ASAP

Introduction
ASAP Methodology and R/3 Business Engineers are used in order to customize functionalities as per the business
process application requirements, in a cost effective and efficient way. These methods ensures quick and
organized customization of the required functions in an SAP system, and also help in avoiding unnecessary
functions, that are not needed. Through the standard procedures and support tools, the above two
methodologies ease up the process of implementation. They help in identifying the business processes that are
relevant as per the business requirement before the actual implementation begins.

ASAP Methodology
ASAP stands for Accelerated SAP. As the name suggests, it is a standard implementation methodology that helps
in implementing a SAP project in the most cost effective way. It does so by providing a step-wise way for the
implementation of a project, through the information provided, different tools and accelerators. It also helps us
test how close our implementation is to the R/3 system demanded by the client as per their requirement.

R/3 Business Engineer

It provides configuration and implementation tools to define, configure and apply R/3 system in such a way that
it is positively adaptable to the continuously changing set-ups.
Now a days, due to the continuously changing business market, the application software should also be designed
in such a way so that they are capable of catering the continuously changing needs of a business. A few
examples of such changes are –
 Changes in the work force of the organization
 Addition or subtraction of entities in organizational structure.
 Changes in currency parameters.
 Activation and deactivation of functionalities as per the requirements.
 Support for new and old, single or multiple R/3 versions.

Important Features
 Time and money saving procedures.
 A combination of a wide range of business functionalities.
 Support through appropriate help tools while configuring R/3 System.
 Quality of implementation process to ensure least possible glitches.
 Perfecting business processes using business workflow through monitoring and automation procedures.
 Facilitates copying of configured areas to other systems (functional units).

Tools
Before we start implementation of a project, we must gather all the required information, figure out the best
possible procedure and tools required for it. Some of the tools that helps in the previously mentioned tasks are –

ASAP Tools
1. Project Estimator – Helps in finding out the resources required, estimates the cost and time needed for a
particular project, keeping various risk factors in mind. [? – What are project scope and several project
and risk factors?]
2. Concept Check Tool – Helps in maintaining performance by quality verification. Since it keeps an eye on
the Project preparation, configuration of the system and technical details relating to the system, it is
used during the first two stages of the implementation project.
 3. Implementation Assistant – It’s a navigation tool that provide links to the help documents, various
related templates and other tools, that are required throughout the whole process of implementation.

ASAP Implementation Roadmap – It consists of different aspects and procedures relating to the 5 phases of
implementation procedure. It helps us figure out the tasks and activities we need to follow through the whole
process. It is the back bone of ASAP and is located within Implementation Assistant.

ASAP Implementation Project Plan – It has three components, i.e., Budget Plan, Resource Plan and a Work Plan.
 Budget Plan – Consists of Cost related details, such as monthly estimates, actual cost and variances etc.
 Resource Plans – Consists of resources assigned to a project. Shows the number of planned and actual
work days per month and calculated the difference between the two.
 Work Plan – Has details about the different phases, work packages, activities and tasks.

ASAP Accelerators – They are the collection of information documents, templates, simplification guides,
examples, other short information texts, and white papers etc.

Knowledge Corner – Provides Tips, detailed documentation on implementation procedures, tools, and
customizing wizards.

Question and Answer Database – It’s a repository that stores information relating to business process
requirements, reports, interfaces, enhancements and authorizations. This information is collectively called
Business Blueprint.

Business Process Master List – Manages Configuration, testing and creation of end user documentations and are
linked with pre-made end-user documents called Business Process Procedures.

Issues Database – Helps in monitoring, entering and managing problems arising during project implementation.

R/3 Business Engineer

1. R/3 Reference Model – It’s a graphical flow chart describing R/3 functionalities and shows different
processes, scenarios, functions and components.
2. Implementation Guide – It has project management functionalities, and view for all customization
activities. It means, it is used to set all system parameters for various business processes.

