SAP Activate Methodology for On-Premise Implementations

The SAP Activate Methodology is SAP’s content rich, Agile methodology for the implementation
and/or upgrade of SAP solutions across industries and customer environments. Built on our
experience from tens of thousands of SAP projects, SAP Activate methodology provides pre-built
implementation content, accelerators, tools, and best practices which help consultants deliver
consistent and successful results across industries and customer environments. SAP Activate
Methodology can be run for distinct projects or as a component within SAP Premium Engagement.

The six phases of SAP Activate provide support throughout the project life cycle of SAP solutions.
Underlying these phases is a series of value delivery and quality checks to ensure the solution, as
implemented, delivers the expected value. The diagram below illustrates the six-phase approach of
the SAP Activate Methodology.

The SAP Activate methodology for on-premise is designed to support project teams in the new
implementation of SAP solutions on-premise or in private managed cloud environment. It can be
used as standalone or as part of an SAP Premium Engagement.

The methodology is structured into six project phases, each containing a list of deliverables and
supporting tasks. Within the project phases hierarchy project teams will be able to find accelerators
like project plans, templates and examples to support their SAP implementation project.



The SAP Implementation Methodology


Build Smart, Run Simple

SAP implementations and upgrades require a disciplined approach to project management. The
SAP Activate Methodology aligns with SAP Best Practices recommended by the Project
Management Institute (PMI)* , making it possible to minimize risk, streamline and accelerate the
‑

implementation project, and reduce the total cost of implementation or upgrade.

SAP Activate Methodology incorporates a standardized work breakdown structure (WBS) which
helps project managers to define and manage project work in a deliverable-oriented, outcome
focused manner. It is structured around these key project work streams:
• Application: Design & Configuration
• System & Data Migration
• Application: Solution Adoption
• Application: Customer Team Enablement
• Custom Code Extensions

!* This includes the Project Management Institute’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge.
• Project Management
• Application: Testing
• Application: Integration
• Technical Architecture & Infrastructure
• Transition to Operations

During each methodology phase, the project team produces a prescribed set of deliverables that
serve as inputs to subsequent phases. The SAP Activate Methodology provides an example of key
project deliverables, including procedure description explaining how to prepare and complete the
deliverable. SAP Activate also provides accelerators for phases, work streams, deliverables, and
tasks. Accelerators include: templates, questionnaires, checklists, procedures, and other tools to
facilitate an efficient, consistent, and repeatable delivery of SAP implementations and upgrades.

Stay in Step with Updates in Solution Technology

SAP continually invests in updates to the SAP Activate Methodology. These updates help us keep
in step and sync with developments in solution technologies, providing the tools needed to get the
software up and running quickly, and to keep it operating at peak levels. SAP has enhanced the
most recent version of SAP Activate Methodology to:
• Help customers integrate their business processes and objectives with their IT solution(s)
• Reduce total cost of implementation by starting implementation with SAP Best Practices or SAP
Rapid Deployment Solutions
• Provide SAP Best Practices for business process management (BPM) including streamlined
solution validation and solution design

Promote the Delivery of Value throughout the Solution Life Cycle

SAP provides customers with industry leading solutions and methodology for project
implementations to ensure success and change the way a customer's business runs to remain
competitive. SAP understands this and has enhanced the SAP Activate Methodology to maintain
the transparency of value delivery throughout the life cycle of the SAP solution. The methodology
defines a consistent process that keeps the focus on value delivery in every phase of the project;
this process:
• Identifies and quantifies business value objectives
• Establishes project tracking and reporting mechanisms for value delivery
• Tracks and reports the effectiveness of value delivery in the project
• Continues to track and report value delivery throughout the solution’s life cycle

The value delivery process keeps the project focused on delivering a solution that adds value to the
business and helps SAP’s customers to achieve their business objectives.
Discover


 The purpose of this phase is for customers become familiar with the
benefits of [NAME OF SOLUTION WHICH IS BEING IMPLEMENTED], and
the benefits it can bring to their organization. Preliminary project
!
assessment of solution options, understand the solution, and [BEGIN
TRIAL OF SOLUTION WHICH IS BEING IMPLEMENTED, IF
APPLICABLE].

Key Discover Activities

• Discover the SAP solution capabilities
• Understand the business value and benefits
• Define the target technology architecture
• Determine the implementation strategy
• Create a business case and deployment roadmap for your journey

In the Discover phase, customers become familiar with the benefits of [NAME OF THE SOLUTION
BEING IMPLEMENTED] and the benefits it can bring to a customers’ business.

