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kelseylapczynsk
Advisor
Advisor
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in SAP Activate prior to a release? With so many products being used on a daily basis, they require feedback from customers to help shape the future of the product and its direction. With SAP Activate, we are constantly evolving our content to meet and exceed the project implementation standards you have come to expect. We align with product release cycles and prepare a lot behind the scenes by gathering feedback from our project teams to ensure the content is matching the new product enhancements prior to the release.

 

What is SAP Activate Early Preview?

SAP Activate has been conducting the review cycles for Early Preview since early 2017 and we have collected nearly 800 responses in the 2020 year alone. All of these feedback items we have received are reviewed individually and go through a workflow process with content owners and SME's to address and incorporate the feedback directly into the implementation roadmaps in the Roadmap Viewer. We are always looking to improve our implementation roadmaps with the help of our reviewers who perform an in-depth review of proposed topics.

 

What implementation roadmaps are included?

During the major releases for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud solutions, we are running SAP Activate Early Preview cycles. At the moment, these solutions include the SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Activate Methodology for RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition implementation roadmaps. 

 

Who participates in the review?

We just wrapped up our Early Preview review for the 2105 release and received great feedback to enhance the roadmap per the topics in the cycle and we have incorporated the feedback items which were submitted. SAP Activate has worked with partners and customers who currently have a Feedback Agreement signed to participate in the review. Our other participants include consultants, project teams, product experts, and additional roles to get a well rounded group of expertise to go through the review process. All of these reviewers in their various roles provide a different perspective to shape the implementation roadmaps and many of the reviewers take their knowledge from their project teams and give customer feedback which we consume to improve the various sections of the implementation roadmaps being reviewed.

 

What is the review process like?

Email invitations are sent to the various reviewers to gauge their interest in participating in the review cycle. The reviewers who would like to participate sign up for the week or weeks they are interested in reviewing the various topics for the implementation roadmaps. Topics are then assigned to each week, per the internal SAP Activate team JIRA backlog sprint process for newly updated/created content, which are scheduled for the upcoming release. The kick-off call then occurs and the participants review the assigned topics during the week and submit their feedback accordingly. The SAP Activate Early Preview team reviews each feedback item that is received and meet with the content owners and SME's to address the feedback via a feedback loop. All necessary changes are then incorporated into the pre-production implementation roadmap version prior to the release going live. Confirmation of all updates is completed and the latest version of the implementation roadmap is published for public consumption in the Roadmap Viewer.

The Early Preview review process is outlined below:


 


SAP Activate Early Preview Process Flow


 

We look forward to continuing our Early Preview cycles with our reviewers for many releases to come. Thank you to all the reviewers who have participated in our review process; you have helped shape the content you see in our implementation roadmaps today.

 



Additionally, check out the additional resources and content below to expand your knowledge on SAP Activate and SAP S/4HANA:

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

As always, I would like to encourage you to subscribe to our new podcast “Inside SAP S/4HANA”. This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA product experts, partners and customers to address your needs by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success; we help you get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA projects a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.

openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA

Just a couple of months ago, we launched openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA as an exciting new learning opportunity. What began with a small batch of 20 videos, has now become a channel with more than 50 microlearnings that have generated over 20,000 views since then. Today we cover multiple lines of business, like Finance and Manufacturing & Supply Chain, and key technology topics like Master Data Management, Extensibility, User Experience, and Upgrade Management. We are continuously adding new microlearnings to the SAP S/4HANA channel, so make sure you check them out.

Your voice matters! 

If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Customer Community. This platform which is available to SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers and partners has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions.

For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:



  • Feature Scope Description here

  • What’s New here

  • Help Portal Product Page here

  • Implementation Portal here


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