BI Project Organization

8/4/2019 BI Project Organization

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SAP BIOrganization Approach

January 2, 2010


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Table of Contents

1. PROJECT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ........................................................................ 3

PROJECT MODEL 1: SMALL PROJECT ................................................................................................... 4

PROJECT MODEL 2: MEDIUM SIZED PROJECT ...................................................................................... 4 PROJECT MODEL 3: LARGE PROJECTS ................................................................................................. 5

ROLES IN A PROJECT ORGANIZATION .................................................................................................. 5

BW PROJECT MANAGER .............................................................................................................. 5

BW ARCHITECT .............................................................................................................................. 5

BUSINESS ANALYST ....................................................................................................................... 6

BW DEVELOPER ............................................................................................................................ 6

EXTRACT AND TRANSFORM DEVELOPERS .............................................................................. 6

PORTAL DEVELOPER ................................................................................................................... 7 PRESENTATION DEVELOPERS .................................................................................................... 7

APPENDIX A: Organizational Survey results.. 10

APPENDIX B: BW Support Organization Presentation... 12


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1. Project Roles and ResponsibilitiesWhile the organization may be in a production support mode, there may also exists on-goingproject development. This is typical in large and mid-sized companies that developed theenterprise data warehouse over time. The most common way to approach the challenge ofcreating a stable production environment while also accommodating the flexibility of adevelopment project, require clearly communicated roles and responsibilities.

It also required that the project members are provided clearly defined tasks and training asthe project(s) are starting up. As general guidelines developer training should start early forall project team members since SAP ERPskills are not easily transferable to BW; hands-onexperience is needed (it is very hard to learn while being productive). The teams should alsonot be over sized so that they overlap in responsibilities with the support organization. Thequality of the team members is much more important than the number of members. A skilledBW developer can accomplish in one day what 3 novice developers can do in a week (thetool has a steep learning curve).

The project team leadership should also consider the team members experience level withSAP BW/Business Intelligence and time and cost estimates should be based on tea msexperience level. If external project resources are used, the management should plan onformal knowledge-transfer from external resources from day one.

This is done by linking inexperienced members with experienced ones as well as by havingidentified go -to resources avai lable in all areas (make a list or all support resources andtheir areas of responsibilities). During the ramp-up of the project, all project team membersshould be trained on standards, naming conventions and processed that the support teamhas established.

In the next sections we will explore three of the most common staffing models of a projectteam as well as their roles and responsibilities.


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Project Model 1: Small ProjectSmall BW Project for Single Subject Area (e.g. Billing, Inventory or Accounts Payable).4-5 team members and normally 3-6 months duration depending on scopeThese are roles, not positions. (Sometimes one team member can fill more than one role.)

Basis and functional R/3 support

Project sponsor

Project Manager.

Business team Technical team

Business analyst

Presentation developer

BW Architect

ETL developer

Project sponsor

Project Manager.

Business team Technical team

Business analyst


BW Architect

ETL developer

Project Model 2: Medium Sized Project

Project for Single Complex Subject Area (e.g. Cost and Profitability, Internal Billing).8-10 team members and normally and 2-4 months duration depending on scope

Basis and functional R/3 supportBasis and functional R/3 support

Project sponsor/ Steering Committee

Project Manager

BWArchitect

BusinessAnalyst(s)

Extract, Transformsand Loads

Data Management(InfoCubes & ODS)

PresentationDeveloper(s)

Sr. Business analyst

Business analyst

Sr. ETL developer

ETL developer

Sr. BW developer

BW developer

Sr. Presentation developer



Project Manager

BWArchitect

BusinessAnalyst(s)

Extract, Transformsand Loads

Data Management(InfoCubes & ODS)

PresentationDeveloper(s)

Sr. Business analyst

Business analyst

Sr. ETL developer

ETL developer

Sr. BW developer

BW developer

Sr. Presentation developer



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Project Model 3: Large ProjectsLarge BW Project for Multiple Subject Areas (e.g. Sales, Finance and Material Management).15-25 team members and normally 6-18 months duration depending on scope

Basis and functional R/3 supportBasis and functional R/3 support

Portal developer(s)

BW Architect

Business analyst/(sub-team lead)BW developerPresentation developer(s)ETL developer

Sales Team


Finance Team


Material Mgmt. Team

Project Manager


Portal developer(s)

BW Architect


Sales Team


Finance Team


Material Mgmt. Team

Project Manager


Roles in a Project Organization

BW PROJECT MANAGER

The project manager should be a dedicated resource, and not be involved in other majorprojects. This role is the key to the project's success. The manager is responsible for:

Creating and maintaining all project plans and organizing the work environment. Making timely decisions and delegating tasks. Effectively communicating with all members of the team. Facilitating project meetings. Understanding key concepts of Data Warehousing and their implications. Managing "crisis" and issues effectively. Assuring that dead lines are met and quality is delivered. Managing time and expenses.