Typical deliverables and milestones for the Discover phase

Deliverables Typical Milestones and key decisions

• Discover SAP solution capabilities • Understand the solution and benefits to the
• Understand the business value and benefits organization
• Define the target technology architecture • Become familiar with the solution during the trial
• Determine the implementation strategy • Begin steps for entering the Prepare phase
• Create a business case and deployment roadmap
for your journey
• Trial system provisioning, if applicable

Prepare

The purpose of this phase is to provide the initial planning and preparation
for the project. In this phase the project is started, plans are finalized, project
!
team is assigned, and work is under way to start the project optimally.

Key Prepare Activities

• Define project goals, a high-level scope, and a project plan
• Identify and quantify business value objectives
• Secure executive sponsorship
• Establish project standards, organization, and governance
• Define and secure approval for the implementation/upgrade strategy
• Define roles and responsibilities for the project team
• Validate the project objectives
• Establish project management, tracking, and reporting mechanisms for value delivery
• Develop a project team training strategy, and start project team training
• Document all initiation activities in the project charter
• Pre-assemble (or establish) the project environment, infrastructure, and IT systems including
SAP Solution Manager
• Kick-off the project
• Prepare for the Explore phase

The Prepare phase provides initial planning and preparation for a project, including project
organization and governance as well as the project schedule, budget and project management
plans. The Project team defines the initial backlog that reflects known gaps and delta requirements
that have been identified during the setup of Standard Solution. The gaps will be
further reviewed during the Explore phase in the Fit/ Gap analysis workshop.

Typical deliverables and milestones for the Prepare phase

Deliverables Typical Milestones and key decisions

• Detailed project scope document
• Cost and benefit validation
• Project organization and governance
• Implementation plan and rollout strategy
• Project schedule, budget and management plans
• Project standards and policies, including ICC**
• Solution adoption approach including
organizational change management roadmap and
training strategy
• Onboarding of project team
• Project infrastructure
• Technical infrastructure requirements and sizing
• Data migration approach and strategy
• Pre-assembled development infrastructure
• Prepare for the Fit/Gap analysis activities
• Project scope is defined
• Project team is staffed and trained
• Project team organization, responsibilities, and
location are established
• Rollout plan mandates and constraints are defined
• Policies for "to-be" organization are defined
• System retirement objectives, mandates, and
constraints are defined
• Development environment including pre-assembly
is established
• Training budgets and approaches are agreed upon
• Key stakeholders for communications are identified
• Implementation plans are defined

Explore

The purpose of this phase is to perform a fit/gap analysis to validate the

solution functionality included in the project scope and to confirm that the
! business requirements can be satisfied. Identified gaps and configuration
values are added to the backlog for use in the next phase.

Key Explore Activities

• Prepare, setup, and conduct solution validation workshops
• Refine business requirements
• Identify master data and organizational requirements
• Confirm "to-be" business processes
• Define functional solution design, including a gap analysis in solution design workshops
• Associate business requirements to the process hierarchy and the solution components
• Obtain business sign-off on delta requirements and design documents
• Collect end user information, analyzing learning needs, and developing a learning deployment
strategy
• Establish project management, tracking, and reporting for value delivery

In the Explore phase, industry and solution experts from SAP lead a series of structured show-and-
tell and solution design workshops. The goal of these workshops is to review the SAP Best
Practices functionality of the SAP solution, identify delta requirements or gaps, and document the
conceptual design of the "to-be" delivered SAP enterprise solution. The team documents all
functional and technical requirements, project issues, and gaps in SAP Solution Manager.

Typical deliverables and milestones for the Explore phase

Deliverables Typical Milestones and key decisions

• Baseline system ready for solution validation • Solution prototype baseline system for solution
workshops validation workshops ready
• Solution validation workshops, including gap • Solution walkthroughs completed
validation service** • Completed business process design
• Documented design, including: • Completed functional gap analysis
− Project plan update • Mapping of process to solution completed
− Process definition document • Defined IT landscape and technology design
− Process flows • Organizational Change Management
− Solution design documents Communications plan defined
− Functional specifications • Project team trained
in SAP Solution Manager, based on SAP standards • Phase quality assessment conducted
• Prioritized and estimated Backlog document with
requirements and solution gaps
• Change impact analysis and communication plan
• Legacy data migration design and plan
• Technology design and setup
• Test strategy and plan
• Inventory of gaps including interfaces and
conversions
• Release and sprint plan including confirmation of
go-live date
• Learning needs analysis and deployment strategy

Realize

The purpose of this phase is to use a series of iterations to incrementally build

and test an integrated business and system environment that is based on the
! business scenarios and process requirements identified in the previous
phase. During this phase, data is loaded, adoption activates occur, and
operations are planned.

Key Realize Activities

• Establish the solution landscape
• Implement the solution in the development environment using incremental build in time-boxed
iterations
• Conduct overall end-to-end testing of the solution within the QA environment
• Setup production environment
• Prepare for data migration and data archiving
• Conduct performance testing
• Conduct project team and key user training
• Finalize end user training materials and documentation
• Track and report on value delivery

During Realize phase, the project team uses a series of iterations to incrementally configure, test,
confirm, and document the entire end-to-end solution and to create legacy data conversion
programs. The project team actively works with business representatives to ensure fit of the built
solution to the requirements from the backlog.

