Shortly after Deploy phase within an “ADOPTion” (aka implementation) of an S/4HANA Cloud solution, it is safe to say that project team members have a unique perspective as to what went well, and what didn’t. Ideally, you’d want to document these lessons learned to improve processes against future projects. Which is why the Adoption Retrospective was created: as a means to document achievements, and shortcomings, then utilize “lessons learned” against future projects.
The purpose of this blog post is to walk you through step-by-step on how to use the Adoption Retrospective Mural completely. Each section of this blog post will cover how each area of the Mural is used and how a facilitator would set said area up for their team. Along with images to help guide you through the process. At the end of this blog post a link to Mural as well as an instructional video are provided for you.
Some of the benefits of using a Mural template for the Adoption Retrospective include:
A portion of the Adoption Retrospective Mural would be filled out at the end of a project, by the internal team members. A meeting would then occur where previously noted items of “what went well” and “what didn’t go well” would receive a vote, then discuss the top 5, or so; leading to action items that should improve other projects going forward.
The first section contains the purpose of the Mural, as well as a map of the project to help facilitate discussion. At the bottom of the section, both tool tips and resources from SAP and Mural can be found.
A portion completed by a lead on the project, including such information as: a) customer particulars, b) project details, c) specifics about the team, etc.
Instructions will be sent, along with a link to the Mural, for each team member to fill out the ❸rd section: marked “Retrospective”, prior to the meeting. This should give ample time to document individual opinions on what went well, and what didn’t.
Be sure to encourage marking of stickies with relevant tags. Do this by selecting your stickie, moving the cursor over to the tag icon and selecting one or more from the drop-down menu. Some examples of tags include phases in Activate methodology, line of business, etc. These tags will be used for organizational purpose, so be sure to also tag your action items later.
If you are having trouble thinking of examples, be sure to make use of the leading questions found in this section. Use them to jog your memory or answer them directly; if you answer a question directly, be sure to mark the question number on your stickie (e.g. Prepare 2, or Deploy 3, etc.).
The actual meeting will kick-off with a quick icebreaker. This is nothing more than a one word description of a “successful project” w brief discussion following: an opportunity for each member to feel comfortable with navigation in the app, as well as encourage open and honest participation. This section in general should not take more than 5-10 minutes, depending on the number of participants and time allotted in the agenda.
These sticky notes will be populated by team members with “what went well” and “what did not…” prior to the scheduled discussion. Then, following a voting session within Mural (the goal being to narrow focus to the top 5 or so topics), discussion can commence as to improvements.
To initiate a voting session, begin by clicking the voting session icon.
Then adjust the setting to fit the situation. Add a title, select how many votes will be allowed per person, adjust what can be voted on within the Mural. For this workshop, only sticky notes should be selected to be voted on, choose selected section, and click next.
Adjust the parameters of the selected section and begin voting. Once all votes are in, the facilitator will click End voting session.
The results will be displayed on the Mural, at which point the top results (depending how many topics the team wishes to discuss) will be moved down to section ❹.
Items from “Retrospective” above are moved to this area for discussion. The goal being to create action items that promote process improvements. Ideally these action items will have assignees, and dates, for which the item is to be completed.
Also included are sections for free thinking, “closed topics” as well as a “parking lot” for topics that need further discussion.
The goal of this section is to disposition agreed upon items from the retrospective into the appropriate outputs moving forward against future projects.
Some of these types of outputs of the fit-to-standard workshops are:
The utilization of the Adoption Retrospective workshop can help take positives from any project and make sure they are applied to future assignments. As well as avoiding repeating mistakes from project to project. By doing so all teams can strive to improve with each project completed. If any of you have questions or feedback about this Mural, I encourage you to comment feedback or questions below. And be sure to utilize the Mural link and the instructional video provided.
I would also encourage you to follow the SAP S/4HANA Cloud topic page:
https://community.sap.com/topics/s4hana-cloud
Post and answer questions about related tag :
https://answers.sap.com/questions/ask.html?primaryTagId=67837800100800007389
And read other posts on the topic:
https://blogs.sap.com/tags/67837800100800007389/
MURAL | SAP Blogs
https://video.sap.com/media/t/1_7eqp9dmd
The purpose of this blog post is to walk you through step-by-step on how to use the Adoption Retrospective Mural completely. Each section of this blog post will cover how each area of the Mural is used and how a facilitator would set said area up for their team. Along with images to help guide you through the process. At the end of this blog post a link to Mural as well as an instructional video are provided for you.
Some of the benefits of using a Mural template for the Adoption Retrospective include:
- Asynchronous timing – the workshop participants can access the mural before the workshop
- Collaboration – the tool allows multiple participants to be in the Mural at one time and to contribute (similar to interaction w/in Google Doc)
- Contribution – everyone can contribute their questions or viewpoint without having to wait for a person to finish speaking: which common courtesy would dictate, if you were in person
- Documentation – can export the template as a PDF and save as a reference for later
- No space limit – not bound to psychical wall space or whiteboard limits
- Cloud tool – no need to download an app to access the Mural(s), it is all done in the cloud
A portion of the Adoption Retrospective Mural would be filled out at the end of a project, by the internal team members. A meeting would then occur where previously noted items of “what went well” and “what didn’t go well” would receive a vote, then discuss the top 5, or so; leading to action items that should improve other projects going forward.
