Save money on your PeopleSoft upgrade – Weak skills sink projects
The best way to save money on your upgrade is to do things right the first time. Being wrong is expensive. 
In this posting and in the series to follow I will recommend ways to say money on your upgrade and improve your chances of success at the same time.
There I was all by myself sitting at a long table (..on deck as it were..) being asked detailed questions about how I planned to manage a complex PeopleSoft upgrade project. In those days it was not unusual for me to be in a position like this. I had already spent more than a decade running complicated implementation and upgrade projects. What was unusual was the timing. This session was occurring before the contract was awarded; before I or anyone else from my consulting firm had been officially assigned. Later I discovered that this client had scheduled, immediately preceding the selection of a vendor, similar sessions with each of the finalists. They felt a strong need to assess before they made the final decision the individuals who were going to be assigned to their project and whether those individuals had sufficient skillsets to get the job done.
My third recommendation for saving money: Carefully assess what each and every external resource can really do. Not what the sales person says that resource can do. Not what a generic resume indicates that resource can do. What that external resource can really do.
Make your outsider vendor name names. Which specific workers will be assigned? Interview those in whom you may have doubts. What skills do they currently possess? What knowledge gaps exist? Should the vendor provide training prior to the start date? Often, however, a long track record of success is more important that possession of a single piece of current knowledge. A technical architect who has created and managed PeopleTools 8.46, 8.47, 8.49 environments over a period of years is going to be more valuable than a gaggle of neophytes whose only qualifications are that they recently attended a PeopleTools 8.50 workshop.
Naturally, having been in the business for a long time I have experienced the best and worst of the skills conflict. I have seen clients who wanted little or no involvement in staffing their projects. On the other hand, I have seen clients who were extraordinarily involved in the selection of project members. I can tell you that these heavily involved clients tended to experience fewer problems, meet more milestones, and complete their projects more rapidly.
Just in case anyone was worried or curious my consulting firm did get the job and I was assigned to manage the project…and, yes, it did get completed successfully.
Stay tuned for more postings in the series, PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights
Save money on your PeopleSoft upgrade – Find out what your Insiders can do
The best way to save money on your upgrade is to do things right the first time. Being wrong is expensive. 
In this posting and in the series to follow I will recommend ways to save money on your upgrade and improve your chances of success at the same time.
Raoul (an internal employee and not his real name) was fixing something, yet again, that an outside technical consultant had done wrong. Raoul had other PeopleSoft technical responsibilities but the upgrade was the department’s highest priority project and, by the way, the project was on a very tight schedule. I remember asking Raoul why he was not doing the work that the outside consultant was doing. His answer; Nobody ever asked me about what I could do.
In this age of outsourcing, exclusive vendor contracting, and rampant delegation to organizational outsiders the true cost of getting things done too often gets lost. If a person in your household can cut the grass or paint a wall then paying an outsider to do those jobs is a waste of money. If people inside your organization can make the Integration Broker (IB) run smoothly, setup Recruiting Solutions, or create XML Publisher reports then paying outside entities to do these jobs can cost your organization considerable money.
My second recommendation for saving money: Carefully assess what your internal people can do. Interview your staff. What skills do they currently possess? What knowledge gaps exist? How much training would be required to close those gaps?
Align your talent assessment with the resource plans embodied in your overall upgrade plan. What kind of recourses do you need and when do you need them? Perhaps, you require project management and functional Fit/Gap talent right away but can wait a while for your technical staff to get up to speed
Define the most cost effective talent mix for your project. Of course, if you haven’t found out what you currently have then you can’t expect to efficiently fill the difference between what you have and what you will need to successfully complete your upgrade.
Stay tuned for more postings in the series, PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights
PeopleSoft 9.1: Saving money on your upgrade
The best way to save money on your upgrade is to do things right the first time. Being wrong is expensive. In this posting and in the series to follow I will recommend ways to save money on your upgrade and improve your chances of success at the same time.
First, let me tell you a tale about a man I knew who tried to save money but ended up spending a lot more instead. 
Clem (not his real name) decided to build a 6500 square foot home on a lake. He got bids from several experienced building managers but to him they were all too high. He had managed a couple of projects at work. Why not manage his own building project and save the money he thought. Things seemed to go well at first but soon he began to discover that mistakes were made. Correcting those mistakes turned out to be very expensive; many times more expensive than it would have been to hire an expert manager.
My first recommendation for saving money: Spend good money to get a project leader who knows how to do an upgrade. Do not skimp. Do not automatically pick the candidate with the lowest rate. If you have an internal project manager make sure that you supplement with upgrade management expertise from the outside.
