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#6
01-26-2009, 07:26 AM
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Phase 3: RealizationCustomizing Functionality
Among the basic functions that you can carry out in using the Implementation Guide is how to carry out your system installation (setting up system logs, defining logical systems, communication servers, etc.) setting up clients, maintaining users, making individual Customizing settings, and setting up the transport functionality. The management of Customizing transport requests for transferring settings from the quality assurance to the productive system has an important role to play. The R/3 transport system transfers all the settings and parameters you make in the quality assurance system to the productive system. These are activated in the quality assurance system, meaning that a Customizing request is maintained for every setting made, which can then be transported. This way of working not only guarantees consistency between the quality assurance and productive systems, it also makes it much easier to change processes and carry out release upgrades. You can use the Transport Organizer for cross-client transports and the Workbench Organizer for cross-system transports. Project IMGs and the related documentation can also be transported. Global settings include such objects as currencies, countries, units of measurement, and factory calendars. These settings can be configured centrally, as they function independently of the individual business processes. These are the first steps the IMG guides you through when you start configuration. Data and reports required for strategic and for operational purposes are also configured in this phase. R/3 offers many typical reports which you can tailor to your individual business needs. In Phase 3, you have to check that the reports meet the enterprise’s needs, making any adjustments that may be required. The Report Navigator is a comprehensive catalog of approximately 1,500 reports which makes it easier for users to find standard reports. Most reports listed contain comprehensive documentation. In Phase 3 you define and create all the reports that you will be using, and this tool helps with this process. The Report Navigator is located in the Knowledge Corner of AcceleratedSAP. Customizing Wizards Customizing wizards are similar to wizards found in Windows software that assist the user by using a series of simple dialog boxes. These easy-to-understand wizards "converse" with the user to collect information. Upon completion, the wizard automatically updates the corresponding R/3 Customizing tables with the appropriate settings. Each wizard focuses on a specific R/3 Customizing topic, which can then carry out the Customizing of multiple IMG transactions. Fig. Xx: Customizing wizard for MM account determination The wizards can be used for initial configuration settings as well as for subsequent changes. This means that the wizards must first read the existing R/3 Customizing table settings. This also implies that the "classic" IMG can still be used interchangeably with the wizards. The following wizards are available:
For Release 4.5A, so called Business Configuration sets (BC sets for short) have been developed to save Customizing parameter values from a business point of view, that is, a part of the Reference Model. In order to save the parameters of one Customizing activity for a model element, individual Customizing profiles can be used. These can then be grouped to form Business Configuration Sets. Fig. Xx: BC Sets and compare tool (Customizing Cross-System Viewer) In a further step of the Business Engineer functionality, it will be possible to load BC sets assigned to model elements into the system. This means that they can be taken over automatically in the corresponding Customizing views. BC sets can have as many hierarchies as needed, down to the individual profile level. On the other hand, you can have a BC set with a direct value assignment, which is transferred to the quality assurance or productive system via a transport order. The Customizing Cross-System Viewer is a tool that enables you to see at a glance what Customizing data has been transported to another system and compare the two systems with respect to this data. This is a tool for checking the consistency of client-specific Customizing changes. In a typical R/3 System infrastructure, changes made in the development system are transported to the quality assurance system and then to the production system. To check the consistency of changes in the quality assurance system before transporting them to the production system, you transfer them to an intermediate import client first. You then start the Customizing Transfer Assistant in the quality assistant client, and log on to the import client via Remote Function Call. Normally, you use the Customizing Transfer Assistant together with other cross-system tools such as the Customizing Cross-System Viewer. Further Aspects of the Realization Phase The following aspects of configuration need to be taken into account during the steps carried out for the Realization Phase:
As well as the configuration of an enterprise’s organizational structure and business processes, one important task in Phase 3 is setting up the authorization profiles for the users. For this, the employees’ tasks are matched with the authorization profiles supplied by R/3 in the form of pre-defined activity groups. These profiles can be adjusted using the Profile Generator. This often used to be the job of the technical team, who had to quiz the staff as to the details of their business processes. It is now so easy that the members of the project team responsible for the business processes can take care of it themselves. R/3’s flexible authorization concept has several strengths:
