Big Bang Theory: PeopleSoft HCM
9.2 and PeopleSoft Financials 9.2
Upgrade in Seven Months
10/25/2015
Matt Peterman
Grant Thornton
Senior Solution Architect, Kansas City
Beth Geer
Empire District Electric
PeopleSoft Development Lead
Find your
silver lining
GRANTTHORNTON.COM/SILVERLINING
About your presenter
from Grant Thornton
Matt Peterman
Senior Solution Architect, Technology Solutions
Kansas City, MO
Executive summary
Matt Peterman is a Senior Solution Architect with Grant Thornton in the Technology Solutions practice. Matt’s focus for the past 15
years has been on PeopleSoft applications. He has served clients through the development and implementation of financial
strategies and Enterprise Resource Planning software solutions, as well as PeopleSoft upgrades and re-implementations. He has
extensive knowledge in business process re-engineering, process improvement, software assessment, system design, and
implementation of financial systems. Matt’s work history includes both Big 5 consulting and industry experience with positions at
MarketSphere Consulting, Strong Funds, and Arthur Andersen Business Consulting.
Industries
• Energy
• Financial Services
• Banking
• Broker-Dealers
• Insurance
• Healthcare
• Hospitality
• Technology
• Distribution
• Grocery
• Retail
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2
About Grant Thornton
One of the world's leading organizations of
independent audit, tax and advisory firms
38,000
people in over
100 countries
65% of
Grant Thornton
International Ltd1
Forbes Global
100 companies
US $4.7 billion revenues
40,197 personnel3
served by Grant Thornton
International member firms
2,975 partners
725 offices
Statistics as of Sept. 30, 2014
6th
largest
global
accounting and
consulting firm
58%
of 2013
Fortune 100
Grant Thornton LLP2 (U.S.)
$1.4 billion revenues
6,456 personnel3
529 partners
57 offices
Statistics as of Dec. 31, 2014
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Exclusively focused on Oracle
Broad product specializations that set us apart
•  Specialization is achieved through competency development, business
results, demonstrated expertise and verified client success
•  Platinum achievement requires applied experience be demonstrated for
at minimum of 5 product areas across the disciplines of pre-sales, sales,
implementation and support
•  Enables access to Oracle knowledge capital, product strategies and
support resources not available to other partners which can be used to
bring value to our clients
•  Specialized in 16 product areas across ERP, HCM, BI and EPM enabling
us to successfully deliver integrated, cost-effective, scalable solutions
delivering Business Harmony for our clients
ERP
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
E-Business Suite
JD Edwards
PeopleSoft
ERP Cloud Service
HCM Cloud Service
BI
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
BI Foundation Suite
BI Applications
Endeca
DRM
BI Cloud Service (BICS)
EPM
• 
• 
• 
• 
Hyperion Planning
Hyperion Financial Management
HPCM
Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS)
Specialized in 16
products across ERP,
EPM, HCM and BI
Our commitment to
delivering Oracle valueadded solutions for your
business
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4
Agenda
•  Project Overview
– 
– 
– 
– 
Empire in Brief
Background
Scope and Objectives
High-Level Timeline
•  Upgrade Approach
– 
– 
– 
– 
– 
– 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Upgrade Type
Project Team Structure
Project Team Roles & Responsibilities
Methodology
Approving 9.2 Functionality
Testing Approach
Project Governance
Tips and Lessons Learned
How You Can Start Now!
Wrap-up and Questions
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5
Project Overview
Empire in Brief
• 
• 
• 
• 
Based in Joplin, Missouri
Investor-owned, regulated utility providing electric, natural gas, and water
services
Approximately 217,000 customers in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and
Arkansas
NYSE ticker is EDE
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Project Overview
Background
• 
• 
• 
The current PeopleSoft 9.1 HCM and Financials environments at Empire
were in need of an upgrade to ensure the ongoing reliability and support of
the application.
The start date for the application upgrade to version 9.2 was January 2015
and a Go-Live of July 2015, for both HCM and Financials.
In addition to completing the upgrade, the team:
–  Evaluated and selected new functionality to deploy with the upgrade.
–  Reviewed existing enhancements and replaced them with delivered
9.2 functionality where possible.
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Project Overview
Scope and Objectives
• 
Upgrade existing PeopleSoft Financials modules from 9.1 to 9.2.
–  Financials:
•  General Ledger, Payables, Purchasing, Receivables, Billing
–  HCM:
•  HR, Payroll, Time and Labor, Benefits,
•  Evaluated bolt-ons/enhancements for retrofit
•  Evaluated enhancements for replacement with delivered
functionality, as part of the design process.
•  Ensured all currently used functionality functions properly in 9.2.
