SAP project management

Using the success criteria table laid out in SAP Success Factors for Vender Selection Responsibility Matrix 2 as a starting point for shared SAP project success, we will look at some strategies, tactics, techniques, and ideas for managing these shared responsibilities. By more aggressively managing these shared SAP critical success areas, we can set the correct tone and expectation for the SAP project. [FN1]

This series will look at the things you should expect from your SAP system vendor, and how to ensure your SAP vendor is focusing on the critical issues for project success.

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Because of the importance of each of these SAP Critical Success Factors, we will evaluate a set of posts covering the shared responsibilities. Each of these success criteria has shared responsibilities, so they are often some of the most common problem areas. When one party (either the vendor or the customer) falls short of success, many try to deflect the blame by pointing at the other party.

Both customers and vendors must aggressively address the areas of success where they have the primary responsibility. Several of these success criteria have been extensively written about on this site. Rather than rephrase some of those high points, I have included the links to posts with more detail. For SAP project success, customers need to manage the SAP partner relationship by regularly verifying that these critical success criteria items are being properly addressed.

Do not allow the consulting project manager to take over control of your project.

No. SAP or ERP Critical Success Factor Company Integrator
5 Experienced SAP consultants   A
7 SAP implementation strategy z A
8 SAP project management A z
9 SAP tools, templates, and resources   A
10 SAP scope development z A
11 SAP scope management A z
12 Strong SAP project and business communication (inward and outward) A z
13 SAP change management A z
15 Sufficient SAP training (user and project team training) A A
16 SAP system vendor and customer trust   A
17 SAP system design decisions z A
18 Amount of custom ABAP or other SAP coding z A
19 Appropriate SAP software configuration (system settings) z A
20 SAP system change control process   A
21 SAP data analysis and conversion A z
22 SAP test planning A z
23 SAP test development z A

Legend

A = Primary Responsibility for the success factor
z = Shared but secondary responsibility for success

Your approach to any or all of these SAP success criteria items may be different. In the end, you need to understand that failing to address any of these success items creates risks. Your responsibility as a customer is to do whatever it takes to manage the SAP partner relationship, rather than allowing the SAP partner to manage you.

5. Experienced SAP Consultants

You entrust your entire business to “seasoned” SAP consultants that your SAP system integrator provides. However, these same system integrators, anxious to keep high margins and remain competitive, often bring in consultants with less experience than you need to be successful. This topic has been explored in detail on this site, covering you need in a good consultant, the consequences of bad consulting, and the steps to take in finding a good consultant.

To ensure the best possible results, you need to verify and validate the skills and experience of every consultant your SAP system integrator provides. Failing to do so may prevent areas of your project from receiving any business benefit.

How well the project is managed and delivered is up to you as a customer.

After all of the time, effort, and trouble through the entire selection process, that last part of due diligence, in verifying every vendor consultant, is critical for success. Here are some key resources to consider while selecting consultants:

The SAP implementation vendor is almost exclusively responsible for providing high-quality resources for your business project’s success. However, because of their margin requirements, you don’t always get good resources from them. Therefore, you will need to do some of the important due diligence to ensure you do not get taken.

7. SAP Implementation Strategy

You need to consider three key factors for your SAP implementation strategy. These are the implementation methodology, vendor type, and project implementation approach. Each of these components of your overall implementation strategy are important for achieving SAP and ERP project success. To gain greater understanding and insight on these key SAP implementation strategy factors, consider the following post:

8. SAP Project Management

The key parts your SAP project management efforts usually involve budget, scope, timeline, resources, and deliverables. The various types of flavors of monitoring and managing tools are as different and as diverse as the companies or project managers performing the function. The SAP ASAP methodology provides deliverables lists and templates with full explanations for the entire project lifecycle.

Properly structured deliverables monitor execution progress.

Here are some key resources from this site related to project management:

The primary responsibility for successful project management falls to you as the customer. This means that you must not allow the overall control of your project to be taken over by the consulting project manager. The project manager should still provide input, and the SAP partner needs to provide an initial project plan, but at the end of the day, how well the project is managed and delivered is up to you as a customer.

