Implementation of

SDLC at OHSU:
Successes & Pitfalls
Oregon Health & Science University

Kara McFall, PMP

Manager, HR, Payroll and Timekeeping Applications
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
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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

 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 Request
7. Project
2. New Request Assignment
Planning
3. Initial Analysis
4. Committee Review
8. Baseline
Review
5. Requirements Document
6. Functional Review 9. Execution
10. Go-live
11. 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, PMP
mcfallk@ohsu.edu