Replacing PeopleSoft Using the Agile Methodology Development

January 8th, 2015
IT Project Manager
Group F’s College of Technology
Mid-West, USA 12345

College President
Group F’s College of Technology
Mid-West, USA 12345

Dear College President:

Per the goals of the IT department our project: Replacing PeopleSoft using the agile methodology, is designed to replace the current software at our college. By doing this we will create a more time and cost efficient software program at our college that will be used throughout all our campuses. The new software will be maintained and updated internally which in turn will result in a reduction of expenses. We are hoping to start and complete this process within a year.
Throughout the year our internal staff will gain the knowledge necessary to maintain and update the new software. They will also use the agile methodology to ensure that this process is done successfully. We also understand that this will cause complications at times with our means of communication between stakeholders and employees. Liaisons will be in place to communicate updates and other information to our stakeholders and employees in the case of complications.
We are requesting your approval to start this project by the end of January 2015 once you have reviewed this project report. You will see in our report that requests for finances will be minimal as we own all of the hardware. We plan on using most of the existing hardware, if not all of it for the new software program. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Project Lead
Group F’s College of Technology
Table of Contents

Letter of Transmittal……………………………………………………………............................2
Overview………………………………………………………………………………………….3
IT Implementation Plan…………………………………………………………………………...6 Testing and Training...…………………………………………………………………….7 Implementation and Maintenance…………………………………………………………8
Project Plan………………………………………………………………………………………..9
Organizational Change…………………………………………………………………………...11

Overview:
In today’s world everything revolves around technology and our number one means of communication is through emails. At our college communication is imperative to the success of our students, relationships with our stakeholders and organizations within the community. Our organization uses PeopleSoft to provide many applications and it ties in to our email services. In order for our college to run at a more efficient level a new software program needs to be implemented. The success of the new software will be monitored and installed using the agile methodology.
PeopleSoft is a software program that allows the creation of application for a company throughout their departments.
PeopleSoft is an integrated software package that provides a wide variety of business applications to assist in the day-to-day execution and operation of business process. Each individual application, such as Financials, Customer Relationship Management and Human Resources, interacts with others to offer an effective and efficient means of working and reporting in an integrated fashion across the enterprise. -http://www.peoplesoft-planet.com/what-is-peoplesoft/
These applications make communication across multiple servers, departments, and employees of a company much more efficient.
PeopleSoft does not work well with our current email application. For all new employees a required orientation needs to take place and an hour of that time is dedicated to learning the email system. If the email application could work with PeopleSoft this would make it more user friendly. This takes a lot of time away from the staff at the college to train people on how to use the system. The cost of PeopleSoft is another reason why our organization is looking to replace it. Most of the costs are associated with the maintenance and having consultants on site. We would like to have an application that is more user friendly, cost effective and can be maintenance internally.
The scope of this project will help in the development of creating more efficient applications for our organizations success and reduce cost. The success of implementing the new system will be achieved by using the agile methodology
Agile development provides opportunities to assess the direction throughout the development lifecycle. This is achieved through regular cadences of work, known as Sprints or iterations, at the end of which teams must present a potentially shippable product increment…When a team stops and re-evaluates the direction of a project every two weeks, there’s time to steer it in another direction. -http://agilemethodology.org/
By constantly monitoring the implantation process of the new software a team can easily eliminate any complications that may arise. This can be described as “inspect and adapt” according to http://agilemethodology.org/.
“inspect-and-adapt” approach to development greatly reduces development costs and time to market…Agile development helps companies build the right product. Instead of committing to market a piece of software that hasn’t been written yet, agile empowers teams to continuously re-plan their release to optimize its value throughout development, allowing them to be as competitive as possible in the marketplace. Agile development preserves a product’s critical market relevance and ensures a team’s work doesn’t wind up on a shelf, never released

IT Implementation Plan
In order to implement the new software we will need a web, client, application, and purchasing servers. This implementation plan will affect everyone at the college and all the departments due to PeopleSoft touching all other applications within the college. The agile methodology will be our most valuable tool throughout this process. This tool will ensure the success of the new software.
The existing the platform cannot be used because it is proprietary to PeopleSoft. The networks, servers and computers can be reused as they were purchased and licensed by the college. We will still use Oracle because we are familiar with the database and we already have the staff that are trained to use it. Our plan is to replace the existing software with a more efficient one. This will be achieved by building a specific system designed for our needs and built internally. The development of the new system will use the agile methodology process to guide programming.
We will be reusing the existing hardware that was used by PeopleSoft since we already own all of it. It will be a “lift and load”. During the implementation of the new hardware we may be able to eliminate some of it to save on the cost. We expect to have HR, financial, vendor relationship, enterprise management, and supply management reporting. Other reporting that needs to happen can easily be added in because the software is being developed on site.
Additional training will be required for this project. Training everyone at the college how to use the new applications will be required. Our IT staff will need to be trained on how to maintain the new software. Since we are trying to leverage our current staff everything will be done on site and no consultants will be needed.

