SAP ASAP Methodology

ASAP Methodology OR Roadmap

Who needs to know about ASAP ?

Both project managers and team members. ASAP methodology gives the project managers the requisite technology and management roadmap to implement an SAP project following global standards and well acknowledged strategies. This approach also greatly reduces the risk and improves project timelines by giving the project manager tools to monitor and maintain metrics necessary for a successful implementation. Team members should be conversant with the general implementation roadmap as well as the specific accelerators that should be used to speed up the implementation.

How is ASAP different from the standard Project Management Principles ( from PMI ) ?

If the project manager is well versed with the principles of PMP, then he/she should feel right at home. ASAP was developed by SAP ( in collaboration with its implementation partners ). The idea is to leverage this extensive experience and knowledge base to share the best practices specific to SAP implementations and apply them to the principles of PMI. So roughly speaking

PMI + SAP’s Inside Knowledge = ASAP

What are the advantages of using ASAP ?

• Project time cut down in half.
• Lower Risk
• Reduced Costs.

Are there any other roadmaps that I should be aware of ?

Yes. ASAP is the roadmap proposed by SAP to implementations. There are other methodologies and roadmaps (also proposed by SAP) to effectively do other things in SAP like upgrades, support activities etc. The official details from SAP are available here . (http://service.sap.com/alm-methodologies)

What is ASAP Methodology ?

ASAP stands for Accelerated SAP. The word “Accelerated” refers to the many so called “Accelerators” ( Tools & Information ) available in SAP to expedite the implementation of SAP in an enterprise. So, simply put , ASAP is a methodology/ step-by-step approach used to effectively and efficiently implement SAP

ASAP is divided into 5 phases.

(Courtesy – SAP^©)

1. Project Preparation: During this phase, the project goes through the initial planning and preparation phase .
2. Business Blueprint: During this phase the implementing team and the business comes to a common understanding on what needs to be done. This is achieved through workshops and meetings with the key users and gathering the requirements. The key deliverable of this phase is an approved blueprint.
3. Realization: The bulk of the work is done in this phase. The actual blueprint is broken down into functional specifications and further into technical specifications to be worked on the functional and technical teams. The various teams go about with the actual configuration and customization of the SAP system to suit the requirements as highlighted in the blueprint. Each of the components are further unit tested.
4. Final Preparation: This is a crucial phase of the project. Apart from system testing and integration testing, the users are heavily engaged for the User Acceptance Testing ( UAT). Users are also trained on how to perform the various business functions on the new system ( User Training ). Also, various master data and transactional data transfer requirements are evaluated to a much finer level of detail and the actual data migration is also performed.
5. Go-Live and Support : Now you are ready to go live. This step involves successfully planning the various go-live operations and strategies and subsequent support activities as well.

Except for some jargon, anybody who is familiar with the general principles of software engineering would be very familiar with the steps involved.

ASAP Tools

There are 3 key tools used in ASAP

1. SAP Solution Composer

Solution Composer is the core tool of the ASAP implementation methodology. It provides a way to map and maintain the key business processes in an enterprise. It is a windows installable that basically provides a graphical view of the solution maps

1. ASAP Roadmaps

ASAP roadmaps are the heart of the ASAP implementation methodology. Solution composer is just a graphical tool used to create, maintain and manage ASAP ( and other ) roadmaps. The standard SAP provided roadmaps can be viewed either in Solution Composer or in plain HTML format.

1. SAP Solution Manager

Sol Man is used in this phase primarily to materialize and store the roadmaps designed. The tools inside solman that are used in this phase are the Question and Answers database , BPML, and document storage.

Where can I find more information on ASAP Methodology ?

You can find more information on ASAP methodology and other methodologies in the SAP service market place. (http://service.sap.com/alm-methodologies)

Reference:

• magnatraining.com
• magnatraining.com/asap-methodology