SE-464: Industrial Information Systems (061)

Dr. Andijani

Handout
ASAP: Accelerated SAP Phase 1 and 2

At the end of this lecture you will be able to...

• Explain ASAP benefits

• Identify the Project Preparation purpose, main deliverables and work packages

• Identify the Business Blueprint purpose, main deliverables and work packages

Why? Traditional IT Support

¾ Data processing needs defined at departmental level

¾ Inconsistent terminologies
¾ Field mismatches in data bases
¾ Unreliable interfaces between systems
¾ Data redundancy
¾ Inconsistent and delayed information
¾ Had to reconcile data at regular intervals

The answer? SAP R/3 Basis

¾ Developed from the perspective of the company as a whole rather than any
one of its departments
¾ Features:
¾ On-line system with no batch interfaces
¾ One database for all data (minimal redundancy)
¾ Clear definition of data items in data dictionary
¾ Modular application (independent, but integrated modules)
¾ Software functionality configurable to customer’s requirements
(parameterized modules)
¾ Client-oriented data structure
¾ Definition data reflects the relevance of the business
 SAP R/3 Coverage

¾ Financial Accounting
¾ FI: external accounting
¾ CO: internal accounting
¾ AM: asset management
¾ Human Resources
¾ Manufacturing and Logistics
¾ MM: materials management
¾ PL: plant management
¾ QM: quality management
¾ PP: production planning
¾ PS: project system
¾ SM: service management
¾ Sales and Distribution

Why Learn About SAP R/3?

• Used in most big companies
• The most flexible functionality
and the widest coverage
• The most complex implementations

• And yet… SAP projects (Forrester Research 1997):

– Duration: 3 months to 4-5 years
– Completion: 49% of respondents say SAP implementations are never
complete

ASAP, why?

• The largest drawback to SAP R/3 (and other ERP) has been that it takes too long
to implement
• ASAP was designed specifically to refine and produce a standard implementation
approach to cut the implementation time to less than 2 years and reduce costs,
making it an acceptable solution for smaller businesses

• so… Benefits
– Quicker SAP R/3 implementation and improved business results
– Offers a standard approach to SAP R/3 implementation
– Results in more effective use of available resources, resources that can be
used in future implementation stages to decrease your overall
implementation costs
What is ValueSAP?

ValueSAP is a framework of methodologies, tools,

content and programs for SAP R/3. It has three phases:

1. Discovery and Evaluation: Where we define the strategic

business objectives for the implementation from a business
and a technical perspective.

2. Implementation: Implement (acquire, deliver, install the

system) your SAP’s solutions. This phase uses the ASAP methodology.

3. Operations and Continuous Improvement: Improve your SAP solutions on an

ongoing basis. Changes are often necessary due to changing business requirements.

We will focus on implementation, that is, on how ValueSAP helps us implement ERP
solutions, in particular, SAP R/3 solutions. To do this we will use Accelerated SAP
(ASAP).

ASAP Phases
• Phase 1, Project Preparation: Initiates with a retrieval of information and
resources. The purpose of this phase is to provide initial planning and preparation
for your SAP project. Decisions, decisions … start planning

• Phase 2, Business Blueprint: Detailed documentation of the results gathered

during requirements workshops. The BB details the agreed business process
requirements of the company, that is, the common understanding of how the
company intends to run its business with the SAP system. What we are doing
and what we need …

• Phase 3, Realization: Implement business and process requirements based on the

BB. The objective is the final implementation in the system, an overall test, and
the release of the system for production (live) operation. Just do it!

• Phase 4, Final Preparation: Testing, user training, system management and cut
over activities, to finalize your readiness to go live. This final preparation phase
also serves to resolve all crucial open issues. On successful completion of this
phase, you are ready to run your business in your productive R/3 system. Just
checking … Everything all right?

• Phase 5, Go Live & Support: Move from a pre-production environment to live

production operation. You must set up a support organization for end users, not
 just for the first critical days of your production operations, but also to provide
long-term support. It is a tough world out there … Sure everything is all right?

