Now in China, people who do software consulting are rotten in the street.
Many people are doing technology transfer and are familiar with SAP functions.
Some people transfer from enterprises to consulting companies, and their original business is very proficient.
Some people can enter consulting companies as soon as they graduate, and the projects are one after another.
All these people, people mixed in this circle, can mostly talk about how the project is done, saying 1, 2, 3.
What blueprint, construction, testing, these stages in the implementation process, everyone can say, everyone knows.
However, do you really know how to do the project?
Do you really know what deployment needs to do?
Do you really understand the connection between deployments in a program?
Do you really know why you are doing this?
First, start with the most details.
When I first started this project, I was fired by a foreign company, and the project manager was Malaysian.
At that time, each team had to make a status report, which was made by PPT and had a special template.
Have a meeting once a week to review the team together.
During the meeting, the project manager will pay attention to the format of the report.
You cannot use Ctrl C+Ctrl V to add a page. You must insert a page in PPT, so that you can copy the template most completely.
The font size of each text box on each page should match the template.
The format of branches, paragraphs, pages and dates shall conform to the template.
There must be accurate figures in the content of the report. How much did you plan to accomplish this week and how much did you actually accomplish? You must never fool the tasks you have to do in the past with percentages. PIC and target date must be available.
When describing a thing, you can't use words like "we" and "they". Who is "we"? Who are they?
Finally, we must write the revision history.
At that time, we, especially our colleagues in China, felt very troublesome. Why spend so much time looking at these details?
It doesn't matter if the font is different. The completion of each job, accurate to specific figures, is also time-consuming.
However, I will get used to it over time.
A few years later, when I saw the status report of another state-owned enterprise project.
The status report of that state-owned enterprise project also has a template, but it is very simple.
The specific content of the report is completely free from the requirements I mentioned above.
As a result, I didn't understand it at all.
In addition, the reports of different groups should be aggregated. If the fonts are different, the difference will be obvious when changing pages.
The status report is just a small matter. But it is very important to pay attention to the details.
Who does what, who will audit, how to do it and when to finish it. . .
If you don't make it clear, others won't know, and the result must be that things are not done well or delayed.
Therefore, to do a good job in a project, please take the details seriously first.
Second, logistics.
Logistics here refers to logistics, which provides life and work services for everyone in the project.
Why do you say this?
Because as a deployment, first of all, PM has to solve logistics problems.
Now I am working on a project, and most of the members come from different places. So how should the accommodation be arranged?
Usually, PM will negotiate the price with several local hotels, and sometimes customers can get the agreed price.
You can't live too far away from your customers. It takes a lot of time to commute and the taxi fare is expensive.
Don't live too far away from the city, don't be isolated from the world when the consultant is on a business trip, and consider the convenience of life.
What's the type of room where you live? Is it a set of 1 person or a set of 2 people?
If there are two people, how to arrange the personnel? You can't put two people together.
It is necessary to consider whether these two people can get along.
What means of transportation do you want to use to get to and from the airport and customers?
Find a regular taxi driver or take a taxi directly on the road?
You know, safety comes first!
If you eat, do the players have any taboos and foreign habits?
At the customer's place, where is the office,
There are about 20 people in a project, plus key users. How to sit?
Generally speaking, a team will do it together, so what about the communication between teams?
FI and CO should be closer, PP should be closer to mm.
It is best for consultants and key users to sit next to each other, without the need for consultants to mind their own business and facilitate communication.
Office space, access card, telephone, fax, printer, copier, water dispenser, network, air conditioner, projector, conference room.
Wait, these resources need to be sorted out.
Stick the names of team members on the seats so that others can find them.
Make an address book, preferably print it out and send it to everyone.
......
In fact, there are too many things to be clarified in logistics.
But you know, this is what PM is responsible for.
Because at this time, the project has not started and the personnel have not come.
And many involve costs, and PM needs to control costs.
Of course, sometimes after the project starts, PM will find someone to help and let others take care of it.
However, this is always something you have to do as a deployment.
Maybe a lot of PM do this casually, even willing to spend money.
But what I want to say is that whether things are done well or not depends on the details.
Whether the arranged resources take into account the feelings and ideas of others.
We should consider how to work happily without complaining about the bad environment.
Third, the global template
Let me take a global plan as an example.
What is a template?
Usually, multinational enterprises have to face different countries and different factories when implementing SAP.
Different branches have different businesses, some are production factories and some are trading companies.
Then, as a multinational enterprise, it is generally necessary to integrate business in one system.
In SAP, there are 1 clients, which are divided into multiple company codes.
The company code is a separate branch.
Therefore, before implementing SAP, we should consider the architecture of the whole enterprise (client).
Including unified business processes, unified solutions and unified data formats.
Such a unified thing is called a template.
