Project Management in BPPM Implementation - Part 4: Phased approach outline

In the previous post, we discussed the advantages of phased approach over a big bang production release.  How does a phased approach work?

Just as each builder builds houses somewhat differently, each organization takes phased approach somewhat differently.  This is largely because the following three major inputs to project planning process vary from organization to organization: 1) Business Requirements; 2) Enterprise Environmental Factors; and 3) Organizational Process Assets.  While I am showing phased approach outline as an example in this post, your experience may vary.

When I had my house built, it took a planning phase to confirm architecture blueprint, a building phase to complete the house, and numerous add-on phases to add windows blinds, deck, and walk way after I moved into my house.

Similarly in BPPM implementation, it takes a planning phase, an initial implementation phase, and numerous add-on phases.

In the planning phase, the objectives are: confirm and prioritize the business requirements; decide the scope for the initial implementation phase; make major implementation decisions such as capacity, the level of high availability, and CMA vs PCM; confirm hardware requirements; and deliver an architecture diagram.  Planning phase usually takes 1-3 weeks depending on how much prototyping work you need to do.

In the initial implementation phase, the objectives are: build core infrastructure for data and events to flow end to end; build required high availability; configure monitoring solutions for operating systems, log files, and a few selected databases/applications; deploy monitoring solutions to a group of selected servers; handle basic blackout for maintenance windows; build initial user interface for service desk/NOC operators; and deliver alert notifications to end users in selected business units.

In the add-on phases, the objectives are: improve the core infrastructure built in the initial implementation phase based on the feedback from end users; configure more monitoring solutions; deploy monitoring solutions to more servers; add BPPM integration with other systems; and add customizations to bridge the gaps between BPPM out-of-box solutions and your business requirements.

How long each add-on phase should take depends on your organization's preference.  I personally prefer Agile-style approach by releasing a set of new add-on features every 2-4 weeks.  This approach has been well received by my clients.  By incorporating user feedback into a new release every 2-4 weeks, I have found that end users are more engaging and willing to take ownership of the monitoring requirements.  I also have the operations support staff involved in each add-on release so that knowledge transfer becomes an on-going and less overwhelming process.