The ASAP Roadmap covers the different aspects and phases of an implementation. In
the Roadmap, a detailed project plan is included for the five phases. The Roadmap
provides a standard procedure (methodology) for implementing the SAP R/3 System,
including project management, configuration of business processes, technical, testing and
training aspects
 Some Project Roles
¾ Steering Committee
¾ Project Sponsors
¾ Project Management
¾ Change Management
¾ Consultant
¾ Security
¾ Training
¾ Technical

Tools: Implementation Assistant

The Implementation Roadmap is the main structuring mechanism for tools within the
Implementation Assistant. It is divided into four levels (PWAT):
• Phase: main organisational step
• Work package: A group of activities to complete a major portion of Phase. A
project team would be assigned a work package
• Activity: A group of tasks. An activity can produce a deliverable, and would be
assigned to one or more project team members
• Task: A specific event to be performed by a project team member

Accelerators can be documents, templates, tips or tricks or whatever, which can be used
to accelerate task completion

Tools: Question & Answer Database

Q&Adb is a set of questions, checklists, templates (e.g. CI templates) and automated

tools to help you generate the main outputs of the Business Blueprint phase
Q&Adb, unlike the Implementation Assistant is structured around Enterprise Areas:
Enterprise area (e.g. Prod Planning), Scenario, Process Group, Process, Transaction
ASAP Phase 1 Project Preparation: Purpose

• The purpose of this phase is to provide initial planning and preparation for
your SAP project. Although each SAP project has its own unique objectives,
scope, and priorities, the steps in Phase1 help identify and plan the primary focus
areas to be considered

• As you prepare your SAP implementation, there are important issues you must
address at the beginning of the project, including
– Defining your project goals and objectives
– Clarifying the scope of your implementation
– Defining your implementation strategy
– Defining the overall project schedule and implementation sequence
– Establishing the project organization and committees
– Assigning resources

• By addressing these issues early in your implementation, you help ensure that the
project proceeds efficiently, and that you have established a solid foundation for a
successful SAP implementation

Project charter: Represents an agreement on, and commitment to, the deliverables of the
project, as well as the time constraints, resources, standards, and budget of the project

Project plan: This is the first cut, focuses on milestones and Work packages

Scope: Sets the initial definition of the project

Project team organization: Sets the ‘who’ of the project. This decides who will be
involved and what their goal is

Standards and procedures: Sets the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the project. Standardizing how
meetings are run, documents are handled; etc means that everyone understands what is
going on

Project Preparation: Summary

• The first phase of ASAP (Accelerated SAP) is Project Preparation

• Outputs from Discovery & Evaluation phase of ValueSAP are fed into ASAP
 • Main aims of Phase 1: Project Preparation are to
– review scope and strategy documents
– collect together the project team and set up standards

– start training

– set the technical landscape and procure hardware

– announce to the rest of the organization that the project is starting

ASAP Phase 2 Business Blueprint: Purpose

• Create the Business Blueprint!

• Refine the original project goals and objectives (from Phase 1)
• Define the Baseline scope (ready for Phase 3)
• Refine overall project schedule and implementation sequence (from Phase 1)

Business Blueprint: Deliverable(s)

The BB document! It lays the foundations for your implementation project. The BB
documents the business process requirements of the company (gathered during
requirements workshops). On this basis, you achieve a common understanding of how the
company intends to run its business within the SAP R/3 system
The requirements are reviewed for each SAP Reference Structure item in the Q&Adb,
and the answers to the Questions and CI (Customer Input) Templates are input to the
Q&Adb. The Business Blueprint document is the output of the Q&Adb

The Q&Adb is the tool that helps you determine the company requirements with respect
to SAP business processes. It uses CI templates (general) and business processes
questions (specific).

There are 4 Master Lists: Business Process Master List (BPML), Organizational
Structure List (OSL), Development List (DL), and Authorization List (AL).
Business Process Master List (BPML): An Excel worksheet containing a representation
of the R/3 business processes and transactions defined in the project scope in order to
carry out the configuration and testing of R/3 in iterative cycles: the Baseline scope
(defined in the BPML), up to four configuration cycles (C1 to C4), and two integration
cycles for testing.

Business Blueprint: Summary

Business Blueprint Phase, what do we do?

• Refine Project Preparation

• Keep on training and testing
• Foresee changes and how to cope with them
• Gather BB requirements
• Initialize implementation
• Produce BB document and Initiate Master Lists (BPML, to be completed with
OSL, DL and AL in Phase 3, Realization)
• Determine the Baseline Scope, to be completed in Phase 3, Realization
• Phase 2, BB, refines Phase 1, Project Preparation, in terms of management,
training, testing, scope, etc.
• and sets the basics for the implementation (e.g., the baseline scope), to be carried
out in Phase 3, Realization
• How? gathering requirements ...
• … with, among other things, the Q&Adb SAP reference structure, CI templates
and questions (and the help of the IMG) we produce the BB doc and the BPML
excel worksheet