the evolution of project controls at csx transportation wp - oracle primavera collaborate 14

The Evolution of Project Controls at CSX Transportation

COLLABORATE 14 Copyright ©2014 by James Minks

James Minks, Project Manager II CSX Technology

Abstract: This paper will describe CSX Transportation’s initial implementation of Primavera P6 and contract

management solutions in 2013. In 2012, CSX had over 300 projects and 30,000 activities. Today, we

have more than 4,100 capital and public engineering projects and 520,000 activities.

The Engineering organization requested that CSX Technology upgrade our existing Oracle solutions (P6;

PCM) to current releases to leverage new functionality. AutoVue 2D was also implemented to manage

drawing markups and in order to aid in optimal decision making.

CSX Project Controls Evolution As part of the evolution of CSX’s project controls infrastructure, we determined that technology upgrades

must first be made to increase end-user functionality and provide standardization on the LINUX platform

for all Primavera applications.

To make use of bug fixes and new functionality, the first item we addressed was upgrading Oracle

Primavera P6 from release 8.0 to 8.2. P6 was a straightforward upgrade already in place on the LINUX

application server. Implementation of Contract Management was a two-stage process:

1. We installed and configured Contract Management 13 on the same LINUX application server as

Primavera P6. This had 2 benefits: it allowed for standardization on the LINUX platform and

provided centralized web administration.

2. We upgraded Primavera Contract Management from Release 13 to Release 14.

As part of the investment in the Oracle platform, CSX wanted to take advantage of Oracle AutoVue 2D

features. We wanted to take advantage of the integration strengths of AutoVue VueLink and Contract

Management. Users get a complete set of integration tools that allows them to create rich visual-decision

making environments, delivering a consistent view of data and business objects, leveraging powerful

visual composite applications, and expanding workflow automation to document-based processes.

CSX’s implementation leverages VueLink integration as a "bridge" between AutoVue and Oracle

WebCenter Content (formerly UCM). This provides Engineering the ability to securely stream documents

from the Oracle WebCenter repository to AutoVue for viewing, digital markup and real-time collaboration.

The largest benefit is that digital markups (for engineering drawings and drawing sets) are saved back in

the content repository and associated with the base file for easy tracking and traceability.

The final challenge was integrating CSX Microsoft Active Directory (MSAD) with the Oracle platform:

1. Oracle WebLogic

2. Oracle Primavera P6 8.2

3. Oracle Primavera Contract Management R14

4. Oracle WebCenter Content 11g

5. Oracle AutoVue 2D



CSX’s Approach CSX’s implementation was divided into three (3) releases, to leverage a “crawl, walk, run” philosophy. This philosophy minimized the cultural change impact on the end users by introducing functionality in a methodical manner. The release-based approach consisted of deployment of specific project management software areas, or items of functionality, through multiple, phased releases. The technical infrastructure set-up, initial software installation, basic configuration, and system administration infrastructure were included in the first release.

Crawling stage

What We Accomplished in 2011-12

The main focus during this phase was selecting and implementing a Project Lifecycle Management

platform. Our initial rollout consisted of the following Oracle product stack:

Oracle Primavera P6 8.0 Limited to thirty five P6 users Focus on adoption by the Design and Construction department 300+ projects and 35,000 activities

Oracle Primavera Contract Management 13 5 PCM users 25 projects (beta)

Oracle Financials 12.1.3 Oracle Project Accounting which is the data source for project budgets and actuals

In addition to those products, we implemented Project Partners OP3 2.5.10

Integrates Oracle Project Accounting and P6 — Budgets — Actuals



Walking Stage

What We Accomplished in 2012-13

CSX had four objectives during this phase:

1. Increase Primavera Usage

2. Upgrade Oracle Primavera P6 and Contract Management

3. Introduce new Oracle products and authentication method

4. Introduce a Project Controls Governance Board

Objective #1 – Increase Primavera Usage.

To meet this objective, CSX refined the training approach to be more one-on-one for each Engineering

department and conducted several brown bag education sessions. This increased our user base from 35

to 133 P6 licenses.

The 2013 CSX Portfolio saw a large increase in the total number of projects loaded into P6. This

translated to over $1.65B in capital and technology projects.

Objective #2 – Upgrade Oracle Primavera P6 and Contract Management.

To meet this objective, our IT infrastructure team performed several upgrades to Oracle software and

introduced new software.

We also standardized on the Linux platform by migrating Contract Management from Windows 2008 to

Redhat Enterprise Linux 64-bit. This provided centralized management and improved performance of a

64 bit operating system.

Upgraded Core Oracle Products

I. Oracle Primavera P6 from release 8.0 to 8.2.1 using P6 web and P6 professional

a. Gained 20-30% improvement in performance of P6 web

b. Improved dashboards and reporting c. Expanded resource management from managing by work teams to specific work teams



II. Oracle Primavera Contract Management from Release 13 to Version 14.0.2.0

a. Refined Contract Management drawings and drawing sets

b. Created standardized dashboards

c. Integrated with Oracle UCM 11g as document repository

Objective #3 – Introduce new Oracle products and authentication method

To meet this objective, our IT infrastructure team installed and configured new products and also

partnered with our Microsoft support team to leverage MSAD as the authentication method for all

Primavera products.

Introduced New Oracle Software

I. Oracle Team Member 8.2 – reporting the status of project activities from the field

II. AutoVue 20.1 – for visual decision making

III. Oracle 11.1.1.5 WebCenter repository

IV. Vuelink - "bridge" between Contract Management, AutoVue and Content Management system

Objective #4 – Introduce a Project Controls Governance Board

Project Control Governance Board

One of the major improvements in terms of governance was the introduction of the project controls

governance board (PCGB). The goals of the PCGB was to provide a single point of accountability for the

success of the project controls applications, drive process improvements, and expand P6 use across

CSX lines of business.

After we obtained executive sponsorship, we established a core leadership team consisting of

engineering business partners, CSX Technology Project Management, IT Infrastructure Support, and

Primavera P6 super users. The first item addressed was improved communication of process and

configuration changes to field users. We did this through having monthly core team meetings to address

IT issues and business issues. We also sent out quarterly newsletters to field personnel addressing

upcoming changes, along with a P6 or Contract Management tip of the day section.

Running Stage

What We Plan to Accomplish in 2014-2015

The main focus in 2014-2015 centers around Primavera software upgrades. We also plan to

expand P6 adoption across the enterprise and to external engineering contractors.

Objective – Product Upgrades:

CSX is currently in the planning phase with our technology business partner (Infosys) to outline a project

plan.

Primavera P6 Upgrade from 8.2 to 8.3 to leverage new functionality

■ Team Member

o Discussion Feature looks promising



o Viewing Notebook topics

o Viewing documents

Primavera P6 R8.3 comes with Primavera P6 Visualizer. This software provides you with a visual, read-

only version of the plans you’ve stored in the P6 database.

The Primavera P6 Visualizer will be used by team members who are not supposed to change anything in

plans, but need to review them.

Visualizer

■ Will support graphical reporting by enabling users to create customizable Gantt charts and time scaled logic diagrams (TSLDs).

■ Improve alignment of Engineering schedules, budgets and costs.

Extended adoption and usage

We also plan to increase P6 usage by opening up P6 Team Member to General Engineering Contractors

(GECs) and Signal Engineering Contractors (SECs). This could potentially add another 100 field users.

There are continuing improvements being made to the P6 configuration under the leadership of the

Governance Board. The top items of concern are modification of the EPS for better team alignment and

the introduction of more granular security profiles.

the evolution of project controls at csx transportation wp - oracle primavera collaborate 14

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