System implementation strategy

The implementation strategy defines the general approach for the system implementation. The intent of the implementation strategy is to identify the assumptions and establish the framework for the implementation section of the Request for Proposal (RFP). The strategy should identify the activities that you expect the Contractors to address in their proposals. The strategy should also define how the project Office expects to divide implementation responsibilities between the State and Contractor Once the Contract is awarded, the Contractor and/or State will develop a detailed Implementation Plan that must be consistent with this strategy. Typical implementation issues include: Stakeholder and customer communications. What are the State and Contractor roles for communicating with the customers and stakeholders? What methods of communication will be used? Infrastructure preparation. What are the State and Contractor roles for infrastructure preparation? How many offices will receive the system? How many users need equipment at each office? Will the system use any existing state infrastructure? Data conversion. If there is an existing database, who (State, Contractor, third party vendor) will do the data conversion to the new database? Will there be data validation and cleansing? How much conversion can be automated? What tools will be needed? System rollout. If the system is implemented across the state, how will it be rolled out? Will there be "big bang" or incremental implementation? If incremental, what is the criteria for deciding the order in which offices receive the system? Will the system software be developed incrementally? If so, what are the criteria for deciding what goes in each release? How will the new releases be rolled out? If a system is being replaced, how will the operations be switched over? Will there be a pilot operation? Will there be a time of parallel operation? If so, how long? Training. What are the State and Contractor's roles for training? What are the user classes? How many people will need training in each class? What type of training will they need? Change management. What are the State and Contractor authorities in implementation? Business Process Reengineering. Will business process re-engineering be required? Will new policies be required? If the system required staff reorganization, how will staff positions be converted and/orEstablished? Help Desk procedures. When must help desk services be available? What is the expected response time? Will Contractor and/or State staff maintain the help desk? Change Request. How will changes to the implementation plan be submitted and approved? How will changes to the system be submitted and approved? Problem Resolution. What are the State and Contractor roles in implementation problem resolution?

The process
The parallel adoption process can not be represented without paying attention to the steps before the actual conversion, namely the construction of a conversion scenario and the identification and testing of all the requirements. Therefore the process is explained by going through all the identified processes in figure 1, while addressing the common activities that are necessary for any of the identified conversion strategies briefly. Figure 1 gives an overview of the parallel adoption process. The left side depicts the flow of activities that contribute to the process. Activities that run simultaneously are preceded by a thick black line. When the parallel running of activities is over, the activities are joined again in a similar black line. When there is no arrow from an activity to another, this indicates that they are aggregates of a bigger activity above. The activities are divided in five main phases:

Define implementation strategy, that deals with the kind of implementation strategy should be executed. * Pre-implementation, which has to do with constructing a planning of all aspects and requirements involved in the implementation. Prepare organization The organization should be prepared properly according to the previous phase. Conversion deals with the actual conversion process and closing the conversion process; proceeding with the new system.

The main phases are subdivided in other activities that will be described briefly in tables 1-1 to 1-4. The right side of the model describes the data involved in the processes. Some of these concepts, depicted as a pair of overlapping open rectangles, can be subdivided in more than one concept. A pair of overlapping closed rectangles indicate a closed concept which means that it can be subdivided in more concepts, but it is not of further interest for the parallel adoption process. The diamond shapes figure indicates that the concept linked to it, serves as an aggregate concept and that this concepts consists of the other concepts. Finally the open arrow represents a super classsubclass relation. The concept linked with the arrow is the super class of the concepts that are linked to it. This syntax in figure 1 is according to Unified Modeling Language (UML) standards. The concepts in figure 1 are defined in table 2. More context for these sub activities in the process will be given underneath the tables

table 1-1: Pre-implementation Activity Define implementation strategy Create master implementation script Construct Time planning Define Organizational requirements Define IT requirements Description The implementation strategy is determined in this early stage. (Brown, Vessey, 1999) The first initial requirements analysis is made, consisting of the requirements below. (Venture, 2004) A first time-planning of the implementation process is being constructed. (Rooijmans, 2003) The organizational requirements are defined here (Rooijmans, 2003). IT requirements are determined (Rooijmans, 2003)

table 1-2: Prepare organization Activity Description In order to prepare the organization, the defined requirements are Install requirements installed. The organization is being prepared and the IT installed on test-machines. (Rooijmans, 2003, Eason, 1988, Microsoft, 2004) The requirements are tested to see if the organization is ready for the Test requirements implementation (Rooijmans, 2003) Redefine master The master implementation script is refined with the new information implementation script gathered in the process with the activities below. (Rooijmans, 2003) In order to test the new system, criteria indicators are being created. Define criteria indicators (Rooijmans, 2003, Microsoft, 2004) Also, a workaround plan with a rollback scenario is made. With these Formulate plans, the organization can respectively attempt to correct the mistakes workaround/rollback that are made and fall back if the implementation in a certain stage of plan the process fails. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) In very complex organizations it can be beneficial to perform a test Perform (segmental) conversion, before going live. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) Test conversion table 1-3: Conversion Activity Make catch ups Description The conversion process is started, a number of activities run parallel. During this stage, catch ups are being made using the old system. The old system is leading, but the new one runs parallel. All changes in the system, have to be put in the new system. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) The system is being controlled at all times by the control system. With the defined indicators and system run characteristics, errors and mistakes are tracked down. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003)

Control system

Run leading old system Run new system

The old system is leading; processing the actual data.

