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4 Terms of Reference
I Author: John Meagher
Authority: Andy Radka/Steve Muchow
Type of document: Terms of Reference
Date: 18 November 1999
Version: 0.3
Title: Horizon Reference Data Review
CONTENTS
1. BACKGROUND.
2, PROBLEM STATEMENT ..cessssse
5. SCOPE, BOUNDARY AND CONSTRAINTS
6. APPROACH...
6.1 Phase 1 - immediate.
6.2 Phase 2 - tactical.
6.3 Phase 3 - strategic
7. METHOD.......
10. REPORTING.......
11. RESOURCES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ...ssssese
12. OUTPUT wwe.
13. CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS.
VERSION HISTORY :
Version I Date Purpose
0.1 11 November 1999 I Draft issued for discussion with customer.
0.2 16 November 1999 I Draft containing Pathway comments
0.3 18 November 1999 I Final draft for agreement.
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1. Background
Reference data is provided by PONU to Pathway to activate changes to the business
parameters of the Horizon service. These changes affect outlet and product
information. As an example, the change in the price ofa first class stamp from 26p to
say 30p would be achieved by passing Pathway a reference data transaction which
changes the value of the specific product code from 26p to 30p. The reference data
system in its broadest sense includes the capture, storage, processing and transmission
of reference data from PONU to Pathway and the subsequent, receipt, validation
storage and activation within the Pathway boundary of this and Pathway’s own
reference data. This ‘system’ therefore includes operational procedures and computer
systems which need to operate as a cohesive whole.
2. Problem Statement
It is vitally important to ensure that data is accurate, appropriate and timely in its
transmission and activation in order that the intended, and only the intended,
outcomes to the service are achieved.
2.1 Pathway Concerns
Recently, Pathway have raised concerns that various aspects of the end-to-end
reference data process would appear not to be operating as efficiently as they need to
in order to support rollout and the ongoing live operation. Pathway’s concems are
described in ICL Pathway document CR/REP/016, ‘Reference Data End-to-End
Workshop Briefing’. The document provides statements of the issues, their associated
impacts and proposes actions that eliminate or mitigate the problems.
2.2 PONU Concerns
In addition to those concerns identified by Pathway, PONU have identified the
following as being in need of review:
¢ There is a need to formalise the process whereby data issues at the counter are
tracked back to RDS and progress reported.
e We do not have agreed OBC lead times.
¢ We do not have visibility of the RDMC and its process, nor do we (at RDS) have
visibility of the data eventually released from the RDMC.
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© We do not yet have formal sign off of the Operational Interface Specification ofr
this area (Pathway document, ref: CS/PRD/058).
3. Risks
Among the risks posed by the problems listed above are:
© the corruption of the business data
e the degradation of the service to customers
the increased loading on the support services - help desks etc.
e the delay to the rollout
Given the problems being encountered in the operational environment and the risks
expressed by both PONU and Pathway to the integrity of the business data and the
rollout, it was agreed at the Delivery meeting on 10 November to conduct an
immediate analysis of the technical and business design to evaluate what steps need to
be taken to ensure that reference data can support rollout and the ongoing live
operation. and migrate safely to a PONU strategic solution.
4. Objective
The objective of this initiative is the development and execution of a plan of activity
which will sufficiently reduce the problems detailed in section 2 above to ensure that
rollout can proceed and that ongoing live operating can continue with the minimum
level of disruption from inaccurate or defective reference data being released into the
live environment
5. Scope, boundary and constraints
The study will take as its scope the development of solutions for the problems detailed
in section 2 above. It should consider the systems and processes that affect reference
data from its origination within PON and within Pathway and the communication of
the data to Pathway’s RDMC and on through verification, validation, release
authorisation and distribution into the live estate.
Ifcompelling evidence for changes to component IT systems is encountered then
these should be documented and submitted them via the Change Control Process.
Any changes proposed should receive priority attention by all parties.
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The boundary will start at the point where a data change (either to Product data or
Outlet data) is received into the OBC process. This will either be to the OSG group,
in the case of changes to Product data, or directly into the OBC process in the case of
Outlet data changes originated from the Regions. It will include the PONU RDS and
Pathway’s RDMC systems as well as any processes in place to facilitate any element
of the data change process.