In our own words, it is also called global template.
After designing these, we will go to a factory to realize them.
In the process of factory implementation, you will definitely encounter different requirements from templates. At this time, you can also modify the template.
What does the template include?
The first is the organizational structure
To control such a template, a special team is needed to manage it, GT Team (Global Template Team).
Everyone in this team is an expert in a field, such as fi and MM. The customers these team members face are BPOs (business process leaders) at the whole enterprise level, such as CFO.
During the implementation of each deployment, the requirements of the deployment team that need to change the template should be reported to the GT team, which is responsible for coordinating other deployments to see if such changes can be made.
For example, a deployment wants to use a field to place some reference information in the material master data.
Is it okay? This should consider what the purpose of this field is in the standard function of SAP.
Material master data is common to all factories. Will this field be used when implementing other deployments?
Will this field be used in system reports?
......
Templates focus on blueprint design.
What is the naming rule of material master data?
What types of materials are used for what materials?
How to define the subject of the team?
Cost center, profit center, product hierarchy
Do you want to use the material ledger?
Do you want to use split valuation?
What is the purpose of document types? What's the numerical range?
......
Unified process
For example, if a purchase requisition is submitted, it will be approved.
For example, whether the production order has been released, whether it is released by order or backflush, or both.
......
Unified access control
Set common roles, deploy and copy these roles.
......
Templates also include program development.
Some reports are used by the whole enterprise, so make them in the template.
During the deployment period, just use it.
......
And document templates.
All file formats, status reports, data conversion templates, to be processed,
Of course, the font size, line division and so on I mentioned at the beginning are all defined in the template.
How to make a template
Unfortunately, I didn't make a template, so I didn't say this part in detail.
Making templates is also a separate project.
Usually after the program is started, but before the deployment begins.
Enterprises will gather many people, including consultants and users, who may come from various factories.
The process is also like doing a project, such as business research, blueprint design, system construction, document preparation and so on.
Why do you want to make a template?
It is hard to imagine how to realize an integrated SAP system for enterprises without templates.
Whether the template is good or not depends on the details.
When I first saw the documents made by Template, I was surprised that all the documents to be used in the project were so detailed.
Many times, we just need to copy it down and change a few words to use it.
Looking at the template, it is easy to go to the factory to realize it.
Therefore, a good and detailed template is the prerequisite for the success of the whole scheme.
Fourth, get local input.
With the template, the next step is to go to the branch/factory for deployment.
As mentioned earlier, different factories have different businesses, and the template may not be completely applicable.
So at the beginning of deployment, the first stage is to capture local input, which is to collect local requirements in Chinese.
So how do you collect requirements?
First, prepare the introduction materials. This paper introduces the design of SAP system and template.
Introduction materials are generally made by PPT, which is used to explain to users in Workshop.
The key point is to introduce it in a way that users understand.
I have read the materials written by some people, including training materials, which are completely technical.
Tell me what function is used, how the T code is, and what documents are generated in the system, and it's over.
However, in addition, you can write some:
1. Noun explanation
2. What policies does the enterprise have to decide the template design?
3. What is the original business process, what will the template change and what are the benefits?
4. What is the impact on the authority, and what positions in the business correspond to what departments?
Remember, we implement it on the basis of templates, that is, we must do our homework before going to the factory to capture local input.
After introducing the information, there should be a list of questions.
What material types will be used?
You can't directly ask if there are finished products or raw materials.
Excuse me, do you have any packaging materials, such as cardboard, wooden pallet and wooden containers?
Do you have petrochemical products, such as fuel, industrial chemicals and lubricants?
......
What kind of payment method will be used?
For example, see the ticket in 30 days and see the ticket in 60 days.
......
Don't ask very basic questions based on the template. It should be related to the actual business and can directly help the later system design problems.
In the stage of capturing local input, users from different departments are usually called to start Workshop.
It is necessary to carefully study the number and scope of users convened.
Users cannot participate in two sessions of MM and FI at the same time. So the time should be staggered if necessary.
Some workshops need BPO to attend, so you should say hello in advance and send an invitation.
Some seminars need to be discussed with different functional teams, which is called integration meeting.
After the seminar, the local input should be recorded and become a local input list.
Of course, it should be included in this list.
1. Describe these inputs in a short sentence.
Detailed introduction
3. Who proposed it?
4. Date of submission
5. Who is the corresponding BPO?
6. Classification, you can define different classifications for each project.
7. Requirement type, is it related to configuration or data conversion?
8. Does it affect the global template?
9. Priority, which has a special definition, is either high or high.
10. Who is responsible for tracking this requirement?
1 1. Possible solutions
12. Status, on or off
It should be mentioned here that it doesn't matter how many records you need, as long as you track them well and confirm with the user later, and the status is closed.