The project team releases results of multiple iterations to the business users to accelerate time to
value and provide early access to finalized functionality. Each release is thoroughly tested in end-
to-end integration test and user acceptance test.

The project team documents the configuration decisions and solution in the SAP Solution Manager
tool. They also document all development – including interfaces, integration points, data conversion
programs, reports, and any required enhancements – in SAP Solution Manager. Once these
activities are complete for the release and the team has obtained business approval, they make the
release available in the production environment.

Typical deliverables and milestones for the Realize phase

Deliverables Typical Milestones and key decisions

• Organization alignment and user enablement
• Technology setup for quality and production
environment including security and authorizations
• Solution configuration and tests
• Business process procedures
• Development/testing of enhancements and
extensions like interfaces, forms, workflows,
conversions, or reports
• Evaluation and enhancement of security/controls
• Technical quality assurance
• Integration Validation**
• Preparation/delivery of train-the-trainer course
• End user training system environment
• Data migration conducted
• User acceptance test
• Technical operations setup plan, including OCC**
• Cutover and transition plan
• Solution configuration is completed in each
iteration
• Business users reviewed and accepted
functionality
• Integration testing of a release complete
• Data migration testing is conducted
• Project team and key users are trained
• End user system infrastructure is ready
• User acceptance testing is completed
• Technical testing is completed (including
performance, load, high-availability)
• Phase quality assessment is conducted
• Readiness for production release is confirmed

Deploy

The purpose of this phase is to setup the production system, confirm

customer organization readiness, and switch business operations to the new
system.
!

Key Deploy Activities

• Finalize the solution and its supporting tools and processes for production go-live:
− Resolve all crucial open issues
− Conduct system tests
− Check system management is in place
− Proceed with cutover activities, including data migration
• Execute transition and cutover plans including organizational change management (OCM) plans
• Complete all scheduled end user training
• Identify and document all issues encountered in the transition to the new solution
• Monitor the business process results and the production environment
• Establish OCC** or a “extra-care” center of excellence for support which provides:
− Production support processes
− Exceptional business monitoring processes
− Extraordinary technical support
− System enhancements
• Track and report on value delivery
Upon initiating the Deploy phase, the project team has already confirmed (through integration
testing in the Realize phase) that all systems are functioning correctly and there are no remaining
integration issues to resolve. Thus, the team prepares for transition to productive business
operations in the new environment, switches on the new solution and conducts the solution
adoption and post go-live support activities.

Typical deliverables and milestones for the Deploy phase

Deliverables Typical Milestones and key decisions

• Organizational and production readiness check
• Pre go-live user training delivery
• Technical and system testing, as necessary
• Setup operational support organization, including
OCC**
• Cutover to production including
− Cutover plan update
− Cutover simulations
− Data migration
− User IDs and profiles are created
• Help desk and technical support is operational
• Operational and live Production-System
environment
• Post go-live support is provided, including training
• Project closing including lessons learned
• Data conversion is completed
• End user training is completed
• Production environment is fully setup
• Support organizations are established
• Organization readiness for transition is confirmed
• Go/no-go decision is secured
• Go-live activities is conducted
• Post production support via “extra-care” is
provided
•

Run


 The Run phase keeps the system available and performing at the high levels
required to support business operations. During the system implementation,
! the project team put in place an initial set of SAP operation standards. Now in
the Run phase, the live system is assessed to identify opportunities to further
optimize the system by applying additional standards.

Key Run Activities

• Run the implemented SAP solution
• Assess operation standards to optimize solution operation
• Set the standards for tool use
• Transition the optimized system to production
• Continue value tracking and reporting

In the Run phase, the goal is to establish safe and efficient operations of the newly created
solution. This includes the operations platform, core IT support processes, the set up and fine
tuning of new and additional operations tools, and the enablement of the operational support team.
A continuous operations improvement should be established to improve IT operations based on
new software environment.
Typical deliverables and milestones for the Run phase

Deliverables Typical Milestones and key decisions

• An assessment of standards for optimizing solution • Identification of operation standards for optimizing
operation, including: solution operation is conducted
− Scope • Design, setup, and operation of SAP operations
− A project schedule for implementing standards are completed
• For each relevant operation standard: • Tool implementation (primarily SAP Solution
− A design of processes, organization and roles, Manager scenarios for operation) is completed
and a Fit/Gap for tool use
− Setup of processes, tools, organization, and
roles
− Transition into production
• Training and rollout

** Deliverables, milestones and activities are only applicable in SAP Premium Engagements.