There are several advantages to defining authorization profiles in this way:
SAP Business Workflow In Phase 3, SAP Business Workflow is typically used to define such business processes as invoice approval, availability checks, trip cost accounting and purchase requisition approval. It offers further optimization potential in automatic handling of exceptional situations and missed deadlines, for example. With SAP Business Workflow, the user is at the heart of the business process. An intuitive electronic inbox receives all messages and documents for each employee. Employees are kept informed about the tasks that they are involved with and supplied with all the information they need. A range of filter functions makes it possible to configure the inbox to meet the needs of your enterprise or of the individual employees. You can set up folders, manage documents and set resubmission dates. The implementation process is accelerated by using preconfigured workflow templates on a number of different levels. SAP offers a library of templates that contain ready-to-run application scenarios. They can be used as they are or adapted to meet your own individual requirements. The templates harmonize perfectly with the application components. The graphical workflow editor makes it easy to change the workflow definitions at any time without any programming effort. The changes do not have to be made to the applications themselves, so that the adjustments can be made during productive operation. Analyses of completed processes and observations of trends can offer invaluable information about the cost and effectiveness of individual processes. Those that are too costly or too time-consuming can easily be pinpointed for reengineering. ABAP Workbench The ABAP Workbench is a complete development environment integrated into the R/3 System that enables you to make modifications to the standard R/3 applications. It is used by innumerable R/3 customers and by SAP’s own developers. A sophisticated enhancement concept ensures that all such changes are consistent and easy to maintain. The ABAP Workbench is also used for defining interfaces and transferring data. ALE – Distributed Business Processes Business processes are subject to continual change and typically evolve from a sequence of worksteps to a network of processes. The prime consideration in process design is the enterprise’s business; the IT infrastructure is of secondary importance. Sometimes, in order to keep intercompany processes consistent, information systems have to be separated or distributed. Both the implementation and development of such scenarios have to be flexible enough to support changes in requirements. The Application Link Enabling (ALE) initiative opens up new perspectives in this context, facilitating the loose coupling of distributed R/3 and third-party applications alike. Because communication between applications is based on business object technology, all settings are easy to access and consistency between different application systems is guaranteed. One example of a distributed scenario is centralized accounting and customer master maintenance combined with local sales operations. Creating User Documentation Once you know the number of users and tasks for R/3, you can plan the structure, contents, and format of the user documentation. Before you create the documentation, you have to define how you want to have documentation changes managed. One accelerator that is available to help your documentation and training become successful is to use the Business Process Procedures that are contained in the Business Process Master List. The BPPs, created for most R/3 business processes and scripts, are like step-by-step procedures of how to carry out a process. Adapting these scripts to your implementation by taking screenshots and filling in field information allows you to easily create documentation for every business process. System Management Procedures In the Realization phase, procedures for system management also need to be defined, in order to prepare the system for productive operation. This includes monitoring productive infrastructure needs, and determining which system administration activities are necessary. The following steps are carried out in this work package of the Realization phase: 1. Developing of system test plans 2. Defining the service level commitment 3. Establishing system administration functions 4. Setting up a Quality Assurance environment 5. Defining the design of the productive system 6. Defining system management procedures for the productive system 7. Setting up the productive environment Quality Checks in the Realization Phase At the end of Phase 3, the status of deliverables must be checked for completeness and accuracy. The Project Manager performs this internal quality check, which should not be confused with the external, independent Quality Assurance Audits after each phase. The Quick Sizing Tool, or Quick Sizer helps you in reviewing the sizing you have determined in the Project Preparation phase. Some of the things validated are the configuration of the Baseline scope, the global settings made for the R/3 System, and the organizational structure. Furthermore, it's necessary to confirm the creation of archiving management, verify the existence of a finalized system, and ensure the creation of user documentation and training materials. Lastly, the preparation for end user training needs to be gone through and approved. 