Figure 1 – Screenshot of the entire Adoption Retrospective Mural.
Adoption Retrospective Mural Design
Introduction (left margin)
The first section contains the purpose of the Mural, as well as a map of the project to help facilitate discussion. At the bottom of the section, both tool tips and resources from SAP and Mural can be found.
Figures 2, 3 – Zoomed in screenshots of the Introduction margin.
Project overview
A portion completed by a lead on the project, including such information as: a) customer particulars, b) project details, c) specifics about the team, etc.
Figure 4 – Zoomed in screenshot of the Retrospective Preparation section.
Instructions will be sent, along with a link to the Mural, for each team member to fill out the ❸rd section: marked “Retrospective”, prior to the meeting. This should give ample time to document individual opinions on what went well, and what didn’t.
Be sure to encourage marking of stickies with relevant tags. Do this by selecting your stickie, moving the cursor over to the tag icon and selecting one or more from the drop-down menu. Some examples of tags include phases in Activate methodology, line of business, etc. These tags will be used for organizational purpose, so be sure to also tag your action items later.
Figure 5 – Zoomed in screenshot of tag function
If you are having trouble thinking of examples, be sure to make use of the leading questions found in this section. Use them to jog your memory or answer them directly; if you answer a question directly, be sure to mark the question number on your stickie (e.g. Prepare 2, or Deploy 3, etc.).
Figure 6 – Zoomed in screenshot of leading questions.
Icebreaker
The actual meeting will kick-off with a quick icebreaker. This is nothing more than a one word description of a “successful project” w brief discussion following: an opportunity for each member to feel comfortable with navigation in the app, as well as encourage open and honest participation. This section in general should not take more than 5-10 minutes, depending on the number of participants and time allotted in the agenda.
Figure 7 – Zoomed in screenshot of the Icebreaker section.
Retrospective
These sticky notes will be populated by team members with “what went well” and “what did not…” prior to the scheduled discussion. Then, following a voting session within Mural (the goal being to narrow focus to the top 5 or so topics), discussion can commence as to improvements.
Figure 8 – Zoomed in screenshot of the Retrospective section.
To initiate a voting session, begin by clicking the voting session icon.
Figure 9 – Zoomed in screenshot of Voting icon.
Then adjust the setting to fit the situation. Add a title, select how many votes will be allowed per person, adjust what can be voted on within the Mural. For this workshop, only sticky notes should be selected to be voted on, choose selected section, and click next.
Figure 10 – Zoomed in screenshot of vote settings screen.
Adjust the parameters of the selected section and begin voting. Once all votes are in, the facilitator will click End voting session.
Figure 11 – Zoomed in screenshot of the End voting session button.
The results will be displayed on the Mural, at which point the top results (depending how many topics the team wishes to discuss) will be moved down to section ❹.
Discussion Table
Items from “Retrospective” above are moved to this area for discussion. The goal being to create action items that promote process improvements. Ideally these action items will have assignees, and dates, for which the item is to be completed.
Also included are sections for free thinking, “closed topics” as well as a “parking lot” for topics that need further discussion.
Figure 12 – Zoomed in screenshot of the Discussion Table section.
The goal of this section is to disposition agreed upon items from the retrospective into the appropriate outputs moving forward against future projects.
Some of these types of outputs of the fit-to-standard workshops are:
- Action Items – a list of items to be carried by team member by a certain date to ensure that mistakes are not repeated. Or that positive change carries over to the next project.
- Parking Lot Items – items that need to be followed up and parked for further follow up after the Adoption Retrospective.
- Closed Topics – items that were talked about and closed during the Adoption Retrospective (some parts might have turned into action items.)
Conclusion
The utilization of the Adoption Retrospective workshop can help take positives from any project and make sure they are applied to future assignments. As well as avoiding repeating mistakes from project to project. By doing so all teams can strive to improve with each project completed. If any of you have questions or feedback about this Mural, I encourage you to comment feedback or questions below. And be sure to utilize the Mural link and the instructional video provided.
I would also encourage you to follow the SAP S/4HANA Cloud topic page:
https://community.sap.com/topics/s4hana-cloud
Post and answer questions about related tag :
https://answers.sap.com/questions/ask.html?primaryTagId=67837800100800007389
And read other posts on the topic:
https://blogs.sap.com/tags/67837800100800007389/
MURAL | SAP Blogs
Links to Mural and Video
Adoption Retrospective Mural Template
https://video.sap.com/media/t/1_7eqp9dmd
- SAP Managed Tags:
