There are several reasons to stick to the
5 Golden Rules in an SAP S/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Single tenant edition implementation. The two main ones are
- Implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud in the future
- Minimize efforts in an upgrade.
Goal for a project is is to define and document processes so that efforts in future implementations such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementations and also efforts in upgrades can be minimized.This covers
two key scenarios:
- Matching Best Practices are found for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and not for SAP S/4HANA on premise
- No Best Practices can be found that match.
In both cases you need to define the process yourself.
You will do find the content in the respective areas in the methodology, but to make that a little easier to find, I put this blog together.
Step 1: Define it as a Standard in the Project.
Define Project Standards
During the Prepare phase the implementation project rules and guidelines are defined. Each process should be documented with:
- Process model, value description, detail description of process steps…
- test script,
- technical design documentation
- value description and more if applicable
See accelerator for all templates and examples
here.
Step 2: Define Demos for Fit-to-Standard
Enhance DEV with additional config for Fit-to-Standard
Purpose of the Fit-to-Standard is to see if the customer can adopt the standard process. This includes recording delta requirements on the process. This also means the demo should be based on configurations and cloud like integrations and extensions.The TR: SPRO with the IMG and its configuration options are available. Use your experience in on-premise projects to max out the configuration possibilities before designing an extension.
In the scenario 1 this means you can use the scope item from SAP/S/4HANA Cloud as input. The business process model, the test script can be downloaded from the Best Practice Explorer.
For Scenario 2 you need to design them as new process.
In any way, make all documents from step 1 available before the Fit-to-Standard to discuss and note changes and additions.
Discuss the options of different kind of extensions before making the final decision. See
here our recommendations.
Step 3: Review Every Process for the 5 Golden Rules.
Phase Closure and Sign-Off Phase Deliverables
As said on the beginning the purpose of the 5 Golden Rules is
- Future move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud
- Minimize efforts during an upgrade
Review the realization options of an process with regards to the workload in a future implementation or an upgrade. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Single tenant edition is based on SAP S/4HANA.
Does the process need to be redesigned in a future implementation because the used technology is not in scope and will never be. Classic Extensions are not in scope for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Any processes using it, will need to be redesigned.
Using interfaces that are not cloud like, means that the cloud like API might be possible in the future. have you checked the roadmap?
During the Q-Gate use the
Golden Rules Checklist to review the overall.
Step 4: Keep it up-to-date
During the Realize phase the process might be changed again. This could be for many reasons. In Any way always keep the documents up to date.
So the main questions of the q-gate will be:
Are the documents up-to-date?
These documents will be a main source of information for the planning of an upgrade and preparing the next wave of implementation or the implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
Step 5: Upgrade
Use the documentation to plan ahead. With this complete set of documentation you know where the extensions are, how they look like.
Plan for the upgrade with them in mind.
Over time:
Over time SAP S/4HANA Cloud is growing and with it SAP S/4HANA. The extension from today might be a configuration option in the future.
Check regularly the innovations of an upgrade with the Checklist. Over time you might minimize your extensions and with this the efforts for upgrade and the gap to SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
The content of this blog will be included in the next update of SAP Activate methodology for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Single tenant edition. (Planned for Dec 21)
Next blog will be about integrations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Single tenant edition, stay tuned
