how to survive an sap transformation

SAP Transformation Survival Guide

A Practical Toolkit

All rights reserved - © 2015 Inventy - CAST SAP Transformation Survival Guide- 2 -

Contents

INTRODUCTION

I. PLAN

II. EXECUTE

III. MEASURE

SUMMARY


Introduction

It is a daunting task. Transforming your SAP deployment is not only an expensive exercise, but affects many business processes, departments, colleagues, and customers. A properly planned and executed project promises increases in productivity,

more opportunities to earn revenue, and a much-needed improvement in customer satisfaction. On the other hand, a failed transformation project can spell disaster for the company and project team.

Transformation is expansive; whether it is an SAP enhancement, customization, or upgrade. To make sense of it all, we aimed to provide a survey of some of the best practices in using software solutions to

manage your projects. We hope that this document can help you to navigate the big task you have undertaken or will undertake.


The Need to Transform Your SAP Deployment

Whether you aim to expand business functionality within your enterprise resource platform (ERP) or enrich your investment by ensuring the latest features and functions are available to your users, transforming your SAP deployment is inevitable. What is your transformation strategy?

PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT

EXTEND FUNCTIONALITY

EXPAND BUSINESS PROCESS COVERAGE

STRATEGY

COMPLEXITY

SAMPLE OBJECTIVES

STANDARDIZATION

Upgrade technology with the latest SAP capabilities to enhance user experience

Further enable current business processes with new or standardized functionality

Integrate new processes and expand existing ones to capture business opportunities

• Improve database performance

• Implement Solution Manager and ChaRM

• Enhance decision making with Lumira analytics

• Launch new point-of-sales integration capability

Low Medium High

Moderate High Very High


5 GOLDEN RULES OF

PLANNING

1. Think Feature & Act Object Decide your strategy and project planning based on features using impact analysis tools. Then, act on objects during your project; because it comes to that at the end. Assign developers and testers to ABAP and Java objects that build a whole feature, and conduct phases by following all tasks from one single point of entry. Implement and Test features as a ‘whole’.

2. Focus on How You are Using SAP Your SAP deployment embeds different categories of objects that must be addressed differently during your transformation project. The project is the right time to consider cleaning your system of obsolete custom code, single-use migration programs, old DDIC, and more. These will compose your “Trash Can”.

3. Standardize Where You Can Transformation will naturally introduce new features; features that you may have provided to users by creating custom programs. Evaluate your custom programs against newly available features and functions, and eliminate as many custom objects are possible.

4. Plan for Production from the Start From the moment you start your system transformation, think about how situations will be handled once it is in production. Make sure you follow a similar strategy on all your systems. It is important to document issue resolution paths for your updated SAP deployment. Last, perform a “dry run” for your whole system before introducing the enhancements. Run procedures and steps with the actual users, as if you are in production to confirm feasibility and delays of your project.

5. Consider the Support for Productive SAP During your transformation project you will have to support the end users on your Productive SAP Systems. You may also have to provide evolutions to your solution on the previous release. It is important to have a double-track strategy to ease running both scenarios simultaneously.

I


B Objects Planned

for Change

► CHALLENGES ADDRESSED BY CDMC • Which Custom Objects need to be deleted before starting the project?

• Which Custom Objects need to be adjusted during the project?

• What effort is required for the adjustment of the custom code?

• Which transactions should be included in test plan?

• Which transaction are not affected by the project?

► DERIVED VALUE • Identifies objects that can be deleted based on usage statistics

(STO3n) and dependencies between objects

• Calculates the precise impact of enhancements on custom code

• Easy implementation

• Enables time and effort estimate for development adjustment

• Assigns Custom Code Objects to your developers for follow up

CDMC – Custom Development Management Cockpit

Clearing Analysis & UCIA

A Objects Used by

Users

The Custom Development Management Cockpit (CDMC) is a tool within the SAP environment that helps analyze custom development within your SAP system. The CDMC identifies obsolete code and how an enhancement can impact existing custom development.

IMPACTED OBJECTS


Usage and Procedure Logging (UPL)

Custom Code Usage

► CHALLENGES ADDRESSED BY UPL • What custom code objects are not being used and should be

included in work related to the project?

• What key custom code objects are highly used and require extra care during the project?

► DERIVED VALUE • Analyzes usage of ABAP code units down to the subroutine

• Provides transparency to modifications, user exits, classes, and single method executions (more accurate than ST03N usage statistics)

• Offers unlimited history collection, if activated via Solution Manager

• Running UPL has no measurable performance impact

Usage and Procedure Logging (UPL) is a functionality in SAP that provides great tracking, testing, and optimization capabilities. In the planning phase, UPL is used to analyze the usage of custom code within your SAP system.


