Gary Nolan

Efficient BW Implementation and Project Management

Safely weather the challenges of your BW project

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The challenges facing BW projects can be cultural, political, technical and fiscal. This book helps you navigate past these and other potential pitfalls for a largely problem-free BW implementation. Using a lessons-learned approach, learn about critical BW project-related issues from the start of an implementation to the end. Head off problems at the pass by preparing for them from the outset. Learn about common BW mistakes, find out how to avoid them and understand how good BW projects can be operated. Run your BW project efficiently and without any major stumbling blocks. Gain from the experience of others via sample documents such as review checklists, communications documents, and landscape and architecture documents.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Galileo Press
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781592291052
• ISBN-10: 1592291058
• Artikelnr.: 22476440

Autorenporträt

Gary Nolan is a Platinum BW Consultant, and has worked with BW since version 1.2B. He is also a technical editor and a regular author for the BW Expert and SCM Expert newsletters. A frequent speaker at numerous Sapphire, ASUG, and BW Portals Conferences, Gary has consulted at more than 40 BW client sites and has worked with them from the planning phase through post-implementation support.

Inhaltsangabe

- Introduction 19

1. The BW Project Lifecycle 25
1.1 ECC vs. BW Implementations 26
1.2 BW from A-Z 26
1.2.1 Extraction 27
1.2.2 Staging and Storage 27
1.2.3 Transformation 28
1.2.4 Presentation 29
1.3 External Data: What is the Big Deal? 29
1.4 Build for the Present, Keep an Eye on the Future 30
1.5 Dirty Data 32
1.6 Can't BW Just Clean the Data? 33
1.7 Understanding BW 33
1.8 Reasons for Implementing SAP BW 34
1.8.1 Analytical System Access from the Transactional (ECC) System 34
1.8.2 Transition to a Single Version of the Truth 37
1.8.3 Consolidation, Harmonization, and Centralization of Information 38
1.8.4 Establish an Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) 40
1.8.5 Competitive Advantage 41
1.8.6 Provide Flexible Analysis of Information Assets 41
1.8.7 Business Information to More People in the Organization 42
1.9 Why Not Another Data Warehouse? 43
1.9.1 Data Extraction From ECC is Much Easier with BW 44
1.9.2 BW is Already Part of the Landscape 44
1.9.3 BW is the Foundation for Most NetWeaver Products 45
1.10 What BW is Not Designed to Do 45
1.10.1 BW is Not a Transactional System 46
1.10.2 BW is Not the Only Reporting System 47
1.10.3 BW is Not Usually Updated in Real-Time 47
1.10.4 BW is Not a Silver Bullet 48
1.11 Ingredients for a Successful SAP BW Project Manager 49
1.11.1 Good Communication Skills 49
1.11.2 Knowledge of BW and Data Warehousing 51
1.11.3 Knowledge of Business Processes and Analysis Goals 53
1.11.4 The Need for Political Savvy 54
1.11.5 Highly Organized and Quality Minded 55
1.11.6 Willing and Able to Develop and Enforce Standards 55
1.11.7 Team Building 56
1.11.8 Budget Accountability 57
1.11.9 Willing to Say Both "Yes" and "No" 57
1.12 Summary 58

2. Defining an Implementation Strategy 59
2.1 Defining an Upgrade Strategy 60
2.1.1 Landscape Strategy 60
2.1.2 Think About the Training Environment 64
2.1.3 Adding a Production Support System 66
2.1.4 Keep Development, QA, Production Environments in Sync 66
2.1.5 Assess New Phases of Development 68
2.2 Upgrade Landscape 71
2.3 Transport Strategy 72
2.3.1 Develop and Communicate the Transport Path 73
2.3.2 Implement Transport Approval Process from the Beginning 75
2.3.3 Make Sure Each Developer Locks Objects 75
2.3.4 Transport Steward Process 76
2.3.5 Keep Thorough Log of Transports 77
2.3.6 Develop a Process for Troubleshooting Failed Transports 77
2.3.7 Some Objects Will be Changeable 78
2.4 New Release Rollout Strategy Challenges 80
2.4.1 Timing of BW Rollout 81
2.4.2 Rollout Scope 81
2.5 Upgrade Rollout Strategy 82
2.5.1 Timing 82
2.5.2 Features and Functionality 82
2.5.3 Upgrade Testing Strategy 82
2.5.4 Upgrade Change Management Strategy 82
2.6 Database Strategy 83
2.7 Enterprise Data Warehouse and Global Rollup Strategies 84
2.8 Query Strategy 86
2.8.1 Pros and Cons of developing Queries Directly in Production 87
2.8.2 How Do I Allow Development of Queries in Production? 87
2.8.3 Developing Queries in Production vs. Development 89
2.8.4 Visual Composer 89
2.9 Support Package Strategy 90
2.9.1 Recommendation 91
2.9.2 Front-End Support Packages 92
2.10 Authorization Strategy 93
2.10.1 BW Security 93
2.10.2 Authorizations for Upgrade to NW 2004s 94
2.11 Conclusion 95

