benefits

• Business Process Requirements– One integrated system for electronic file processing– Auto-tracking and reporting mechanism– Max users = 20, max items = 20 Million– All verticals

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EFP Deliverables

Project Management Deliverables- Business Case, ROI, Feasibility

- Approval from sponsors

- Team formation

- Requirements sign-off

- Work breakdown structure

- Project Schedule

- Project status reports for sponsors, users and project team

- Project time tracking reports

- User acceptance and sign-off

- Final project presentation

- Lessons-learned report

Product Deliverables- EFP design document

- Software code

- Source code descriptions

- Prototypes at appropriate stages for approval by users

- QC / Testing package

- Training materials

- User training

- User manual summary document

- Entity relationship diagram and a method to maintain it

- Post-deployment support

- Dedicated network drive

- Server, memory space

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EFP Feasibility

• Technical– Development technology & environment already available– Does not affect the functioning of subsequent processes– Immense knowledge existing business rules

• Economic– No additional cost incurred for software or hardware– Discounted ROI 101.85% plus intangible benefits

• Operational– Greatest challenge from extreme flexibility with existing tools– EFP offers flexibility with robustness– Extensive involvement by users needed

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EFP Risk Management

• Does not offer extreme flexibility like existing tools– Flexibility with robustness, similar editing features

• Modular deployment not possible – Seems like no value for a long time. – Prototypes & demos help in “keeping it live”

• Time commitment from users– Testing prototypes will keep them involved– Testing scheduled during non-critical hours– Global development team to compensate for time lost

• QA resources are shared by other projects– Include tester in all design discussions– Regular update to QA manager re: project progress

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EFP Communication Strategy

• Sponsors– Weekly dashboard updates & regular milestone updates

• Users– Involve in prototype demos, design changes– Written approvals– Clarity in communication, quick response, PM interface

• Developers– Global team– Written, oral, net meetings

• Others– QA testers: work closely with users– Sys-admin: extremely important during deployment

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EFP Summary Tasks

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EFP Work Breakdown Structure

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EFP Work Breakdown Structure

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EFP Project Participants

Title Role Hours

Project Manager Project Management 500 hrs

Developer 1 Programming 1000 hrs

Developer 2 Programming 700 hrs

QA 1 Testing 1000 hrs

User 1 Testing 250 hrs

User 2 Testing 250 hrs

User 3 Testing 250 hrs

Developer 1 + other Documentation 250 hrs

Sys-Admin Deployment 150 hrs

Manager 1 Sponsor, reports approval As needed

Vice President Sponsor As needed

Total person-hours approximate 4,400 hrs

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EFP Measure of Success

• During the project– User Acceptance

– Technical Quality

– Time Schedule

– Cost

– Security

• After the project– User Acceptance

– Minimal post-deployment changes

– Measure backlog

– Measure additional resources required to clear backlog

– Validate intangible benefits

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THANK YOU