Support and Management of Your EPM Environment: Best Practices and Approach

Rob Hirschmann, Corporate Vice President February 23, 2010

2005 2010 Projility, Inc. All Material in this presentation is the copyright property of Projility, Inc. and can not be used, in any form, without the expressed written permission of Projility, Inc. PROJILITY is a Registered Trademark of Projility, Inc.

Agenday Introductions y The 3 P s approach y The value of internal marketing y EPM Application Administration y Functional y Technical y Troubleshooting Technical Issues y System Maintenance y System Support and Options y Questions

Speaker IntroductionRob Hirschmanny 12+ years leading enterprise project and portfolio management rollouts y y y y y

for large organizations Background in project portfolio management, business process automation and project management Principal, National Commercial Practice Supported organizations in public sector, health care, biotechnology, transportation, manufacturing businesses MS Project user since 1994 Supported PMOs using multiple PMIS technologies

Speaker IntroductionTop-Tier Microsoft Project Partner in business since 2005. Differentiators: 1. Proven methodology resulting in 98% on-time, on-budget within scope delivery2.

Focus on Quality recognized by Gartner Group PPM Magic Quadrant Report 2008 & 2009 Small teams succeed Keep it COTS approach to manage scope and risk Interest in helping improve your business processes long-term

3. 4. 5.

45+ Successful implementations; Proven Support model for EPM/PPM systems unique to the industry

Client challengesThis system is too complicated and requires too much upkeep. I can t find people with the right skills to do this at a managed budget point. I want IT to own and manage the application and all related support. EPM is new to us and I didn t plan to have someone on staff to handle all this. There is a solution, it involves The 3 P s

The correct model

The 3 P sPlanning Preparation

Partnership

The incorrect ModelsHand it to IT (they will figure it out)

No one owns the application (uh oh)

Owned and operated by the PMO (they know the process)

Planning

y Develop a strategy and roadmap for EPM support

(w,w,w,w,w,h,hm) y Determine an appropriate approach to resourcing the role(s) related to EPM support y Determine how you will manage incoming requests for help, enhancements (2 different approaches)y ITIL Model

y Determine who will be your champions in the user

community y Identify the right senior sponsor to support change management y Plan for soft support elements such as internal marketing and change management

Administration

Administrating EPM 2007: Two PerspectivesFunctionalConfiguration within the application (Server Settings) Views Security Enterprise Fields Queue

Back-end/TechnicalTreat the entire SharePoint farm as a whole Project is just a service More complex when using MOSS Services running in the Servers (SharePoint specific) Database administration BUR (Backup and Restore) General Server Operations and Maintenance

Administrating EPM 2 rolesFunctionalNot necessarily to be performed by System Administrator Preferably a functional administrator from PMO Needs to have high-level understanding of solution Needs to understand project management principles Needs to have basic understanding of relationship between Project Server and WSS Needs to have a solid understanding of the Project Server security model Needs to work with System Administrator closely

TechnicalIn some organizations this may be split between a System Admin (support up to the OS level) and SQL DBA Must understand Windows Server 2003/2008/2008 R2 Must understand WSS/MOSS architecture Needs basic SQL Server skills Must Understand IIS 6 or 7 Basic understanding of .NET 3.0 Basic understanding of Active Directory Basic understanding of enterprise security (i.e. firewall, domain security and policies) Understand Backup and Recovery of solution (Central Admin or SQL Server Backups) Needs to work with Functional Administrator closely

Key resource planning pointsy Identify who will own which roles PRIOR to

implementation y Involve those individuals during the planning, implementation phases y Make this a part of their job duties y Ensure they are strong communicators y PM background is essential to growing trust y If you already deployed, develop a plan and budget NOW prior to 2010 migration

Soft supporty Internal marketing prior to rollout y Risk identification and management y Stakeholder support y Always be selling internally (PMO role) y What s in it for Me model

Internal Marketingy Identify likely issuesIssue Result New information worker technologies are deployed in a Low chance of adoption: Not visible on desktop, Not visible to users. legacy context as tools/products Little effort focused on integrating tools to solve a specific business problem Capabilities are not actively marketed to the business Absence of a business case for specific solutions or overall strategy.

