Completion Report
Project Summary:
During the Planning and Business Analysis stages of the project, effort was spent with the Business understanding what the key objectives for this project were. Given the experience from the original ePrint project, for both Printing Services and IS Applications, this process was essential for determining a mutual understanding of the scope and therefore realistic expectations for what the project could deliver within its budget.
It became apparent in the early analysis that the involvement of Communications and Marketing (CAM) as a key stakeholder was going to be essential to the success of the project. The University was undergoing a re-design of the corporate identity branding which would have required Printing Services undergoing a major expense in recreating all the corporate products available in PSO. CAM agreed to keep the launch of the new University branding in line with the launch of the new PSO so that there was no requirement to do any further work on templates in the current PSO. CAM also agreed to provide £10,000 of funds to the project in recognition of the fact that any change in branding resulted in a Printing Services having to re-create all templates in PSO.
Business Objectives and Project Deliverables:
O1 | To allow for creation/editing of templates by Printing Services for common produced products (mainly printed stationery), thus removing need to involve support. |
D1 | The ability to easily create new templates in PSO, including addition of CAM authorised logos and broader range of products than the stationery currently offers. This includes products for CAM. |
D2 | The ability to easily amend existing templates for PSO |
O2 | Improved internal customer access to PSO, with eIT system no longer the point of entry to PSO. |
D1 | New, user-friendly internal customer interface directly to PSO with shopping basket functionality (resulting in single eIT) |
D2 | Revised eITs interface with the PSO options decommissioned |
D3 | Revised mechanism to eITs for payment |
D4 | Revised authorisation mechanism |
D5 | Authentication mechanism for new PSO |
O3 | Job status information available to customers (this objective has no dependency on the other objectives’ deliverables) |
D1 | View Only/Read Only access for customers to the PSO admin function for job status checks. |
O4 | To provide an efficient, and user friendly on-line service and payment system to external customers and Students, including a payment service using the University’s card payment system |
D1 | User-friendly interface for external customers and students |
D2 | External customer and student online payment facility |
O5 | Provide training and guidance to PSO users on how to use the new interface |
D1 | Training for current PSO users (PPS to provide) |
D2 | Communication to eIT users that PSO options have been decommissioned |
D3 | Guidance to new PSO users |
As outlined in the Scope section below, it was agreed as part of the Terms of Reference that only Objective 1 and its two associated deliverables were in scope. Both these Deliverables have been achieved and Printing Services now have complete control of the templates used to create products.
Scope:
In Scope
- The critical aim of this project is to deliver a user-friendly and manageable way to create and change templates used in PSO. It is expected that only Objective 1 will be possible within the project’s budget.
Out of Scope
- Objectives 2 to 5 are considered out of scope at ToR stage due to budget constraints but they are included in this document so they can be delivered in the future if the budget/resource availability permit and the business considers them necessary to deliver.
- The point of access to PSO should be direct rather than through eITs. However, payment for internal orders must still go through eITs. It is anticipated that a similar model to the Delivered Catering service could be used.
- Extend access to external customers and students. Design to ensure this can be completed in the future if budget does not permit completion within this project.
- New infrastructure: there is no budget available to make infrastructure changes. The option to remain on the current infrastructure was reviewed and as it currently meets the Technical Specification for CF9 on Windows, it was agreed that this would not be required, however desirable it would be.
- Creating a BOXI universe on PRISM
- Any maintenance to PRISM including software upgrades and upgrade from its Window 2000 server.
The project remained in scope from the Planning stage other than point no 4. It was agreed during the System Analysis stage that new infrastructure would be implemented. There was a budgetary impact to Printing Services as this required an upgrade to the Activepdf software. This was accepted by Printing Services. It should also be noted that as a consequence of this new Infrastructure being shared with another service which was required to be resilient, PSO is now resilient also at no extra cost to the Business.
Schedule:
The project remained on schedule until the Acceptance stage. The Acceptance review was postponed for 12 days to allow some minor re-work following feedback during UAT and to accommodate leave in Printing Services. Getting access to the TEST EASE system for Printing Services and then some end users was not quick. As part of the Acceptance Review process, CAM requested that the delivery date be moved to a Monday as this was a preferred day for communicating the launch of the University's new corporate branding. This slight delay was acceptable to Printing Services and a new Delivery date of April 8 was agreed and met.
Following the project going LIVE, an error happened which caused an outage on the new PSO. When the reason for this service interruption was discovered to be a consequence of the regular Windows Patching, it was agreed with Production Management and Printing Services that new PSO would be put under automated monitoring to ensure that any further disruptions could be identified and fixed without Printing Services having to rely on customers reporting when it was unavailable. This is an unplanned positive benefit for the Business but did result in a delay of several weeks for the Deployment sign-off.
Analysis of Resource Usage:
Staff Usage Estimate: 205 days
Staff Usage Actual: 137 days
Staff Usage Variance: -33%
Other Resource Estimate: 49500 days
Other Resource Actual: 43848 days
Other Resource Variance: -11%
Explanation for variance:
Staff Resource Estimate Variance The Worst case figure in the 3 point estimates were mostly higher than in other projects as new technology was being introduced. The worst case figures were also affected by the overrun experienced on the original PSO project.
The project delivered in 137 days, which was closest to the Best Case estimate of 149.5 days. The PM believes this successful delivery within budget took place because:
1. The work done up front with the original PSO developer during the analysis stage set a very clear scope, which the project kept to.
2. The developer, John, clearly understood exactly what the Business required before the Build stage began. There was no overrun and the quality of work delivered by John, working with the technical architect, Riky, meant that it was possible to significantly reduce the PM time estimated during the Build stage.
3. The quality of the Build meant very few issues were raised during Integration and User Acceptance Testing and therefore there was less re-work required than estimated.
Other Resource Variance There was a significant underspend in the number of funded days required to deliver the project. This underspend has been offset by the costs to the Business for the upgrade to the Activepdf licence and the associated support costs.
Key Learning Points:
Estimation
There was new technology being introduced in this project, pdf forms, and therefore there were higher worst case 3 point estimates than would have been provided in another project. The worst case figures in the 3 point estimate also reflected the overrun which was experienced in the original ePrint project. In the end the project delivered closest to its Best Case estimate of 149.5 days.
"We have come in under budget, so estimates not on target. Given that the functionality delivered was limited by available budget, this could have led to less functionality being developed than was possible. In this case, I don't believe that happened, but the risk remains. I think the accuracy of the estimations could have been improved"
"The project came in under budget. Essential objectives were met but would have been good to have some of the non-essential improvements that were mentioned at the start of the project."
- It is the belief of the PM that we have a culture of expectation that a project will meet or exceed its agreed 3 point estimate but if a project is well estimated, the assumption should be that it will deliver closer to its Most Likely estimate and occasionally its Best Case.
Requirements
"From my contact with the project, the effort put in to clearly identify the required functionality and the scope of the project was crucial to ensuring the project met its targets. Scope creep was a significant risk, but did not occur."
"It was helpful that the objective and business requirements were very clearly defined. In hindsight, it would have been useful to have obtained at an early stage from Printing Services a wider range of sample PDF products which they wished to produce, covering all the different layouts and styles which they required. This would have helped when designing the templating system and made it easier to identify any limitations it would have, at an early stage in the design.""
- The PM believes the investment spent up front in getting clear requirements was essential to the successful delivery of the project. Having the developer work alongside the Business Analyst and using the User Stories technique greatly improved understanding the detail of what was of most importance to the Business.
- The PM believes that the amount of Balsalmiq sketches the developer provided in the SDS and described to the Business during the Design Review, ensured the removal of any chance of misunderstanding of what the project was delivering.
Resourcing
"My own resourcing was well managed. In addition, I found it helpful that Dev Tech was always available at appropriate times. Also very helpful was having access to the developer of the original system who was able to answer questions on why/how some processes worked"
"Yes, the resourcing for the project was effective and all staff involved were quick to answer questions. Just a couple of problems near the end took longer to sort out."
"I think the project has been delivered very effectively, and the resources applied efficiently."
- The PM believes that the project's success was largely due to the Development Resource Manager assigning the ideal developer for this work. The developer had the right technical skills but also excellent personal and communication skills.
- The PM also believes that the good working relationship between the developer and the technical architect proved very effective in this project.
Project Management
"Susan and the other IS staff have been very helpful and have explained each step of the project very well. The most awkward part for me was getting access to the test sites but once that was sorted out, it all went fairly smoothly."
"The management of the project was excellent."
- The PM believes this project was a success because the time was taken at the beginning to understand what the priorities were for the Business. Once the Design Review had taken place, only light touch project management was required as the developer's work was excellent and based on a clear understanding of what was required to deliver the benefits for the Business.
Stakeholder Engagement
Early in the Analysis of the project, it became apparent that Communications and Marketing (CAM) are always going to be a significant stakeholder regarding the Corporate Stationery part of PSO. The project requested that CAM join the team and suggested that CAM should also consider providing part of the funding for the project. CAM agreed and worked with the project to agree minor technical restrictions that would permit the use of pdf forms and to ensure the new branding was approved by the University in time for the project to prepare the new templates using the new PSO ready for the re-launch of the service.
Communications
The project advised the Helpline of the launch of the new PSO so that they were prepared for any calls from staff.
The project issued an all staff announcement in MyEd on the morning of the go live to raise awareness of the change.
Outstanding issues:
There are no outstanding issues.