ASAP Methodology ASAP stands for Accelerated SAP.

Its purpose is to help design SAP implementation in the most efficient manner possible. Its goal is to effectively optimize time, people, quality and other resources, using a proven methodology to implementation. ASAP focuses on tools and training, wrapped up in a five-phase process oriented road map for guiding implementation. The road map is composed of five well-known consecutive phases: Phase 1 Project Preparation Phase 2 Business Blueprint Phase 3 Realization Phase 4 Final Preparation Phase 5 Go-Live and support In today's post we will discuss the first phase. Phase 1 : Project Preparation Phase 1 initiates with a retrieval of information and resources. It is an important time to assemble the necessary components for the implementation. Some important milestones that need to be accomplished for phase 1 include Obtaining senior-level management/stakeholder support identifying clear project objectives architect an efficient decision-making process creating an environment suitable for change and re-engineering building a qualified and capable project team. Senior level management support: One of the most important milestones with phase 1 of ASAP is the full agreement and cooperation of the important company decision-makers - key stake holders and others. Their backing and support is crucial for a successful implementation. Clear project objectives: be concise in defining what your objectives and expectations are for this venture. Vague or unclear notions of what you hope to obtain with SAP will handicap the implementation process. Also make sure that your expectations are reasonable considering your company's resources. It is essential to have clearly defined ideas, goals and project plans devised before moving forward. An efficient decision making process: One obstacle that often stalls implementation is a poorly constructed decisionmaking process. Before embarking on this venture, individuals need to be clearly identified. Decide now who is responsible for different decisions along the way. From day one, the implementation decision makers and project leaders from each area must be aware of the onus placed on them to return good decisions quickly. Environment suitable for change and re engineering:Your team must be willing to accept that, along with new SAP software, things are going to change, the

business will change, and information technology enabling the business will change as well. By implementing SAP, you will essentially redesign your current practices to model more efficient or predefined best business practices as espoused by SAP. Resistance to this change will impede the progress of your implementation. ASAP- Second Phase- Business Blueprint SAP has defined a business blueprint phase to help extract pertinent information about your company that is necessary for implementation. These blueprints are in the form of questionnaires that are designed to probe for information that uncovers how your company does business. As such, they also serve to document the implementation. Each business blueprint document essentially outlines your future business processes and business requirements. The kinds of questions asked are germane to the particular business function, as seen in the following sample questions: 1) What information do you capture on a purchase order? 2) What information is required to complete a purchase order? Accelerated SAP question and answer database: The question and answer database (QADB) is a simple although aging tool designed to facilitate the creation and maintenance of your business blueprint. This database stores the questions and the answers and serves as the heart of your blue print. Customers are provided with a customer input template for each application that collects the data. The question and answer format is standard across applications to facilitate easier use by the project team. Issues database: Another tool used in the blueprinting phase is the issues database. This database stores any open concerns and pending issues that relate to the implementation. Centrally storing this information assists in gathering and then managing issues to resolution, so that important matters do not fall through the cracks. You can then track the issues in database, assign them to team members, and update the database accordingly. ASAP Phase- 3 - Realization: With the completion of the business in phase 2, "functional" experts are now ready to begin configuring SAP. The Realization phase is broken in to two parts. 1) Your SAP consulting team helps you configure your baseline system, called the baseline configuration. 2) Your implementation project team fine-tunes that system to meet all your business and process requirements as part of the fine tuning configuration. The initial configuration completed during the base line configuration is based on the information that you provided in your blueprint document. The remaining approximately 20% of your configuration that was not tackled during the baseline configuration is completed during the fine tuning configuration. Fine tuning usually deals with the exceptions that are not covered in baseline configuration. This final

bit of tweaking represents the work necessary to fit your special needs. Configuration Testing: With the help of your SAP consulting team, you segregate your business processes into cycles of related business flows. The cycles serve as independent units that enable you to test specific parts of the business process. You can also work through configuring the SAP implementation guide (IMG). A tool used to assist you in configuring your SAP system in a step by step manner. Knowledge Transfer: As the configuration phase comes to a close, it becomes necessary for the Project team to be self-sufficient in their knowledge of the configuration of your SAP system. Knowledge transfer to the configuration team tasked with system maintenance (that is, maintenance of the business processes after Go-live) needs to be completed at this time. In addition, the end users tasked with actually using the system for day-to-day business purposes must be trained. ASAP Methodology - Phase 4 - Final Preparation: As phase 3 merges into phase 4, you should find yourselves not only in the midst of SAP training, but also in the midst of rigorous functional and stress testing. Phase 4 also concentrates on the fine tuning of your configuration before Go-live and more importantly, the migration of data from your old system or systems to SAP. Workload testing (including peak volume, daily load, and other forms of stress testing), and integration or functional testing are conducted to ensure the accuracy of your data and the stability of your SAP system. Because you should have begun testing back in phase 2, you do not have too far to go until Go-live. Now is an important time to perform preventative maintenance checks to ensure optimal performance at your SAP system. At the conclusion of phase 4, take time to plan and document a Go-live strategy. Preparation for Go-live means preparing for your end-users questions as they start actively working on the new SAP system. ASAP - Phase 5 - Go-live and Support: The Go-live milestone is itself is easy to achieve; a smooth and uneventful Go-live is another matter altogether. Preparation is the key, including attention to what-if scenarios related not only to the individual business processes deployed but also to the functioning of technology underpinning these business processes and preparation for ongoing support, including maintenance contracts and documented processes and procedures are essential.