Tools not integrated into business processes will often be ignored

Business is not aware of the potential and therefore not driven to adopt

Executive or Business Unit management not aware of the tangible benefits and therefore no push to adopt

Internal Marketingy Solution Adoption Method/Roadmap

Key Action

Potential Initiatives Bri fi t c ti s si c iliti s s rt str t ic i ct I f r ti W r r R P rf r s l ti isi i &

Develop Awareness

Demonstrate Value

Business case development for high value solution scenarios Adoption scorecard development Quick hits user training Capability analysis to develop common language between business and IT oadmap development and migration planning Governance strategy Centers of xcellence / Competency Centers Business process alignment

Ensure Integration and Alignment

ss cisi rs r ti s ( . ., l liz ti -s s l r f f c c ts t f r

s)

Internal Marketingy Identify Roadblocks, Solutions and Key actions

PreparationNow that you ve identified an approach and staff, how will you execute? y Build a solid support plan and model that separates out the different kinds of support you will provide y Determine appropriate SLAs with the IT and user community y Understand and prepare for multiple types of system support y Budget and staff the role(s) y Make sure there is appropriate investment in training and continuing education

Sustainability and Maintenance

Sustainability for EPM 2007System SustainabilitySystem MaintenanceOn-Going Maintenance Enhancements Disaster and Recovery Planning

System SupportEnhancements and Add-Ons User Support Custom Reports

Maintenance: On-Goingy Apply the latest Security Updates y Windows Server y SQL Server y Download latest Office Servers 2007 Cumulative

Updatesy Review the KB article associated with update y Perform regression testing in your Test Environment y Coordinate with Desktop Support pushing new ActiveX

controls and updates to Project Professional 2007

y Monitor the SharePoint logs and Event Viewer

Troubleshooting Technical Planning understand the system!y y y

Use the Windows Event Viewer for error messages Monitor the SharePoint logs (each App and Web server have their own) Performance Issuesy y

y

Are the servers virtualized? Do they have the recommended resources (i.e. RAM, processor and hard disk space) to handle the workload? IIS (web server or application pools)y y y

y

Identify the root cause of the problem:y

Expired passwords on service accounts Web Front End server(s) is(are) not online App Server(s) is(are) not online

y y y y y y

Project Service has been stopped and needs to be restarted Issues with SharePoint technologies Networking issues Issues with Windows Server image deployed Issues with .NET Framework (rare, but they exist) Check for any hotfixes applied to Windows Server or SQL Server (hotfixes need additional regression testing)

y y y

Once root cause of the problem is identified, begin to develop a solution: y Check that latest service pack for Office Servers has been applied y Check Microsoft KB for latest cumulative updates for Office Servers and Project Professional (released in a 2 month cycle) y Check Microsoft TechNet y Check Microsoft Newsgroups that are available online Test the proposed solution in Development/Staging Backup, Backup, Backup! before deploying to production If you have tried all the options above and cannot resolve your issue: y Consider contacting Microsoft Product Support Servicesy

Consider reaching out to a Microsoft Partner

Maintenance: Enhancementsy Enhancements y Leverage Capacity Planning for long-term sustainability y Develop and Regularly Update an Enhancements Release Plan for life-time of system y Utilize Development Environment for Enhancement and Capability Testing

Maintenance: Disaster and Recovery Planningy Disaster Planning y Develop a Disaster Recovery Plan y Determine an appropriate Back-Up Site y Back Up and Recovery y Develop Back-Up and Restore Procedures y Determine Back-Up Storage Types (Hot, Warm, Cold) y Establish an Archiving Process