The end point of the boundary shall be the point where Pathway have validated the
data stream immediately prior to it being received at TIP.
Previous discussions between both companies have been hampered by a reluctance to
provide full visibility of all aspects of their respective technical and operational
design. It is essential therefore for the success of the study that sufficient detailed
information is provided to ensure the maximum level of knowledge and inform the
development of appropriate solutions. To this end, it is proposed that workshops are
supported by the attendance of appropriate members of both the PONU and the
Pathway Reference Data and Business Process design teams and that appropriate
documentation, if required, is made available.
6. Approach
An analysis of the problems above suggests a two phased approach is appropriate.
A third phase, addressing the longer term strategic objectives of PONU IS/IT may be
undertaken subsequently once the issues have been mitigated sufficiently to sustain
national rollout.
6.1 Phase 1 - immediate.
This will address the
the appropriate data to support SIP 16
e the current PinICLs that are outstanding and require resolution
this will be managed by John Bruce, Horizon CSR+ Project Manager and conclude by
the end of November.
6.2. Phase 2 - tactical
This will address the current features of the business and technical design that need to
be improved to proceed with the rollout and to support live running for the duration of
the current reference data system until its migration to a future strategic solution. This
will include:
e data quality
¢ data functionality
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management
synchronisation
volumetrics
system design
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This will be managed by Horizon and conclude by the end of December.
Inevitably as this phase is progressed issues will be generated that can only be tackled
in the Strategic phase.
6.3 Phase 3 - strategic
This will address the necessity to render the current reference data system to a suitable
condition to migrate to the future data management solution. This will require the
active direction of the PONU IS/IT strategic unit. The Head of PONU IS/IT will be
the overall sponsor of this stage of the work.
7. Method
Whilst many of the concerns documented above are self explanatory and not contested
by either Pathway or PONU, others e.g. the ‘no-change changes’ are insufficiently
understood either in terms of the problem that is being caused or the risk that is posed.
As part of the first phase of the initiative both parties are required to explain
adequately the problems and risks that they raise.
Each concern/problem will be championed by an individual nominated by the
respective organisation who has identified the problem. It will be the responsibility of
the champion to articulate the definition of the problem.
A series of workshops will be held to ensure a common understanding of each of the
problems. The workshops will then devise and agree the actions necessary to convert
each of the problems to the desired resolution state.
8. Plan
A plan will be produced as part of the initialisation of the workshops that will set out
how the objectives will be achieved. The plan will be used to monitor progress (see
section 8 below).
9. Customer
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Given that the reference data system is operating within the live estate, then the
customers of the initiative will be Andy Radka for PONU and Stephen Muchow for
Pathway. Any recommendations, as part of the output from this initiative, for changes
which would require development activity will be sponsored by the customers from
their respective delivery elements.
10. Reporting
The initiative will report into the Delivery Meeting which will act as the sponsoring
body. A combined (PONU Pathway) weekly report on progress will be provided by
the Horizon project manager to Naresh Mohindra and John Dicks.
11. Resources and Responsibilities
It will be the responsibility of each company to resource adequately the activities
which naturally occur within their domain. In addition, a project manager will be
provided by both organisations to provide guidance and direction, and ensure that
issues are managed to resolution.
12. Output
A report will be produced detailing a series of actions to be undertaken by each
company. Each action will include a specification of what is required for its
completion including an estimate of duration, type and quantity of resource and any
enablers and constraints. Actions will be weighted relative to each other using a
combination of cost and payback thereby providing a natural prioritisation.
13. Critical Success Factors
Both organisations must commit, within the constraints of their contractual
responsibilities, to implement agreed changes in a timely manner.
All planned actions must be technically capable of being implemented with minimum
disruption to the live service.
Both organisations must adequately resource the initiative and commit to the
availability of such resources and the associated management support.
Both organisations must provide sufficient expertise in andtotal visibility of the
operational and technical design features of the existing reference data system.
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