Phase 1: Project Preparation The kickoff meeting is critical, since at this time the project team and process owners become aware of the project charter and objectives and are allocated their responsibilities, lasting throughout the project. The project team can use the Enterprise Area Scope Document to compare the enterprises requirements with the business processes and functions offered by R/3. The main roles in an implementation project are that of the project manager, the application consultants, the business process team leader, the technical project leader/systems adminstrator, and the development project leader. The project manager is responsible for planning and carrying out the project. The application consultant creates the Business Blueprint by identifying the business process requirements, configures the R/3 System together with the business process team, transfers knowledge to the customer team members and assists the business process team with testing. The business process team lead at the customer site manages the work involved in analyzing and documenting the enterprise's business processes. This person directs and works with the business process team members, process owners, and users in order to develop the R/3 design, configure the system and validate the design. Furthermore, this person ensures that the R/3 implementation is tested and documented, and obtains agreement from both the business process owners and users. The technical team lead at the customer site is responsible for managing the completion of all technical project deliverables. The technical team lead works with the Project Manager to complete the technical requirements planning, and to plan and manage the technical scope and resources schedule. The technical team lead is also responsible for the overall technical architecture of the R/3 System. The development project lead is responsible for managing the definition, development and testing of necessary conversions, interfaces, reports, enhancements and authorizations. The R/3 system administrator is responsible for configuring, monitoring, tuning, and troubleshooting the R/3 technical environment on an ongoing basis, as well as performing checks, tasks, and backups within the technical environment, scheduling and executing the R/3 transport system and Computing Center Management System (CCMS). The R/3 system administrator manages and executes the R/3 installations, upgrades and system patches.

Phase 2: Business Blueprint The Business Blueprint is a detailed documentation of your company's requirements in WinWord format Application consultants and the Business Process Teams achieve a common understanding of how the enterprise intends to run its business within the R/3 System, by carrying out requirements-gathering workshops.

During Phase 2, the project team completes R/3 Level 2 training; this is recommended as early as possible and before the workshops start.

Elements of the Business Blueprint

The project team selects the processes that best fit your business from R/3's functional offering, using the following tools: AcceleratedSAP Implementation Assistant Question and Answer Database (Q&Adb) Business Process Master List (BPML) R/3 Structure Modeler

Business Navigator and external modeling tools

Phase 3: Realization
In this phase, configuration of your system is carried out in two steps: Baseline and Final Configuration. The Baseline configuration is designed to configure about 80% of your daily business transactions and all of your master data, and organizational structure. The remaining configuration is done in process-oriented cycles. The Business Blueprint is used as the guide for the system configuration, done using the Implementation Guide. Business Process Master List (BPML) The Business Process Master List (BPML) is initially created in Phase 2 as a report from the Q&Adb. It is used to identify, plan, schedule, and monitor the configuration and testing of all R/3 business scenarios and processes within the scope of an implementation. Customizing R/3 with the Implementation Guide The Implementation Guide (IMG) is the main tool for setting the parameters to configure or "customize" R/3 during this phase. R/3 is configured by the business process teams and/or consultants by following the steps in the IMG. The Implementation Guide is used for: Initial implementation of the R/3 System System enhancement and modifications System maintenance and release upgrades The following aspects of configuration need to be taken into account during the steps carried out for the Realization Phase: Defining authorizations in the R/3 System Defining your workflows Creating your user documentation

Lastly, the preparation for end user training needs to be gone through and approved.

Phase 4: Final Preparation The purpose of this phase is to complete the final preparation of the R/3 System for going live. This includes testing, user training, system management and cutover activities, to finalize your readiness to go live. This Final Preparation phase also serves to resolve all crucial open issues. On successful completion of this phase, you are ready to run your business in your productive R/3 System. CATT Test System The Computer Aided Test Tool (CATT) can be used to automate test sequences for key business processes. The results are logged in detail and then reviewed. CATT is also used for quality tests during release changeovers and for simulating complete business processes. GoingLive
TM

Check
TM

The GoingLive Check involves an analysis of the major system components of the R/3 installation with regard to system consistency and reliability. For this, SAP experts log on your R/3 System via a remote connection, inspect the configuration of individual system components, and provide valuable recommendations for system optimization. By analyzing the individual system components before production startup, SAP can considerably improve the availability and performance of the customer's live system. In addition, the technical application analysis provides information on how to speed up the core processes within R/3. In the second step of optimization the transactions with high resource consumption are searched for and necessary adjustments made. In the third step of verification, the changes from the two prior sessions are validated. This check is performed in the productive operation system. After a system goes live, some fine tuning and eliminating of potential bottlenecks is still necessary. This is carried out four weeks after going live with the R/3 System. Phase 5: Go Live and Support Now you are ready to go live with your productive system! Afterwards, the project team focuses on supporting the end users, for which training may not be completed. It is also necessary to establish procedures and measurements to review the benefits of your investment in R/3 on an ongoing basis. Key SAP Services to support you in this phase include The Online Service System (OSS) Remote Consulting EarlyWatch Services

These services encompass a series of remote analyses of specific R/3 System settings, with recommendations for improving system performance.

AcceleratedSAP offers two kinds of roadmaps for moving the software forward to new releases or versions. One is the Continuous Change Roadmap, which provides ongoing support and assistance for the post go-live phase, and is described below. The second is the Upgrade Roadmap, which you can use to plan and carry out an upgrade to your R/3 System.