Case Study: Migrating from P6v7/CM13 to P6R8.

2/CM14
Jason Kleinman Project Controls Systems Integration Specialist Parsons Corporation

Parsons by the numbers

Headquartered in Pasadena, CA More than 11,500 Employees $2.7 billion in revenue in 2011 100% owned by Employee Stock Ownership Trust 2,200 Projects 50 States 25 Countries 79 Languages spoken 7,700 college degrees/professional registrations
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Corporate Core Values

SAFETY
As an industry-leading provider of high-value technical and management solutions, we are firmly committed to maintaining a safe and healthy environment in all of our offices and on each of our projects.

DIVERSITY
We actively pursue diversity in our workforce composition, the markets we serve, and the services we provide. We recognize that the technical challenges we solve require new perspectives and open minds.

QUALITY
We are committed to providing highquality services and products. We meet the mutually agreed-to requirements the first time and strive for continuous improvement of our work processes.

INNOVATION
Through inventive processes and unique solutions, we provide unmatched value to our customers. We foster creative work environments where we always challenge ourselves to improve our processes and procedures.

INTEGRITY
We uphold our reputation for integrity in the marketplace and provide an ethical work environment for all of our employees. We will do the right thing each time we face a tough decision.

SUSTAINABILITY
In all that we do, we are conscientious of the impact that our work has on the environment. We help our customers do the same by providing clean, efficient, healthy, and effective solutions on all of our projects.

Current P6 and CM Usage

Contract Management: 225 Users 30 Database Groups (US) 30 Database Groups (MENA)
P6: 266 Users 55 Databases (US) 39 Databases (MENA)

Currently Supported by my team (IS Project Controls) of 7 FTEs all of which are subject matter experts on various Project Controls applications.
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Why so many databases?

154 databases between CM and P6! Used for both internal projects as well as external. Contract requirements
Certain government projects/programs require data segregation Multiple project sites with completely segregated environments

Why Upgrade?
IT Reasoning
Reduced Server footprint ($$$ Savings) Less patching Less monitoring Less energy usage Less licensing costs Less hardware costs

Project Reasoning
Increasing number of contractors and projects requesting R8. Schedulers/PMs receiving version 8 XER files Enhanced reporting Team Member available for use in the field (Mobility!!!)
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Upgrade Planning
What hardware is required? What software is required? What licenses are required? What training is required for administrators? What training is required for end users? Will all databases be upgraded?
If not, which will? How long will both environments be available?

Required Hardware

Minimum required servers: 1. Citrix Application Server: P6 Client Application (optional if client application is installed on users PCs) 2. Web Server: P6 Web App, API, Web Services, Team Member, CM14 and CM14 Web Services 3. Reporting Server: WebLogic/BI Publisher 11gR2 4. MSSQL Server Future Servers: 1. Additional Web Server for clustering/load balancing.

P6v7 and CM13 Environment (US)

P6 Client App (Citrix)

P6 IAPI Web Services JBOSS

P6 Web Application JBOSS

CM 13 SP5 Site 1 JBOSS

CM 13 SP5 Site 2 JBOSS

MSSQL Server P6

MSSQL Server CM Site 1

MSSQL Server CM Site 2

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P6v7 and CM13 Environment (MENA)

P6 Client App (Citrix)

P6 IAPI Web Services JBOSS

P6 Web Application JBOSS

CM 13 SP5 JBOSS

MSSQL Server P6

MSSQL Server CM

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P6R8 and CM14 Environment (US)

P6 Client App (Citrix)

WebLogic 11gR2 Web Server P6R8 Web App P6R8 IAPI P6R8 Web Services P6R8 Team Member CM14 CM14 Web Services

WebLogic 11gR2 Reporting Server

MSSQL Server P6/CM

BI Publisher 11gR2

Unifier Test Server

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P6R8 and CM14 Environment (MENA)

P6 Client App (Citrix)

WebLogic 11gR2 Web Server P6R8 Web App P6R8 IAPI P6R8 Web Services P6R8 Team Member CM14 CM14 Web Services

WebLogic 11gR2 Reporting Server

MSSQL Server P6/CM

BI Publisher 11gR2

Unifier Test Server

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Required Software/Licensing
P6 R8
Client Application Web Application IAPI/Web Services Team Member
Web Services and Team member licenses available separately and cheaper than full P6 license useful for TM and Integrations Web Services licenses available separately and cheaper than full CM license useful for integrations