•  Ensured each existing interface functions properly in 9.2,
performed any required modifications.
•  Implemented only additional required functionality that is
delivered and achievable with the timeline and resources
assigned to the project.
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Project Overview
Scope and Objectives
•  50+ Interfaces between 4 key systems, along with other satellite systems
•  300+ delivered objects requiring retrofits
Leave Balance, Job Codes
Time Entry
Maximo
Work Order Management
Items, Requisitions,
Receipts, Work Orders,
RTV, Inventory Cost,
Customers, Bills
PO Activity, AP Activity, AR Activity
PeopleSoft HCM
Payroll Costs,
Projects
PeopleSoft Financials
PowerPlant
Fixed Asset Management
Work Orders (Projects),
Depreciation
GL Activity by Source
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Project Overview
High Level Timeline
Jan
Feb
March
April
May
June
July
Project & Change Management
Plan
Design
Build
Test
Deploy
New / Retrofit Items
Go-Live
Existing Functionality
Test
Test
Initial
Move
1st Test
Move
Test
2nd Test
Move
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10
Upgrade Approach
Upgrade Type
Characteristics
Upgrade
Option
#1 –
Technical Only
#2 –
Technical Plus
Some Features
#3 –
Technical Plus
New Features/
Modules
#4 –
Redeployment
Technical
Removal of
Customizations
•  Yes
•  None
Level of
Business
Process
Change
•  None/
Low
Impact On…
Level of New
System
Functionality
New
Modules
Business
Users
Project
Cost
•  None/ Low
•  No
•  Low
•  Low
Empire Preferred Op,on •  Yes
•  Some
•  Low
•  Medium
•  No
•  Medium
•  Medium
•  Yes
•  Some
•  Medium/
High
•  High
•  Very
Often
•  Medium/
High
•  Medium/
High
•  Yes
•  Most
•  High
•  High
•  Very
Often
•  Medium/
High
•  High
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11
Upgrade Approach
Project Team Structure
Area
Empire Resource
GT Resource
Project Manager
Project Management
Finance PM
Project Manager
HCM PM
GL Lead
Financials
AP Lead
Financials Lead
PO Lead
AR/BI Lead
HR/Payroll/Time & Labor Lead
HCM
HR Lead
Time & Labor Lead
HR/Benefits/Payroll Lead
Benefits Lead
HCM PeopleSoft Development Lead
HCM Business Analyst/Developer
IT Development
Financials Development Lead
Senior PeopleSoft
Developer
Financials Business Analyst/Developer
Integration Leads
Size/mix of
team depends
on upgrade
type!
PS System Admin Lead
System
Administration
PS System Admin
PS System Admin
PS System Admin
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Upgrade Approach
Project Team Roles & Responsibilities
Project Role
Responsibilities
EXECUTIVE SPONSORSHIP & PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Sponsors /
Steering Committee
•  Provide strategic direction and vision
•  Understand initiative status
•  Serve as a decision and issues escalation point as necessary
•  Provide input to project scope
Project Management
•  Develop and manage to project plan
•  Identify and manage project risks
•  Prepare and present weekly status reports
•  Coordinate all project activities
•  Provide functional and technical thought leadership
•  Collect and coordinate the resolution of project issues
•  Understand related initiatives; ensure proper alignment
•  Review and QA project deliverables
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Upgrade Approach
Project Team Roles & Responsibilities
Project Role
Responsibilities
CORE PROJECT TEAM – BUSINESS
Functional Leads
•  Provide business process and PeopleSoft expertise
•  Provide input to scope and requirements
•  Communicate table and view changes between 9.0 and 9.2 to support interface, extension, customization
porting/retrofitting activities performed by development team
•  Facilitate configuration and setup related to 9.2 features/functionality
•  Build out test scenarios
•  Execute testing and coordinate testing with other users
•  Perform application configuration as needed
•  Review and test final changes prior to implementation
•  Develop and execute training and process documentation
CORE PROJECT TEAM – TECHNICAL
Developers
System
Administration
•  Project input to project plan /schedule
•  Participate in requirements discussions as needed
•  Perform code modifications to existing customizations, extensions, reports, and processes to address data
changes between 9.0 and 9.2
•  Migrate all necessary Report, Interface, Conversion, Enhancement components to 9.2
•  Perform unit testing of Report, Interface, Conversion Enhancement components
•  Assist in test scenario development as needed
•  Create technical design documentation as required
•  Perform installation of PeopleSoft
•  Execute multiple upgrade passes
•  Develop custom components to assist with upgrade (i.e. high volume tables)
•  Create technical design documentation as required
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Upgrade Approach
Methodology
Project & Change Management
Plan & Design
Build & Test
1 Review and
Validate Discovery
and Technical
Capabilities
Transition & Deploy
Develop Test
l
Scripts
2
4
Conduct Fit/Gap
Analysis
Perform
Application “Initial
Pass” Upgrade
Prepare
Deployment
Checklist
Upgrade Pass
Testing
Develop Project
Plan
Perform New
Module/Feature
Configuration
Execute Upgrade
Pass Activities
(Scripts, SQL, etc)
Optimize
Upgrade Pass
Prepare Training
Material
Prepare for Move
To Production
Conduct Training
Perform Functional
Testing of New
Module/Features
3
Develop
Communication
Training
Strategies
Deploy and
Support
Deliverable Signoff
Deliverable Signoff
Multiple MTP's
are a key to
success!