Testing and Training
Integration of testing and development with a collaborative team effort will be the strategy. Standard testing applied will be test driven development (TDD). Users will be involved in testing at the beginning of development. Continuous testing will be expected and performed throughout the project. Automated unit tests will check the behavior of individual functions and object interactions. The AUTs will provide the teams feedback in real-time (minutes or hours) as they are ran on an ongoing basis. Each stakeholder team involved in the TDD will sign off each test phase as done and ready once implemented and tested. Once signed as “done” the final approval will move on to the Project Manager/Leader and/or executive team. Work areas, development tools and workstations will be in place for each team and member. Each tester should be supplied an individual test server. Testing/development environment will mimic production environment. Development and testing, once releasing changes into production, will perform a handover to the support team. Production support team will manage issues within the production environment. Training will need to commence within week one for all core stakeholder team members. Training requirement will run 2 to 14 days dependent on classes; foundation training, immersion programs and certification programs. Training should take place in the work area/conference room as well as having an open conference bridge. Consideration should be made for on-premise consultants, webinar sessions and access to online tutorials and training videos. Once training is completed, core area will be to reverse engineer the existing system processes.
Implementation and Maintenance
“A strategic plan is of little use to an organization without a means of putting it into place. In fact, implementation is an essential part of the strategic planning process, and organizations that develop strategic plans must expect to include a process for applying the plan. The specific implementation process can vary from organization to organization, dependent largely on the details of the actual strategic plan, but some basic steps can assist in the process and ensure that implementation is successful and the strategic plan is effective” (Lorette). As we introduce this new software to the institution we understand that it will take time for all affected employees to learn and understand. Our timeline is based off of introducing, transitioning and complete implementation with review. The time that is allocated for this is one academic school year.
A beta version will be available to high-level management to test functionality of the system and to ensure it ease. Once tested it will be transformed into the working system for all employees. A full rollout will take place in August, allowing all affected employees to train and learn of this new system. There will be two levels of approval that will determine if the institution continues to use the new methods or if it will use PeopleSoft as it has before. First, the senior business analyst will determine if the system is 100% functional by late July. Once it is approved, tested, trained and put into motion for one calendar year the same business analyst will have a 30-day review process in which to determine if the teams’ calculations were accurate and if they should re-implement the process.
Project Plan Task | Start Date | End Date | Duration (Days) | Inception | 1-May-15 | 1-Jun-15 | 31 | Construction-Beta | 1-Jun-15 | 1-Aug-15 | 61 | Implementation-Training | 1-Aug-15 | 20-Aug-15 | 19 | Transition | 20-Aug-15 | 1-Dec-15 | 103 | Review | 1-Dec-15 | 31-Dec-15 | 30 | Re-Implementation | 1-Jan | 31-May-16 | 151 |

Inception- The idea of using the agile software development system is introduced.
Construction- Team of business analyst come together to organize system and set up milestones.
Implementation- Training- Team introduces concept of new system to effected employees and begin training sessions.
Transition- After all employees are trained, old system becomes obsolete.
Review- Team spends one month reviewing feedback from employees and makes any changes to system to become more compatible.
Re-Implementation- Team re-introduces system with changes.
“Many top organizations create internal consulting groups in order to foster innovation and drive internal alignment. Leading companies such as American Express, Dell, and Wyeth have all developed teams of internal consultants to rapidly launch new initiatives and stay ahead of their competition. Many smaller firms forgo internal consulting teams simply due perceived lack of need or budget constraints – internal consultants are often far less expensive than external consultants” (Cerisano). Considering the advantages: Integrated understanding, Easier Follow-Through, Proactive Planning, and the disadvantages: Ambiguity and Objectification of choosing to use an internal team, this was the better decision. The only resources we will need are PeopleSoft and the Agile Software. The team responsible for creating this transition will be comprised of system analyst, business analyst, designers and programmers. All training will be done in-house and not outsourced

