Setting up the Implementation Project in SAP Cloud ALM

Once a project team member has been created in SAP Cloud Identity Services, they can be added to SAP Cloud ALM. The IT Contact needs to eventually provide all project team members access to SAP Cloud ALM, but it's most important the partner and customer project managers are given access first, because they are responsible for setting up the implementation project and assigning tasks to the other project team members.

Watch this video to learn how the IT Contact can set up users in SAP Cloud ALM.

First, the partner project manager should review the existing standard roles that are already available to use. The existing roles can be edited or deleted and new roles can be created. For example, it would make sense to create a role for the line of business (LoB) experts in each area. One role can be assigned to more than one person, so this makes sure tasks for specific LoBs get assigned to the team of configuration experts responsible for that LoB.

Next, the partner project manager creates the project and selects the SAP Activate Roadmap: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition (3-system landscape) - Implementation. After entering a project name, move to the Timeboxes tab and enter the general dates for each phase. Start with the customer's planned go-live date and work backwards from there to fill in the timeboxes.

Typically, the Fit-to-Standard workshops in the Explore phase take the longest, so this should be given the most time of any phase. The timeboxes are used to visually show how many days are remaining in a phase and how many tasks have been completed or are yet to complete in the Overview app.

After the project has been created, it's time to match the actual project team members with their relevant roles and turn off any roles you don't need for this project. You can also create a team by including a collection of several different roles or users into one group.

Navigate to the Scopes tab, then click the Manage Scopes link. This brings you to the Manage Scopes app, where you will set the scope to match with what the customer already selected on the Digital Discovery Assessment (DDA). The customer executive sponsor(s) completed the DDA in the Discover phase. If you do not have the DDA, ask the customer project manager to follow up with the customer executive sponsor(s), because it's important for this activity.

Once the partner project manager has the DDA, they can select the same business processes chosen on the DDA in the Cloud ALM scoping either manually, or by importing the scope from a file that you export from the Digital Discovery Assessment. First, we will cover selecting the scope manually.

Keep in mind the DDA is just a starting point – the final scope will likely change after all Fit-to-Standard workshops have been completed.

To select the scope manually, choose the latest SAP Best Practices package for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and select the Save button. Select the Process Scoping button to choose the specific business processes and their local versions that should be added to the project.

Begin by filtering by the local versions (country/region) the customer needs for their system. Next, filter by the line of business (Business Process Group filter) and scroll to the very end of the page to load all solution processes in the list. Then start working through the Digital Discovery Assessment results and in the "Scope" column in Cloud ALM, click the "slider" button to add each individual process to the scope. You can use the business process ID in the search field to identify exactly which processes you're looking for. Every process selected on the Digital Discovery Assessment should also be added to the scope in Cloud ALM. When finished, select the End Scoping button.

A faster alternative to manually selecting the scope is to export an Excel file from the customer’s original Digital Discovery Assessment (DDA) and import that file to SAP Cloud ALM. Members of the partner implementation team likely wouldn’t have access to the customer’s DDA, and if the customer executive sponsor who completed the DDA hasn’t already exported and saved these files, the partner project manager can instruct them to navigate to the Supply Chain of Selling app to open their DDA.

Within their personal DDA, select the More drop-down menu and choose Import & Export. Select the Export Excel button to download the version that can be imported in SAP Cloud ALM through the Manage Scopes --> Scope from file option.

While you’re here, select the Export to JSON for CBC and save the file to potentially use when selecting the business processes in SAP Central Business Configuration. This would only work if the scope stays exactly the same as it was when chosen on the original DDA. In most cases, the partner LoB configuration experts will identify at least a few business processes that need to be added/removed during the Fit-to-Standard workshops, in which case you wouldn’t use the JSON file from the DDA.

The system group is used to group together the SAP S/4HANA Cloud starter, development, test, and production systems and attach them to the project. In the Projects and Setup app, select the System Groups tab, then Create. The partner project manager likely does not know the system names for all provisioned systems; ask the IT Contact for this information. After saving the system group, it can be assigned to a deployment plan.

The deployment plan is to help you keep track of upcoming releases for your systems. For SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, it takes approximately one month to finish all the upgrade activities and have all systems on the latest release. This means the implementation project needs to pause for this period of time to learn about the new features, how they will affect your current scope and customizations, and if any newly released business processes should be activated. In the Projects and Setup app, navigate to the Deployment Plans tab, select Create, then enter the upcoming release(s) that fall within the timeboxes of your implementation. After saving the deployment plan, you can assign the previously created system group and save again.

In the Projects and Setup app, select the Projects tab and search for your project. Select the Deployment Landscape tab within your project, then the Edit button to find your Deployment Plan and save it to the project.