SAP Activate Methodology for Business Suite

and On-Premise- Agile and Waterfall

Accelerators
OverviewContent
Overview

Please note:

 Please Login to get access to additional content (top left icon)

 Join the SAP Activate Methodology Jam group to get access to experts, resources,
and more documentation and road maps. Or connect with our experts to figure out if
and how SAP Activate is right for you.

Welcome to the SAP Activate Methodology for Business Suite and On-Premise Roadmap .

 Click More for a road map summary.

 Select a phase for documentation of all activities and tasks within that phase.
 Select a work stream for documentation of all activities and tasks within that work
stream.

This roadmap is intended to guide the implementation team through the On-Premise
implementation utilizing Agile Methodologies (Agile implementation utilizes a SCRUM-
based approach to build solutions. This in turn allows for an iterative implementation process
with more flexibility for change). It is comprised of Phases, Deliverables, and Tasks in
accordance with the SAP Activate methodology. In addition, accelerators are linked to the
relevant deliverables and tasks making them easy to consume when they are needed. The
Deliverables and Tasks are listed in sequential order based on the activity start. However,
parallelization is necessary to expedite the implementation.

Note : If you are running the implementation using the Waterfall approach, please use
the Tagging Option to view only deliverables, tasks and accelerators necessary for a
Waterfall implementation. Waterfall implementation utilizes the core concepts of a Waterfall
development methodology. Implementation is completed with all the phases only being
performed once and are more involved than the smaller sprints of an Agile implementation.

 
1. Discover

The purpose of the Discover phase is to discover the solution capabilities, understand the
business value and benefits of the solution to customer’s business, determine the adoption
strategy and roadmap in alignment with understanding the solution capabilities and product
roadmap.
 

To conclude the Discover phase of SAP Activate, customers and sales teams agree on :

 Implementation scope
 Project timelines
 Targeted solution model.

The next phase in the SAP Activate methodology is the Prepare phase.

Link to Content
2. 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
 Develop a project team training strategy, and start project team training
 Establish project management, tracking, and reporting mechanisms for value delivery
 Document all initiation activities in the project charter
 Pre-assemble (or establish) the project environment, infrastructure, and IT systems
including SAP Solution Manager
 Prepare for the Explore phase

Link to Content
3. 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.
 

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 agap 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
best practice 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.

Link to Content
4. Realize

The purpose of this phase is to use a series of iterations to incrementally build and test an
intergrated 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 activites occur, and operations are planned.

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
good fit of the built solution to the requirements from the backlog. 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 particular release and the team has obtained
business approval, they make the release available in the production environment.

Link to Content
5. Deploy

The purpose of this phase is to setup the production system, confirm customer organization
readiness, and to switch business operations to the new system.
Deploy Activities:                                                                                                                        

 Resolve all crucial open issues:

o Conduct system tests
o Check that system management is in place
o Proceed with cut-over 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 business process results and the production environment
 Establish OCC** or a “extra-care” center of excellence for support that provides: 
o Production support processes
o Exceptional business monitoring processes
o Extraordinary technical support
o System enhancements
 Track and report on value delivery    

Link to Content
6. Run

The purpose of this phase is to further optimize and automate the operability of the solution.
Operability is the ability to maintain IT systems in a functioning and operating condition,
guaranteeing systems availability and required performance levels to support the execution of
the enterprise’s business operations.

Link to Content