Oregon Health & Science University

Kara McFall, PMPManager, HR, Payroll and Timekeeping Applications

Implementation of SDLC at OHSU:

Successes & Pitfalls

Copyright Statement

Copyright © 2006 by Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, Oregon 97239. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Oregon Health & Science University.

Oregon’s only Academic Medical Center

OHSU Hospital and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital: 25,700 discharges

Four consecutive Consumer’s Choice Awards

Dozens of primary and specialty care clinics: 553,000 outpatient visits

Major Research Institutes 28th of 515 in NIH Awards (Top 5%)

Five Schools/College

School of Medicine

School of Dentistry

School of Nursing

Oregon Graduate Institute (Science & Engineering)

College of Pharmacy

2,700 + students

Why

Operating Budget – $1.2 Billion +

Over 11,300 employees

City of Portland’s largest employer

State of Oregon’s fourth largest

Growing at 10% + annually

What is the SDLC?

The Solution Development Life Cycle (SDLC) provides common IT business processes to plan, manage and execute projects through the entire project life cycle.

SDLC Mission: To deliver consistently high quality solutions to OHSU on time and budget by following well-defined processes.

SDLC Goals

• Provide common, repeatable project processes

• Improved project performance• Improved communication• Convenient access to information• Build knowledge, lessons learned &

consistency• Customer satisfaction• Project partnerships

OHSU’s IT Project Environment Before SDLC

• Project requests made ad hoc directly to IT employees

• Duplication of project requests and applications across the campus

• No formal project prioritization processes• No formal resource tracking (!)• Resources pulled frequently to work on

“hot” projects

OHSU’s IT Project Environment Before SDLC (Continued)

• No formal means of tracking and reporting on project requests and projects performed

• Customers restricted (and frustrated) with lack of project status information

• Little partnership between customers and IT

• No consistent project processes or standards among teams or projects

• Many projects over budget and late• Not enough happy customers

A Brave New World: SDLC

• 11-Phase Methodology

1. New IT Request2. New Request Assignment3. Initial Analysis4. Committee Review5. Requirements Document6. Functional Review

7. Project Planning

8. Baseline Review

9. Execution10. Go-live11. Completion

Other Components of SDLC

• iSTART – ITG Scope, Time And Resource Tracking tool– Single entry point to enter, view and track IT

project requests– Customers now use automated tool to

submit and track their requests– Based upon 11 phases of the SDLC– Provides high level management reports on

projects, requests and status

Other Components of SDLC

• Steering Committees formed based upon functional focus– Education IS Steering Committee– Administrative IS Steering Committee– Research IS Steering Committee– Etc.

Other Components of SDLC

• Steering Committees– Steering Committees approve, decline,

cancel or put projects on hold.– Steering Committees are responsible

for ensuring that all approved projects map to OHSU’s 5-year Strategic Plan.

– Once approved, Steering Committees determine project priorities.

Other Components of SDLC

• Resource Coordination Group (RCG)– RCG consists of chairs of each of the

Steering Committees.– Purpose: Project Portfolio Analysis

across the institution

SDLC Rollout

• Staged rollout began April 2003 • 350+ IT employees trained• 75 Customers trained• Average of 1,110 project requests

annually• 60+ project requests from our schools

• 550+ current requests tracked through automated system

What Worked?

• “Big Bang” approach• Most customers enthusiastic• Better educated customers• More of a partnership approach

with our customers and IT• Training all IT employees effective

approach

What Worked?

• All project requests come via automated request tool

• All projects are tracked• Standard project processes, templates

and language• Set the stage for resource tracking

among projects• Business case analysis performed

before project approval

What Didn’t Work?

• Could not “force” customers to attend training

• Confusion around production support vs. projects

• Our SDLC has no design phase• Most Steering Committees disbanded• Resource Coordination Group does not

meet– Project Portfolio Analysis never really took off

What Didn’t Work?

• Not all project templates & processes used• Challenges getting signoff on key

approvals• Initial versions of iSTART experienced bugs• iSTART and Microsoft Project not integrated

– Double-entry of some info required

• Data in PMIS systems not always current or accurate

• Reporting gaps; not all needs currently met

What Didn’t Work?

• Shifting existing IT culture at times challenging

• Some IT managers don’t support the SDLC

Critical Success Factors

• MUST have support from the top!• Consider starting small if resources are

an issue• Involve IT staff & customers in planning• Widespread training of all IT resources• Customer training• Sell the success you experience• Enforce compliance• Require lessons learned on all projects

Considerations

• Phased or “Big Bang”?• Home grown Project Management IS or

standard tools (e.g., MS Project)• One common data repository vs.

integrated systems• Shorter path for small projects?

– OHSU has 6-phase (vs. 11-phase) approach for projects less than 250 hours

• 5-minute training for executives• Will you allow exceptions to the processes?

What’s Next?

• Reinstatement of defunct Steering Committees

• Reinstatement of Resource Coordination Group

• Re-examination of project processes and templates• If we are not using a process or

template, do we kill it or tweak it?• Continuing to refine our business case

methodology

What’s Next? (Continued)

• Resource management at a more detailed level• Broken out by projects vs.

operations• Continued refinement of our Project

Portfolio Dashboard• More detailed reporting of project data

to our customers• Determination of which PMIS tools

we’ll use moving forward

Questions & Answers

Kara McFall, PMPmcfallk@ohsu.edu