SAS® and Microsoft SharePoint: Project and Resource Management Tools and Techniques for Large, Globally Distributed Programming Teams - Paper 195-2012

Sep 11, 2026

Most large companies rely on a mix of in-house, off-shore, and service-provider resources working across multiple time zones with different vacation and holiday calendars. This paper addresses how managers can plan for resource demand peaks and valleys when common resourcing tools cannot handle locale and time-off diversity. It presents a scalable approach using SAS and MS SharePoint that supports long-term forecasting and short-term load balancing for globally distributed teams.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Business Analysis

Requirements and constraints

Data exchange approach

Solution overview

SAS Global Forum 2012 Planning and Support Paper 195-2012 SAS® and Microsoft SharePoint: Project and Resource Management Tools and Techniques for Large, Globally Distributed Programming Teams W. Stetson Line, Amgen Inc. , Thousand Oaks, CA ABSTRACT Most large companies employ a variety of in-house, off-shore, and service provider resources. Staff members often work in a variety of time-zones and can have different vacation and holiday calendars based on local , ethnic , and religious customs. How can managers effectively plan for resource demand peaks and valleys in such an environment? This paper presents a modest and scalable approach using SAS and MS SharePoint that provides a useful framework for both long-term forecasting and short-term load-balancing decisions in the management of globally distributed teams. INTRODUCTION Managers of international teams face a number of challenges: Planning for work peaks and troughs is complicated as staff locale time-zone and time-off diversity is not handled by common resourcing tools. The tasks and roles of remote workers may need to be limited as a consequence of not having enough direct communication with functional partners operating in different time zones. Job performance must be guided and gauged without the intimate involvement of the remote manager. All staff members need to provide updates pertaining to their work schedulesand the status of their deliverables in a way that is timely and actionable or else “in-box” problems can become serious. These challenges and others require innovative processes and tools. Over the last year a solution has been developed using SAS, MS SharePoint, and Java/Groovy that has proven useful in addressing the above-stated challenges. This solution also functions as a communications hub for distributed staff and provides a means of work monitoring and tactical assistance in the performance of daily tasks. Our CDISC Consultancy and Implementation (CCI) team is part of the Global Statistical Programming department of Amgen, Inc. A core CCI mission is to assist clinical study teams in the specification, production, and quality assurance of CDISC Study Data Tabulation Model (SDTM) data sets included in submissions to regulatory agencies (e.g. FDA, EMEA) . The SDTM data sets that become part of the submission are also the source for SAS programs used to generate analysis tables, listings, and figures that are the basis for claims of clinical safety and efficacy of the therapeutics being researched. The CCI staff has two main roles: CDISC Consultants and CDISC Implementers. Generally stated the Consultants advise on the mapping of clinical study data to the SDTM model, and the Implementers develop specifications and programs to implement the SDTM mapping. A custom ETL tool named the Submission Data File (SDF) system is used to produce the SDTM data sets. The CCI team are currently comprised of over 30 individuals working from Amgen sites and home offices located across the US, England, Columbia, and India. These teams now support over two dozen products and well over a hundred research projects (clinical studies) . Each of these projects can have many milestones or deliverables: For example a project could have data review committee meetings, safety-update reports, interim analyses, primary analyses, and a final analysis occurring over a multiyear life-cycle. Each of these milestones requires the coordinated efforts of members of CCI staff who are often thousands of miles and many time-zones apart. BUSINESS ANALYSIS When evaluating different potential solutions to managing these projects and staff resources several factors and constraints were kept in mind. We were required to work with what was at hand: No big-budget tools were in the offing, nor would such be likely to be nimble or adaptable enough to meet all the team’s evolving needs. Previous attempts to develop a solution using MS Project and MS Excel had proved unsuccessfu

FAQs

What problem does the paper address for managers of global teams?

Managers must plan for resource demand peaks and valleys despite staff working in different time zones and following different holiday calendars that common resourcing tools do not support.

What solution does the paper propose?

A scalable framework that uses SAS and MS SharePoint to enable long-term forecasting and short-term load-balancing decisions for globally distributed programming teams.

Why was MS SharePoint selected for implementing the project plan data sets?

SharePoint lists were already used by the teams and provided spreadsheet-like simplicity while supporting role-based security, workflows, and web access, with minimal added cost.

Sep 11, 2026

Uploaded by Sophia Brooks