BW ARCHITECT The data warehouse architect should be an individual who is familiar with all technologyaspects of data warehousing. The data warehouse architect should have participated onmore than one successful data warehouse project in a key technical role, and should have athorough understanding of front-end tools, load tools, data base engines, data design andthe technical infrastructure. The data warehouse architect is responsible for:

Integrating all applied technologies and design the technology architecture for allintegrated systems


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Supervising the technical aspect of the data warehouse. Leading tool evaluations and provide recommendations to the project leader. Providing input and recommendations on technical issues to the project leader. Reviewing technical work of other team members for quality assurance Reviewing and participating in testing of data design, tool design, data loads and

presentation system design. Transformations, gateways, networks, and hardware selection and sizing.

BUSINESS ANALYST

The Business analyst is responsible for the overall development of reports that supports thefunctional of the project from a BW perspective. During blueprinting, this individual isresponsible for gathering detailed reporting requirements from the business users andexisting reporting groups within the organization. A key deliverable from this effort aredetailed reporting requirements for areas such as the general ledger, accounts payable,accounts receivable, reconciliation efforts, closing procedures, cost and profit centeraccounting, and overhead management.

The ideal candidate for this position should have detailed knowledge of the industry that thecompany operates in, and a solid understanding of the reporting needs of such anorganization. The individual should also have strong communication skills and the ability toplan, conduct and document interviews with managers and users. This analyst will also bemanaging the user acceptance testing and feedback process from representatives for theuser community, and assure that those requirements are being met by the reporting systembeing built. During the roll-out of the system the business analyst are engaged in the userdocumentation development as well as the development and execution of the user training.

BW DEVELOPER

The BW developer is responsible for creating the data objects for the reporting areas. Thisincludes designing all structures within BW that supports the reporting, such as DSO objects,

InfoCubes and MultiProviders (views). This also includes creating data models for the subjectareas, as well as the formal approval process for each object. The data structures are basedon the user requirements gathered during the projects interview phase, and enhancedduring the blueprinting phase. Core requirements for the data model come from user inputsand the work conducted by the business analyst.

Key deliverables include data models for each data structure developed, test planning andexecution, and documentation of extensions to standard business content, a data dictionaryand an implementation of master data, hierarchies and changing dimensions. In addition thisindividual is responsible for the performance testing and tuning and the development ofaggregates, indexing strategies and partitions. The role of BW developer is a key to theoverall project success, and the individual must have very strong BW skills withimplementation experience from other BW systems.

EXTRACT AND TRANSFORM DEVELOPERS

The extract and transfer data developer is responsible for designing data extracts andreviewing the data available on the SAP ERP legacy system. It involves reviewing existingload routines and validation programs, creating all objects and mappings from ERP to BW,and validating standard content provided. The developer will create custom developedvalidation rules and generic extracts as needed to support the level of customization neededin the DSO and InfoCubes.


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The developer should also understand the nature and quality of the data and should providea data dictionary of the source data, if this is not available from the source system. Keydeliverables from this group is the source target mapping of each field used in BW to SAPERP and automated extract, load, validation, cleansing and reconciliation programs fromsource system(s) to BW.

During the realization phase, the extract and transform developers are designing eachindividual extract needed for moving data from ERP components to InfoCubes, or DSO, thatare being designed by the data architect. This includes validation of selection criteria,filtering, load logic (ABAP), data cleansing, source-target mapping validation, anddocumentation of each extract design for the InfoCubes, DSO objects in scope. Theindividuals staffed in these roles must have very strong ERP and BW experience with solidunderstanding of ABAP coding as well.

PORTAL DEVELOPER

The developer in this position is responsible for the design and development of user roles foraccessing the SAP BW environment. This includes the creation of security requirements forthe user interface, BW role reconciliation, as well and integration of reporting help features,collection of external data for reporting purposes and the integration between BW reportsand jump-points to the transactional system.

The individual in this role is also responsible for the design and development of standardtemplates for reports delivered by the development teams, as well as the user acceptanceprocess for these templates. In a SAP Portals environment, the individual is also responsiblefor the content management section of the portal and the configuration on the navigationbars and initial launch pad.

The individual staffed in this technical position should have a strong reporting and design

background from SAP BW as well as development knowledge of portals and the integrationof standardized reporting environments. Prior industry experience would also be helpful. Theindividual must also have solid programming experience in HTML, Java and XML.

PRESENTATION DEVELOPERS (a.k.a. report writers)The presentation developer is responsible for designing core reports for the functional areathat they support. This includes reviewing business requirements, existing reports, andworking with the BW developers to assure that the business requirements are supported inthe cube and/or the DSO design, and creating template reports for user acceptance basedon requirements.

The presentation developer is also an individual who has a specific tool background. Thedeveloper may later work on 3rd party presentation tools, Business Objects tools and SAPsBusiness Explorer (BEx) tool suite. The developers must assure data security, user friendlyreports, "drill-down" features, as well as a flexible design of data hierarchies and a logicaland easy to use Graphical Unit Interface (GUI) for end-users. Finally, the developer mustassure that the front-end tool provides all functionalities supported by the logical datamodel(s) and that the tool takes advantage of the physical database design features.


