BO universe designing schedule for Project estimates?

system · December 26, 2008, 6:49pm

Afternoon,

I am looking to get some industry standards with universe design times/schedules. Our company is undertaking a major BI initiative and given that we have a total of 2 true universes, its hard to give project managers and customers ball park estimates. With our environment, anything we work on needs to be given a timeframe and a there must be reasons for that timeframe.

Most universes have multiple variables that affect the schedule such as the number of tables, fields, calculations, aggregate functions, and skill of the designer. If youd like to share your experience and some of these variables as well, Id appreciate it.

The current activity list I have is:

Phase 1 Est time to completion: 3 6 monthes (360 720 hours)
Requirements gathering from the customer (universe specific)
Programming in calculations and transformation
Utilizing data mapping to translate the Databases physical model to a business model
Small Aggregate calculations (rarely utilized aggregates)
Forming the Hierarchy of classes, objects, dimensions, and measurements
Creating security and data filtering based on user group

Phase X (phase may repeat till universe is declared ready for publishing) Est time to completion: 1 month (120 hours)
Gathering feedback and revisions from the customer
Revisit: Programming in calculations and transformation
Revisit: Small Aggregate calculations (rarely utilized aggregates)
Revisit: Forming the Hierarchy of classes, objects, dimensions, and measurements
Revisit: Creating security and data filtering based on user group
Optimizing data shortcuts and design based on user reports

Publishing Phase Est time to completion: 1 week (30-40 hours)
Publishing from Development Business Objects Server to Production server
Configuring user groups and roles
Granting access to customers
Migrating reports from a development environment

Total Time till universe Completion (no major work being done) Est 1 1.5 years

Assumptions are that the warehouse/datastore is already completed or is included elsewhere in the project schedule. Generally the estimates we use are hours of effort per task and total time per phase. The estimates Ive given were from my past experience with the tool, though office politics would argue for ways to bring this number down. If you feel I missed something, let me know. Thank you.

heroofnone (BOB member since 2007-11-23)

system · December 27, 2008, 2:47am

Welcome to B:bob:B!

Check out this Universe Proj. Plan & Checklist.
You may find it useful.

Marek Chladny (BOB member since 2003-11-27)

system · December 29, 2008, 9:23am

It’s really dependent on the data source. Currently I am quoting the PM 10 days per universe for each data mart that comes out of the DW project, and delivering them in approx 2 days (including all documentation, metadata integration etc). There is precisely 0 calculations in these universes however, as all logic is deferred to the ETL layer.

There’s also the three different type of estimates. 1) The “how quickly could you do it if you absolutely had to”, 2) The “How long will it take me in reality with enough leeway to allow for problems/distractions”, and 3) The “How do I get the most number of chargable days out of this customer” number.

To be perfectly honest, 1-1.5 man years effort for two universes sounds an awful lot like number 3. I can’t conceive of a data source that would be better served by 1.5 man years of universe dev than 1.49 man years of ETL development and 1 week of universe build.

cashworth (BOB member since 2005-02-09)

system · December 29, 2008, 1:00pm

1-1.5 years is not hours of effort but actual time. As I mentioned the phases and releases, I am assuming there will be changes when this is released to the public, so I don’t think its all that long.

Thank you on the project template, I think I will double the times and send that as a possible baseline (I assume this template is for an experienced or moderate universe designer).

Does anyone have some actuals, real life data on how long universe design took them? I’m still looking for something that says “project X with Y amount of tables took Z amount of time to complete”.

Thanks again.

heroofnone (BOB member since 2007-11-23)