Pre-configured Systems
1. Pre-configured US and Canadian Client – They are like a sample client/ system that provides some
standard templates, documentation and examples based on US and Canadian Business Work Standards.
2. Preconfigured Industry System – There a few fully configured sample clients which has an industry-
specific model and preconfigured business processes.
 Phase 1 – Project Preparation

During this phase of implementation, the team goes through the initial planning and preparation for the project.
The goals and objectives of the project are defined. Scope of implementation is clarified. Project schedule,
budget plan and implementation sequence are also defined. Project organization and committees are formed
and resources are assigned.

Phase 2 – Business Blueprint

The main purpose of this phase is to understand how the company is going to use SAP to support their business.
The original project goals and objectives are refined and the overall project schedule is also revised during this
phase. Various workshops are conducted and through some questionnaires, various business requirements are
determined. Thus, a business blueprint is a details documentation of the information and results gathered
during requirement workshops.
Following tools are used –
 ASAP Implementation Assistant
 Question and Answer Database – Q&Adb
 Business Process Master List – BPML
 R/3 structure Modeler
 Business navigator and external modeling tools

Project Management
It includes all the planning, controlling and updating activities. The major activities are –
 Conducting status meeting for project team
 Conducting steering committee meeting
 General Project management – other task that support implementation project
 Addressing organizational issues relating to organizational change management
 Project team training
 Developing system environment
 Defining organizational structure
 Defining business processes

R/3 Reference model

Depending upon target groups and goals, following types of models are available –
1. Process Model – Contains process flow views for complete R/3 functionality. Used for industry specific
modeling.
2. Component Hierarchy – We can choose R/3 components we want to use in our enterprise to support
our business processes. Selection is made using –
 Implementation Guide – For R/3 customization
 Session Manager – To define company and user specific menu
 Profile Generator – For authorization profiles
3. Business Object Model – It is a description of around 200 business objects, such as customers, vendors,
cost centers, employees etc. Its main purpose is to determine input/output assignments of business
objects. Used for checking data and processes in productive system.
 Phase 3 – Realization

During this phase all the business process requirements are implemented based on the given business blueprint.
Integration testing is done and the end user documentation is also prepared during this phase.
The configuration of the system is done in two steps (also known as work packages) –
1. Baseline – Configures 80 percent of daily transactions, all of the master data and organizational
structure. This configuration is done by application consultants. Baseline scenarios copies the key
business processes to the R/3 system.
2. Final Configuration – Remaining process-oriented activities. Done by Business Process Team. Each
Business Process is divided into cycles of related business process flow.

? – Who are Application Consultants and Business Process Team?

During this phase, from technical side –

 Enhancements and interfaces are developed.
 Data is transferred from legacy systems.
 Archiving system is setup.

BPML – Business Process Master List

It is a report that is created using the details in Question-Answer Database in previous phase.
It is used to identify, plan, schedule and monitor the configuration and testing of R/3 scenarios and business
processes within the scope of implementation. BPML consists of baseline scope, cycle plan, integration testing
plans and templates. It helps in Integration testing of all the scenarios. We can also call an R/3 system using
BPML.

BPP – Business Process Procedure – It is a template with initial definition for developing user procedures and
case or test procedures.

IMG – Implementation Guide.

It is the main tool for configuration and customization of R/3 system. It is used for –
 Initial implementation of R/3 system.
 System enhancement and modification.
 System maintenance and release upgrades.
Thus we can –
 Manage, process and analyze implementation or enhancement projects.
 Configure R/3 system in a quick, safe and cost-effective way.
 Document and Monitor implementation phases.
 Modify standard functions as per the business requirements.
 Automatically transfer the configuration data from quality assurance system to productive system,
ensuring consistency.

Tasks relating to configuration –

1. Enterprise IMG – Created from R/3 reference IMG, contains whole range of activities, and tell in which
countries R/3 components are to be implemented.
2. Project IMG – Created for individual projects by selecting countries and application components from
Enterprise IMG.
3. Views – Created for every project IMG. It only shows activities that must be carried out.
Other Aspects of phase 3
Authorizations in R/3 system – Done through Profile Generator. Employee tasks are matched with authorization
profiles by R/3 in the form of pre-defined activity groups. By creating authorization profiles, we ensure the
safety of application and data from unauthorized access.

SAP Business Workflow

It is used to define basic business workflow, helps in optimizing automatic handling of exceptional situations and
missed deadlines.