I'm afraid that two kinds of users talk too little in Dachuan.
At this stage, project experience is still very important. Many requirements can be cancelled in the workshop.
In addition, the reporting requirements should also be collected at this stage.
The key point is to do rationalization and rationalization at this stage.
You know, the more the demand for development, the more annoying it is, and it must be cut, cut, cut.
Finally, PM needs to have a meeting every day to review the status.
How many local inputs have been collected today, and how many are high?
Tracking status.
Finally, the local input list should be confirmed with BPO as the basis of blueprint design in the next stage.
Fifth, blueprint design.
In the blueprint design stage, the main time is to discuss the solution of local input.
In other words, we must find a solution at this stage of collecting requirements.
Among them, three documents are the most important.
They are blueprints and methods of process and data conversion.
What is a blueprint?
There are some conceptual introductions, such as system design and solutions. ....
In fact, this is a series of Word documents.
Each document corresponds to a module, which introduces each functional design in detail.
The document should include the requirements introduction of this function, detailed requirements analysis and solutions, and special conclusions of this deployment.
For example, physical inventory.
1. What are the needs of users? Ensure inventory accuracy? In line with financial balance?
2. What are the detailed requirements? Is the accuracy of inventory based on factory level or storage location level? Do you want to use cycle counting?
3. What's the solution? How to define the classification of A, B and C? What is the reason code for inventory adjustment?
4. What's the difference between this deployment and the template?
You must have seen a lot of things about to happen.
However, it is necessary to emphasize the specification of the document here.
The symbols used, the way of marking, the header and footer should all be done according to the template.
Otherwise, it's hard to understand.
Data conversion method, referred to as DCT, is a guiding document for data conversion.
It includes the transformation projects available in this deployment.
Where is the original data? How much data is there? Who provided it? Who coordinates? Who confirmed it?
Can I use the existing SAP data upload template?
How to convert raw data into SAP data template? How do the fields correspond? For example, in the old system, the character length of the field was greater than that of SAP. How to solve it?
......
These three documents are the key to the blueprint design stage.
After sorting out these three documents, you should review and sign with BPO.
As the basis of building the next stage of the system.
In addition, the list of things to be developed should also be determined at this stage.
The implementation of the project is linked by one link.
If the requirements you collect are incomplete or inaccurate, then your blueprint design is definitely not perfect.
In your blueprint stage, there are still some requirements that have no solutions. If you start building the system like this, there will definitely be problems to rework in the future.
The sign of completion of each stage is BPO confirmation. You can't change your visa casually in the future.
Of course, it doesn't mean that there can't be new demands, and some customers don't pay attention to signing off.
However, as a project manager, we should stick to this practice and ask guide users to cooperate according to this practice.
Making such a method is the most important thing in project management.
Sixth, build and test.
Studying technical problems is the strong point of China people.
Many strongmen are familiar with the configuration of SAP and know whether a certain function can be realized in SAP.
However, it is not enough just to know the technology and be a consultant.
First, introduce the system environment.
In SAP, different clients have different environments.
through
Usually, there is a client for configuration, a client for development, a client for sandbox (just change and use it) and another client.
SIT customers, UAT customers, training customers, simulated customers.
Convert customers, formal production customers and user support customers.
The configuration client can't do any transaction, and it can be automatically transmitted to the development client after configuration.
Component testing at the development client.
Development customers are also development customers.
Because on the client side of Config, if you make any transactions, some configurations may not change.
For example, the number range, you make a deal, the number jumps by one.
Development needs a test program, so development customers need test data.
When you do configuration, you must first have a configuration list.
This is an Excel file, including all configuration items in all SAP IMG.
Use a single column to identify what needs to be configured in this deployment, which is cross-client and which is cross-company code. Also record the transport request number.
In addition, of course, there are Config Notes, which I believe you have seen a lot.
Transportation is controlled by the foundation, and this aspect should be coordinated with the foundation.
Who made the request, who approved it and when?
Usually, in a large project, you don't want to change the configuration.
Approved by GT team.
Testing is divided into component testing, SIT and UAT.
Component testing means that you have completed the configuration, and you have to go to the test environment to see if the configuration can be used. This part does not require users to participate in SIT and UAT, which depends on your blueprint design stage.
The test script comes from the pending process.
What processes have users identified? Of course, we must try them in the system.
For example, create an item master data and make a sales order. . . .
The test scripts of SIT and UAT need to be confirmed with BPO.
The test script results of SIT and UAT need to be signed by users.
The difference between SIT and UAT is that
The range of UAT is greater than or equal to SIT, and some pending processes are relatively simple and rarely used, so please consult BPO. After the seat is measured, UAT doesn't need to measure it again.
SIT and UAT have different user ranges. SIT users are key users, while UAT users are selected end users.