The SAP ASAP methodology provides deliverables lists and templates with full explanations for the entire project lifecycle.

For SAP project managers from consulting firms, one important skillset is the ability to set, manage, and deliver expectations. Part of that also involves social skills that might be more political in nature, including the ability to deflect criticism of their project management. As a result, when reviewing a potential SAP project manager, you need to dig past a possible “glowing reference” to actual results. Part of the successful SAP project manager’s job (from the consulting firms) is to help set and manage your expectations. Some of this is necessary, but some of it can be abused as well. Do not allow yourself to give up control of your project to a consulting project manager.

At the end of the day, the most effective project manager will personally own the success of the project. What I mean by that is they will avoid laying blame, because the success of every project team member (both of the consultants and of your own staff) is a direct reflection on their success. A project manager who finds fault with a resource but does not take clear corrective actions before it becomes a crisis is not much of a project manager.

A good SAP project manager from the consulting world has enough experience with using properly defined and designed deliverables to be able to track and monitor project progress. If they have enough skill and experience at managing those deliverables as well as the tracking and monitoring tools, then they can do the necessary resource adjustments and leveling.

Some of the steps, techniques, tactics, or strategies for finding a good SAP project manager are:

A. Look for an experienced SAP project manager who has actually done SAP configuration before being a project manager in either a supply chain area (SD, MM, PP) or in finance (FI or CO).

B. When checking references, you need to ask results-oriented questions that go beyond the personality of a particular project manager. In any reference check, drill down to the details of the actual project delivery.

a. Was the project delivered on time or on budget? If not it may (or may not) reflect poor management or poor scope development. In either case, it is a warning flag.
b. Did the project manager provide the necessary tools and templates ahead of time for success?

i. Project plan – Beware project or program managers who do not provide a project plan or seem to have a hard time working with very basic project tools such as MS Project.
ii. Deliverables list – Properly structured deliverables monitor execution progress and roll up to higher level project plan items to prevent micromanagement of project activities.
iii. Training, Change Management, Knowledge transfer plan
iv. Progress monitoring and tracking resources down to the delivery level – Many PMs will monitor budget and not the actual execution level of project delivery. If they do manage the execution, they generally micromanage, which can kill productivity.

C. When checking project manager references remember, the project manager is responsible for overall results of completion of deliverables related to project success. As a result, you need to ask prior clients about the following:

a. Testing: Was this purely “success testing” to get signoffs, or was “challenge testing” allowed to discover defects outside of the scope of testing documentation?
b. Were there significant data problems after go-live?
c. Was the project delayed several times because the scope and timing were so tight that the go-live was excessively risky?
d. Were the consulting company resources underestimated or scope changes so significant that many more consultants needed to be added?
e. What about additional software or technology? Were those components missing from the original scope, quotes and estimates?

9. SAP Tools, Templates and Resources

Assuming you are using the ASAP methodology, many of the templates, tools, and resources are clearly defined and initial examples are provided. See SAP Project Implementation Strategies and Approaches.

These may need to be supplemented with vendor-specific examples for training, change management, security/system authorizations, and the deliverables tracking tools. The deliverables themselves should be defined right from the beginning of the project. The SAP ASAP Implementation Methodology contains a presentation template with a full deliverables list and includes many templates for those deliverables.

Effective SAP deliverables will include a mechanism to monitor progress toward completion.

With this background, during the sales cycle, you must insist that every vendor provide actual example templates that show experience in this area. Every one of them will claim they have the resources every time. None of them will admit otherwise, so your primary job is to verify their claims.

Vendor sales people are taught how to say “yes”– even as they are telling you “no.”

The key factor to consider when looking for templates, tools, and resources is: Do they support proper tracking and monitoring of deliverables progress? In other words, beyond the project plan itself, are the deliverables designed to integrate progress monitoring?

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[FN1] Please consider this additional background information on the development of the SAP Project Success Factors with Vendor Selection Responsibility Matrix, and some of the source material from The Top 5 ERP Success Factors by Project Stage from 22 Critical Success Factors .

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