The new system is running parallel with the old system and is closely monitored. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) If the criteria are met, the catch ups are translated and transferred in the new Translate catch system and the conversion process comes in its next stage. (Microsoft, 2004, ups in new system Rooijmans, 2003) Execute If the criteria are not met, the workaround strategy or rollback strategy is workaround / performed, depending on the nature of the errors. (Microsoft, 2004, rollback strategy Rooijmans, 2003) Catch ups are made for safety purposes, even when the new system is leading. Make catch ups (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) Run old system The old system runs as a backup, for safety purposes The new system is leading and in full operation. All the transactions and Run leading new changes in the system are being handled here. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, system(1) 2003) table 1-4: Closing parallel adoption Activity Run leading new system(2) Description All catch ups and controls are closed down. The new system is the only system in operation. (Microsoft, 2004, Rooijmans, 2003) The old system is not necessary anymore and is disabled. (Microsoft, 2004, Disable old system Rooijmans, 2003) The concepts from figure 1 are defined in table 2-1 below. table 2-1: Concept definition list Concept IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION SCRIPT Definition The strategy that will be chosen to implement the new system. The options are big bang, phased, parallel adoption, pilot conversion or a combination of those four. (Turban, 2002, Rooijmans, 2003) Raw version of the actual conversion scenario, consisting of organizational requirements, IT requirements and an initial time planning. (Venture, 2004, Eason, 1988) Requirements from within the organization that should be present for a successful implementation. They deal with optimizing (changing) the organization for the new system. Issues involved can be: Human resources management, changing organograms and new business structures. (Rooijmans, 2003) The information Technology requirements are the software and hardware requirements, platform choices, taking into account budget

ORGANIZATIONAL REQUIREMENTS

IT REQUIREMENTS

TIME PLANNING

REQUIREMENTS

CONFORMITY

CONVERSION SCENARIO

WORKAROUND STRATEGY CRITERIA INDICATORS ROLLBACK PLAN

TEST CONVERSION

and existing systems. (Rooijmans, 2003) A planning in which activities are assigned a time-period wherein they should be completed, providing an overall picture of the implementation project with regard to available time. (Eason, 1988) A requirement is a need, expectation, or obligation. It can be stated or implied by an organization, its customers, or other interested parties. There are many types of requirements. Some of these include quality requirements, customer requirements, management requirements, and product requirements. (ISO 9000) Conformity is all about meeting requirements. If your organization meets these requirements, you can say that it conforms to these requirements.(ISO 9000) The redefined implementation script, taking into account the Conformity tot the requirements. Furthermore the conversion scenario consists of a workaround and rollback plan. The conversion scenario is the blueprint of the implementation project. (Rooijmans, 2003) A backup plan; strategy taken on, in the conversion scenario to prevent errors in the conversion process and attempt to work around them, so that the implementation can still be successful. (Rooijmans, 2003) Quantifiable and measurable criteria with regard to the requirements, to determine if the implementation process was successful. (Rooijmans, 2003) Plan that facilitates in reversing the direction of the replication in order to go back to the old system without loss in data or information. (Microsoft, 2004) Segmental test conversion, before the actual conversion takes place with as goal to be better prepared against uncertainties or problems in the actual conversion process. (Microsoft, 2004) The old system: when leading = true; the old system handles the system transactions live: The principal functioning entities comprising the product, e.g. hardware, software. Also an organized and disciplined approach to accomplish a task, e.g., a failure reporting system (ISO 9000) The new system (goal): The new system, when leading = true; the new system handles the system transactions live. The principal functioning entities comprising the product, e.g. hardware, software. Also an organized and disciplined approach to accomplish a task, e.g., a failure reporting system (ISO 9000) The overall control system comprising performance indicators as well as a reliability assessment and catch ups. The control system is very broad and is the central command system of converting the old system and managing the new one during the parallel adoption process.

OLD SYSTEM

NEW SYSTEM

CONTROL

PERFORMANCE

RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT

CATCH UPS

(Rooijmans, 2003, Microsoft, 2004) Quantifiable assessment of performance of the old and new system serves as input for the control system. (Rooijmans, 2003) A quantitative assessment of the reliability of a product, system or portion thereof. Such assessments usually employ mathematical modeling, directly applicable results of tests on the product, failure data, estimated reliability figures and non-statistical engineering estimates. (ISO 9000) Catch ups consist of automatically or non-automatically created backups of the system using the old system, to be translated in the new system. (Rooijmans, 2003)

AUTOMATIC CATCH Automatically created catch ups (Rooijmans, 2003) UPS CATCH UP BY HAND Catch ups created by manual input (Rooijmans, 2003