The last time I talked to Clem he was atop a Bobcat moving dirt from his building site all the way across the subdivision and dumping it on another plot. He had been moving dirt all week and didn’t know when he would finish. The inspector had told him that not enough dirt had been removed in the original excavation and the first major storm could swamp the house with mud. The ugly end to this story is that he ran out of construction money and had to sell his dream home even before it was finished.
Stay tuned for more postings in the series, PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights
PeopleSoft 9.1 Upgrade Insights: After the Fit/Gap
Ah! The glow of the Fit/Gap has waned. It was fun! The sessions were just slightly short of inspirational. People of all persuasions-you know, both functional and technical types- participated fully. Lots of issues were discussed. 
Lots of good ideas were presented.
Many solutions were agreed upon.
A comprehensive Fit/Gap summary report was created and presented to appropriate parties who, of course, freely offered their approval to proceed. But what is the next step?
Your number one job now is to translate all the Fit/Gap results into tangible project work. A tangible project has many attributes that are important to your ultimate success. A project must have an objective: re-develop the Employee Awards program. Also, a project should have a realistic start date, an estimated end-date, possibly a detailed design document, and a test plan that mirrors the real world. And most importantly a project should be assigned to a person. Assigning explicit accountability for each project is your best practice for ensuring upgrade re-development success.
My primary method for controlling the project development process has been to create New Release Development Workbook containing specific spreadsheets for assigned projects as well as individual components (e.g. portals, pages, records, fields, peoplecode…) The PROJECTS spreadsheet should contain at the least the following:
- Project ID
- Project Name
- Project Description
- Fit/Gap Issue
- Fit/Gap Resolution
- Priority
- Start Date
- Estimated End Date
- Status
- Status Date
- Person assigned to
- General Comments
- Related Documents
In the upcoming postings for this series, PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights, I will cover the upgrade comparison process and how you can easily feed the comparison results into your development workbook. Stay tuned.
PeopleSoft 9.1 Upgrade: Important Safety Tip
Warning. This posting may be more technical than my usual fare but does contain important safety information that may keep your hair from turning prematurely grey, keep your right eye from developing a twitch, and keep your boss’s face from turning
an unsightly shade of red.
I have been collecting PeopleSoft 9.1 upgrade information from various sources. Recently questions have arisen over new 9.1 process steps that were not present in the PeopleSoft 8.9 upgrade. These steps revolve around a new PeopleTools upgrade project: UPGCUST. For those who did the PS 9.0 upgrade UPGCUST is familiar. For all others it represents a brand new concept.
UPGCUST is created though a process that compares all comparable objects with your copy of production as the source database and the PS 9.1 demo as the target. A subsequent step filters out all non-customized objects leaving only those objects with a status of *Unchanged or *Changed. It would be reasonable to think that this is a project worth analyzing carefully but it is not. The purpose of this project is not what you may think.
In later steps (see Step 4-5-1) the UPGCUST project in the production source database is compared individually to the target demo and upgrade flags are automatically set. The purpose of the flags is to indicate to a subsequent process those objects to be copied to the demo database. In other words, all or some of your customizations will be copied from production to the PS 9.1 demo.
That is right. Your customizations including that fancy do-it-all global compensation bolt-on you did last quarter are going to be transferred into the PS 9.1 demo database. Why is this necessary you may ask. None of our customizations have ever been copied into any of our other demo databases.
The reason is that in Steps 5-1-10 and 5-1-11 the PeopleTools tables in PS 9.1 demo are exported lock, stock, and barrel and then imported into your copy of production. If you did not copy your bolt-on application to the demo database these steps can wipe it out.
Please stay tuned for many more postings on the subject of 9.1 upgrades.
PeopleSoft HRMS 9.1 Upgrade: Don’t forget to Bundle Up
We all know that even after Spring arrives cold winds can still blow. How do you keep yourself safe and warm? You “bundle up”. It is the same with the new HRMS 9.1 upgrade. I know that Oracle exhaustively tested the recently released HRMS 9.1 upgrade process. However, nothing and no one is perfect. Errors and omissions do arise from time to time.
These errors and other known issues can be found in the “Master Solution” (See previous posting.)
The upgrade bundle is Oracle’s main mechanism for fixing upgrade problems. If you have not started your upgrade it would behoove you to download the available upgrade bundles and apply them to your upgrade process. If you have started your upgrade and are experiencing problems help may be only a few clicks away.
For convenience, Oracle provides a comprehensive HCM maintenance schedule including tax updates, HRMS 9.1 application update bundles, Maintenance Packs (cumulative bundles), and, of course, HRMS upgrade bundles. For example, HRMS Upgrade 9.1 Bundle #1 was first made available on February 7, 2010.
