Basics of Project Management in SAP Cloud ALM
This page will help you to understand the basics of project management which covers about a project, a project template, template tasks, workstreams in a project and roles in a project in SAP Cloud ALM.
- A project is a container that helps in reporting and managing information. A project can contain only one template but can support multiple products.
- SAP Cloud ALM allows creation and management of multiple parallel projects. One project contains one project team.
- A template is a predefined set of tasks that helps you accelerate your implementation. Currently SAP Cloud ALM offers only a subset of templates provides by Activate methodology.
- If you find the task list provided by the template insufficient, then you can enrich it by a mass upload of tasks and deliverables.
- Selection of a project template is not mandatory to create a project. Also once selected the template can be switched at a later stage.
Tasks that come from a Template in a Project follow a three level Hierarchy
- Phase
- Deliverable
- Tasks
The explanation of phases is below.
| Phase | Description |
|---|---|
| Prepare | Initial planning and preparation for the project. In this phase the project is started, plans are finalized, project team is assigned, and work is under way to start the project optimally. |
| Explore | Perform a fit-to-standard analysis to validate the solution functionality included in the project scope and to confirm that the business requirements can be satisfied. Identified configuration values and delta requirements are added to the backlog for use in the Realize phase. |
| Realize | Use a series of iterations to incrementally configure, extend, and test an integrated business and system environment that is based on the business requirements identified in the Explore phase. During this phase, data is loaded, adoption activities occur, and operations are planned. |
| Deploy | Setup the production system, confirm customer organization readiness, and switch business operations to the new system. Start running the solution productively. |
| Run | Run the new system; Expand the footprint as needed (example: Add new capabilities or expand geographic footprint of the solution; Apply SAP operations standards to optimize system use and operations). |
A deliverable is an outcome of performing one or multiple tasks during the phase
Workstream represents logical grouping of deliverables in the same area of work. They are used as an attribute of a deliverable to indicate in which area of project the work will be done .
Tasks are also assigned to workstreams that provide an alternate working view. The list of workstreams is
| Workstream | Description |
|---|---|
| Project Management | Covers planning, scheduling, governance, controlling and monitoring the execution of the project. Target group of this work stream are project managers. |
| Application Design & Configuration | Covers the confirmation of scope, fit-to-standard analysis, identification of delta business process requirements, and functional design of the solution. In later phases, it covers the configuration activities, unit testing to fulfill the customer requirements. Items that can be configured include: forms, workflows, user permission/security, screen layout, reports, master data setup, notifications, etc. This work stream also covers the demonstration of the configured/developed solution to the customer project team after each iteration cycle for customer acceptance and identification of adjustments needed for the next iteration. Note: This Work Stream includes RCEFW deliverables in OP deployments. It does not include Integrations, they are covered in separate workstream. |
| Testing | Covers test strategy, test planning, test case development, and execution of Integration Test, Performance Test, System Test, Regression testing, and User Acceptance Test. |
| Integration | Covers identification of integration requirements, integration points, integration approach, and integration solution design. The work stream also includes the setup of integration environment and middleware between the solution and any external systems. |
| Solution Adoption | Covers Value Management, Organization Change Management (OCM), and End-User Training topics of the deployment project. |
| Customer Team Enablement | Covers the enablement of the customer project team to work on the project effectively. This includes standard product orientation to prepare the customer for product requirements and design discussion, as well as key user and admin training to prepare the customer for test case development and test execution. The tasks will lead to a full project team enablement. |
| Extensibility | Covers the design, development, and deployment of system functionality that cannot be provided by the standard product and needs to be custom developed. Note: Focus is on solution extensibility beyond the RICEFW that are covered in Design & Configuration and Integration. |
| Data Management | Covers the discovery, planning and execution of moving legacy data to the new system and archiving of legacy data. This work stream also covers cutover planning, preparation, management and execution of activities to cutover the system into production. It also includes the hyper-care support period shortly after cutover. |
| Technical Architecture & Infrastructure | Covers the solution landscape, deployment concept, system architecture, technical system design, environment (development, testing, production, failover) setup, technology operations standards and process. |
| Operations & Support | Covers the establishment and setting up of the helpdesk process, case management process, post go-live change management process, & user related operations standards and process. |
| Analytics | Covers the design, creation, testing of the reporting and analytics inside the implemented solution. |
This list comes from Activate methodology and is not extendable at the moment.
A project comes with a pre-delivered set of roles provided by Activate methodology
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Project Lead | Owns and drives the project jointly with the Partner Project Manager Coordinates all aspects of the project to meet defined objectives Manages relationship with project stakeholders Manages Q-Gate processes |
| Analytics Expert | Expert in the delivered analytics content Creation of the overall analytics design Managing reporting delta requirements with various functional teams Developer for new and/or extended reports and data structures |
| Business Process Expert | Understands business and processes Perform and confirm configuration Perform testing Drive decisions |
| Configuration Expert | Expert in solution processes and configuration Prepare and lead the Fit-to-Standard analysis process Perform/guide the system configuration Resolution of business process issues |
| Data Migration Expert | Responsible for the data migration of legacy systems to the new cloud system Identification and qualification of source data Cleansing of source data Execution of data migration into the system |
| Education Expert | Responsible for change management Develop end user trainings, learning plans/content, and train the trainers Assure user readiness of the solution |
| Extensibility Expert | Design and implement development of solution extensions on the SAP Cloud Platform Translate requirements into development activities Develop the extensions per the requirements and the customer business processes |
| Integration Implementation Expert | Responsible for the definition and setup of integrations Identification and testing of needed interfaces Identification of scope items Development of setup guides for customer driven integrations Perform integration setup Support cross system process testing |
| Output Management and Forms Expert | Definition and enhancement of output management and forms Modification of forms using Adobe LiveCycle Designer Configuration of output management Setup of the Cloud Print Manager |
| System Administrator | Provides consistency across the customer's technical landscape during the solution lifecycle Manages interactions with the services center Serves as the central contact for SAP Responsible for receiving and requesting tenants |
| Testing Expert | Create and manage overall test strategy Manage solution testing, defects, and resolution of defects Coordinate test cycles during the implementation Manage testing activities for quarterly updates |
If you wish you can extend this list by adding a new custom project role.
A Project helps you contain the information together for operational reasons. The content provided by SAP activate methodology is made available in SAP Cloud ALM when you select a Project Template. Currently, workstreams can not be extended but Project roles can be extended.