Project Life Cycle Considerations
Before planning aWindchill ESI installation, you also need to take into account factors that define the life cycle of a project. The following provides a check list of some of these factors and what you need to consider and have in place to successfully use Windchill ESI.
As mentioned earlier, you need to first consider and define your requirements. Once you have listed your requirements, you need to evaluate these requirements against the features offered by Windchill ESI. Performing a gap analysis in the following three areas would help you determine if there are any differences between theWindchill ESI out-of-the-box features and your requirements. For more information on how to customize Windchill ESI, see the Windchill Enterprise Systems Integration Customizer's Guide - SAP R/3.
Performing Gap Analysis
Performing a gap analysis includes:
• Performing a gap analysis against Windchill PDMLink, including:
◦ Required business objects and attribute extensions.
◦ Aspects ofWindchill ESI services that need to be customized to support new objects and attribute extensions.
• Performing a gap analysis against the distribution targets, including:
◦ Determining required business objects and attribute extensions.
◦ Evaluating your existing distribution target configuration against the assumedWindchill ESI baseline configuration.
◦ Evaluating the existing distribution target API set against the assumedWindchill ESI API set.
• Performing a gap analysis against the EAI software components, including:
◦ Mapping new business objects and attributes.
◦ Evaluating the following features and processes:
▪ Common Business Object schema extensions. For more information, see .
▪ Transaction management. For more information, see .
▪ Special business rules.
▪ Systems monitoring and notification.
▪ Error handling and Logging. For more information, see Message Logging, Error Handling, and Return Messaging..
▪ Defaults and cross-referencing. For more information, see .
▪ Internationalization (I18N) and localization (L10N). For more information, see .
Performing Systems Integration (SI) Methodology Steps
Depending on your business needs, your legacy systems, and the outcome of the gap analyses, some customization might be involved. This process would include following the standard PTC and Systems Integration (SI) methodology steps such as:
• Determining a data migration and conversion strategy
• Creating a functional design
• Evaluating the system architecture
• Creating a technical design
• Developing, compiling, and performing unit tests
• Conducting a functional test
• Performing other tests
• Deploying and going into a live production environment
• Performing maintenance and administration tasks
Refer to the Windchill Enterprise Systems Integration Customizer's Guide - SAP R/3 for details.