Explaining the Prepare Phase

The prepare phase has a core set of activities that must take place at the start of the project.

To learn about the prepare phase, play the following video.

Let's examine some of the tasks to consider when focusing on the SAP Build Work Zone.

Regardless of the implementation model (customer, SAP, or partner-led project), the customer needs some level of knowledge about SAP Build Work Zone, and surrounding technologies including SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and SAP Cloud Identity Services. The Customer Team Self-Enablement task addresses this. SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Cloud Identity Services are prerequisites for the implementation. However, they aren't exclusive to SAP Build Work Zone or SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone. Instead, they’re commonly used and required across most SAP Cloud solutions.

The System Provisioning task speaks for itself. To set up the first development environment, it’s necessary to execute an Onboarding Procedure for SAP Build Work Zone or SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone. However, it isn't required to set up other environments at this stage. There can be cases where the Account Model for SAP BTP isn’t yet defined.

While SAP Build Work Zone, as a product, provides many easy-to-use capabilities, it's still correct to consider it a regular implementation project. For example, a project plan is prepared and monitored, and requirements documented and tracked. It’s addressed with the task SAP Support Implementation Tools Access. SAP prime solutions for application lifecycle management can support the implementation, for example, of SAP Solution Manager for hybrid landscapes or SAP Cloud ALM for cloud landscapes. These solutions enable the orchestration of implementation projects and the provision of necessary processes, for example, project and task management, software change management, test management, release, and deployment management. In addition, it can be necessary to set up some additional SAP BTP services, for example, SAP Cloud Transport Management service.

One component of creating a truly digital experience for the Intelligent Enterprise is to access various business apps and information. Therefore, SAP Build Work Zone are connected to systems such as SAP S/4HANA, SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP), and SAP SuccessFactors. It's also relevant for SAP BTP services supporting integration with SAP Build Work Zone. The set of systems depends on the scope of the implementation project. This work is covered under the Prepare Integration Setup task. Connect the systems in scope to the SAP Build Work Zone. Note that, at this phase, it isn't expected to design and develop any integration business logic (for example, integration flows in SAP Cloud Integration).

The tasks, Fit-to-Standard Analysis Preparation and Fit-to-Standard System Preparation, are relevant when the plan is to use predelivered content. In this context, it's about HXM content (packages) or Content Federation (enabling the exposure of SAP Fiori apps or other business content from back-end systems) for both SAP Build Work Zone and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone.

Ensure that HXM content is enabled and usable:

• Destinations back to SAP SuccessFactors are maintained.
• Demo workspaces with focus on HXM are created.

The same is relevant to the Content Federation:

• Back end systems (for example, SAP S/4HANA or SAP Integrated Business Planning) with business content are connected to SAP BTP.
• Business content (for example, SAP Fiori apps) is exposed, set up, and consumed in the launchpad component of SAP Build Work Zone.
• Optionally, demo workpages and workspaces with business content are created.

These steps help prepare for and conduct the Fit-to-Standard Analysis during the next phase.

The additional (and SAP Build Work Zone independent) information about tasks and accelerators for the prepare phase can also be found in the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer.

In contrast to other SAP BTP offerings, it's not enough just to create a subscription in SAP BTP subaccount. Both SAP Build Work Zone and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone have a dedicated onboarding procedure to implement certain prerequisites and configuration steps before and after creating the subscription. The onboarding procedures for SAP Build Work Zone and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone are documented on SAP Help Portal.

The onboarding procedure for both SAP Build Work Zone and SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone consists of four steps.

The starting point, is to check and implement any listed prerequisites for SAP Build Work Zone. Besides the availability of an SAP BTP subaccount, it is necessary to set up at least the project-specific identity and access management. Note that the information available on the SAP Help Portal covers the standard scenario for this utilizing SAP Cloud Identity Services, Identity Authentication, as primary engine for user authentication in SAP Build Work Zone. It is possible to have more complicated security infrastructure with third party Corporate Identity Provider (IdP) (for example, Microsoft Entra ID or Ping Identity), but it should be designed and configured by security architects and consultants separately. In addition, it is necessary to migrate SAP Jam to ondemand.com domain if the scope of the project includes the migration from SAP Jam to SAP Build Work Zone or SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone.

The next step in the onboarding procedure is running the so-called Booster for SAP Build Work Zone or SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone.

Note that they have different Boosters. It is executed from the SAP BTP global account and it is necessary to have respective authorizations. The booster helps scope and enable necessary subscriptions and services in the selected SAP BTP subaccount, generate destinations, create role collections, and so on. For instance, it is not required to enable SAP Business Application Studio in SAP BTP non-development subaccounts.

When the execution of the selected Booster is completed, it might still be required to perform some manual configuration activities (not covered by the Booster). These steps fall under the post-Booster section. It includes, but is not limited to:

• Provisioning Identity Provisioning service (IPS) bundle tenant mapped with Identity Authentication service (IAS) tenant, if the service is not yet available. The information about relevant IAS tenant is obtained from Trust Configuration from SAP BTP subaccount where SAP Build Work Zone subscription enabled.
• Upgrade IPS bundle tenant to include the SAP Build Work Zone bundle.

The last step covers the execution of Work Zone Configurator. This wizard belongs to the SAP Build Work Zone subscription and is part of launchpad component. It helps to complete application-specific configuration steps, for example, setup user provisioning to Digital Workplace Service (DWS) component of SAP Build Work Zone with SAP Cloud Identity Services, Identity Provisioning service (IPS).

Keep in mind that user provisioning to DWS is driven by overall corporate security architecture. It is not mandatory to use SAP Cloud Identity Services, Identity Authentication service (IAS), as source system for user records. They can also be provisioned from SAP SuccessFactors or Microsoft Azure AD.

If everything is configured properly and users are provisioned with correct roles, administrators should be able to find menu item, Administration Console in their user menu, as shown in the graphic above.