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#7
01-26-2009, 07:26 AM
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Phase 4: Final Preparation
Phase 4: Final Preparation
The purpose of this phase is to complete the final preparation of the R/3 System for going live. This includes testing, user training, system management and cutover 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. In Phase 4, your end users go through comprehensive training. The last step will be to migrate data to your new system. In particular a going-live check is carried out and an R/3 Help Desk set up. Fig. Xx: Main work packages of Phase 4 This phase builds on the work done in the previous two phases so that R/3 can be handed over to the individual departments for productive operation. This includes creating the user documentation and training the end users. The technical environment is installed for the productive system and the project managers make plans for going live, including the transfer of data from legacy systems and user support in the startup phase. End-user training can be the area an organization spends the most time and money to complete, since proper training is critical if the project is to be successful. A high-level training plan should have been developed within the Project Preparation phase, but now more detail is added. The training program is set up according to the number of users, their location and their tasks. Once the site of the courses and the trainers have been chosen, the courses can be held. To accelerate your training activities, you can purchase the R/3 Info Database (InfoDB), a blend of R/3, multimedia content, and tools. The R/3 InfoDB contains over 250 standard courses that we use in our SAP training facilities worldwide. These courses are available for multiple R/3 releases in up to 14 languages. Computing Center Management System As part of setting up the Computing Center Management System (CCMS), the system administrators are trained and the network administration, backup, archiving, and capacity monitoring systems are prepared and tested. Some of the tasks involved here are configuring the printing facilities, conducting system volume and stress tests and conducting a going-live check. Furthermore, R/3 logon groups are now set up, enabling you to provide application servers with improved response time for particularly important work groups using time-sensitive transactions. Operation modes (resource configurations for each instance of the R/3 System) now need to be defined, with the times that the services are available. Alert monitors and backup schedules are set up. Productive system printing procedures and spool administration procedures are defined according to the Systems Operations Manual set up in the Blueprint Phase. Finally, the R/3 job scheduling system needs to be configured, as well as alert monitors and backup schedules defined. Also in Phase 4, the system administration staff needs to be trained in a workshop session. Topics include troubleshooting, tape management, and user management, as well as escalation procedures. Fig XX: R/3 technical implementation cycle In Phase 4 you simulate the productive operation of your R/3 System, a step of great importance. The test plan contains all the most important situations that arise in the normal course of business:
Volume testing also involves checking the critical parameters for specific business procedures, for example, adhering to a two-second average processing time to create a sales order. CATT Test System The Computer Aided Test Tool (CATT) can be used to automate test sequences for key business processes. The results are logged in detail and then reviewed. CATT is also used for quality tests during release changeovers and for simulating complete business processes. System administration testing involves testing the activities of a System Administrator, such as managing job scheduling, administering corrections and transports, reacting to R/3 System alerts and logs. Phase 4 also provides for the testing of the disaster recovery plan and of the procedures defined for the productive environment. If a third-party provider has been engaged for these services, their services and responsiveness can also be tested. Disaster downtimes are verified and details on de-escalation procedures are documented. Now that the technical configuration for the productive system is finalized, plans are drawn up for transferring legacy data.At this point, the system settings (Customizing) and R/3 Repository objects are transferred from the quality assurance system, and automatic and manual data transfers to the productive system are carried out and tested. GoingLiveTM Check The GoingLiveTM Check involves an analysis of the major system components of the R/3 installation with regard to system consistency and reliability. For this, SAP experts log on your R/3 System via a remote connection, inspect the configuration of individual system components, and provide valuable recommendations for system optimization. By analyzing the individual system components before production startup, SAP can considerably improve the availability and performance of the customer's live system. In addition, the technical application analysis provides information on how to speed up the core processes within R/3. In the second step of optimization the transactions with high resource consumption are searched for and necessary adjustments made. In the third step of verification, the changes from the two prior sessions are validated. This check is performed in the productive operation system. After a system goes live, some fine tuning and eliminating of potential bottlenecks is still necessary. This is carried out four weeks after going live with the R/3 System. Refining the Cutover At the end of Phase 4, it is necessary to refine and validate the cutover plans generated in the Realization phase. Among other things, this includes tasks such as the reviewing of the runtime of test runs to estimate runtime for the complete data size. A conversion checklist for transporting all changes into the productive system is provided for all the configuration settings to be imported. At this stage, it is important to verify that required tasks have been successfully completed, for example, that the technical environment is in place, the cutover programs are ready and the application data is verified. Approval is now sought from project management and company senior management to start the cutover process. Here you can also refer to the Data Transfer Made Easy Guidebook created especially for this purpose. It is located in the Knowledge Corner of the ASAP CD. The help desk is particularly important in the first weeks after going live, but you will require help desk support throughout the productive life of your R/3 System. An internal help desk should be staffed and supported mainly by employees of the enterprise. Setting up a help desk involves, among other things, installing office and technical equipment and defining OSS users. Problems which cannot be solved by this internal help desk are forwarded to SAP via the OSS system. As soon as you know when you will go live with the R/3 System or with new R/3 applications you should inform SAP. Thus you can ensure that SAP can provide optimal support throughout your going-live phase. For the last weeks before and first weeks after the go-live date, SAP offers the R/3 GoingLive Customer Care Service, accessible via SAPNet and OSS.
