Completion Report
Project Summary:
The BI suite has been in use for a number of years, and over time the number of Finance reports built by multiple users and the number of Finance-related universes available have increased to a point where it has become difficult to manage, and also difficult to ensure the accuracy of the BI outputs. It was recognised that a number of improvements could be made to increase user confidence in the BI suite, in terms of confidence both in the users’ own ability to use the suite correctly, and confidence that the correct data is being returned by the reports.
This project was initiated to address a number of items, relating to the number of available Finance BI universes, access to universes, associated rules & permissions and BI reports. A number of the enhancements to be delivered by this project were already raised as issues in JIRA from projects FIN109 (System Accounting Section (SAS) Essential Enhancements) and FIN112 (Strategic financial review). c.33 days of development effort had been spent on these JIRAs, which it had been agreed would be charged to this project.
It has been agreed between Programme Owner & Business Sponsor that this Project will close at the end of the financial year, with all outstanding items being moved to the Outstanding Issues section. The remaining objectives / tasks it has been agreed that Finance are able to conduct their selves with the support of Service Management through business as usual / service desk requests.
Scope:
Existing JIRAs (from FIN109 & FIN112) – prioritised:
Further scope items:
| Description | Project stayed within scope? (Yes/No); Reason if not. |
|---|---|
| Identify reports that have not been used for over 12 months, allow users the opportunity to review and if no longer required delete from public/private folders | Yes - though not completed |
| Universe analysis - identify universes that have no reports written against them and decide if these can be hidden or deleted | Yes - though not completed |
| Review all similar reports (e.g. using the same objects and query logic), with a view to deleting genuine duplications or streamlining by combining with other reports | Yes - though not completed |
| Identify the universes that have only a few reports written against them and, if required, upgrade the reports to the newest universe version | Yes - though not completed |
| Conduct a review of what universes are still required - Finance have and are able to progress this task and are continuing to do so. | Yes - though not completed |
| Group security review – identify what universes should be available to what group and what users should be in each group | Yes - though not completed |
| Set role-based restrictions on universes (e.g. visibility of Bank details / Salary details) | Yes - though not completed |
The folllowing items were considered ‘Nice to have’ in terms of this project and were not brought into scope:
- Make the new Design Studio Dashboard facility available to Finance and provide training
- Universe conversion from UNV to UNX
Objectives:
| Description | Objective Met? |
|---|---|
|
Removing unused and duplicate reports |
In Part: Finance have and are able to progress this task and are continuing to do so, as of 27 June 2017 2,970 have been deleted. The only assistance that they require is from Service Management and it has been agreed that the deletion of reports can be completed under service as usual, the completion of this objective has been added to the Outstanding Issues section |
|
Rationalising the Finance BI universes following analysis of reports linked with each |
In Part: Finance have and are able to progress this task and are continuing to do so, again the only assistance that they require is from Service Management and it has been agreed that the deletion, or hiding of universes can be completed under service as usual, the completion of this objective has been added to the Outstanding Issues section |
|
Improve data security by reviewing group membership and access, and also set role-based restrictions |
In Part: Finance / Service Management have agreed that the security model can be completed under service as usual, personas have been created, but this task is dependent on the completion of the rationalisation of the BI Universes first, the completion of this objective has been added to the Outstanding Issues section |
|
Deliver outstanding enhancements from FIN109 and FIN112 |
In Part: It has been agreed with Finance that JIRA not completed have been added to the Outstanding Issues section |
Deliverables:
| Deliverable Description | Deliverable Met? |
| Prioritised list of enhancements | Yes |
| List of reports to be deleted (by analysing list of reports that have not been used for over 12 months and list of duplicate reports) | Ongoing |
| Subsequent removal of reports confirmed as no longer required | Ongoing |
| List of universes which are no longer required and can therefore be hidden/deleted (by analysing universes with no, or few, reports written against them) | Ongoing |
| Subsequent hide/delete of universes confirmed as no longer required | Ongoing |
| Definition of required universe access by group, and also which users should be assigned to each group | No, Finance / Service Management have agreed that the security model can be completed under service as usual, the completion of this objective has been added to the Outstanding Issues section |
