Describing Workstreams in Cloud Implementation

This roadmap is intended to guide the project team through the implementation of business scenarios enabled by two or more SAP products, integrated within the intelligent enterprise.

Business scenarios in the roadmap are:

• Scenario – Hire-to-Retire

• Scenario – External Workforce

• Scenario – Source-to-Pay

• Scenario – Total Workforce Management

Products related to the scenarios and represented in the roadmap are:

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud

• SAP SuccessFactors

• SAP Fieldglass

• SAP Concur

The roadmap is comprised of phases, deliverables, and tasks in accordance with SAP Activate Methodology of SAP products that the customer is licensed for. In addition, accelerators are linked to the relevant deliverables and tasks making them easy to consume at the point in the project that they are needed.

To facilitate the adoption of SAP Cloud products, several services and tools are available. One example is the Strategic Advisory Service for Analytics.

As an introduction to cloud data warehousing considerations, SAP offers a Strategic advisory service for analytics. This service integrates and socializes analytics into business operations and decision making. Company-wide use of analytics requires a governance framework that includes standardized setup, adoption, and application. By defining a governance model and analytics target architecture, this service formulates an analytics strategy that considers users, processes, and technology. Within a shorter time frame, companies can extend their business value by using analytics to operate more effectively and create strategic advantages.

The service includes:

• Identification of strategic business drivers and change-management needs to define the analytics vision and strategy

• Delivery of a custom road map to determine the analytics target architecture

• Creation of an analytics governance model to establish standards and processes for setup, adoption, and use

The service is offered in three scope options:

• Baseline Package: This introductory option socializes in-depth advisory services with the customer. In a quick assessment, high-level opportunities and quick wins are identified.

• Enhanced package: This intermediate service initiates in-depth analytics with a transformation road map. The package includes a baseline service scope, value proposition, analytics capability formulation, and recommendations for governance, standards, architecture, and project execution.

• Extended package: This enhanced service scope provides ongoing support. A dedicated analytics advisor is assigned as the central contact for all discussions about analytics solutions from SAP, and manages related initiatives to deliver business value for medium- and long-term execution.

When implementing cloud based solutions, not only you find that agile approaches are more commonly used, but several solutions follow practices where predefined available content leverages the overall implementation. Like SAP Best Practices, in SAP S/4HANA, other solutions have similar content available. One example is SAP SuccessFactors.

Another aspect that is common is the fit-to-standard analysis, from roadmap to roadmap there are small variations, but the principles are the same. Even in solutions where much more creativity and adaptation is expected (like in Analytics solutions), you still refer to the available standard as much as possible. One example is SAP Data Warehouse Cloud preparation steps for the fit-to-standard workshops:

• Understand customers' future enterprise analytics strategy, transformation objectives, and agree on process and solution design principles and expected project value and benefits.

• Agree on process scope.

• Review all the necessary Implementation Design Principles (IDPs) Documents based on the project scope. Prepare any necessary material to be presented to the customer.

• Review all the necessary leading practice process diagrams related to the solution.

• Prepare fit-to-standard environment to be used for system walkthroughs during fit-to-standard workshops.

• Book rooms and materials for the workshops.

• Invite and send out the agenda and schedule of the workshops to all key participants.

• Confirm the materials and internet access provided on the day of the execution workshop before the official start.

In any project, there will be different types of testing. Sometimes the structure within the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer can differ from one product to another, to one type of implementation to another. Still some principles apply.

Unitary testing, integration testing, end-to-end testing, volume testing, performance testing, string testing (business process testing), user acceptance testing, data conversion testing, and so on, usually will always, with different levels of detail and impact.

For example, in your SAP SuccessFactors project you find out that payroll processing takes too long. The impact will be to review your subscription with the hyperscaler (cloud provider), update the architecture documentation, and so on. No need to go back to the drawing board. If it was an on-premise solution (you could keep running payroll in SAP S/4HANA), you might need to procure new hardware and that will bring much larger delays than just some updates to the architecture documents or the subscription agreement.

The picture above gives another example of testing activities, but now for the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.

Don’t you think that security testing applies on any project? Is it not common to include UAT (user acceptance testing)? In any project, user acceptance testing takes place in the Realize phase. It’s needed for achieving signoff for the customer, but when reviewing the activities listed in which roadmap, it's not always explicitly highlighted. The explanation is that not all roadmaps will have a exhaustive list of tasks and deliverables. It’s always good practice to familiarize yourself with several roadmaps.

Another example, looking into SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition (2-system landscape) roadmap, if you check the Create Test Strategy task, you will find a common sequence of tests to be performed in a Cloud Implementation.

Test cycle, a sequence of testing activities typical of an implementation project can be represented by:

• Unit Testing (if applicable)

• Business Process (String) Testing

• Integration Testing

• Data Conversion Testing

• User Acceptance Testing

Some of the findings of these tests can also include aspects related to performance, for example, throughput. Depending on your project jargon, you will notice that business process, string, or end-to-end testing look like synonyms.