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Upgrade Approach
Methodology
Document
Customizations and
Interfaces
Review Compare
Reports from Initial Build
Analyze 9.2 Functionality
as Replacement for Prior
Customizations
Update Customization
and Interface List
You can start
NOW!
Perform Retrofits to
Existing Customizations/
Enhancements
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Upgrade Approach
Approving New 9.2 Functionality
• 
• 
• 
• 
The Empire functional teams (e.g. Purchasing, Benefits, etc.) reviewed the
desired new functionality, with the assistance of GT personnel
Empire functional teams were responsible for submitting a request to the
Steering Committee to approve the new function. This included their LOE
estimate to deploy and support.
The Empire Steering Committee either elected to include or exclude
functions.
For approved functionality, the Empire functional teams were responsible
for documenting test scenarios, adding them to the existing list of System
and/or Integration test scenarios, and executing the test scenarios
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Upgrade Approach
Testing Approach
System Test
–  Tested the delivered PeopleSoft functionality to ensure that it functioned
properly for the features that Empire selected
–  Occurred after each 9.2 instance was created
–  Three System Test passes
Integration Test
–  Tested the custom interfaces between PeopleSoft and other Empire
systems
–  Occurred after each Mock Go-Live
–  Two Integration Test rounds (MTP1 and MTP2)
Fit Gap Process: Defects from each testing stream are logged on SharePoint by
Functional Leads, and Functional Leads perform initial research and
documentation of the issues and proposed solution.
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Project Governance
Other Keys to Success
•  Early sign-off on 9.2 scope by module
•  Document and sign-off on testing plans by module
–  Include all new functionality
–  Ensure every customization and enhancement from
development plan is covered in functional test scenarios
•  Formally document all issues, risks, and scope decisions
•  Log out-of-scope items as post-implementation enhancements,
prioritize, and tentatively place on road-map
•  Rigorous documentation of tasks, task durations, and
independencies in the Go-Live Playbook
Cross
reference your
"retrofit" list!
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19
Tips and Lessons Learned
• 
• 
MASSIVE benefits in processing speed can be achieved by understanding
the delivered upgrade scripts, and optimizing them to your system and
circumstances….running them "as is" will GREATLY increase your cutover
window.
Ask your implementation partner to assist with :
– 
– 
– 
• 
• 
• 
performance tuning delivered upgrade scripts
guidance on the services and processes that should be turned off at cutover
how to interpret compare reports and analyze every object within UPGCUST, UPGIB, and
UPGNONCOMP
Incorporate "Chapter 2" tasks into your last batch processing window.
Include security testing beginning in MTP1.
Need 64-bit server for 9.2 – it needs to be on all servers and requires an
extra step at go-live to put on production server.
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Tips and Lessons Learned
(continued)
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
If modifying anything that is PeopleTools related (e.g. custom work centers
(portal/navigation collection), processes, jobs, data migration workbench,
activity guides, translate values), it needs to follow the normal
development / migration process.
You can assume bolt-ons will upgrade with minimal issues relative to
customizations to delivered code. Impacts would likely be at the integration
points to the delivered modules.
SQRs are non-comparable, so need to be analyzed separately
BONUS: If you can get new Production servers for the project and use
these for MTP2, this will allow all final external objects (SQRs, Crystals,
64-bit, etc) to be installed and tested early.
SES is NOT required for Financials, but is "core functionality" for HCM…
stay current on the Oracle Support cases!
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21
How You Can Get Started Now!
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Obtain all certifications for hardware and software from the "PUM
Homepage" on Oracle Support
Inventory and assess the quality of your test scenarios and test scripts
Document your customizations and interfaces – Review those old projects!
Create a high-level timeline, and set place holder dates for initial build,
MTP1, MTP2 and Go-Live
Review Oracle's Cumulative Feature overview, and prioritize 9.2
functionality.
Build a 9.2 Demo environment and begin your 9.2 functionality research.
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Wrap-up and Questions
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