SAP Project Management Consulting Clichés
There’s an old saying (aren’t they all old?) that instructs you to avoid clichés like the plague. SAP has generated its own set of overworked buzzword terminology and has an eco-viral-collective that churns out more and more each day. I can hardly keep up with the acronyms. Over the years I’ve accumulated three favorites of my own that I’d like to share. The aim here is not to kill off the clichés, instead it is to suggest ways to head them off before you use one and have clients rolling their eyes at you–Or at least have a quick follow up so that the cliché actually has some value.
SAP Solution Manager (SOLMAN) Template Projects
In my previous post I discussed some of the functionality available in Solution Manager (SOLMAN) to capture and build business process scenarios, processes and steps. Once you captured this information it could be readily transformed into a test plan and SOLMAN functionality used to execute, manage and monitor testing.
This is good functionality and once your business scenarios, processes and steps are in SOLMAN you can use them as a baseline for additional projects.
Consider the “global template” scenario that crops up in companies today: a core set of business processes are designed and rolled out on a global basis – the only deviations allowed are those mandated by local legal requirements (a.k.a. localization). On top of this there are the business scenarios that fall outside of the business template. You don’t want to build a standard implementation project from scratch each time for the core business processes. This is where template projects save you time and effort.
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SAP Upgrades, Solution Manager, Test Plans, and Testing
In this entry I’ll pull together a few threads from previous posts (testing, documentation, upgrades and offshore development) and throw in some Solution Manager (SOLMAN) functionality. These pieces can be fitted together to help accelerate a project and testing preparation via use of the SAP Test Workbench.
Nowadays SAP wants you to use SOLMAN to manage your landscape and use it as the main conduit to interact with the mother ship in Walldorf. Lots of SAP installations use SOLMAN as a way to generate developer keys and as a document repository: valid uses, but only a small fraction of the available functionality. Let’s explore some more of that SOLMAN magic. Read more
SAP Upgrades & Offshore Resources
It looks like it is official: 2010 is the year of the upgrade. A little validation is good for my self-esteem. Now that’s out of the way and I’m polishing my attaboy trophy let’s get on with it.
In this post I’ll do a combined discussion about the use of offshore resources in an upgrade project as well as share some experiences working with remote resources. My colleague, Mike Salvo, has already discussed ABAP customizations in an upgrade in this post. Now that you’ve found these customizations, what do you do next? Actually Mike provides loads of good advice about what to do next in terms of sorting out what is in the overall pile of objects that need to be examined.
What I hope is that you have documentation related to these objects: information that tells you why they were created, what they do, where SAP functionality is deficient in the current release and how you worked around the shortcoming. This should be helpful in making the evaluation about whether you can remove a particular object or if you need to make sure it works in the new release in a way that satisfies your business and/or technical need.
I going to assume that you have been through the “bag of rocks” analysis described in Mike Salvo’s posts and now have a collection of pebbles, stones and boulders to work through. This is where you can make good use of offshore resources to help out: there’s a lot of discussion about the use of offshore resources and you can use them really well or really badly. Let me digress.
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SAP Upgrades & Recycling Project Artifacts
In my previous post on SAP upgrades I discussed how to get started on your project and to determine whether you are doing (ahem!) just a technical upgrade or intend to venture into deploying additional standard functionality, too. In this post I’ll talk about how you can plan, anticipate and potentially accelerate some of the execution activities to verify the upgrade is working.
SAP Testing Preparation – Due Diligence
This entry sounds like project management 101 and can be summarized as: don’t assume because when you do… and you know the rest of that one. The trick is to uncover your implicit assumptions, the explicit ones are easier to identify, whereas the ones lurking in your subconscious may only want to come out when they can trip you up.
SAP Testing Terminology – Common Understanding on Your Project is Crucial
There are many ways to start an argument on an SAP project and here’s another one to add to the list: define these terms – unit testing, system testing, integration testing, regression testing, scenario testing, end-to-end testing, end user testing, user acceptance testing, stress testing, load testing, performance testing, string testing, usability testing, security and authorizations testing, cut over testing, dry run testing, application testing, interface testing, day-in-the-life testing. I probably missed a few testing types, but the point is there are many kinds of testing and the same testing may be referred to by different names.
Welcome to the SAP Project Management & Project Observations Blog
Introduction
Welcome to my SAP project management and project observations blog. I’m Tim Cooper, an SAP FI/CO certified consultant with a lot of project management experience. My goal with this blog isn’t to make you PMP certified or to address all and any project management issues you may have. Instead I’m going to share some of my experiences from various projects – some good, some not so good – with the hope that you can make your project more successful. At times I’m going write about subjects that will feel like it is project management 101, but I haven’t stopped being surprised by how often my assumptions have turned out to be incorrect and need to be reconfirmed.
I hope this blog is helpful to consultants and non-consultants: it should help you understand some of each others’ expectations and make working together a better experience for you both.
Let me know what you think, but please be civil.
