Reuse Planning consists of four phases: Assessment of business environment, Direction setting and scoping of reusable asset generations, Reuse infrastructure planning, and Project planning.
The target clients for Customer /1 IP are utilities in the US who are most concerned with low risk solutions for customer service software. These potential clients already are running mainframe IT operations and/or are planning to upgrade to a new mainframe IT operation. The target market is entering a period of transition. There is mounting pressure for utilities to pursue client-server solutions as that technology platform matures. However, due to the uncertainty associated with client-server (e.g., costs, technical issues, etc.), many utilities still favor mainframe solutions.
The application functionality of Customer /1 includes:
The CUSTOMER/1 IP software was designed to provide a high degree of variability across client sites. Within the common functional areas described above, some areas have been built to support a high degree of variability. Those areas are: (1) Billing, (2) Credit/Collections, (3) Financial/Non-Financial controls, (4) Revenue/Non-Revenue reporting, (5) Letter generation, (6) Customer Contact, and (7) Purge/Archive. The primary method of obtaining this variability was through the use of parameterization in the functional areas.
An example of the use of parameterization is in the bill calculation function of CUSTOMER/1 IP. The ``core'' billing calculation process architecture contains generic calculations that utilize user maintained (i.e., non-technical personnel) data which make up the tariff structures (e.g., customer charges, energy charges, etc.) that are common across electric and gas utilities. This enables a utility to change the data within the parameter tables to support their specific tariffs. Additionally, the billing architecture utilizes a compartmentalized approach to the software (e.g., individual sub-routines performing specific functions - calculate demand charges, etc.). This also helps minimize the impact of changes to the core architecture from one client to the next.
Currently, Andersen Consulting has three Utility CIS software solutions: (1) CUSTOMER/1 IP (Illinois Power), (2) CUSTOMER/1 ENTERPRISE, and (3) CUSTOMER/1 COOPERATIVE. All three of these solutions have some overlapping functionality (e.g., basic data model, base functionality, etc.). The primary differentiator is the technical platform. CUSTOMER/1 IP operates in a mainframe environment while the other two are client/server applications.
The primary differences between the two client server applications are as follows:
Customer /1 Lineage:
Due to the fact that the two client/server solutions originated from different CUSTOMER/1 packages (e.g., CUSTOMER/1 ENTERPRISE from CUSTOMER/1 IP & CUSTOMER/1 COOPERATIVE from CUSTOMER/1 developed at Baltimore Gas & Electric), there are substantial differences in the functionality. These differences are both in the scale and scope of the functionality, as well as in the business solutions offered. At the present time there are no plans to establish a common functional architecture across the three solutions (other than the commonality that currently exists between CUSTOMER/1 IP & CUSTOMER/1 ENTERPRISE).
Another part of scoping is selecting a specific asset packaging approach. An asset is packaged via some combination of people with specific knowledge, deliverables (i.e., any sort of work product which is to be reused), tools for effectively manipulating or modifying the deliverables, and formalized processes on how to employ the reusable asset. When one is creating a reusable asset, one decides how much to rely on each of these elements. This decision is ultimately driven by a trade-off between often competing solution delivery values. Some of these solution delivery values are: flexibility, productivity, speed of delivery, cost of delivery, investment cost, evolvability over time, and learning curve associated with developers learning how to use the reusable asset.
While all of the above solution delivery values are important, in the real- world one must strike the right balance for the targeted audience. For the utilities industry that AC is targeting, the three most important solution delivery values are: (1) cost of delivery, (2) speed of delivery, (3) flexibility. Another delivery value often mention by customers is the evolvability, but exactly what this means to them is difficult to quantify.
Driven by the above solution delivery values, AC has evolved toward a packaging strategy encompassing all of the above packaging elements, but with a distinct reliance on people. In particular, the Customer/1 asset has not been packaged as a stand alone asset. Rather, effective use of the asset can really only be done by a select group of people who understand the deliverable well enough to be able to customize it for new clients. This approach has the advantage of flexibility and minimal up front investment, but has the disadvantage of making people the limiting resource.
Regarding cost of delivery and speed to market, the Utilities Industry group does not have specific goals, but has found this approach has been good enough to win the majority of bids we have pursued. In the future, any shift in this packaging approach will be dependent on the amount of investment required and the likelihood of reaping a sufficient return on investment to justify the risk of the investment. Based on past investment decisions, a return on investment is expected within the duration of the current engagement.
The closest example of project planning was the creation of the Customer/1 IP asset. This though was a mixture of good luck and some planning. In this case Illinois Power was a particularly sophisticated client who appreciated the need to design their customer information system to be evolvable. The engagement was staffed with several fairly senior developers who had previously worked on multiple customer information systems. Because of this seniority, the vision of the client, and the ╥reuse rule of three╙, a well designed reusable asset was created--- Customer/1 IP.