From process scope to requirements backlog with SAP Cloud ALM

SAP’s strategy for future SAP implementation and migration projects is clearly defined: This can be done efficiently and sustainably with SAP Cloud ALM! blue.works shares this opinion. For this reason, the following blog looks at how to create the requirements backlog for a project and map it transparently in SAP Cloud ALM.

The example: Transformation project for S/4HANA private edition

The following explanations are based on an S/4HANA transformation project, not exactly specified whether on-premise, private or public cloud, but rather based on on-premise or private cloud. The blog assumes that a project has already been created in SAP Cloud ALM. A later blog post will describe in detail what you need to bear in mind – so stay tuned. In terms of time, we are at the end of the Prepare phase in the SAP Activate methodology, in the transition to and in the Explore phase.

Clarification of terms

To clear up any confusion right from the start, a few terms are clearly defined:

• Project
• Scope
• Solution scenario
• Business processes vs solution processes
• Fit to Standard vs Fit / Gap Workshops

Project

A project comprises the entire project of the transformation project incl. the recording of requirements, prioritizing, processing, implementing and testing, as well as project management tasks. A project can contain one or more scopes.

Scope

A scope divides the project into logical units such as modules (finance, purchasing, sales, production). A scope contains one or more solution scenarios and forms the first level of how the solution processes can be filtered.

Solution scenario

Such a solution scenario includes all solution processes that are available in the SAP standard. This means that in a selected scenario for an S/4HANA transformation project, everything from finance to purchasing to production processes is available. Even one step further, all processes for each country or region – specific.

Business processes vs solution processes

Business processes are business procedures defined by business units without a specific focus on IT systems. Solution processes are concrete implementations of business processes in IT systems, such as a business process mapped in an SAP S/4HANA ERP system.

The following therefore applies:

Sequences of business activities = business process

Processes of business activities + implementation in the IT system from the IT perspective = solution process

Fit to standard vs Fit/Gap workshops

The basic aim of both types of workshop is to identify whether a company’s business process can be mapped in an SAP system in the way that SAP envisages as standard in the system. If yes, a so-called “fit” is created, if no, a so-called “gap” is created. Fit to Standard workshops increasingly focus on the question: “Why not Standard?” and pursue SAP’s “Clean Core” strategy. Fit / Gap – workshops tend to focus more on explicitly finding such “gaps”.

Create process scope / select solution scenario

Once a project has been created in Cloud ALM, the next step is to assign content to the project from a solution process perspective. Cloud ALM requires the scopes for each project. The focus of this blog is not on how the perimeters should be structured. SAP offers two tools for this purpose, which are briefly listed here but not described in detail:

• SAP Readiness Check
• SAP Business Transformation Center and Digital Blueprint

You can access the scopes via the “Manage scopes” tile in Cloud ALM. Note the filter options, here you should immediately filter according to the desired project. A scope is quickly created and only requires a title and a description. If there are a large number of volumes, these can be uploaded in an Excel file. In order to benefit from SAP’s best practice processes, a solution scenario should be selected. In our example, we have assumed that this is an S/4HANA transformation project.

Press the “activated” button and the scenario is already selected. But: Don’t forget to save.

Insight: Assuming that two scopes (purchasing, production) have been created and the project shown above only focuses on one S/4HANA ERP, the same solution scenario must be selected for each scope.

Determine process scopes

Once the scopes have been created and the solution scenarios have been selected, the process scope determination can be started. Simply explained, it is now necessary to define exactly which solution processes are relevant for the scope within a scope. As already mentioned, a solution scenario contains all solution processes relevant to the scenario, including the regional characteristics.

Again, activate the switch to select the desired solution process.

Insight: You may wonder why the list for one and the same solution process is so long in the picture shown. The last column in the list gives an indication of this. This shows the available regional characteristics. It is also advisable to filter by the desired region in the filter options.

Do not forget to save.

Once the process scope determination has been completed, the project is ready to move on to the next SAP Activate phase, the Explore phase.

Fit to Standard – Workshop

The implementation of a Fit to Standard workshop should be divided into the following steps according to the SAP Activate method:

In order to get closer to the goal of this blog, namely how to get to the requirements backlog, only steps 4 and 5 will be looked at in more detail here. It is obvious that a deviation from the standard process (step 5) requires a request. However, step 4, i.e. a “fit”, also requires an entity in which the implementation of the “fit” is recorded. This records how the standard process must be set up in the system for specific customers, i.e. what the customizing should look like. This can be done either via a requirement or directly via a user story. Depending on the complexity and project setup.

In the requirements management of the Solution Manager, there are the categories GAP, WRICEF, FIT and Non-Functional for the recorded requirements. This does not exist in Cloud ALM. At first glance, it is therefore more difficult to distinguish between the requirements in Cloud ALM. But this is exactly what SAP Cloud ALM offers the keywords (also known as tags) for. These make it possible to classify the requirements. You can create new keywords yourself. Within the requirements, you can also filter by keywords. This provides an opportunity to group requirements in a flexible way. How to create separate, larger documentation for the requirements is also described in another blog post.

Requirements backlog

Once the Fit to Standard workshop has been completed, the requirements backlog is ready for handover. The requirements backlog is the sum of all approved requirements. It also makes sense to set these requirements to “In realization” status and assign them to the “Explore” phase. In an agile project environment, the requirements become the responsibility of the product owner. In a classic waterfall project, the project management is responsible for further processing.

In summary, SAP Cloud ALM offers a clear and efficient strategy for bringing SAP Activate from theory into practice. With SAP Cloud ALM, with SAP Activate, with the predefined best practice content from SAP and also the Fit to Standard approach, S/4HANA transformations become more efficient and transparent and do not have to start on “white paper”. The structured approach to creating a requirements backlog, as explained in the blog, emphasizes the importance of careful planning and implementation of the workshops. Keep an eye on the important steps and look forward to future blog posts that will lead your project to success.