Preparation: System Supporty Three Pronged

Approachy Enhancements and

Add-Ons y User Support y Reports Customization

Enhancements & Connections to EPM Key Areas Benefits Determine what the Key

Enhancements to the system will be Matrix enhancements to specific user issues to show solutions

Derives the most relevant List of

Details On How to

Implement

Generate a matrix of issues

to enhancements Determine what issues should be addressed procedurally and which are technical and related to the EPM System Create a proposed List of Enhancements and proposed prioritization

Enhancements as they are matrixed directly against user issues and requests Enables the technical resources to utilize its time more efficiently by having a clear prioritized agenda for enhancements Presents enhancement requests in the most easy to understand and clear manner to PMO leadership

User Support Key Areas Develop a resource

Benefits Processes will be well defined Each resource knows their role

management strategy for user support Develop customized Service Level Agreements using industry best practices

Details On How to Implement Determine specific EPM

Technical Team roles and responsibilities Implement approved Service Level Agreements for a tiered network of support.

and duties as a member of the team Technical resources can become organized developing templates and other resources to streamline user support EPM users issues get addressed in a more timely and efficient manner.

Reports Customization Key Areas Meet with various

Benefits Methodical way to research,

stakeholders to determine reporting needs Examine current reports to determine reporting gaps

Details On How to Implement Meet with Stakeholders

and user community Look into further use of the Data Analysis views and OLAP Cube Set up a schedule of deliverables Execute

derive, create, and deliver the necessary reports required to easy strain on the current user community Determine user pain point quickly so that the quality of solutions (reports, views, etc) can be focused on Ultimately provide additional ways to splice and analyze data

Support complaintsy Don t you guys have a help desk I can call when I

need it and pay by the hour? y Can t I just pay you based upon what we use? y What if I have a true emergency, will you be there? y I don t have the budget for support.

Typical Responsesy Don t you guys have a help

desk I can call when I need it and pay by the hour? y Can t I just pay you based upon what we use? y What if I have a true emergency, will you be there? y I don t have the budget for support.

y No. y No.

y We ll see. y Hmmmm

Partnershipy Identify the type of help you are looking for y Functional, technical or both y Identify frequency of support you will require y Year 1 unknown, keep data, purchase a support contract of at least 160 hours y Year 2 you should have data by now y Pick a business partner that has a model to meet

your needsy Ad hoc is difficult, EPM consultancies are focused

on deployments, NOT support y Build a relationship understanding the constraints you are placing on the partner

Partnershipy Identify a budget as part of your 1-3 year rollout

plan y Build support costs in (internal/external) to you initial business case y This is difficult to go at it alone without dedicated internal resources and a relationship with an outside firm that knows EPM and can support it. With this in mind ..

ProjilityExpertCarey Support offering from Projility that allows organizations to: y Focus on their most critical projects and activities y Shifts work to a specialized business partner y Assists with resolving system issues fast y Keeps your Microsoft Project and Portfolio Server system(s) running smoothly, with minimal work y Provides scheduled system reviews and administrator training y Proactive approach to help you maintain your system (patch maintenance, log & queue management and management of all technical elements of your system

ProjilityExpertCare componentsy On-demand call-us for issue related support (technical, functional) y Online Knowledge Base for self-service first y Emergency care 1 day turnaround on most critical issues y Proactive system monitoring (bi-monthly) y Proactive Recommendations and assistance with SPs and UIs y Annual system performance review y Annual Admin refresher training y Fixed price and term (6 months, 1 year)

www.ProjilityExpertCare.com/WordPress/

Remember The 3 P sPlanning Preparation

Partnership

= Successful EPM support

Summaryy Lesson your load by doing the right planning y Understand the two sides of EPM support (functional

and technical) y Build a support model and partnership that meets your goals

Questions?

Contact InfoProjility Inc.Contact: Rob Hirschmann Corporate Vice President rhirsch@projility.com (414) 755-2889 x706 (443) 226-6160 (cell)