Designing the To-Be Solution

The implementation project at Dreams without Limits has started. As it now comes to the design of the Hire to Retire process, Paula meets Alexander again.

Alexander points out that the main tasks during the Design step are to create the project in SAP Cloud ALM, to onboard the team members and to manage the fit-to-standard workshops with SAP Best Practice content.

Paula wants to know more and asks him about his recommendations concerning the design of the To-Be solution for Dreams without Limits.

Alexander answers as follows:

• Dreams without Limits should start with SAP standard content (that is: Best Practices & Intelligent Enterprise scenarios) and to follow the SAP Enterprise Architecture (EA) model.

• To model their custom solution processes, Dreams without Limits can use value flows and BPMN diagrams.

• In addition, they should conduct fit-to-standard workshops in which they capture and manage their requirements along the solution process.

Finally, Paula asks Alexander to show an example of both a value flow and a BPMN diagram.

After this meeting, she hands over the design part to Peter Process. Peter needs to work closely with Carl Consultant from the implementation partner Implement HXM!.

Peter is happy, because he learned in his previous meeting with Carl that SAP Cloud ALM already contains the SAP Best Practices from SAP Activate. However, as Dreams without Limits may want to adapt the SAP standard process for Hire to Retire according to their needs, he asks Carl how these changes can be captured, documented, and tracked.

See the following video to get Carl’s answer:

Peter has learned that the fit-to-standard workshop plays a central role during the design of the to-be solution. But what exactly happens during this workshop?

The SAP standard processes allow for an efficient approach to validating the fit of the customer requirements to the SAP standard solution. The fit-to-standard workshops are organized around the functional areas of the solution. They are used to explore the functionality, to show how the solution can meet business requirements, and to enable business process experts to execute processes. Delta requirements are identified, discussed, and then added to the backlog. The fit-to-standard analysis uses an iterative approach to ensure that integrated dependencies are addressed.

During the workshops, configuration changes (requirements) are determined and cataloged as outputs of the fit-to-standard process and are used as inputs for the Solution Configuration process in the next phase.

In each workshop, the following process takes place:

1. Review the standard processes.
2. Demonstrate the business processes and concepts.
3. Discuss how the processes fit with customer requirements.
4. Identify delta requirements (such as analytics, output management, integration or extensibility).
5. Identify the required configuration to fulfill the requirements.
6. Enable the customer on the execution of processes.

Finally, Peter has another question. He wants to know how the delta requirements or additional information are captured. For this, he asks: "How can we document additional knowledge or insight about a business process that is useful to remember or delta requirements that the solution variant should fulfill to comply with our expectations, Carl?"

Carl answers as follows and provides screenshots as an example:

Based on Peter's follow-up question about the difference between requirements and notes, Carl continues:

• A requirement details the delta requirements that the solution variant must fulfill to comply with the customer’s expectations. Requirements are actionable and (after approval) turned into tasks to facilitate the fulfillment. Business Process Experts such as Peter can specify the appropriate workstream (such as Integration or Analytics) to work on the requirement. The customer can approve requirements and decide if a user story or a project task is then generated automatically.
• Notes are used to document any additional knowledge or insight about a business process that is useful to remember. They are timeless and part of the process documentation.

Both requirements and notes can be created from the process diagrams using call-out buttons and from the side panel by using the Create button.