3. Common BW Implementation Mistakes 97
3.1 Unclear Definition of Goals and Scope 97
3.1.1 Develop Clear Project Scope Documentation 97
3.1.2 Establish Milestones 99
3.1.3 Avoid Scope Creep 99
3.1.4 Establish a Scope Change Control Process 100
3.2 Over-Ambitious Scope 100
3.2.1 Start Small 101
3.2.2 Be Wary of Implementing BW at the Same Time as ECC or R/3 102
3.3 Unrealistic Timeline 103
3.4 Governance 104
3.5 Communication Issues 107
3.5.1 Insist on Weekly Status Reports 107
3.5.2 Encourage Informal Discussion 107
3.5.3 Locate Centrally 107
3.5.4 Centralize Issues List and Use It 108
3.6 Ownership Issues 108
3.6.1 Insist on Signoff of Documents 109
3.6.2 Have the Power Users Develop the BW Queries 109
3.7 Data Quality Issues 110
3.7.1 Don't Completely Rely on the Source Systems to Ensure Data Quality 112
3.7.2 Establish Active Governance of Data 113
3.7.3 Turn to a Third-Party to Help with Validation 114
3.8 Data Alignment Issues 115
3.8.1 Master Data Alignment 115
3.8.2 Transactional Data Alignment 118
3.9 Data Realignment 119
3.9.1 Realignment Without Reload—Is It Possible? 119
3.10 Performance Issues 121
3.10.1 Establish Clear Goals for Performance 121
3.10.2 Measure Against the Performance Goals via Statistics InfoCubes 123
3.10.3 Establish a Performance Sub-Team 123
3.10.4 Keep Up-to-Date on Support Packages 124
3.10.5 Data Model for Performance 124
3.11 Technical and Infrastructure Issues 127
3.12 Resource Issues 128
3.12.1 Insist on the Best, Not Just the Most Available 129
3.12.2 The Consultant-Heavy Project 129
3.12.3 Insist on Interviewing All Candidates 130
3.12.4 Transition Out Bad Consultants 130
3.12.5 Avoid Conflict Between Consulting Partners, SAP, and Others 131
3.12.6 R/3 or ECC Basis Experience is Not BW Experience 132
3.12.7 Keep the Project Team Physically Together 132
3.13 Political Issues 133
3.14 Over-Customization 133
3.14.1 Determine If the Customization Can Take Place Outside BW 134
3.14.2 Develop a "Why not SAP?" Approach 135
3.14.3 Know Where Many BW Projects Use Third-Party Tools 135
3.14.4 Validation Tools 139
3.15 Meeting and Decision Paralysis 140
3.15.1 Slow Decision Making 140
3.15.2 The Lonely BW Team 141
3.15.3 The Popular BW Team 141
3.15.4 What Can be Done? 142
3.16 Change-Control and Change-Management 142
3.16.1 Change Control 143
3.17 Conclusion 146

4. Project Planning in BW 147
4.1 The Data Warehouse Lifecycle 148
4.2 The Upgrade Lifecycle 149
4.2.1 Upgrading on the Existing BW Landscape 151
4.2.2 Dedicated Upgrade Landscape 151
4.2.3 Production Support During Upgrade Testing 153
4.2.4 Obsolete Queries 154
4.2.5 Upgrade Cutover 154
4.2.6 How Long Will This Take? 155
4.2.7 When Should I Upgrade? 157
4.3 Scope Documentation 158
4.3.1 What Is a Stakeholder? 158
4.3.2 Stakeholder Document 158
4.3.3 Communication Plan Document 159
4.3.4 Integrated Project Plan 159
4.3.5 Naming Standards Document 159
4.3.6 BW Development Standards Document 161
4.4 Typical Roles Needed for a BW Project 162
4.4.1 BW Project Manager 162
4.4.2 BW Business Subject Matter Expert 163
4.4.3 BW Data Architect 164
4.4.4 BW Applications Developer 165
4.4.5 BW Presentation Developer 166
4.4.6 BW Basis Developer 167
4.4.7 ABAP Developer 168
4.4.8 SAP Portal Consultant 169
4.5 Staffing a BW Project 169
4.5.1 The Small BW Project 170
4.6 Outsourcing and BW 177
4.6.1 When Does Outsourcing Work? 178
4.7 BW Interview Process 179
4.8 Training Requirements 184
4.9 Conclusion 185

