So, you’re now at the stage where you’re getting ready to kick off the project. From a practical viewpoint, this doesn’t just mean your customers agreed to move forward, it means many details now need to be put in place to ensure things run smoothly. Imagine you’re planning to move house. There’s a lot to think through and organize. Everything from arranging a removals company, to remembering to take meter readings, get packing boxes - tape and bubble wrap - enroll your kids in a new school, notify people of your new address, and set aside an essentials box with useful stuff like a kettle, coffee, and a can opener. Hello and welcome to Setup and Preparation Activities. In this video, you’ll explore the considerations needed to ensure a project is ready to start. You’ll learn how to familiarize the team with SAP methodology, and ensure they have the tools and knowledge they need to do their jobs effectively. Plus, you’ll look at other considerations such as configuration requirements, governance, communications, and the project timeline. Though you’re still in the very early stages of the project, now’s the time to look at what the team needs to move forward. Just like when you’re moving house, each team member needs to understand what’s going on, and why. At this point, individuals should familiarize themselves on SAP Activate methodology the fit-to-standard process, and the SAP product functionality they’ll be working with. To achieve this, you can provide them with access to onboarding presentations through the SAP Learning Hub and openSAP. It’s also worth enabling them to look at SAP’s Best Practices Explorer and Roadmap Viewer, and get them to set up a profile on SAP Communities to connect with other SAP professionals. Additionally, you’ll want to identify the tools the team needs to move forward. This includes the learning resources already mentioned. Plus, it covers practical aspects such as stationery, workstations, laptops and printers, not to mention things like software licences for Microsoft Word. Meeting space will also be a key consideration. Brainstorming happens a lot during an SAP project. And there’s nothing like good collaborative software to do this remotely, or a whiteboard and some Sharpies and Post-its in a conference room, to get the creative thoughts flowing. Furthermore, the team will need appropriate access to other practical tools such as the internet, the customer intranet, trial environments, and the starter system, which could be a sandboxed version of S/4 HANA. And if they’re unfamiliar with these environments, this may involve some training. You should also consider the configuration requirements. For example, you’ll look at proposed project integrations, such as external payment processing companies like PayPal, and document the initial activities that need to take place. You may check if country standards need to be accommodated – such as printed stationery dimensions; will it be letter size, as per the US, or A-size, as per Europe? And you may look at load balancing considerations, such as whether the system will print ten invoices per hour, or ten thousand. Of course, critical to all this is communication. You will need to determine how people are going to work together. Whether they’re in an office location or operating remotely will inform how the communication channels should be set up. Governance is also a key feature to be addressed. When you move house, you take it for granted that the moving company staff understand their role. But imagine if you arrived at your new house and found they had only moved your boxed items and left all your furniture at your previous home. It’s essential that the project team fully understand their roles and responsibilities. Who owns a business process, for example? And who works on specific documents? What are the document standards, such as technical formats, configuration guides, and Word versions to be used? And how is the central document repository to be accessed? While working on all these aspects, you’ll also clarify the processes for things like decision-making and spec change management. And you’ll do some homework on source code changes and versioning. Finally, you’ll look at the project timeline. Even Agile projects need a rough idea of how the budget fits in with the fiscal year. So, to get things moving forward, it’s a great idea to plan the initial activities in the design phase. For example, you can schedule fit-to-standard workshops and other early meetings. Let’s summarize. In this video you learned: What you need to do to ensure everyone is ready to start the project. How to familiarize the team with SAP Activate methodology, as well as ensure they have the tools and knowledge they need to carry out their jobs effectively. To also consider configuration requirements, governance, communications, and the project timeline.
