Completing the Design Workshops

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to explain the desired outcome of a design workshop.

Fit-Gap Analysis and Requirement Capturing in SAP Ariba Procurement Implementations

SAP Ariba Procurement implementation projects follow SAP Activate Methodology.

'Fit-Gap Analysis and Requirement Capturing' is a critical deliverable from the Explore phase of an SAP Activate project. This deliverable introduces the predefined SAP Ariba Procurement user stories and processes for review against the customer's business processes.

This allows the project team to identify areas where the customer's process fits with the standard solution functionality, and gaps where the customer's process and the solution functionality don't align.

Fit-Gap Analysis and Requirement Capturing centers around two workshops:

  • Fit-to-Standard: A review of the standard user stories based on the SAP Ariba Procurement solutions in-scope
  • Delta Design: A follow-on session to draft design specifications for the gaps uncovered during the Fit-to-Standard Workshop

These workshops allow the project team to address integrated dependencies, determine configuration tasks, and finalize the Product Backlog.

SAP project implementation roadmap showing key phases: Discover, Prepare, Explore, Realize, Deploy, and Run stages with corresponding tasks.

The Product Backlog

All of the Customer’s desired configuration settings are documented and prioritized in the Product Backlog.

Then, the team uses module-specific configuration workbooks to capture design decisions and the configuration requirements to be implemented, including business processes and data integration with external systems.

The Customer Product Owner is responsible for the Product Backlog, including its content, availability, and item ordering.

The Delta Design Workshop

The graphic below summarizes the process flow through the Fit-to-Standard and Delta Design workshops.

Diagram illustrating SAP Fit-to-Standard and Delta Design Workshops focused on analyzing gaps, priorities, business models, solution design, and planning.

The Fit-to-Standard Workshop

The Fit-to-Standard Workshop aligns all project stakeholders on which business processes are in-scope for the project, and how the SAP Ariba solution will support them. The team must address anything that falls outside the solution scope through the Change Request process.

During the Fit-to-Standard Workshop, the SAP consultant demonstrates standard SAP Ariba user stories highlighting areas that require customer input for configuration.

The customer evaluates each user story and provides feedback on both fit and configuration tasks.

The Fit-to-Standard Workshop - Goals and Outcomes

Fit-to-Standard Workshop goals:

  • Capture the fit of the SAP solution and SAP Best Practices to the customer's processes.
  • Document any variations from SAP Best Practices that are in-scope for the project and plan for any follow-on design workshops.
  • Document enhancement requests.

There are three possible outcomes during Fit-to-Standard:

  1. If the standard SAP Ariba practices exist for the customer process in question, then the SAP consultant documents the configuration settings on the backlog.
  2. If the standard SAP Ariba practices don't cover a customer process, then the consultant will determine if an alternate out-of-the-box practice applies and prototype it as possible.
  3. If there's no alternate out-of-the-box practice, then the functional requirements are documented in the backlog and further discussion on solution design reserved for the Delta Design Workshop.

The SAP consultant adds configuration tasks and gaps to the sprint backlog and repeats the Fit-to-Standard process for all user stories in-scope.

SAP encourages customers to apply the known Best Practices whenever possible, including Forms, which are important in an SAP Ariba implementation. Customers should consider starting with best practice forms as they have been tested to work well with the SAP Ariba solution.

Sample Backlog: SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing

The image below shows a sample backlog for SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing.

Spreadsheet outlining SAP workshop tasks, including solution areas, descriptions, proposed designs, acceptance criteria, and business process impacts.

Process Flow through the Fit-to-Standard and Delta Design Workshops

During the Delta Design Workshop, the project team addresses customer processes that aren't covered by SAP Ariba's standard practices and prioritize them along with all the standard-fit configuration.

Gaps can be considered as any item that deviates from or requires adjustment to the standard, out-of-the-box SAP Ariba solution functionality, such as:

  • Reports that are not prepackaged
  • Non-standard interface or workflow changes
  • Any changes to predefined forms or authorization roles

The workshop begins with a review of the gap identified during Fit-to-Standard, with the customer providing additional insights and business justifications for it.

Throughout the discussion, the SAP consultant documents all decisions about the gap, along with its business impact(s), value driver(s), customer process flow, assumptions, and backlog priority relevant to other gaps and standard configurations.

Learning

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