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#8
01-26-2009, 07:27 AM
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Phase 5: Go Live and Support
Phase 5: Go Live and Support
Now you are ready to go live with your productive system! Afterwards, the project team focuses on supporting the end users, for which training may not be completed. It is also necessary to establish procedures and measurements to review the benefits of your investment in R/3 on an ongoing basis. Key SAP Services to support you in this phase include
Fig. Xx: Post go-live activities during productive operation The last phase of the implementation project is concerned with supporting and optimizing the operative R/3 System, both the technical infrastructure and load distribution as well as the business processes. Activities such as the following are carried out:
During Phase 5, the first EarlyWatch® session should be held, where experts from SAP analyze the system’s technical infrastructure. The aim is to ensure that the system functions as smoothly as possible. The purpose of SAP's EarlyWatch® Service is to improve the performance of your live R/3 System by preventing system bottlenecks. The underlying concept of SAP EarlyWatch® Service is prevention: taking appropriate action before a problem situation develops. Regular analysis of live R/3 Systems by teams of experts ensures that potential problems can be recognized and remedied at an early stage. This maintains system availability and performance at a high level. SAP EarlyWatch® measures the server, database, applications, configuration and system load. The results are recorded in a status report with recommendations for system tuning. From early productive operation onwards, SAP EarlyWatch® provides regular performance and error analyses by evaluating statistical data on the various system components. System and Release Upgrade As part of R/3 system maintenance, new releases of the software, including new and enhanced application components and corrections, are shipped at regular intervals. You will normally need to verify or reconfigure some of the settings in order to use them. AcceleratedSAP offers two kinds of roadmaps for moving the software forward to new releases or versions. One is the Continuous Change Roadmap, which provides ongoing support and assistance for the post go-live phase, and is described below. The second is the Upgrade Roadmap, which you can use to plan and carry out an upgrade to your R/3 System. Special Release IMGs specific to your system configuration are available. You can read the online documentation for a new release directly from the IMG. Fig. 31 (3-7): Generating a Release IMG Upgrade and Release Changes When you implement a new release, you can decide whether you want to keep working with the same functions within the selected components (Upgrade Customizing) or whether you want to implement the new functionality supplied for the existing release (Delta Customizing). For legal changes affecting some country versions, in particular for the HR component, you can now see which legal changes have taken effect in your country and carry out the corresponding Customizing activities to have your system include these changes. One of the strengths of the R/3 System is its ability to grow with the enterprise. Imagine you have to set up a new organizational unit, or a new plant, for example. The IMG can help, using preconfigured or existing organizational units as a basis. All you need to do is adjust the configuration until it matches your exact requirements, verifying the mandatory activities – to get a new, fully functional organizational unit, ready for accounting, purchasing, sales or warehousing, for example. ASAP for Upgrades AcceleratedSAP provides an Upgrade Roadmap and upgrade manuals to facilitate release changes and upgrade projects. The Upgrade Roadmap enables you to take a systematic approach to release changes and complements the available technical documentation. Although implementing new versions of R/3 is carried out in the form of a new project, the project team will profit from their experiences during initial implementation. Many documents already exist and only need to be verified or extended. Fig. 32: Phases in an upgrade project In order to systematically carry out an upgrade project, the ASAP Upgrade Roadmap will generate a project plan with only the activities required. All other activities have either already been carried out or they are not relevant. As with the Roadmap for the initial implementation, there are descriptions of the individual tasks, and wherever possible, additional accelerators in the form of checklists, templates or examples. The technical documentation of the upgrades is extended via ASAP to include release-specific project management. Release 4.0 of AcceleratedSAP contains the Continuous Change Roadmap, with standard activities necessary after the initial implementation. In this way, SAP provides ongoing support and assistance for post go-live activities. The tasks in that structure provide solutions for all known types of continuous change: Business changes, technology changes or changes in the user community.
