This is the third in a series of articles: Upgrading Like a PeopleSoft Pro. So far, I have discussed acquiring pertinent upgrade information, and training your staff. Now, I would like to discuss your Business Requirements and Critical Success Factors. According to our PeopleSoft Pros Poll, many companies have not started or are still in the planning stages of their upgrade. Reading these articles will help you along your journey.

Do you know what the Critical Success Factors (CSF) are for your upgrade? Why are you upgrading in the first place? I know many of you will say "because we have to or we will lose support," but I'm sure that some of you are upgrading for other business reasons. Perhaps you want to reduce costs, or implement Self Service. Perhaps you want to extend you application to your customers, suppliers, and partners. Or, maybe you want to implement self service and save big on HR and Payroll administrative costs. Whatever the business reason, it is crucial that you know your CSF and the associated risk factors. By doing so, you will be able to manage your entire upgrade project like a Pro!

One of the first ways that you can define your business requirements is to establish your upgrade budget and know it before you start. Next is to make a timeline for your implementation listing your CSF's and your milestones, and finally, establishing the scope of your project. These are all necessary steps in determining your Business Requirements. Defining the scope of your upgrade project is important so that your team and members outside of your team understand what you are doing and stay within the confines of that scope. For example, be sure to list the number of team members, how much technical and functional analysis is involved, how many databases you will use and the name & function of each. Other factors to consider in your scope are, knowing the scope of training your end users and managers, knowing how much testing and what level will be done, listing any new customizations that you will add during the upgrade, documenting the new features and modules that you will be taking advantage of in the new release. Are you getting the idea of what a scope is?

Now, let’s talk money and budget! Face it! You can't just do what you want, take how long you want, and bring in 1,000 consultants to do the job! After all some bean counters have limited the amount of money you can spend by approving a budget. Especially in this economy. What? You haven't created a budget yet? You better get cracking, because you may have to acquire new hardware, software, outside resources, training etc. It is essential to identify these items and create a budget for your project. Doing so, will help you to better plan and manage your project so you won't have to stop in the middle of the project to get approval to by another server or piece of software.

Finally, make sure you create a project timeline that shows your start date, end date, and major milestones. PeopleSoft tells us that the average upgrade for HRMS should take about 2 to 4 months and 3 to 6 months for Financials, but if you have a lot of customizations you can add a few more months to that. Make sure that you list target dates and milestones and associate your CSF's where applicable.

All of these guidelines and tasks are extremely important in identifying your Business Requirements to ensure a successful upgrade. And even more importantly, you will be able to upgrade like a Pro!