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Everything You Need to Know for A Smooth TransitionSuccessful Upgrades

Presented by: Steve Seaney & Wes McCoubrie

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Agenda• 5 Reasons to Upgrade…and 5 Reasons to Wait

• Upgrade approaches – Traditional vs. Fresh Start

• Open Mic – Lessons Learned• Typical Stumbling Blocks

• Keys to Success– Process– Environment– Testing

• Best Practice Summary

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UpgradesThe CA product team has an ambitious road map for CA PPM, specifically for version 14.2 and beyond. With this constant stream of new releases, we have a lot to look forward to. However, the new releases encourages all organizations to plan and execute upgrades.

In this session, you will learn the pros and cons for various upgrade strategies, including traditional upgrade versus fresh starts. Rego’s staff of CA PPM experts has successfully implemented many upgrades and will be available to answer your questions.

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Five Reasons to Upgrade…1. Begin realizing the benefits of the newest features and functions ahead of

your competition– Your PMs create ‘cool’ reports for their stakeholders, their PMs are waiting for a

report change to be approved

2. Leverage the cost and efficiency improvements included in new releases– Your PM’s 1,000-line project plan exports without the need for a coffee break

3. Nearing the end-of-support for your current release– Stop hearing “that’s fixed in the next release” from CA Support

4. Staying current reduces the cost and change management required for major jumps– 14.2 looks a lot more manageable while standing on 13.3 than it does from 12.1.

5. Promote an innovative culture within your PMO– If CA PPM continuously improves, so can your PMs’ delivery

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…and Five Reasons to Wait!1. The very first release of new or significantly enhanced functionality has

traditionally been buggy– Wait for the first or second service pack

2. Avoid introducing too much change within an organization at once – Wait until the company re-organization settles down

3. Allow time to integrate the business process change with the tool– Take time to ensure the PPM tool supports the financial processes

4. Allow for sufficient time to plan associated migrations and conversions– Have a well organized strategy for moving from those legacy Crystal reports to

JasperSoft

5. Allow your organization to ‘absorb’ the changes from the preview upgrade– Portfolio Managers still understanding with how to use the portfolio features in

13.X are not able to ‘absorb’ the Jaspersoft reports

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Upgrade Types• Standard Upgrade

– Traditional upgrade with the following major steps• New version applied• Testing• Remediation• Migration to Test and Production

• Fresh Start Upgrade– Start over with a new clean instance of CA PPM bringing over only the data

or configuration you want – Major steps include• Clean install• Migrate configuration• Testing• Migrate data• Testing• Migration to Test and Production

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Deciding on an Upgrade Type• Standard Upgrade Benefits

– Less Expensive– Retain Historical Data Easily– No Re-Build of Configuration / Interfaces

• Fresh Start Upgrade Benefits– True Re-Launch Perception– Ability to Undo Complex Configurations / Development– Ability to Re-Architect Based on What you Know Now– Ability to Remove Unneeded historical data

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Typical Reasons for a Fresh Start• CA PPM has been in place for years, and CA PPM has 5+ years of legacy data

you want to purge

• CA PPM has complex customizations or many complex configurations that are now solved with OOTB functionality

• CA PPM’s current version is so old that it may be less labor intense to start fresh (version 7 to version 13)

• CA PPM has a very complex financial configuration with lots of historical data – financials are very difficult to change

• Multiple groups are using CA PPM and the desire is to separate into multiple instances, each with its own configuration

• CA PPM has a poor reputation, and the company wants the perception of purchasing a new tool without the cost – so a re-launch is done instead

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Open Mic• Who Has Done a Fresh Start Upgrade to 13.x-14.2?– Would you do it again vs. a standard upgrade?– Did you accomplish your goals?– Any lessons learned?

• Who Has Done a Standard Upgrade to 13.3/14.2 Recently?– Any lessons learned?

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Stumbling Blocks• End user buy in and communication

• Overzealous application of Content Packs

• Application of ‘patches’ without testing

• Unsupported Infrastructure

• Undersized Infrastructure

• Inconsistent database versions across dev, test, and prod

• Incomplete or inaccurate upgrade script

• Last second changes to upgrade team

• Introduction of ‘new’ testers during the production upgrade

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Keys to Success - Process• Development Upgrade

– Verify the environment is reasonably consistent with PROD– Read and re-read CA’s Release Notes and Change Impact and Upgrade Guides

associated with each incremental upgrade step– Start with a ‘straw man’ written upgrade & test plans– Address functional changes and defects– Refine the upgrade & test plans

• Test Upgrade (Dress Rehearsal)– Verify the environment is reasonably consistent with PROD– Start with the ‘production intent’ written plan– Utilize the production upgrade & test teams– Goal is minimal changes to the upgrade and test plans

• Production Upgrade– Leverage the same team and plan as the test upgrade

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Keys to Success – Environment• Environment Sizing

– Rego STRONGLY recommends a quick sizing assessment for all upgrades– Check the memory and cores (CPU) on each server– Verify there are sufficient services (JVM) for the usage– Anticipate future capacity requirements

• Environment Compatibility– Verify the OS version on all servers– Verify the database version on all components (watch Jaspersoft / BO)– Verify there are not any issues with the Java version

• Clients– Watch the Browser Version!– Watch the Microsoft Project Version!!

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Keys to Success – Testing• Functional Test

– Leverage ‘real’ users as much as possible– Use the ‘official’ clients (browser, scheduler, etc.)– Use ‘real’ user accounts – avoid using the Admin account

• Smoke Test– Quick test when the application comes up– Walk through the UI from end to end– Use ‘real’ user accounts – avoid using the Admin account

• Performance Test– Very ‘expensive’ – Critical for large installations (10K and above)– Very challenging to generate ‘random’ user loads

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Best Practices Summary• Consider the benefits and risk of an upgrade

• ‘Standard’ upgrades are most commonly used

• Utilize a consistent upgrade plan and team

• Take time to test

• Apply content packs carefully

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Questions

Phone888.813.0444

Emailinfo@regouniversity.com

Websitewww.regouniversity.com

We hope that you found this session informative and worthwhile. Our primary goal was to increase your understanding of the topic and CA PPM in general.

There were many concepts covered during the session, if you would like to contact any presenter with questions, please reach out to us.

Thank you for attending regoUniversity 2015!