There is also integration testing, which means that some processes involve more than three modules.
For example, make to stock, make to order.
Integration testing will exist in SIT and UAT phases.
Test script: test data should be prepared in advance.
When arranging tests, we should pay attention to the fact that users' time cannot conflict. Some users participate in the integration test and testing of a module, so the time should be separated.
Seven, data conversion
Data conversion is not only importing data before going online, but also running through the whole project implementation process.
There must be a special leader who is responsible for keeping an eye on this part of the work.
When capturing local input, you should determine the scope of data collection.
What are the conversion items of each module, and where is the data source? Who provides the data, who collects the data, who approves the data, and what is the estimated data volume?
In the blueprint design stage, there are three documents to be completed.
DCA (data conversion method), DMM (data mapping matrix) and DCT (data conversion template).
DCA should describe in detail how to import each conversion project into SAP system.
How detailed?
For example, the user's current data needs to be cleaned up, so how to clean it up?
What if I don't receive the purchase order? It's over? Half? Receive the invoice first? Received half of the invoice?
How is the data exported from the user system? By hand or with tools? Who prepares the tools? Who tests?
DMM is used to map the user systems and fields of SAP.
In different systems, even the same field may have different character lengths, not to mention some material parameters.
DCT is the template used before uploading to SAP. Basically, the fields in DCT are completely corresponding to those in SAP.
In the stage of construction and testing, we should build transformation tools &; test
This is easy to understand, that is, start doing things according to the previous DCA.
At this stage, analog conversion will be started at the same time.
Usually, there are three analog conversions, analog 1, analog 2 and FDR.
Why did you do it so many times?
mimical
The goal of 1 is relatively simple, and only 30~50% of Go Live data can be prepared, and the production enterprise can prepare a complete BOM. So funny
Conversion can prepare basic data for SIT, estimate the time of uploading data, test uploading tools, and ensure users to understand the whole process of data conversion.
Mock 2 is more demanding, and the data volume needs about 75% of Go Live.
In order to prepare for UAT, the data of simulation 2 needs one month to check the balance between finance and logistics.
FDR is a full rehearsal, which completely simulates the online situation.
The quantity and schedule of uploading data should refer to the requirements of cutover.
Moreover, the data in the FDR process needs to be signed, and in short, it needs to be simulated online.
At the same time, a lot of materials prepared at this stage can also be used in cutover, such as material master data, so there is no need to prepare them again.
Data conversion is a very important job, through which you can get familiar with the user's system.
Without a good analog conversion, how can we ensure that the line can go smoothly?
Finally, before the system goes online, that is the final data conversion. Arrange the conversion plan.
For each conversion project, when will it be uploaded? What's the order? Is it dependent?
How long does it take to upload, and the amount of data? Who is responsible for uploading? And follow up any related issues.
VIII. Authorization
When the project is implemented, who will execute the authority?
It's not a foundation, it's a functional team.
Basis should be responsible for creating roles and transports in the system.
But it should be the job of the functional team to decide which roles are needed and what permissions they have. Because the functional team will understand the business and know how to set roles.
The implementation of authority is not simple.
First of all, as a global template, there is already a set of universal roles. When deploying, you need to copy these common roles as local roles and make some changes as variant roles.
1 Legal entities should be mapped to roles during blueprint design.
How many company codes, factories and factories are used in this deployment, and which common role will be used? Please list them.
2. confirm the mapping of SAP Tcode to roles.
Similarly, after the blueprint design is completed, we should know which T codes will be used. It is necessary to check whether all T codes are included in the Commone role, and some local developers may add new T codes.
Any change requires the creation of different roles.
3 Confirm the mapping of roles to user ID
this
This is an Excel file. First of all, use a table to list all user information, such as name, ID, department, email address and so on. And roles
Description, this file is for users to see, of course, to let users know what each role does, not a technical description. And turf.
Control, according to the auditing principle formulated by Sarbanes-Oxley Act, wants users to know what roles conflict with what roles. Followed by a dot, user ID.
Mapping to roles, this goes without saying.
This document should be handed over to key users for completion and finally signed by BPO.
Different teams may use cross-team permission requirements, for example, MM users want financial permission.
This needs to be coordinated by authorized leaders.
The next step is to leave it to Basis Team to create roles and put aside the technical aspects.
5 authoritative test
There are two kinds of tests, one is a separate role test, and the other is a test based on user ID.
Create an ID for each role, and each ID has only one role. After logging in, test the permissions of this role.
Create an ID for each user, and in the test system, test the user's authority according to the operation of the function.
6 finally, it is the right to go online.
Pass the role to the production system, create an ID in the production system, set the effective time, and so on.
What needs to be mentioned here is that the change of authority is a normal business process, and only the change of T code such as transportation is the problem.
This should be specially distinguished after it goes online.