For those of you on My Oracle Support the “HCM Maintenance 2010” and related documentation can be found by performing this knowledge search:
“ HCM Maintenance 2010”
“PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Maintenance Schedule for 2010”
Please stay tuned for many more postings on the subject of 9.1 upgrades.
PeopleSoft 9.1 Upgrade: Tis the Season of the Fit/Gap
Many PeopleSoft customers are entering the season of the Fit/Gap. The new PeopleSoft 9.1 demo has been installed. Several people in your organization have looked it over and discovered quite a lot of nice features. However, the main question remains: What are we going to do with it?
A well thought out, well executed Fit/Gap process can help you find the answers you need to be successful.
This seems like a particularly good time to resurrect some PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights from previous postings on the subject of Fit/Gaps. You can’t cross home plate safely if you can’t get to first base. And you can’t get your project out of the batter’s box and running efficiently without executing a successful Fit/Gap.
This is the last of three postings describing how you can obtain the maximum benefit out of your Fit/Gap process. In the next part of this series, PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights, I will discuss how you can use the results of the Fit/Gap to jumpstart the re-development process. Stay tuned.
In my last posting, PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights: Fit/Gap (Part 2 of 3), I talked about how to conduct your Fit/Gap sessions and gather information in an organized and efficient manner. You have created a nice, long list of issues. Now what do you do?
How do you turn all this raw data into useful information that will jumpstart your next phase and set your project on a solid path to success?
- Research and resolve – The main purpose of the Fit/Gap sessions were to identify issues, not resolve them. Your rules were that if it could not be resolved in 10 minutes or less then you would address it later. Well, “later” has now arrived. Maybe, it requires a follow-up meeting with selected individuals. Perhaps, a technical review is needed. One way or another a resolution for each item needs to be generated. One of my favorite resolutions is to do nothing.
- Mind the Gaps – Many issues were recorded in the Fit/Gap sessions. Are they all gaps in functionality? Likely not. I classify them in three ways.
- FIT - The delivered function meets 100% of the requirement. Nevertheless, some level of end user community and/or IT effort may be required to use effectively.
- GAP - The delivered functionality does not address a particular requirement. If the requirement is to be met alternative methods must be developed.
- PARTIAL FIT - The delivered functionally does not meet 100% of the requirement. If the requirement is to be fully met alternative methods must be developed. These methods may involve internal/external workarounds, changes in current processes, modifications to delivered components, and/or development of new components & programs.
Pay particular attention to partial fits. These may be the best opportunities for reengineering.
- Is it important? – The gap may be obvious but perhaps it is not important. Prioritize your list.
- 1-High Importance
- 2-Medium Importance
- 3-Low Importance
- 4-Research Item
- Is it worth it? – Several significant gaps have been identified. Should you fill them? How much time will it take and, more importantly, whose time are we talking about. Information Technology (IT) is not always the biggest player. Often, substantial effort is required on the functional side. I divide the estimates into two columns: IT effort and Process effort for the functional departments. Here is a sizing scheme the seems to get good support from IT and end-users alike.
- None
- Very Low – 1 day or less
- Low – 1 week or less
- Medium – 1 to 2 weeks
- Large – 2 to 4 weeks
- Very Large – 1 to 3 Months
- Sort, filter, slice, and dice – Your list of issues has been researched, classified, prioritized, and estimated. Now you can force the cream to the top. Which are your most important issues? Which items will take the greatest IT effort? Will a large amount of user effort be required? All these questions and more can be addressed by manipulating your list.
PeopleSoft FSCM 9.1 Upgrade Templates Now Available
Oracle has just recently posted the FSCM 9.1 upgrade templates. For those of you on My Oracle Support the new templates and related documentation can be found by performing these knowledge searches:
“FSCM 9.1 Upgrade” – PeopleSoft Enterprise Finance and Supply Chain 9.1 Upgrade Pages for 8.8, 8.9, and 9.0
“9.1 Documentation Home” – FMS, ESA, & ALM 9.1 Documentation Home Page
“8.50 Documentation Home” – PeopleTools 8.50 Documentation Home Page
FCMS PeopleBooks can be downloaded at the Oracle technology PeopleSoft Enterprise site.
Please stay tuned for many more postings on the subject of 9.1 upgrades.
PeopleSoft 9.1 Upgrade Insights: The Checklist Manifesto
The world is getting more complex and so are PeopleSoft upgrades. This upcoming PeopleSoft 9.1 upgrade may well be the most complex upgrade many customers have ever attempted.
For example, Oracle has introduced a multitude of technical changes since PeopleTools 8.47. All one needs to do is take a look at the Integration Broker (IB) to find radical differences. The preferred technology was “Application Messaging”. Now it is Service Oriented Architecture (SOA.) In HRMS 9.1 the SOP for hiring an applicant is through the Integration Broker.