SAP Interface Middle-ware User Interface

AB

AP

JSP JEE Custom ABAP

CAST Application Intelligence Platform (AIP)

System Complexity & Object Dependencies

CAST Application Intelligence Platform (AIP) is a 3rd party solution that provides deep system-level software analysis. To perform a thorough risk analysis based on your source code, the solution creates a meta-model of the application structure. The resulting model can be used to provide a comprehensive understanding of the structure of your SAP system and the packages within.

► CHALLENGES ADDRESSED BY CAST AIP • What internal SAP and external non-SAP objects depend

on the custom code objects that will be impacted by the project?

• How will the internal and external objects be affected by the project?

► DERIVED VALUE • Gain a clear understanding of how your custom code relies

on SAP standard code

• Explore the interactions between your system to be changed and other SAP, or non-SAP, systems

• Discover the complexity of your holistic system


1. Be Cognizant of the People and Environment around SAP Do not forget to include both business and IT colleagues that have a stake in the transformation, even if they do not work on the project. Other SAP products, SAP add-ons of external editors, or even non-SAP products might communicate with your Production System.

2. Carefully Plan Your Go-live

Consider system downtime, user acceptance testing, and release of the system to the business when you are planning the cutover. Informing business and vendors of the downtime in advance is crucial and reassuring. The best practice is to plan your cutover during the weekend to minimize business disruptions.

3. Reach Beyond the Project Team Keep an eye on your overall change management process and communicate with your end users early about new features or new ways to address old features. User satisfaction of the transition is key to your project’s success.

4. Never Underestimate the Importance of Testing 20% of the effort in a transformation project is spent on technical activities. Allotting enough time for testing can make or break your project. Both unit and integration testing should be carried out with the development and quality systems. Ensure the test results are documented, and that customizations that are part of the integration testing have a corresponding transport which can be replicated in subsequent systems.

5. Manage the “Stability Phase” with Hyper-Care Reinforce your support team for the first few weeks after production is launched. Perform post go-live checks at least one month after the completion of the project, because the system will have collected adequate data for better performance estimation. Performance tuning at the SAP and database level can be carried out to optimize performance of your updated system.

II 5 GOLDEN RULES OF

EXECUTION


DE1

DE2

QU1

QU2

PRD

Productive Track (Maintenance Track)

Transformation Track (Project Track)

Prepare Landscape for Transformation Project

CHANGE MANAGEMENT • Minimize evolutions on Maintenance as much as possible. Keep only maintenance and bug fixes on your Maintenance Track

• Match your evolution schedule with the Transformation Project Schedule go-live (i.e. align them to target SAP Release)

• Fix bugs in step with the project’s timescale by retrofitting the changes into your project track as soon as fixes are tested and released for go live (cannot go back to maintenance track once it has begun)

• Put a Change Management Process in place along with transformation impact analysis – ChaRM or Change Request Management comes in handy

• Retrofitting features of ChaRM automatically detects impacts between your ongoing maintenance project and your transformation project and helps you get bug fixes embedded

Retrofit by ChaRM

RECOMMENDED LANDSCAPE FOR YOUR TRANSFORMATION PROJECT


Scope & Effort Analyzer (SEA)

Project Effort & Cost Estimation

► CHALLENGES ADDRESSED BY SEA • How much effort will the transformation project take?

• What kind of resources do I need for the project?

• When should I schedule different team members?

• What is the estimated cost of the entire project?

► DERIVED VALUE • SEA summary provides a quick and clear project scope:

• Estimated days needed for development and testing

• Number of custom code objects that require adjustment

• Number of modifications that require adjustment

• Enables knowing in advance the business processes that are impacted by transformation

• Optimizes testing effort and scope

• Allows to automatically generate a test plan

Used in conjunction with UPL and including the Solution Manager package, the Scope & Effort Analyzer (SEA) estimates the amount of effort it takes to deliver the enhancement package (EHP). This native SAP tool can be used in both the planning phase to estimate the total cost of the transformation project, and in the execution phase to plan resources.


CAST Application Intelligence Platform (AIP )

Manage Developer Performance

The Application Intelligence Platform (AIP) measurements not only provide visibility into the quality and effort delivered by your custom code developers, but also serves as the basis of objective measurement that can be compared across the enterprise and tracked over time.

► CHALLENGES ADDRESSED BY CAST AIP • What is the quality of new or enhanced custom objects?

• How can I coach developers so they can maximize their output?

• How do I ensure that my developers will maintain their performance or improve over time?

► DERIVED VALUE • CAST AIP provides an evaluation of the quality of custom code at

both the object and functional package level

• Measurements can be segmented by supplier or delivery center in order to benchmark performance

• Automated function point analysis provides an objective measurement of project progress and team productivity


1. Measure Customization Risk Customization risk is measured based on the business risks that are evident through poor coding practices. Poorly written code will translate into performance, resiliency, and security problems. Allowing risks to reside extensively in the system will increase overall complexity, driving up the cost of future transformation projects.

2. Measure Overtime The key to a successful measurement program is to observe the results over time. It is important to not only know the usage of a routine on a given day or the robustness of a functional package during a specific release, it is more important to know how a metric evolved to its current stage; whether it is improving or degrading.

