Estimating Costs for a Use Case

Once a use case has been established and represented by a solution diagram, a cost estimate can be created. In this lesson, we introduce the service estimator and how it can be used to create estimates.

There is a logical sequence of steps leading up to an estimate. The typical sequence flow is as follows:

• Business Use Case Assessment
• SAP BTP Capabilities Explored
• SAP BTP Guidance Framework Consulted
• SAP BTP Solution Diagram Created
• Software Bill of Material (SBOM)

Business Use Case Assessment

Typically, the sequence starts with a business use case assessment where the business case for the software application is established.

SAP BTP Capabilities Explored

From there SAP BTP capabilities and how they may provide a solution to implement the assessment is explored. For example the SAP BTP Discovery Center could be used to ramp up on the different services and how they may fit the assessment.

SAP BTP Guidance Framework Consulted

The SAP BTP Guidance Framework provides a central access point for architects, developers and administrators to build and run enterprise-grade solutions on SAP BTP. The framework comprises of the following elements:

• Decision guides, which are used to identify the technology option that best fits a scenario.
• Reference architectures, which are used to explore how to architect solutions on BTP with the help of curated solution templates.
• Methodologies, which offer a guided approach toward increasing an organizations cloud technology maturity level, covering both technical and organizational aspects.
• Recommendations for different technology domains that help to evaluate and choose the right implementation option.
• DevOps principles, which enable development and operations teams to be more efficient.

SAP BTP Solution Diagram Created

There are several solution diagrams in the SAP BTP Discovery Center, which can be used as is or adjusted as needed to comply with different use case assessments. Or new diagrams can be created from scratch. SAP BTP Solution Diagrams provide high-level, abstract illustrations of technical landscapes. They are instrumental in helping customers understand the range of BTP services and solutions that SAP provides, and how they integrate with other SAP products. They typically showcase solution scenarios across IT landscapes by depicting SAP BTP services, systems, environments and their inter dependencies. Being based on the SAP Fiori Horizon design system, they're also visually compelling. Once the diagram is created it serves as the entry point for the estimation.

Software Bill of Material (SBOM)

A bill of materials (BOM) is an extensive list of raw materials, components, and instructions required to construct, manufacture, or repair a product or service. It lists the finished product or service at the top, followed by individual components and materials. Engineering BOMs are used in the design process while manufacturing BOMs are used in the assembly process. An SBOM follows this pattern. The "components" in this case would be the components needed to build a software application. Reference architectures as just mentioned are a great visual source of the components that would make up an SBOM as the relevant pieces of an application are clearly depicted. Some of the components that a SBOM could specify are:

• Software component names
• Open source components used (if any)
• Licenses used
• Libraries created or needed
• Authors
• Suppliers
• Versions of components used
• Dependencies

The estimator tool provides a user interface that allows the user to create estimates of the costs of SAP BTP services based on the quota, metric, and usage of the services being considered. To facilitate access to the service estimator it can be launched from any of these locations while navigating within the SAP BTP Discovery Center:

• SAP BTP Services Catalog
• Missions
• Reference Architectures
• Control Center (if logged on as a user)

What an architect sees when accessing the estimator largely depends on whether they are logged in or not. If not logged in, they'll immediately see a page where they can create a local estimate. To create an estimate, all that's needed is to perform the following:

• Give the estimate a name (the default name is Local Service Estimate, but it can be changed).
• Select the preferred region.
• Select the preferred commercial model.
• Add in each service for which an estimate is needed.
• For each estimate, add in the sizing and quantity metrics.

To learn, how an estimate is created, watch the following simulation:

In addition to the features discussed, several other features are available regarding estimates in the SAP Discovery Center. First, an estimate is automatically saved as the default estimate with the name "local service estimate". This name can be changed, if desired. In addition the estimate can be downloaded in either PDF or CSV format and can be reset if necessary.

While the aforementioned features do not require the architect to log on to the SAP Discovery Center, they can choose to do so. When a logon is done, the sequence flow of views changes slightly and several new additional features are available. Regarding the sequence flow of views, the home page now becomes a portal, with a variety of tabs and tiles to launch different SAP Discovery Center capabilities (Mission Catalog, BTP Guidance Framework, and so on). Regarding additional features several become available:

• Multiple estimates can be created
• Estimates can be shared with other individuals. This allows collaboration on estimates to take place​
• Estimates can be assigned to a category (that is, Development, Production)​
• Estimates can be duplicated
• Estimates can be deleted