Implementation versus Upgrade
As you have learned in the previous lessons, most roadmaps focus on implementation. Nevertheless, you will find variants of the SAP Activate Roadmap methodology for some upgrade scenarios. As of January 2023, there were two upgrade roadmaps available:
SAP Activate for Upgrade of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition (3-system landscape)
SAP S/4HANA Upgrade and Product Integration
The first thing that you will notice is the absence of several phases of the SAP Activate Methodology and workstreams. The reason for this is the nature of the product. SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition is Software as a Service (SaaS). It doesn’t allow you to make any major changes to the product itself.
SAP releases new versions of its products at a fast pace. They bring a mix of minor changes and some major innovations, so one typical activity with a upgrade will be the update to existing business roles that grant access to new or changed features.
In the upgrade roadmap for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you find a critical task during the Realize phase:
Revise Business Roles and Business Catalogs
The purpose of this task is to adapt existing business catalogs and business roles resulting from the addition of new scope items or an upgrade. In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, business catalogs are periodically revised.
Some business catalogs will be deprecated and replaced by new ones. The deprecated business catalogs in the customer system will be removed two releases later. Hence, it is important to review the retired business catalogs after each release and addition of new scope items, and make the necessary changes as soon as possible. You can find more information in the Identity and Access Management Release Activities accelerator.
SAP Activate proposes one common roadmap for all three upgrade scenarios. Even in the simplest scenario for purely technical approach, some activities will be critical. One example is testing (regression testing). You need to do a walkthrough of your existing business processes and interfaces, and verify if they still work. From a practical perspective, testing workstream is always a critical role here, and it can be the most resource and time intensive workstream.
SAP S/4HANA Upgrade and Product Integration Roadmap
If the new release doesn’t add much to what you currently have in place, then many activities will be optional. For example, if the screens where you create a purchase requisition still work the same way, the solution adoption workstream doesn’t need to address training. That is not true when you have innovations in place.
Other workstreams can play major roles due to the nature and scope of your innovations. For example, if you had SAP S/4HANA running Accounting projects, now your innovations bring extended warehouse management, procurement, and real estate. In this case, you started with an upgrade project, but within that upgrade project you have an implementation project. What do you do? Start with the upgrade roadmap but don’t miss the chance to merge it with SAP S/4HANA implementation roadmaps.