5. Gathering and Analyzing BW Requirements 187
5.1 Requirements Gathering 188
5.1.1 Interviews 189
5.1.2 Is All Data in SAP ECC or R/3 or in Multiple Systems? 190
5.1.3 Is Intra-Day or Real-Time Reporting Needed? 190
5.1.4 What Else Do You Know About the Requirement? 191
5.2 Gathering a Report Inventory 193
5.3 Functional Model Document 195
5.3.1 How Many Functional Model Documents are Needed? 197
5.3.2 Sections of the Functional Model Document 198
5.4 BW Key Figure or KPI Matrix 204
5.5 Budgeting or Estimating BW Timelines 204
5.6 BW Physical Model 210
5.7 Business Content Evaluation 213
5.7.1 Business Content as a Learning Tool 214
5.7.2 Evaluating Business Content for Your Needs 215
5.7.3 Using a Subset of the Business Content 218
5.8 Design Reviews 219
5.8.1 Functional Model Review 220
5.8.2 Conceptual and Physical Model Review 220
5.8.3 Data Model and System Review 220
5.8.4 Final Check 221
5.9 Conclusion 221

6. Sound BW Development Strategies 223
6.1 Extracting and Loading Data from SAP Source Systems 224
6.1.1 Service API DataSources 225
6.1.2 Generated DataSources 227
6.1.3 Generic DataSources 227
6.1.4 Custom ABAP DataSources 228
6.1.5 Testing the DataSources 228
6.1.6 Filling In Missing Data in Extractions 229
6.2 Loading Data from Non-SAP Source Systems 231
6.2.1 Flat File Interfaces 231
6.2.2 DBConnect 233
6.2.3 UDConnect 234
6.2.4 XML Interfaces 235
6.2.5 ETL Interfaces 235
6.3 Extracting Data From the BW System 235
6.4 Loading and Transforming Data into BW 237
6.4.1 Transformation and Mapping of Data in BW Version 3.x 238
6.4.2 Transformation and Mapping of Data in NW 2004s 243
6.4.3 Start Routines 244
6.4.4 End Routines 245
6.4.5 Expert Routines 245
6.4.6 Implementing Transformations 245
6.4.7 Auditing Transformations for Efficiency 246
6.4.8 Converting from Version 3.x to NW 2004s Transformations 246
6.5 Appending or Changing Standard BW Objects 249
6.6 Data Modeling 251
6.6.1 Loading into an DSO or ODS 251
6.6.2 Create a Consolidation Layer for Data 252
6.6.3 Extract Once, Use Many Times 252
6.6.4 Use the Right Object for the Job 253
6.7 Issue Resolution and Issue Tracking 255
6.7.1 Reporting Issues via SAP's Service MarketPlace 255
6.7.2 Response Delays 256
6.8 Query Performance Analysis in BW 257
6.8.1 Data Model Does Not fit the Data Volume 257
6.8.2 Poor Query Definition 258
6.8.3 Lack of Aggregates 259
6.8.4 OLAP Cache 261
6.8.5 Partitioning Not Set 265
6.8.6 Database Statistics Not Up-to-Date 266
6.8.7 Virtual Characteristics and Key Figures 266
6.8.8 Time-Dependent Master Data 267
6.8.9 Complex Authorizations 269
6.8.10 NW 2004s BI Accelerator 270
6.9 Conclusion 271

7. Preparing for Go-Live and the Go-Live Process 273
7.1 Data Model and System Review 273
7.2 Documenting BW Configuration 275
7.2.1 BW Functional Model Document 275
7.2.2 DataStore Object/Operational Data Store (DSO/ODS) Technical Design Document 276
7.2.3 InfoCube Technical Design Document 276
7.2.4 Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) Technical Design Document 276
7.2.5 The MetaData Repository 278
7.2.6 SAP Solution Manager 279
7.3 Transport Management in BW 281
7.3.1 BW Transport Management System Tips 282
7.3.2 General BW Transport Tips 283
7.3.3 Separate BW Transports into Logical Groups 283
7.3.4 Keep Careful Watch of Transports—Take Good Notes 285
7.3.5 Never Leave a Transport Behind 285
7.3.6 Final Cutover Recapture of Transports 286
7.3.7 The Mock Cutover 287
7.4 Testing in BW 288
7.4.1 Develop at BW Test Plan 288
7.4.2 Developing Test Scripts for BW 289
7.4.3 Automated Testing Tools 290
7.5 Organizational Change Management 291
7.5.1 Training 291
7.5.2 A Separate Training System 292
7.5.3 Do I Really Need Hands-On Training? 293
7.5.4 Training Budget 293
7.6 Cutover Planning 294
7.7 Go-Live Checklist 296
7.8 Run Initial Loads in BW 298
7.8.1 Create and Schedule Process Chains in BW 299
7.8.2 Schedule ECC Jobs 300
7.8.3 Portals and BW 302
7.8.4 Developing a Portal Strategy 303
7.9 Conclusion 306