CM 14
Web Application Web Services

BI Publisher 11gR2 WebLogic 11gR2

Restricted use license included with P6/CM licensing. Does not include clustering or the ability to create reports, only run them.
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Administrator Training
WebLogic
Oracle WebLogic Server 11g: Administration Essentials (pending) Oracle WebLogic Server 11g: Monitor and Tune Performance (pending)

BI Publisher
Oracle BI Publisher 11g R1: Fundamentals Ed 1 LVC

P6R8
Self taught

CM14
Self taught

Unifier (not in production)

Configuration Management (pending 2013) Access Management (pending 2013)
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End User Training

Primavera P6 Professional Fundamentals Rel 8.2

Primavera P6 Professional Advanced R8.2

Custom developed update training
1. Client App versus Web Application Overview of P6R8: Differences with previous versions, capabilities, what's available in web thats not in client etc 3. Web Application Administer Menu: Users Preferences, Enterprise Data Calendars Project Codes - dictionary on the web 2. Client App User Defined Fields Dictionary Menu features removed/added from client Resource Management Home Window changes EPS View EPS/Projects View Creating new projects in the web Activities View Project Templates WBS View Advanced Filtering Tabbed Views Automatic Scheduling in the GANTT view Reporting: enhancements, email reports Grouping - Multiple Hierarchies Page Breaks by Grouping band Type Ahead in Activity View Timescaled Logic Diagrams Email activity View Resource Assignments View

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Database Upgrades / New Database versioning

Deciding which databases to upgrade?
Parsons shared database In use and upgraded since P3e/c 3.x Approximately 19,000 projects 85% that havent been touched in 2 years Project/Program Specific databases Only upgraded if specifically requested by the projects PM

At what point will we require R8 for new databases?

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Shared Database Migration

Goal: Make sure all currently active projects moved to new database while permanently archiving all old data for historical purposes.
January 2, 2013 V7 Shared database switched to read only mode March 2, 2013 Last day for IS Project Controls Team to move projects to new database March 29, 2013 V7 Shared database detached and permanently archived

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Challenges
End User Buy-In Training IT Challenges Self Learning

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End User Buy In

People generally hate change! Planted the seed for upgrade a year prior to implementation
Introduced to our OSS Group (PMs, Program Managers, Schedulers, etc) Showed them new functionality

Performed brown bag sessions online for all end users

2 Sessions for P6 and 2 for CM at different dates and times. Introduced all new features and functionality

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Team Member
Mobility is a corporate initiative! Pushing out Team Member via Parsons App Catalog to all P6 Users with IOS Devices.

Goal: Be able to utilize cheaper licensing for people who only need to update tasks from the field.

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Training Challenges
People began asking us for access to new software before it was available. People began asking us for training before it was available.

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IT Challenges
LDAP Authentication
P6 Easy CM Not in use currently BI Publisher and WebLogic Difficult

BI Publisher
Multiple Data Sources and Report Folders Access privileges Configuring data models to pull from correct databases Running as a windows service

WebLogic
Running as a windows service Currently researching using WLST to run Admin and Managed servers
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IT Challenges (contd)
Support
Felt like we spent more time documenting the installation process than Oracle did Much better now than it was!
ID 1462323.1 How To Configure P6 R8.x Enterprise Reporting With BI Publisher 11g using the LDAP Security Model ID 1296971.1 Using LDAP and R8.0 Web Reporting shows "No data is available because your P6 user name is not valid for connecting to the reporting database." When Trying To Run Reports In P6 R8.0 Lots of moving back and forth between Primavera Support and WebLogic Support and BI Publisher Support

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Self Learning
Time is money
Administrative Could have saved weeks of time if training done before implementation Users Establish training environment earlier

Learned more by working through problems than we would have accomplished by any training class

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Feedback from Users

Mostly Positive!
P6
Web Application
Positive comments about GANTT chart Enhanced calendar functionality Templates
Currently being looked into for future projects

Type Ahead in activities view

Client Application
Tabbed grouping Page Breaks by grouping

Negative: Having to switch between client and web to perform administrative functions
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Lessons Learned
WebLogic
Perform lots of performance testing with development environment before determining hardware requirements for production.

BI Publisher
Do lots of testing prior to rolling out! If you know Infomaker or P6 Report writer, you do NOT know BI Publisher. Lots of work to have different report folders for different databases Lots of work to make it function with LDAP

R8 Web
Have training available prior to letting users know about upgrade. Have a Sandbox database available prior to letting users know about upgrade.
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Questions/Comments

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Contact Info
Name Jason Kleinman Position Project Controls Systems Integration Specialist Email Jason.Kleinman@Parsons.com

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/jkleinman/

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