How to indentify SAP PPM objects with business process requirements?

[mariano_sabiche]

When I got started with SAP PPM project, the first question that I made it's How can I help to the users to understand their business requirements? and How can I set SAP PPM objects with their business requirements?.

It's very important for SAP PPM consultant, because it will have to identify the business requirements that applied to SAP PPM objects. I wasted a lot of extra time to explain to users to understand how can use SAP PPM solution to their business projects. It's more difficult to explain to old users than new users, because they have been working more hours in differents metodologies before SAP PPM implementation.

Let's take a time to explain in detail the objects that are used in SAP PPM:

1. Portfolio Management
   1. Portfolio: Exists to identify one view of head hierarchy to maintain consolidated reports and identify ID Portfolio (Example: Business Unit, Organizational Unit, Process Scenario). Think a Portfolio to make static or unmoved object. Note: Don't try to think a Portfolio like using variables (Time, Quantity, etc.), you would have create a lot of them.
   2. Buckets: Are the hierarchy of a Portfolio. You can identify them like an Organizational Units or Areas of work process that doesn't have changes (like unmoved objects). Example: reflect sales markets or product categories. You will assign Portfolio Items to those buckets.
   3. Initiatives: Initiatives have a lot of concepts to use in business requirements, It's an operative object used in the process of discovering, designing, and developing new products within a company. You can express a group of Portfolio Items into initiatives  with functionality of Decisión Points and Phases (stage-gate methodology).
   4. Item: It's the lowest concept of object in Portfolio Management. You can think Portfolio Items like  ideas, products, projects, in general something like in future you can work. If it's possible you will create a project in Project Management depending of status or another variables in Portfolio Item.
   5. Decision Point: It's inside of Portfolio Item and help to describe the lifecycle of him. Identifying the stage-gate methodology that an Item have to pass. You have status that can be changed into Decisión Point and can represent a lot of process into the Item. You can assign Decisión Point to Project Phases to represent an integration with Project Management.
   6. Document: The documentation attached into objects of the Portfolio. Those documents will be stored into a Content Server Repository.
2. Project Management
   1. Project Definition: Represent the highest and first one level of the Project Management. They identify the number and name of the project with all dates and description of the project.
   2. Phase: Represent sequence the space and date time when a project have to work. You can have more than one phase related to the project and in order to another phases. This object exist into Portfolio Initiatives too.
   3. Task: It's an activity that an user have to do in time and duration with hours to work. You can represent work in percent of completion and real dates. For example: "Prepare a sofa". You can create subtasks to detail a task.
   4. Checklist: It's a milestone of project or certification of activities that a user have to do. For example: "Market store".
   5. Checlist Item: It's a detail list item that compose the Checklist. For example: "Buy milk at store".
   6. Document: The documentation attached into objects of the Project.

 

It's important to know that users have to understand this object concepts, because you have to meet with user to identify the use of those object into the business process.

Maybe result easiest to identify objects into Project Management but in Portfolio management you will find some obstacles.

Try to exchange with users a dictionary of terms and coach them into SAP PPM vision.

Hope this would be help you.

Best regards.

Mariano