8. After BW Go-Live 307
8.1 Building a Production Support Center of Excellence (COE) 307
8.2 Transitioning from BW Development to Production-Support COE 309
8.2.1 Transition the Knowledge 309
8.2.2 Determine Measurement Criteria 310
8.3 Ongoing BW Reconciliation and Validation 313
8.3.1 Develop a Reconciliation Strategy 313
8.3.2 Reconciling the Data to ECC or R/3 315
8.3.3 Reconciling Data to External Systems 316
8.4 Periodic Jobs to Run in a BW Environment 317
8.5 Develop an Ongoing BW Support Package Strategy 319
8.5.1 Front-End Support Packages 322
8.5.2 Conduct a Lessons-Learned Session 323
8.6 Retaining and Motivating Staff for Future Rollouts 325
8.7 Prepare for Future Rollouts 326
8.8 Conclusion 326

9. Epilogue 327
9.1 Using this Book 327
9.2 Common Issues and Challenges 328
9.3 Important Things to Remember 328
9.3.1 More Challenging than an ECC or R/3 Project 329
9.3.2 Management Commitment Needed from the Beginning 329
9.3.3 Project Management: User-Focused, Not Technology Focused 329
9.3.4 Clear Methodology Needed to Determine Requirements 329
9.3.5 Understanding Data Load Volume and Granularity 330
9.3.6 Manage Expectations for BW 330
9.3.7 Fix Bad Data at Its Source 330
9.3.8 Build a BW System, Not a Series Of Data Marts 330
9.3.9 When the BW System Is Live, the Solution Isn't Finished 331
9.4 Conclusion 331

Appendix 333
- A Sample Project Plan 335
- B Important Checklists 351
- B.1 New BW System Validation Checklist 351
- B.2 Preliminary Checks (Prior to Any Transports) 351
- B.3 Query/Portal Checks 352
- B.4 Loading Checks 352
- B.5 Transport Settings 352
- B.6 BW Query Development Checklist 353
- B.7 BW Data Model Conceptual Review Checklist 355
- B.7.1 Items Needed Prior to Conceptual Data Model Review 355
- B.7.2 Conceptual Data Model Review 355
- B.8 BW Data Model Review Checklist 357
- B.8.1 Items Needed Prior to BW Data Model Review 357
- B.8.2 Items Checked During BW Data Model Review: Overall 357
- B.8.3 DataSources/Feeds 358
- B.8.4 DSO 358
- B.8.5 InfoCube/InfoSets/MultiProviders 358
- B.8.6 Query Processing Checklist 359
- B.9 Cutover Plan Checklist 360
- B.9.1 Administrative Tasks 360
- B.9.2 Security Requirements 360
- B.9.3 System Requirements 360
- B.9.4 Transport Requirements 361
- B.9.5 Portal Requirements 361
- B.9.6 Prior to Load Checks 362
- B.9.7 Prior to Query Testing 362
- B.9.8 Validation 362
- B.9.9 Data Loads 362
- B.10 BW Performance Checklist 363
- B.10.1 Overall Tasks 363
- B.10.2 Query Performance 363
- B.10.3 Load Performance 364
- C Document Templates 367
- C.1 Functional Model Template 367
- C.2 DSO Document Template 373
- C.3 InfoCube Document Template 376
- C.4 ETL (Extraction, Transformation, and Loading) Document Template 379
- D Common Issues When Upgrading from BW Version 3.x to NW 2004s 383
- D.1 System, Basis-Related Issues 384
- D.2 BW Application-Related Issues 385
- D.3 Security-Related Issues 386
- D.4 Portal-Related Issues 387
- E Sample BW Naming Standards Document 389
- F BW Integration Test Script 393
- G Bibliography 397
- The Author 399
- Index 401