3. Set Stretch Targets A transformation project is a great opportunity to set target stability, performance, and security KPIs for your SAP system over time. Whether you are establishing new metrics, or fine-tuning existing ones, take the time to set targets that provide the best experience for your users and customers.

4. Measure How Objects are Used Often, after the completion of the transformation project, usage of customized objects will decrease, because the custom functionality can be addressed by a standard procedure. The reverse can also happen, where customizations deemed unnecessary can become more pertinent after an project. Keeping track of usage can help you focus on the important areas of your system.

5. Makes Your Results Visible and

Actionable The best measurements are those that result in improvement. Improvement cannot take place if the results are not properly shared. Measurements not only need to be made available to colleagues, but to the right colleagues who will take action. Lastly, make a connection from the measurement to resulting action if needed. Make sure people understand what they can do to make it better next time.

III 5 GOLDEN RULES OF

MEASUREMENT


Usage and Procedure Logging (UPL)

Custom Code Usage

► CHALLENGES ADDRESSED BY UPL • Have any black-list procedures been introduced into the system

during or after the project?

• What custom code objects are no longer being used after the project?

► DERIVED VALUE • UPL provides tamper-proof usage statistics of procedures, which

can be cross checked with your “black list” to ensure that security vulnerabilities are not being unnecessarily exposed

• Continuous measurement of the usage of custom code objects allows you to track unneeded objects, and those that were not adapted correctly during the transformation project

Usage and Procedure Logging (UPL) measurement capabilities are a natural part of stabilizing the transformation project. After the new custom customers are migrated to the productive environment, UPL provides statistics to help you to continually fine tune the system.


CAST Application Intelligence Platform (AIP )

Prevent System Regression

CAST AIP provides visibility into the health of your system with each new version of your code. It is the best practice to create a baseline of your system health and size at the beginning of the project and track its progression throughout the project.

► CHALLENGES ADDRESSED BY CAST AIP

• Is my SAP system health (reliability, performance, security, complexity, maintainability) degrading during the project?

• How much new functionality is being added, removed, or modified in custom code?

► DERIVED VALUE • See what objects are being added, deleted, or modified

• Track the health of your system and prevent security, performance, and reliability regression during and after the project

• Automated visibility so that you do not have to rely on reports from team members

• Immediately communicate and fix problems introduced as the project progresses to drastically shorten test phase effort and schedule


Summary

PLAN EXECUTE MEASURE PHASE

1 PHASE

2 PHASE

3

Testing Strategy

Coding Practices Strategy

Transformation Strategy

IT Vendor Relationship Strategy

DEVELOP TEST

CAST AIP

CDMC UCIA

CDMC Clearing Analysis

UPL UPL

SEA - BPCA

Consulting Services

Software Solutions

You don’t have to do it alone. Select business and technology consulting firms, such as Inventy, can bring their vast experience and extensive technical know-how to the table. Native SAP tools and third-party software risk measurement solutions, such as CAST, provide visibility throughout the project lifecycle.


More Information

CAST Products • www.castsoftware.com/products

Inventy Software & Services • www.inventy.com

SAP Products • SAP Solution Manager, www.service.sap.com/rkt-

solman

References • Managing SAP® ERP 6.0 Upgrade Projects, Martin

Riedel, www.sap-press.com

• SAP Community Network, scn.sap.com

About CAST CAST is a pioneer and world leader in Software Analysis and Measurement, with unique technology resulting from more than $120 million in R&D investment. CAST introduces fact-based transparency into application development and sourcing to transform it into a management discipline. More than 250 companies across all industry sectors and geographies rely on CAST to prevent business disruption while reducing hard IT costs. CAST is an integral part of software delivery and maintenance at the world’s leading IT service providers such as IBM and Capgemini. Founded in 1990, CAST is listed on NYSE-Euronext (Euronext: CAS) and serves IT intensive enterprises worldwide with a network of offices in North America, Europe and India. www.castsoftware.com

About Inventy Inventy is a global company providing consulting & implementing services, unique software, cloud & AMS for companies running SAP. Its strong partnerships with SAP, oXya and CAST offer a rock-solid foundation to the Company. With a motivated and growing team of experts, Inventy is committed to deliver best-in-class spot consulting missions as well as fixed-price international scale projects. The best of breed expertise of Inventy helps customers to: Adopt SAP Best Practice, Foster the adoption of software innovation at increased pace, Deliver IT projects on time and on budget AND Optimize efficiency and reduce costs of technical operation

www.inventy.com

http://www.castsoftware.com/products





http://www.inventy.com/





http://www.service.sap.com/rkt-solman



http://www.sap-press.com/



http://www.castsoftware.com/






how to survive an sap transformation

Data & Analytics

sap deployment

sap enhancement

transformation strategy

failed transformation

latest sap capabilities

new features

project planning

business functionality