| Definition of the required roles for BI user access, what restrictions should be applied to each role, and the subsequent configuration/implementation | No, Finance / Service Management have agreed that the security model can be completed under service as usual, the completion of this objective has been added to the Outstanding Issues section |
Benefits:
| Description | Benefit Realised? |
|---|---|
Provides Finance with a more streamlined set of standard BI reports and universes which will contribute to:
|
Partly / Ongoing |
| Improved strategic and operational decision making based on increased use of Finance BI resources by making it easier for users to access and run standardised reports | Partly / Ongoing |
| Enhanced data security from user access review and implementation of role-based restrictions, by ensuring only a controlled group of users can view sensitive Finance-related data | Partly / Ongoing |
| Finance users can access the Design Studio BI dashboard to obtain meaningful Finance-related data (‘nice to have’) | Partly / Ongoing |
Success Criteria:
| Description | Criteria Met? |
|---|---|
| Rationalisation of Finance BI universes and reports | Ongoing |
| Outstanding issues with the Finance BI universes and reports are resolved | Ongoing |
| BI users can only view BI Universes defined as relevant/appropriate to their role | Ongoing |
Analysis of Resource Usage:
Staff Usage Estimate: 75 days
Staff Usage Actual: 66 days
Staff Usage Variance: 0.12%
Other Resource Estimate: 0 days
Other Resource Actual: 0 days
Other Resource Variance: 0%
Explanation for variance:
This project once running, was discovered it did not actually require as much IS Resource as was originally estimated. It also became apparent that the majority of the tasks to carry out the analysis of the reports / Universes needed to be conducted by Finance their selves with support from Service Management. This project also had a fairly low priority which meant it was hard to secure Development resources when they were required against other priority projects. The time required to analyse, contact relevant Business resources, make reports unavailable and then delete them, with the number in question also takes longer than required, in order to see this conducted properly and without risk
Key Learning Points:
- Both IS and Business Resource is not easy to secure against lower priority projects
- The majority of these works can be conducted by Service Management through business as usual / the Service Desk
-
It should be noted that the initial analytical report (named: 360eyes) to display reports in BI Suite users’ personal folders and inboxes that had not been actioned for a certain timeframe took a long time to be provided by IS, better coordination is required going forwards between the Business and IS / Service Management
-
When the report was adapted to be run against public folders, Finance identified the report was providing inaccurate information. Finance notified IS that they had an issue with the report (360eyes) on the 16th May 2017 and this issue has not yet been resolved. This made it impossible for Finance to progress this phase further. This is in most part due to dependence on a third party Supplier "GB & Smith", Service Management continue to work to resolve this
Outstanding issues:
.The following JIRA's were not completed due to inability to secure Developer time beyond the window originally agreed to fix the JIRA. These JIRA took a lot of coordination / more time than expected to fix - see ISSUE #3 - Developer Availabilty. Martiun Jones is taking a look at these JIRA 03 & 04th August to see if any more can be resolved. The remainder will remain open for Finance to address through the Service Desk:
- FIN109-18 - BI Outstanding instalment field in AR Universes
- FIN112-102 – BI New eExpenses Universe Issues
- FIN112-41 - BI eIT User Role Object
- FIN112-99- BI Create Last Period and Current Period objects
The following objectives / deliverable's it has been agreed that Finance are already undertaking / have started and are able to conduct the work for their selves with the support of Service Management through business as usual / service desk requests:
Objectives:
- Removing unused and duplicate reports
- Rationalising the Finance BI universes following analysis of reports linked with each
- Improve data security by reviewing group membership and access, and also set role-based restrictions
- Deliver outstanding enhancements from FIN109 and FIN112
Deliverable's:
- List of reports to be deleted (by analysing list of reports that have not been used for over 12 months and list of duplicate reports) - of note the analytical report to display reports in BI Suite users’ personal folders is outstanding with the Supplier and Service Management (Andrew McFarlane) continue to seek resolution
- Subsequent removal of reports confirmed as no longer required
- List of universes which are no longer required and can therefore be hidden/deleted (by analysing universes with no, or few, reports written against them)
- Subsequent hide/delete of universes confirmed as no longer required
- Definition of required universe access by group, and also which users should be assigned to each group
- Definition of the required roles for BI user access, what restrictions should be applied to each role, and the subsequent configuration/implementation