ABAP Workbench
It is a complete development environment integrated with R/3 system that helps us modify the standard R/3
applications. It helps in defining interfaces and transferring data.

ALE – Application Link Enabling – A Distributed Business Process

It helps in combining related R/3 and third-party applications. It is done based on business object technology.
Examples are – Centralized Accounting system and customer master maintenance.

User Documentation
Depending on the number of users and tasks, we can plan structure, contents and format for the user
documentation. The BPP can help us in doing so.

System Management Procedures – Through work packages.

 Developing system test plans.
 System Administration functions.
 Setting quality assurance environment.
 Defining design of productive system.
 Defining management procedures for productive environment.
 Setting up the productive environment.

Quality Checks
An internal quality check is performed by project manager. Checking and validation are done for –
 Baseline scopes
 Global setting for R/3 system
 Organizational structure
 Archiving management
 Finalized system
 User documentation and training material.

Last step in this phase is user training is formulized and approved.

Phase 4 – Final Preparation

Purpose of this phase is to complete final preparation of the project, before it is ready for the use.
It includes –
 Testing
 End user training – As per the number of users, location and their tasks
 Creating End-User documentation
 System management
 Cutover activities (uploading of data)
  Any kind of critical or crucial issues raised are also handled during this phase
 System Administrator training
The last step of this phase to migrate data from the test system to the production system. Apart from checking
the system, a help desk is also created.

CCMS – Computer Center Management System. Network Administration, backup, archiving and capacity
monitoring is done through it. Also printing facility is configured, system volume and stress tests are conducting
along with the going-live checks.

Another important task is simulating the project in operating environment. For this, the following things needs
to be tested –
 Testing interface programs
 Volume and stress tests
 Testing conversion procedures and programs
 Final user acceptance testing
 Developing a final go-live strategy
 Tests related to printing activities

CATT – Computer Aided Test Tools. They are used for the following purposes –
 To automate the test procedures for key business processes.
 To simulate various critical conditions
 Conducting quality tests during release changes
 Testing disaster recovery plans
 Testing services and responsiveness of third party service providers

Go-live Check –
 Checking major components of R/3 installation, for consistency and reliability is done. Individual
components of SAP system are analyzed remotely by SAP experts and important recommendations are
noted.
 Next, Transactions with high resource consumption are optimized.
 Atlast, all the changes are verified in the productive operating system.

Cutover –
 Preparing a conversion checklist.
 Transferring data.
 Reviewing runtime for test run for complete data.
 Verification of all the required tasks such as cutover plans, technical details and setting etc.

Phase 5 – Go Live and Support

Now that the project is finally ready, during this phase it goes live. It means, the project is now moved from a
project-oriented or pre-production environment to live production operation.
The support services during this phase are –
 OSS – Online Service System
 Remote Consulting
  Early-watch services – Experts analyze system's infrastructure. The purpose is to ensure smooth
performance of the live R/3 system in order to prevent it from any sort of bottleneck conditions. They
also measures server, database, applications, errors, system load and configuration. A status report is
then created with all the results so that it can be referred for system tuning.

Activities carried out during this phase are –

 Setting up production support.
 Monitoring system transactions.
 Optimizing overall system performance and keeping an eye on it on a daily basis.
 Following up training of users.
 Validation of business processes and their configuration.

New Releases and Upgrades

In order to keep up with the ever changing market demands, SAP keeps itself updated. ASAP helps in upgrading
these updates to the SAP System by providing two types of upgradation roadmaps that helps us move from
older versions to the newer releases. These two roadmaps are –
Continuous change Roadmap – Provides ongoing support and online assistance after the go-live phase.
Upgrade Roadmap – Used to plan and upgrade our existing R/3 System.

Upgrade and Release Change

Upgrade Customizing – Working with the same functions within the selected components.
Delta Customizing – Implementing new functionalities supplied for existing release.

ASAP for Upgrades

Implementing of new versions is done as a new project.
The upgrade roadmap provides a systematic approach to apply release changes and supports the documents
and tools provided in SAP system for the same. It generates a project plan as per the requirement of the project,
avoiding unnecessary things.
Types of Changes – Business changes, Technology changes and changes in user community.