Welcome to our monthly SAP ALM Blog which sees the continuation of our series on migrating to S/4HANA. Also for information on SAP’s ALM training please click on 2018 EGI Training Schedule for April and May. These are free with SAP Enterprise Support.
Solution Manager and migrating to S/4HANA – Realization
- Planning – See Feb Blog
- Preparation – Mar Blog
- Realization – April Blog
- Operate & Optimize
The Realization Phase
Business Drivers for requirement to deploy process improvement
Leverage upgrade team to remap processes to create a single source of the truth
Automate regression test for critical processes with Test Management and optimize testing effort with Business Process Change Analyzer
Adopt SAP Best Practices for Requirement to Deploy as part of refreshing SAP Landscape to help manage complexity and increase the velocity of change
Automate change tasks for cut-over with the potential of saving thousands of hours
Process Management in the age of Digital Transformation

The transformation to S/4HANA is all about Digital Business and the new opportunities for innovation. These innovations are going to be driven by creating new processes and transforming the existing ones.
Currently, many organizations Process Documentation is based on MS Word documents with embedded Visio process diagrams stored in Sharepoint. When you consider many SAP Solutions have been running like this for over 10 years it is not surprising to see a complete lack of accurate solution documentation due to poorly managed document change control.
To illustrate the point, imagine using MS Word and Sharepoint to manually manage 8 end to end mega processes with 600 sub-processes (600 Visio process flows) encompassing over 3,800 process steps across 180 SAP components using 800 SAP Transactions including 100 Z Transactions with 200 interfaces and 250 batch jobs (numbers based on Global Enterprise).
Lack of accurate documentation, disparate sources, and process visibility are challenges for business looking to rapidly adopt change in order to drive business value.
With SAP Solution Managers new Process Management functionality organizations can replace Visio with the embedded Process Modelling Tool (this is free and supports BPMN2) integrated into Document Libraries for linking Process Documentation. This can then be integrated into the Change Management process to enforce documentation accuracy.
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Business processes drive IT | Integration and Openness | Collaboration with SAP/Partners |
Design to-be processes based on as-is | End-to-end lifecycle processes | SAP S/4HANA delivery platform |
Single source of truth for the entire lifecycle | Seamless transition from build to run | Implementation and operations content |
Business processes always up-to-date | Drive continuous improvement based on productive usage | Mission-Control Center integration |
Processes used by everyone every day | Generic third-party interfaces | Build and Run partner integration |
SAP training: EGI & Value Map
Process Management for Digital Business
Test Management – its time to get Agile
Test Management Best Practices. Best Practice content can be downloaded to your SAP Solution Manager 7.2 system It can be used as starting point to quickly adopt Test Suite in Solution Manager 7.2 but also as support for organizational setup and alignment between various parties (IT, PMO, Business) involved in testing. The processes and diagrams can be adjusted accordingly.
Value
Higher Regression Test coverage | Change impact analysis for maintenance activity |
Fewer incidents in PRD | Transparency over test execution progress |
Less manual test effort | Better guidance for testers |
Faster SP/EHP deployment | Replace ad-hoc test planning with a structured approach |
Faster identification and optimization of test scope |
Can run end to end automated tests comprising Test Scripts created using SAP and Non-SAP tools that can be chained with dynamic parameter handover. Test data can be provided to automated test from Test Data Container facilitated by Test Data assignment wizard. Has a sophisticated debugging environment available. Test execution can be scheduled for a batch execution without any tester intervention on a variety of systems. Detailed execution log is stored in SAP Solution Manager and can be accessed anytime.
It makes sense to utilize the testing effort in your S/4HANA migration effectively by setting up your testing capability and automating the critical end to end processes. This will lay the foundation for faster adoption going forward. Use the below estimates to build your testing proof of concept to identify potential savings. i.e
Regression Test Set-up + 5 Cases = 88hrs
BPCA with Scope and Effort Analyze with 20 P1 steps = 40hrs
10 Manual Tests = 20hrs
5 Manual RT Cases = 18hrs
POC total = 166hrs
Capability | Effort |
---|---|
Test automation of RT for fix, enhance, maintenance and innovation projects | 1 day + 1-2 days per RT test case + onboarding of test engineers |
Change impact analysis for RT for fix, enhance, maintenance and innovation projects (BPCA) Prognosis of change impact and adjustment / test efforts (Scope & Effort Analyzer) for maintenance and upgrade projects | 0.5 day for custom code setup (incl. UPL or SCMon activation) + 2 hours for job execution for semi-dynamic TBOMs + 1/3 day per prio-1 process step + onboarding of change manager |
Manual testing for innovation and transformation projects (SFT, UAT, FIT, RT) | 2 hours per test (SFT, UAT) 1 day per test (FIT) + onboarding of testers and test manager |
Manual testing for RT for fix, enhance, and maintenance projects | 1 day + 2 hours per RT test case + onboarding of testers and test manager |
SFT: Single Functional Tests
FIT: Functional Integration Tests |
UAT: User Acceptance Tests
RT: Regression Tests |
SAP training: EGI & Value Map
Automate Regression Testing with SAP Solution Manger
Change Management for Digital Business
Your S/4HANA migration project will drive a complete overhaul of your existing Landscape. As with Process Management, it is a good time to renew your Build Processes, IT Change Strategy and Landscape design to reflect best practices and opportunities for automation.
Just the manual change effort reduction alone could justify automating your change process:
Manual transport = 30mins
Large project no. of transports = 5,000. This equates to 2,500 hours of reduced effort.
Bringing it all together Best-of-Suite
Best-of-Suite Focused Build
Portfolio Stream. Starting from a solution landscape you manage your business requirements and related business cases based on value. The portfolio stream provides strategic themes and budget to manage your stakeholders successfully:
- Fully transparent portfolio and capacity
- Collaborative decision process
Value Stream. This is responsible for the overall customer solution. IT owns releases, capabilities and architecture planning and defines your application and process landscapes.
- As-is landscape + Reference landscape = To-be landscape
- Value aspiration and process KPIs and definition of business success criteria
IT Program. Translate business requirements into an IT solution and create respective work packages. Distribute work packages to development teams worldwide. Show and Tell development work iteratively, include stakeholders at early stages. Deliver what the business needs, and release when the business needs it.
Team. Development Scrum Teams plan development backlog and sprint schedule. Build IT solution and monitor progress. Manage test-driven development & automation. Manage transports
Releases synchronize project go lives and ensure continuous delivery and integration -> Release import automation.
Project to bundle deliverables. Multiple and parallel projects are possible -> Automated reporting
Phases ending with Quality Gates Short prepare and scope, incremental build. -> Automated tracking of documentation completion
Waves ending with Touch and Feel by the business (8 – 12 weeks) -> Test planning & Test execution automation
Sprints with Show and Tell sessions to the business (~ 2 weeks) -> Unit Test & Transport Automation
SAP Solution Manger and DevOps
Summary
If you are familiar with the Technical Debt analogy, think of the S/4HANA migration Project as an opportunity to reduce Process Debt. That is resolving issues, like outdated process documentation, manual change processes and failed automated testing attempts, that have built up over time to form impediments to delivery velocity and efficiency. This will help reduce the cost of Testing and Change Management while reducing cycle times.
Our PrimeALM Assessment Service is a great way to start the process by providing a readiness report for Solution Manager, your key tool in managing the transition. Contact us today to schedule discovery call.