Organizational Change
With any implementation phase, risk factors can include: suitability, stakeholders, staff/work environment, adaptability, return on investment (ROI), and strategic planning. If management of development, testing, production and implementation are done correctly, risks should be minimal.
Agile methodology of the first two or three projects should be centered on mid-level priorities. The migration from PeopleSoft to the new design will fail if it is overall executive driven with no pursuit of employee/stakeholder buy-in.
There can be negative impact to the project if employees hear about the work the core team is doing and decide to experiment without guidance. Training is critical to foster proper coding and overall documentation.
Suitability should be determined prior to any discussion of the development process. Since agile was developed for rapid changes, provide faster progress at a lesser cost, and can be tweaked to fit needs within any environment, it would be suited for a higher educational institution in my opinion. To provide further support, the University of Notre Dame, Wake Forest University, George Institute of Technology, and fifteen additional universities utilize a form of agile called ScrumU. With eighteen universities adopting the program, agile is an apparent and suitable choice for higher educational institutions.
Stakeholders could potentially become a risk, if they are not dedicated or their input in not valued in the development process (beginning to the end). In order to eliminate stakeholder frustration an effective communication plan should be created that addresses issues as they arise. Addressing issues can help mitigate consequences of loss of key stakeholders, loss of customer satisfaction, missed opportunities and missed deadlines.
The work environment/staff has to be fully trained and knowledgeable of the new program. To remain on task, each user should have an equal workload and clear instructions of their role throughout process. If workload is not distributed equally amongst a team, it may decrease morale or cause burn out within a team.
Adaption may not be an easy process with users (includes managers), especially if they’re use to functioning under a particular working style. Agile’s style is considered to be more open and transparent, which may create an uncomfortable work environment for managers, that’s use to being in control and are commanding.
Return on investment (ROI) has presented a risk based on argument that Agile doesn’t provide a success tracking measurement of its efficacy. However, SUNY Delhi reported a $425,000 in savings after utilizing an agile methodology. The institution will need to measure one of two ways: Agile Earned Value Management (AEVA) or “Burn Up” Chart.
Create a strategic plan for any glitches or unforeseen issues during development that may add delays to the overall process. The institution should be prepared for migration of old files. The team will need to ensure retrieval of PeopleSoft object and reuse them in the new applications. There is a risk that applications that previously interfaced with PeopleSoft, may not re-establish with ease to the new developed environment. If the applications do not transfer seamlessly, the institution will need to have a team ready to work on a solution before the project can go live.
Formalized backup and contingency plan is to run PeopleSoft and the new development system simultaneously for the first sixty days. PeopleSoft will continue to function for the institution as the live model for our internal base and our external customers, while the team places the same data points into the new production model.

Reference Page

Ambler, S. (2014). Agile Testing and Quality Strategies: Discipline Over Rhetoric, Retrieved from http://www.ambysoft.com/essays/agileTesting.html
Robson, S. (n.d.). Agile and Test Estimation, Retrieved from http://www.softed.com/resources/docs/agile%20and%20test%20estimation.pdf What is PeopleSoft? | PeopleSoft-Planet. (n.d.). Retrieved January 9, 2015, from http://www.peoplesoft-planet.com/what-is-peoplesoft/ Agile Methodology. (n.d.). Retrieved January 9, 2015, from http://agilemethodology.org/
Cerisano, R. (2014, June 6). Internal versus External Consulting: Advantages and Disadvantages
9Lenses. Retrieved January 9, 2015, from http://www.9lenses.com/internal-versus-external-consulting
Lorette, K. (n.d.). The Implementation Process of Strategic Plans. Retrieved January 8, 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/implementation-process-strategic-plans-4514.html Spence, I., & Bittner, K. (2005, May 1). What is iterative development? Retrieved January 5,
2015, from http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/may05/bittner-spence/
Jackson, J. (2005, March 2). The Great PeopleSoft Migration, Retrieved from http://gcn.com/articles/2005/03/02/the-great-peoplesoft-migration.aspx Mironov, R. (2010, October 3). Mitigating Risk with Agile Development, Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/RichMironov/agile-fairfax2-mironov Scheid, J. (2011, September 12). Top Agile Development Problems, Retrieved from
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