SAP Activate for Hybris Commerce

SAP Activate is an ‘innovation adoption framework’

focused on expediting implementations throughout the
customer lifecycle while maximizing their use of
out-of-the-box features and minimizing extensions or
customization, to enable customers to take advantage
of future product innovations with minimum effort.
Starting in 1998, SAP developed the Accelerated SAP (ASAP) methodology for the implementation of its on-premise
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. This methodology followed a traditional Waterfall approach that was
typical for ERP implementations at the time. It was continuously enhanced over subsequent years with new releases of
ASAP, and as SAP developed new solutions, it was expanded to cover other on-premise implementations of products
such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), etc.

When ASAP 8 was released in 2012 and supported the implementation of SAP Business Suite including Analytics,
Business Warehouse, and other predominantly on-premise solutions. This version of ASAP was built to support SAP’s
transition to using the assemble-to-order approach in services and project delivery.

The ASAP 8 release consisted of multiple variants including:

Standard ASAP
Assemble to Order (A2O) ASAP
Simplified Rapid Deployment Solution (RDS) ASAP
Agile ASAP

Recently SAP added cloud-based solutions to its portfolio including solutions such as ByDesign, Cloud for Customer
(C4C) and Ariba. These cloud-based solutions required a different implementation approach, so SAP developed a new
additional methodology specifically for these solutions called SAP Launch – built on existing methodologies developed
for SuccessFactors, ByDesign, and Ariba.

As SAP acquired new companies, its product portfolio further expanded with new products with different technologies
and their specific implementation approaches, methodologies and deployment models; some cloud-based, some
on-premise. SAP also added mobile solutions to its portfolio, again with different implementation and deployment
models.

SAP quickly recognized that all these different approaches and standards were adding complexity, with a lack of
alignment in terms of language, naming, deliverables, tasks, artifacts, etc. which if left alone would create confusion and
inefficiency internally and for customers and partners. So in 2015 SAP created SAP Activate.
SAP Activate consists of three components:

SAP Best Practices – business and technology processes optimized for the relevant SAP products
Guided configuration – content lifecycle management tools to configure and test the selected SAP Best Practice
processes, enabled for business users without IT involvement.
SAP Activate methodology - new implementation methodology that builds on proven approaches and SAP’s
experience to offer a consistent, Agile-style approach for any deployment type – cloud, on-premise, hybrid, or
mobile.

The methodology contains the best practices from ASAP and SAP Launch to create a harmonized methodology and
practices for all SAP solutions while allowing for product specifics and variations within different variants. SAP Activate
will replace and succeed ASAP, SAP Launch and other product-specific methodologies.

SAP Activate Methodology

The SAP Activate methodology is developed to take a whole-lifecycle approach, similar to the SAP Hybris Application
Lifecycle Framework (ALF) for Commerce. So in addition to the initial implementation project, it is also focused on
operations and future innovations. As such a key goal of SAP Activate is to use best practices to reduce customizations
away from the standard product, which in turn reduces effort and cost, and subsequently allows customers to take
advantage of faster deployments of innovations released in new product releases.

SAP Activate recognizes there are distinct differences between cloud-based and on-premise implementations, and also
hybrid approaches, so there are different SAP Activate variants that specifically cater for these different types of
deployment models, and also product-specific variants where appropriate.

For example, SAP Activate variants include:

SAP Activate methodology for S/4HANA - New Implementation: On-Premise

SAP Activate methodology for Business Suite and On-Premise - Agile
SAP Activate methodology for S/4HANA - Cloud Enterprise Edition
SAP Activate Methodology for Public Cloud

However, all variants will share the same overall structure, phases and objectives and all focus on the same key
characteristics:

1. Start with ‘best practices’ (knowledge assets and pre-built content) that serve as starting point for initial fit-gap
analysis workshops, to ensure implementations are in line with product best practices and not excessively
 1.

customized.
2. Use Agile practices during the implementation to validate the solution with end-users as quickly as possible and
ensure fast feedback cycles.
3. Ensure quality is built-in from the start, with a structured quality management plan, quality-gate checks, and
appropriate forms of testing throughout the project including acceptance testing.

SAP Activate & Hybris Commerce

SAP Hybris Commerce is a platform with various modules that customers can select depending on their needs. The
customer’s Hybris Commerce solution is built on top of this platform by the development of software that extends or
overrides the default behavior, and to implement new features and functions.

Because the solution is built around software development, Hybris Commerce implementation projects are managed as
software development projects, and as such can be managed using a variety of different software development lifecycle
(SDLC) methods depending on the particular project context, from Waterfall to Rational Unified Process (RUP) to Agile.
There is no single ‘right’ approach; it depends on the customer, the ways-of-working, the delivery team’s skills and
experience, the governance processes, the amount of uncertainty, the rate of change, etc. Therefore Hybris Commerce
customers and implementation partners use a wide variety of methods and hybrid approaches.

Over the past years utilizing their experience of a wide variety of different projects, the Hybris Expert Services teams
developed an implementation framework called the Project Delivery Framework that was designed as a high-level
reference framework specifically for SAP Hybris Commerce projects, with sub-frameworks focused on a specific SDLC
approach. The direct delivery teams within the Hybris Expert Services teams specifically developed a sub-framework
called the Agile Project Delivery Framework documented in this Hybris Application Lifecycle Framework (ALF) for
Commerce, with scope for other frameworks to be created in the future.

This Project Delivery Framework has been developed to be shared with customers, partners and all internal SAP teams
so that it can be used as a reference framework for teams implementing SAP Hybris Commerce. With SAP Activate
being released, it has also been adapted and realigned to work within the overarching SAP Activate framework while
retaining the specifics required for Hybris Commerce implementations.

The adaptation of SAP Activate for Hybris Commerce implementation continues to evolve. The team can apply
the SAP Activate for Hybris Commerce by referring to phase activities and key deliverables described in the
wiki and the details will be maintained in the Roadmap Viewer in the future.

SAP Activate Methodology Overview

As many SAP Hybris Commerce implementations are on-premise, the ALF was adapted to SAP Activate, for
on-premise, as it was the most similar of all the flavors. The following will present an overview of SAP Activate for
on-premise as an introduction, for more detailed information, refer to the SAP Activate Jam site.

This diagram shows the phases and life-cycle behavior of the SAP Activate methodology that is common to the
overarching framework and all variants:
The specific objectives, activities, tasks and deliverables will vary between variants. The below diagram shows the
different phases and primary goal and activities for SAP Activate for on-premise.

Each of these phases is summarized for quick reference purposes. Please refer to the Jam site for more details.

Important note
The SAP Activate steps presented here are relevant to other SAP products; therefore they may vary for Hybris
Commerce, and some steps may not be applicable. This information is provided for reference only to give a
flavor of how the Project Delivery Framework documented here in ALF for Commerce will be adapted to SAP
Activate in the future.