RPM. What exactly is RPM and cProjects? Well it's project portfolio management of course. Wow! What exactly can it do? What are the things you can customize? Where are the resources that are used for help?
Boy did I struggle with all of the above questions. First, I have a disclaimer RPM is not yet implemented at our company. So it's probably a bit early for this blog. I figured I'd write another blog once we get it up and running.
What is RPM and cProjects?
Well when we start a project, we have project managers. I guess most of you probably do. These kind and understanding of missed dates people, (Trying to win some brownie points here) usually never have to touch SAP. RPM is changing all that. It is a tool that project managers and others can use to track projects. They can check resource availability, manage their project, and even upload Microsoft project plans. Cool tool, huh? But there are many like it on the market.
Why did we decide to implement it? What can it do?
Because it is SAP? Actually that is the answer. As with everything else in SAP it is integrated. That means that with a little work our financial data will flow directly from the project plan into SAP. There will be links into SAP, so screens will automatically be displayed. There will be links into SAP HCM. The organization chart will be maintained in HCM, and through a background job get updated in RPM. Via links to HCM - CATT allows for entering time sheets. Linking that back to RPM makes it a good way to track your resources. You can probably find more reasons in the SAP sales pitch. These are just some of the reasons we decided to implement RPM.
Out of the box, does it meet all of our needs? Of course not. I don't think we've had a product yet that we have implemented without some customization.
What are the things you can customize?
This is a nice newer system. There are a lot of BADIs available. There are background programs to update other systems. Via customization, customer defined fields are normal to add. It is very easy to add them, and BADIs are not needed. Very cool. It made adding our fields very easy.
I've implemented the following BADIs:
A BADI for taking snapshots of data via decision points. Decision points are basically your milestones. They are a stopping point where we decide if it is a go or no-go to the next step. So at each of these points we wanted a snapshoot of the data. That way we could report on the changes after the decisions were made.
A BADI for external number assignment. This one is really a must do. The system will automatically assign this huge external number. The BADI allows you to use number ranges and prefixes on your external number.
A BADI to shift data in the "buckets" when the project date changes. Just an easy way to move the data.
I'm also writing some Web dypro screens to add on as tabs. One of the screens is for long text. Another one is for risk and issues.
Where are the resources that are used for help?
Here is a list of some of the places I looked. I struggled and still struggle with finding information on RPM. I'm not sure why.
Project Portfolio Management with SAP RPM and cProjects by Stefan Glatzmaier and Michael Sokollek. This book is a MUST have. There is a lot of detailed information. Including an entire chapter on BADIs, what they do, and some ideas on how to use them.
RPM WIKI - Honestly I didn't get very much information from this WIKI. As I get further along, I'll try to add information to it.
Article from Netweaver magazine - Colgate-Palmolive implemented RPM.
cProjects Information
And of course me. Feel free to e-mail. I may have run into the same issue you are struggling with.
We had a great consulting firm helping us with the implementation. I'm not sure that I'm supposed to put names in here. But Clay was very helpfull on the technical side.
This has been a fun project. As I work with it and learn more, I'll try to keep blogging. (At least when something interesting comes along.) We plan to implement our first phase in January. That phase will help us with our fiscal year planning.
The breakdown:
Phase 1: Fiscal year planning.
Phase 2: cProjects running with RPM. Managers approval. Including the workflows.
Phase 3: Updating our project time
