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Lessons learned notes (IS&T session held 02/01/2011)

 

Lessons learned notes (IS&T session held 01/28/2011)

Project Organization

  • Steering Committee
    • - Based on feedback from last years Support Pack Project the Steering Committee was expanded to include more BPO representation.
    • - The general consesus was this was a good idea as in prior years BPO representation was inadequate.
    • - Should create an email list for committee members.
  • Core Team
    • - Worked well; representation was adequate.
    • - Testing coordinators made organizing work easier.
    • - QA representation (a point person) on the team proved beneficial to the QA team and the project as a whole.
    • - Transport coordinator continues to play an important role.
  • PM - assign an assistant PM as backup and to learn/understand the process

Planning/Schedule

  • Adequate for the project
  • Validation by BPO should be tested before cutover weekend (some testers where not the normal executers or the transactions being tested)
  • Remote cutover testers should test connections to system before cutover weekend
  • There was a process defined to allow certain development work to move with the support project (AP 1042s, AP unicode program changes); this worked well for this project.

Testing

 The Goal of testing is to find issues as soon as possible to avoid introducing defects into production.

  • Unit Testing
    • Definition of unit testing can be found on the QA wiki as well as this projects wiki
    • Keep the 5 day unit test window - new functionality has been introduced; the time for testing/resolving issues is needed
    • We used an Access db to store a catalog of the transactions we tested by whom and compared to last year
      • concept was good and has value
      • provided visibility to who was testing what as well as the status
      • the execution was rushed (the db was not really "production" ready)
      • the tool was a little klugy 
      • better solution should be explored (within SAP, within SM)
    • Should consider storing unit test cases in QC to promote a single consistant cataloging approach
    • A lot of discussion around what should be unit tested, how it should be tested and how it should be documented
      • QA will follow up on this effort
  • SIT/UAT Testing
    • QC - central repository for catalog of test cases
      • Worked well as a catalog for test cases 
      • Great for monitoring execution status
      • Saved preparation time of test "lab" for BAs (cases already in QC and available for use)
    • Test cases for the most part were not ready for QC formatting
      • Cases are/were designed for printing
      • A focused effort updating the cases to be QC formated would be beneficial to the process (requires resources)
      • Validate test cases as we build for QC; vet with the business much earlier (not in Oct/Nov) – of course that requires BPO availability.
    • Automation
      • Was successful (though only a limited number of cases were automated)
      • Desire to expand automation for the next SP project (40%)
      • Need to communicate what was tested through automation, how it was tested and what the results were.
      • BPOs need to reach a comfort level with the automation tool and testing results.

Transports

  • Transport management processes executed by the transport coordinator need to be documented.
  • Transport freeze
    • IS&T has this processed well defined and understood
    • Could explore another environment to allow development efforts during the freeze (assuming resources are available to do the work during the freeze)
  • Critical transport process
    • A consistent approach should be defined for all similar projects (there have been minor differences from project to project)
    • Critical transport process for this project worked as defined.

Communication

  • Project wiki
    • Great for dates and status, assuming it is kept up-to-date
    • Was used as reference by all IS&T participants
    • Could be used to report cutover status in addition to status phone line, emails, etc ...
  • Status line was used by IS&T staff
  • Frequency of meetings
    • Core Team Monthly meetings - adequate and focused
    • Functional BA - daily meetings during testing phases kept teams focused
  • Did people feel they knew what was going on and what was expected of them? - Yes
  • Other
    • Could utilize WebEx - in light of IS&T moves

Cutover

  • Communication
    • The Plan itself - well documented, easy to follow, clear as to who was doing what and when.
    • emails- Subscribe to email list of core team during the project/during cutover (watcher list could be added)
    • status phone - was used throughout the weekend by IS&T staff
    • conference line - use WebEx to allow more participants on the call
    • validation steps
  • Execution
    • For the most part ran smoothly - went live slightly ahead of schedule
    • Cutover plan contained necessary details for successful execution
  • Other
    • Expectation of Sunday attendance by IS&T staff should be communicated earlier in the project to allow staff more time to plan ahead

 

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