Has anyone had any experience with BP4SM (Blue Print 4 Service Manager)

[SC_student]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with BP4SM and what thier thoughts are.

[jochocki]

I am a consultant who has worked on 2 different implementations of BP 2.0 as well as many implementations without BP
Even though some of the process definition, and functionality is nice, I personally would not recommend the configuration for 4 simple reasons:
1) smaller number of clients have this configuration
2) newer versions of OOB SM are incorporating more and more functionality that BP provided
3) There are numerous changes to OOB code--therefore, with the addition of bug fixes and new tailoring by your company, the upgrade will be a challenge--we will see how much of a challenge very soon.
4) In the versions of BP I have seen, not all modules are covered by the BP processes, and OOB integrations with the likes of DC, Release Control, and Reporting are no longer OOB and work is needed to include BP fields and processes.

My experiences have shown me 1 thing: Either way you go requires intimate knowledge of your SM system AND YOUR PROCESSES.

[SC_student]

Well said, I agree 100%. So far I have not found anyone (SM developers) who likes BP4SM or any other accelerator type products. They are planning to release BP4SM v 4.1. We have found so many errors and legacy code that should have been cleaned up. I honestly do not trust that the product is ready to be integrated fully with SM.

So far the only people who Ive found to like BP are Process people. They believe in BP4SM likes its the end all be all. Im still not convinced.

Thanks for you reply.

[singel09]

We are now implementing this, version 9.2 and soon 9.3 .. so far so good .. loadtesting commencing 3/1/12

Maurice