Approach to Fit-to-Standard Analysis Workshop Delivery
First, we need to remember the Fit-to-Standard workshops are a huge time commitment for the customer experts, and they already have full-time jobs they are trying to manage. We need use the time efficiently during the workshops, and communicate how important the customer experts' participation is for the overall success of the implementation.
As a configuration expert for a line of business (LoB) area, you are trying to facilitate gathering the information necessary to configure and customize the system to fit the customers' needs. While someone at the executive sponsor level made the decision to purchase this software, it's really the employees (who we call, customer LoB experts) who will be the primary users doing their day-to-day job tasks in the system. Because of this, they are in the best possible position to evaluate each business process and provide feedback on where small changes need to be made for the process to fit their needs.
Each workshop should begin with a "mini kick-off", that provides a general overview of the solution being implemented (SAP S/4HANA Cloud) and the "Cloud Mindset" concept. You will likely have different customer LoB experts participating in each workshop and they may not be aware of why they are being asked to participate, or even that their organization has purchased new software to be installed company-wide. There would have been an official "project kick-off" already, but this occurs early in the Prepare phase with the core implementation team and your customer LoB experts likely weren't involved at that point.
As partner LoB configuration experts, you are guiding the customer experts through the standard processes in the starter system to help them learn how the new system works and gathering information you need to set up their actual system. We do not rebuild processes in public cloud - we stick to the standard process as much as possible, because ANY change to the standard process adds a layer of complexity when it comes to the long-term maintenance of the solution through future release upgrades.
For example, even adding one custom field to an application means the customer needs to check that app each release to see if there are changes (e.g. the original app is deprecated and replaced with a new app), and determine if there are follow-up tasks (e.g. adding the original custom field to the new app). This is why we only want to capture truly business-critical requirements from the customer experts. For example, if I'm the customer expert reviewing a business process and I notice a specific piece of data is never captured anywhere throughout the process, yet I know I'll have to run a report that includes this data and present it to my manager at the end of every month, that is a reason to make a change to an app within a standard process. This is a true business requirement, not a "nice to have". Clearly describing the difference between "need to have" and "nice to have" with examples will help the customer experts get into the mindset of reviewing each process critically and only requesting changes when absolutely necessary.
In each workshop, it's important to communicate there WILL be an initial learning curve. When a company implements a new software system, everyone essentially has to relearn how to do their job tasks in this new system. Next, remind your customer experts there are many resources to support them during the learning curve. For example, the process documentation (process flows, test scripts, tutorials) can always be found in SAP Signavio Process Navigator. Another benefit of making the least amount of changes possible to apps or business processes is that the documentation in Process Navigator will be closely aligned with the customer's actual system. The test script is essentially a "job aid" on how to complete each process, and often there will be a tutorial that walks you through the entire test script in a simulated SAP S/4HANA Cloud system. These same tutorials can be accessed within SAP S/4HANA Cloud by selecting the "question mark" icon in the top right corner, then clicking the icon that looks like a graduation cap. If you're already in an app, the system suggests tutorials it thinks may be relevant based on your current application. Otherwise, you can see all tutorials by selecting the Learning Center button.
Topics to cover in your Mini Kick-Off presentation deck
- Why did we invite you here today?
- Example: Your organization purchased SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and we need to validate with you, experts in your job role, that each business process fits your day-to-day job tasks and requirements.
- What is the Cloud Mindset?
- Example: We make as few changes as possible to the standard business processes in the system, because any change means more work to maintain the change when a release upgrade occurs in the future. If we absolutely need to make a change to make this process, an app, report, etc. to fit your business requirements, we use the apps within the system first to make a lifecycle-stable change. If we can't accomplish what you need there, we look at SAP Business Technology Platform to separate this customization into a different software platform and integrate it into SAP S/4HANA Cloud. We always avoid making changes in the backend of the system.
- Why is your participation important today?
- Example: You are experts in your job role, and therefore are the best people to review these business processes in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system with a critical eye, knowing that you will ultimately need to transition to this new system to complete your day-to-day job tasks.
- Where are we in the implementation process?
- Example: We are in the Explore phase of a methodology that defines the tasks and deliverables we need to accomplish called SAP Activate. We will take the information from these workshops to set up and configure your actual system in the next phase, called Realize (solution realization). After we've configured and customized these business processes, we hope you can help us test each process in your configured system to verify the feedback you've given us during these workshops has been implemented correctly and confirm we can move forward to the Deploy phase.
- What process(es) will be covered today?
- List each business process that will be demonstrated and discussed
Topics to cover in your Fit-to-Standard Analysis presentation deck:
- Navigate to SAP Signavio Process Navigator and demonstrate:
- Process Flow Diagram
- Where to download Test Script
- Tutorial (if available)
- Navigate to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud starter system and demonstrate:
- Test Procedures from the Test Script
- How to access embedded support
- Use the Business Driven Configuration Questionnaire (BDCQ) to:
- Validate L2 BDCQ responses
- Gather L3 BDCQ responses
- Document and prioritize requirements in SAP Cloud ALM:
- Business role customizations
- Who should be permissioned to do what?
- Does the standard business role need to be customized?
- Should there be any data visibility restrictions for different users who need access to the same apps? (e.g. Associate Manager vs. Senior Manager)
- Do the standard space(s)/page(s) that match the business role need to be changed?
- Key user in-app extensibility
- Do fields need to be added/removed from any of the apps within the process (custom fields)
- Does the process need to trigger something to happen at a certain point? (custom logic)
- Does a form or email template generated at some point in the process need to be customized? How much customization (i.e. header, footer, logo, can be done within the SAP S/4HANA Cloud apps)
- Are there analytical apps in the process that need to be customized? (additional fields, columns, views, or other changes)
- Integrations
- Are there additional integration requirements that weren't originally captured on the Digital Discovery Assessment?
- Perceived change impact
- Do the customer LoB experts think their colleagues will need additional training besides the test script and tutorial from Process Navigator to feel comfortable with the process?
- Do they foresee any potential issues with their team moving to the new system with this process?
- Partner LoB configuration experts should communicate this information to the Change Management Team.
- Business role customizations
- Provide the test user login credentials and link to starter system
- The customer LoB experts can test out the process(es) they saw demonstrated after the workshop.
Documenting Requirements in SAP Cloud ALM during Fit-to-Standard Analysis Workshops
Ideally, teams of 2 partner LoB configuration experts run each Fit-to-Standard Analysis workshop together. One person leads the system demonstrations and facilitates discussions, and the other documents identified requirements in SAP Cloud ALM. Requirements are differences between what the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition system does with the standard functionality, and what the customer needs it to do.
To document requirements in SAP Cloud ALM, open the Processes app and select the business process being covered in the workshop from the list of scoped processes. Select the Create button in the upper right corner and choose Requirement. Document each requirement separately. The master list of all requirements can be viewed in the Requirements app.
After all Fit-to-Standard workshops have completed, the implementation project can move into the Realize phase of the SAP Activate Methodology. This is when the lead configuration expert will create projects in SAP Central Business Configuration for the customer's SAP S/4HANA Cloud development system tenants, activate the business processes finalized during the Fit-to-Standard workshops, build the customer's organizational structure, and select the primary finance settings. When SAP Central Business Configuration moves into the product-specific configuration phase, the partner LoB configuration experts will log in and enter the configuration values collected on their Business Driven Configuration Questionnaires (L2 and L3 responses), and work through their open requirements from SAP Cloud ALM in the development system customizing tenant until all requirements have been resolved.