Completion Report

Project Summary:

The objectives for this project were identified as follows:

1. To migrate the Oracle HR & Payroll database (DEV, TEST and LIVE) to the new corporate infrastructure without loss of functionality and data
2. To establish Oracle Dataguard for the migrated Oracle HR & Payroll database

The deliverables for the project were:

1. New DEV, TEST and LIVE environments on the new IS Infrastructure with all required updates/patches to software.
2. Updated interfaces and crons to maintain current data integration and system functionality
3. Updated technical documentation to reflect the new configuration and environments
4. Updated support documentation to reflect the new configuration and environments
5. Dataguard configured for Oracle HR & Payroll database on the new DEV, TEST and LIVE environments
6. Documented Technical and Operations procedures as implemented for the Oracle HR & Payroll database
7. Documented failover and switchover tests

The first of the objectives has been achieved, but the latter was removed from the scope of the project because the complexity of the work involved meant that it would not be possible to get all the necessary development and testing carried out in the limited time available to the project. Time and effort were therefore concentrated on creating the new environments and successfully migrating to these. The work to implement DataGuard has now been incorporated into a proposed project for 15-16.

The removal of the second objective has meant that deliverables numbers 5, 6 and 7 have not been delivered, though disaster recovery testing has been carried out and DR functionality put in place. The first four deliverables have all been met by the project.

Analysis of Resource Usage:

Staff Usage Estimate: 116 days

Staff Usage Actual: 150 days

Staff Usage Variance: 29%

Other Resource Estimate: days

Other Resource Actual: days

Other Resource Variance: 0%

Explanation for variance:

a) Effort/budget

The project required an increase in effort from the original estimate of 116 days to 150 days, a rise of 34 days. The table below lists the estimates for each stage, and the final figures for these so that a comparison can be made:

1 - The increase in Project Management time beyond that originally estimated is attributable to this project requiring close management, particularly because of the tight timelines required to execute the different migrations, and the need to simultaneously co-ordinate a number of resources across the different teams in IS Applications, and to negotiate and communicate with our business partners in HR and Payroll. Planning dates for the migrations of TEST and LIVE, in particular, required additional effort (with support from the Programme Manager).

2 - The time for QA & Meetings increased for very similar reasons, with the members of the project team meeting at least once weekly and additional discussions being arranged for aspects of the project such as disaster recovery testing, and migration planning, as well as the anticipated sign-offs.

3 - The Build stage saw the largest increase in effort (almost 20 days) and this is because of the different approach that had to be taken in the project to creating new environments on the database infrastructure that could be used to migrate DEV, TEST and LIVE to. This led to the inclusion of an extra step in the work needed on the project - see here for more detail - that covered the build of a separate 'migration' environment for the HR-Payroll database on a different server as a proof of concept that the migration could be carried out, and to lessen the downtime on each of the environments because of other project & business work that was going on. Another strand in the Build stage that required more effort than estimated was the work on interfaces and cron jobs. This proved to be more complicated than anticipated but was covered comprehensively with new documentation of these elements being produced for future use.

4 - The extra time in 'Unplanned Activity' covers a mix of resource managers' time for resource bookings; ad hoc support from senior developers and some admin tasks for team managers.

Feedback on the completion report has pointed out that while the project obviously required more effort than that originally estimated, this was necessary and led to HRS081 being a successful project in that the participants worked well together and delivered on time, resulting in considerable praise from our business partners (at quite high level)  and evidence of improved timings ona number of business processes.

b) Scope

The one change to the original scope of the project was that noted above - the removal of DataGuard. This is now planned to be done under a new project in15-16.

c) Timescales

This project had to fit into a limited timeframe because of the need to complete any work on the HR-Payroll environments by December to allow the Annual Maintenance project (PPP003) to progress. The time in which to carry out the migrations was also compressed by the previous Payroll project (HRS079 - RTI & AE enhancements) completing in early October, and other project and support work ongoing too. This high level of activity across the different environments was pinned down using a 'business diary' that listed when each one was being used; where some activities could be moved (e.g. training in DEV instead of TEST); times when work could not be done (e.g. payroll runs), and availability of staff. This required a high degree of co-operation across the areas involved but particular times for the migrations were identified and adhered too successfully. The LIVE migration involved a lot of evening and weekend work for colleagues in IS apps and the busines areas which contributed to the successful completion of the migrations in the available gaps.

Key Learning Points:

The main learning points that emanated from this project are:

• The importance of maintaining and using the 'business diary' to pin down dates for exclusive access to particular environments at certain times. This was especially helpful because of the range of projects, support work and business use across DEV, TEST and LIVE HR-Payroll during the lifespan of this project.
• The importance of also having clear and informative communications across the project team and related stakeholders so that people are prepared for what is expected of them and when.
• The benefits of using a dedicated HipChat room for those simultaneously working on a project in different areas. This enabled more immediate communications and prompt responses to particular issues, and was also helpful during out of hours working.
• The need to audit systems such as HR-Payroll in order to tidy these up by removing obsolete objects and accounts. The investigative work to plan the migrations highlighted large numbers of redundant objects that did not need to be included.
• Documentation covering the interfaces and cron jobs related to HR-Payroll. This can be used in support work and any future projects covering the same area.

• The impact on the business was reduced significantly because the work to migrate LIVE was carried out at the weekend. This approach was well received by the business.

• The impact of the changes was also reduced because of well-documented procedures from the DEV and TEST environments. This testing helped to identify any 'known issues' prior to each migration, thus minimising any unnecessary investigation after migration.

Outstanding issues:

There are no outstanding issues