How can you cope with the complexity of your upgrade project? Atul Gawande provides a straightforward yet important suggestion in his book: The Checklist Manifesto. This recent book is based on an article M. Gawande wrote for the New Yorker entitled The Checklist: If something so simple can transform intensive care, what else can it do?
Here, then, is the puzzle of I.C.U. care: you have a desperately sick patient, and in order to have a chance of saving him you have to make sure that a hundred and seventy-eight daily tasks are done right—despite some monitor’s alarm going off for God knows what reason, despite the patient in the next bed crashing, despite a nurse poking his head around the curtain to ask whether someone could help “get this lady’s chest open.” So how do you actually manage all this complexity?
Sound familiar? You have to keep your upgrade project on track and avoid taking one or possibly even two steps backwards for each step forward. Your current labor distributions are out of balance with your payroll. Your test website is going down “for no reason.” You are trying to conduct fit/gap sessions but your most important end-user is in Belgium all week. How do you cope with this complexity?
The solution suggested by M. Gawande to this quandary is basic and simple: The Checklist.
An upgrade project requires many checklists. Here are a just a few I have employed successfully in the past:
- Technical checklists – both general and detailed
- Open Issues including who is accountable for resolving
- New Development projects with timeframes and accountability
- PeopleSoft objects – re-Development items with specific assignments
- Security checklists
In the next part of this series, PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights, I will discuss how to use various checklists to jumpstart, monitor, and control the upgrade process. Stay tuned.
PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights: Fit/Gap (Part 3 of 3)
Many customers are now installing one or more of the new PeopleSoft 9.1 releases. Oracle has released the upgrade scripts and, as the famous detective Sherlock Holmes would have likely said, “the game is afoot” . PeopleSoft upgrade projects may be complex but they don’t necessarily have to be full of mystery and suspense. A little knowledge can go a long way.
This seems like a particularly good time to share some PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights starting with the subject of Fit/Gaps. Staying with the same body part metaphor I can say that getting your upgrade project “started on the right foot” is absolutely critical. And you can’t get it started right without executing a successful Fit/Gap. This is the last of three postings describing how you can obtain the maximum benefit out of your Fit/Gap process.
In my last posting, PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights: Fit/Gap (Part 2 of 3), I talked about how to conduct your Fit/Gap sessions and gather information in an organized and efficient manner. You have created a nice, long list of issues. Now what do you do?
How do you turn all this raw data into useful information that will jumpstart your next phase and set your project on a solid path to success?
- Research and resolve – The main purpose of the Fit/Gap sessions were to identify issues, not resolve them. Your rules were that if it could not be resolved in 10 minutes or less then you would address it later. Well, “later” has now arrived. Maybe, it requires a follow-up meeting with selected individuals. Perhaps, a technical review is needed. One way or another a resolution for each item needs to be generated. One of my favorite resolutions is to do nothing.
- Mind the Gaps – Many issues were recorded in the Fit/Gap sessions. Are they all gaps in functionality? Likely not. I classify them in three ways.
- FIT - The delivered function meets 100% of the requirement. Nevertheless, some level of end user community and/or IT effort may be required to use effectively.
- GAP - The delivered functionality does not address a particular requirement. If the requirement is to be met alternative methods must be developed.
- PARTIAL FIT - The delivered functionally does not meet 100% of the requirement. If the requirement is to be fully met alternative methods must be developed. These methods may involve internal/external workarounds, changes in current processes, modifications to delivered components, and/or development of new components & programs.
Pay particular attention to partial fits. These may be the best opportunities for reengineering.
- Is it important? – The gap may be obvious but perhaps it is not important. Prioritize your list.
- 1-High Importance
- 2-Medium Importance
- 3-Low Importance
- 4-Research Item
- Is it worth it? – Several significant gaps have been identified. Should you fill them? How much time will it take and, more importantly, whose time are we talking about. Information Technology (IT) is not always the biggest player. Often, substantial effort is required on the functional side. I divide the estimates into two columns: IT effort and Process effort for the functional departments. Here is a sizing scheme the seems to get good support from IT and end-users alike.
- None
- Very Low – 1 day or less
- Low – 1 week or less
- Medium – 1 to 2 weeks
- Large – 2 to 4 weeks
- Very Large – 1 to 3 Months
- Sort, filter, slice, and dice – Your list of issues has been researched, classified, prioritized, and estimated. Now you can force the cream to the top. Which are your most important issues? Which items will take the greatest IT effort? Will a large amount of user effort be required? All these questions and more can be addressed by manipulating your list.
In the next part of this series, PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights, I will discuss how to use your updated list of items to jumpstart the re-development process. Stay tuned.