SAP TAO - SAP Expert Consultancy and Intelligent IT Services: June 2020

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Projects are implemented using the SAP Activate Framework. The SAP Activate Framework is more than just the SAP Activate Activate methodology itself.

Discovery Phase: from theory to practice and Hardening –implementation to experiences

There used to ASAP, Solution am anger based Agile delivery and, Now one more best practice to delivery SAP S/4HANA Cloud Projects using the SAP Activate Framework 6 Phases on (as possible) for a fix windows, below is DPER- DR approach. A detail video available on SAP community website about the framework at granularity level.

SAP Activate is the SAP delivery methodology that supports SAP project teams in the delivery of implementation, upgrade or S4 HANA cloud migration projects and other customer engagements like S4 HANA conversion, Brownfield or Greenfield. It is an agile framework and is structured into project phases and work streams that contain tasks and deliverable. SAP Activate consists of 6 phases: Discover, Prepare, Explore, Realize, Deploy and Run.

I tried below high level steps and journey in a diagrams format based on my experiences (model company), understanding and training from the C4 HANA and other S4 HASNA, Agile HANA certification...lets start discussion further or join webiner Tuesday 7th, link already shared with register colleagues.....

Most of us are familiar with the last 5 phases from earlier SAP delivery methodologies, like SAP ASAP and SAP Launch. The Discover phase has been newly introduced that is

According to the SAP documentation 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 But the Discover phase is also an important phase in projects that have other objectives than implementing a new IT solution. Acorel advises to add the Discover phase to any transformation project and execute the tasks and finish the deliverables from the Discovery phase before the Prepare phase starts.

In many previous project implementations have experienced that there are difficult events/ moements. Moments where opinions of project team members or stakeholders strongly differ so decision making becomes difficult or selection delays, where objectives are unclear or do not match between expectation vs reality, and where it is not defined when the project is a success and how to measure the success of the project. In many of these situations it would help the project team to step out of the situation and revert back to deliverable of the Discover phase. Why?

Because in the Discovery phase we invite project team members and stakeholders from all departments involved to work together that is

Review together the Company vision, mission, objectives and the strategy to reach the objectives to make sure they are known and understood by everyone.
Define together the Project objectives and strategy to reach the objectives to make sure they are clear and understood by everyone. Also make sure they are aligned with the Company vision, mission, objectives and strategy.
Define together the customer (external) and business (internal) value for each objective if the objective will be reached; what is the benefit for the customer and for the internal organisation if the project implements the business and/or IT changes and reaches the objective?
Define together one or several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the value (success) of the project objectives, e.g. 10 new customers per month, 10 % more sales volume via the online channel, 5% less complaint transactions via the call centre etc.

SAP TAO can facilitate the activities listed above together with the other activities for the S4 HANA Discover phase as define the User needs and define the Organizational fit, during the SAP TAO Discovery Day.

We facilitate the Discover activities in interactive sessions by making use of SAP Scenes. SAP Scenes is a new method and tool to create storyboards to communicate user requirements and to validate ideas before they are fully designed or implemented. we can also use Model company demo.....Show and tell How and what to select processed...

We at SAP TAO can also share some of the SAP C/4HANA Movement Program example

FIT workshop in dashboard sample where testing validation and verification play a key role for preparatory activities