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#9
01-26-2009, 07:28 AM
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Outlook: Global ASAP
Outlook: Global ASAP
R/3 is configured to satisfy the business and strategic needs of many large corporations. The strategic needs and historical IT environment of each of these customer has a significant effect on the way the R/3 System is implemented. One thing unites all these customers: their need to structure the implementation according to a global approach. Global AcceleratedSAP is designed to provide a uniform rollout concept. Fig. Xx Global AcceleratedSAP Roadmap The success of AcceleratedSAP as an implementation methodology has made it clear that global implementations can also be carried out in this way. Global ASAP builds on the existing ASAP methodology, using ASAP's structured procedure accelerators, modelling methods and tools. Project teams implementing R/3 on a global level will find additional methodological guidance and functionality in the Global ASAP Roadmap. Basic Concept of Global ASAP The basic concept of Global ASAP is to map all activities not taking place at a local level onto a special structure called the Global Roadmap. This roadmap is then optimally linked to the roll-out roadmaps for the projects at the local level. The goal is to have a preconfigured central system – in the form of one or many templates – and to roll it out locally as often as necessary. A preconfigured global system, in the sense of a "global template" is the sum of all common group-specific customizing settings, models, individual templates, etc. These are included in one R/3 System as the sole source of reference for productive systems on the global (that is, corporate headquarters) and local levels (individual companies and plants). Fig. xx: Rollout in local units of various sizes In contrast to the existing AcceleratedSAP Roadmap, which only supports one implementation strategy, Global ASAP must support various R/3 implementation strategies, which may contain different methods situated at a very high level, such as:
Managing changes is critical in global implementations. This refers not only to the correct communication of change procedures but also to the implementation of change management procedures. The communication of changes in global implementations basically involves the same issues as in regular ASAP change management. For this reason, please refer to the section on Change Management in the Chapter AcceleratedSAP. Global Roadmap The predefined Global ASAP Roadmap with its four phases offers you the following implementation benefits:
In the first phase, the global implementation program is set up. The workpackages Program Management Preparation (see below) and Global Template Project Setup contain administrative and project planning steps. The workpackage Define Global Strategy is structured to facilitate the holding of senior management workshops and follow-up studies on global implementation strategies. The basis of global SAP strategy decisions is formed by carrying out a strategy determination study. This analysis includes modeling the organizational structure, defining the functional scope and key business processes, reporting requirements and the corresponding documentation. After this, the following elements of a global R/3 strategy need to be worked out:
Phase 2: Global Business Blueprint The second phase of the Roadmap is characterized by the creation of the development systems and template contents. This includes the reviewing of the scope defined in the setup phase, the training of the template team, and the designing of the template itself. The analysis of local and global requirements leads to a detailed model of the business processes necessary at the global level. The standardization of business processes and functions, as well as of best-practice cases is one of the main tasks of a global template. In this connection, the special requirements for business processes and functions running on distributed systems are an important consideration. Phase 3: Global Realization The work packages in this phase deal primarily with the creation of the global template together with the local units. This phase also describes the way to deal with group-specific customer developments at the global level. In order for the concept of a global template to be successful beyond the rollout phase, it is necessary to ensure smooth maintenance handling. The step of Global System Management is therefore particularly important, since it contains the description of the system architecture to be implemented and the management of the systems involved. A further important step is the creation of a Customer Competence Center. This organization should be able to carry out first-level support and coordinate all future developments. Global ASAP provides guidelines for the establishment of a Customer Competence Center. Phase 4: Global Maintenance and Support Besides administrative activities, the phases after the rollout emphasize the support of the local units. Phase 4 contains information on how to tune the local system and optimize business processes. Experiences gained during the rollout should now be incorporated back into the global template and be made available for later installations of R/3. A suitable rollback procedure is also included. Global ASAP contains procedures for dealing with ongoing systems operations and the template upgrade procedure relevant to the customer's implementation release strategy. Rollout Roadmap The Rollout Roadmap has as its goal the creation of a local productive reference system and, in the case of distributed systems, the provision of a link to a central productive system in order to, for example, set up and maintain R/3 master records. The Rollout Roadmap speeds up the implementation process in the local units, so that – depending on the enterprise's requirements – entire implementation series can be carried out. Redundant project activities can thus be pinpointed and avoided. The advantages of this roadmap are:
The implementation of the R/3 System in large multinational corporations is a more time-consuming and complicated process than for mid-sized companies. For this reason , corporations need to observe certain procedures in order to control costs and avoid the delays that a lengthy rollout might entail. The following graphic shows an example of how global templates can be used to carry out a rollout. On the global level, that is, at corporate headquarters, it is necessary to co-ordinate all activities carried out during implementation and the maintenance/support phase after implementation. Within Global ASAP, program management is regarded not as a project, but as the providing of official channels of support for the further development of the template, the ongoing work on group-specific standards and the rollout of the corresponding system functionality. These global activities need to be carried out and clearly defined centrally for all local systems. Figure xx: Projects to Complete a Group Rollout When local project activities are carried out, the program team at the global level is not actually responsible for the productive start of any systems at the local sites. This is the main task of the local project teams. Here it is important to differentiate between tasks carried out at the global and local levels, as well as to differentiate between resources used for development and resources used in the rollout itself. The developments described here contain a global implementation strategy based on global templates and distributed system topologies. This is where R/3 customers will reap the greatest benefit. Within Global ASAP, further release strategies and enhancements containing new contents and functions which apply to the Global ASAP Roadmap will follow.
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#10
02-02-2009, 05:33 PM
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Figures/ Diagrams missing
Hello Trainers,
To begin with , thank you for this wonderful training. In this Accelerated SAP Writeup, I noticed there is a mention of FigureXX or Fig 1 etc at different point. Could you please provide the same . I guess Diagrams would help everyone to better understand the text and register the same easily. Warm Regards. Quote:
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