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The design work also includes a detailed description of each access point, the navigation ofaccess points, as well as a detailed role description with association to the pertinent reports.The presentation developers also work with the portal developer to integrate roles with theexisting roles in the web portal.


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APPENDIX A: SURVEY FINDINGS OF 103 SAP BW DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS

This is an overview of the survey results from the BW and Portals Conference, by Dr. BjarneBerg and WIS publishing. The survey focused on the organization of BW Querydevelopment, BW Infocube & DSO development, BW Data Extract, Transform and Loaddevelopment, BW Support organization, BW Hardware organization, Project managementorganization. Overall103 representatives from companies that have implemented BWresponded and also indicated the industries of their companies.

Survey Respondends by Industry

1%

6%

1%

4%

2%

3%

49%

2%15%

12%

5%

Finance/Banking

Manufacturing

Retail

Insurance

Defense

Government

Oil & energy

ServicesTransportation

Consulting

Other:

Organization of BW Query Development Effor ts

43%

57%

Decentralized

Centralized

Organization of BW Infocube & ODS Development Efforts

11%

89%

DecentralizedCentralized

Number of Surveys by Industry

2

51

516

1

12

4

2

316

Finance/Banking

Manufacturing

Retail

Insurance

Defense

Government

Oil & energy

ServicesTransportation

Consulting

Other:

Organization of Query Development by Industry

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

F i n a n

c e / B a

n k i n g

M a n u

f a c t u r

i n g R e

t a i l

I n s u r a

n c e

D e f e n

s e

G o v e r

n m e n t

O i l & e n

e r g y

S e r v i

c e s

T r a n s p

o r t a t i o

n

C o n s u

l t i n g

O t h e r

:

Decentralized

Centralized

Organization of Infocube & ODS Development by Industry

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

F i n a n

c e / B a

n k i n g

M a n u

f a c t u r

i n g R e

t a i l

I n s u r a

n c e

D e f e n

s e

G o v e

r n m e n t

O i l & e n

e r g y

S e r v i

c e s

T r a n s p

o r t a t i o

n

C o n s u

l t i n g

O t h e

r :

Decentralized

Centralized


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Organization of BW Extract, Transforms and LoadDevelopment Efforts

10%

90%

Decentralized

Centralized

Organization of Extract Transform and LoadDevelopment by Industry

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

F i n a n

c e / B a

n k i n g

M a n u

f a c t u r

i n g R e

t a i l

I n s u r a

n c e

D e f e n

s e

G o v e r

n m e n t

O i l & e n e

r g y

S e r v i

c e s

T r a n s p

o r t a t i o

n

C o n s u

l t i n g

O t h e r :

Decentralized

Centralized

Organization of BW Support organization

17%

83%

Decentralized

Centralized


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Organization of BW Support Organizationby Industry

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%100%

120%

F i n a n

c e / B a

n k i n g

M a n u

f a c t u r

i n g R e

t a i l

I n s u r a

n c e

D e f e n

s e

G o v e r

n m e n t

O i l & e n e

r g y

S e r v i c

e s

T r a n s p

o r t a t i o

n

C o n s u

l t i n g

O t h e r :

Decentralized

Centralized

Organization of BW Hardw are Support organization

7%

93%

Decentralized

Centralized

Organization of BW Hardware Organizationby Industry

0%20%

40%60%80%

100%120%

F i n a n

c e / B a

n k i n g

M a n u

f a c t u r

i n g R e

t a i l

I n s u r a

n c e

D e f e n

s e

G o v e r

n m e n t

O i l & e n

e r g y

S e r v i c

e s

T r a n s p

o r t a t i o

n

C o n s u

l t i n g

O t h e r :

Decentralized

Centralized


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Organization of BW Projec t management

28%

72%

Decentralized

Centralized

Organization of BW Project Managementby Industry

0%20%40%60%80%

100%120%

F i n a n

c e / B a

n k i n g

M a n u

f a c t u r

i n g R e

t a i l

I n s u r a

n c e

D e f e n

s e

G o v e r

n m e n t

O i l & e n

e r g y

S e r v i c

e s

T r a n s p

o r t a t i o

n

C o n s u

l t i n g

O t h e r :

Decentralized

Centralized


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APPENDIX B: BW Support Organization Presentation

A presentation called: " Developing & Maintaining Your SAP BI Support Team and Their Skills- ARoadmap for Organizing, Recruiting, Training & Motivating Your BI Staff" is found at:

http://csc-studentweb.lr.edu/swp/Berg/articles/australia/Berg_Motivate_build_support_teams_v10.pptx
http://csc-studentweb.lr.edu/swp/Berg/articles/australia/Berg_Motivate_build_support_teams_v10.pptxhttp://csc-studentweb.lr.edu/swp/Berg/articles/australia/Berg_Motivate_build_support_teams_v10.pptxhttp://csc-studentweb.lr.edu/swp/Berg/articles/australia/Berg_Motivate_build_support_teams_v10.pptx

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