Phases of A Successful Implementation: #3 Solution Personalization
#3 Solution Personalization
Description
During this phase of the project, your functional and technical resources will modify business processes based on decisions made in the blueprint phase of the project. This work may entail communication to all parties involved in the process, getting external resources involved, or additional monies to make the changes that align with the newly defined business process. Also, in parallel with this, system configuration, ABAP programming will be taking place to build the business processes as well as the specific system selections, checks and display screens defined in blueprint. Now that business processes are defined at this point, the data team will begin to work on figuring out how to get specific data out of legacy system into the new system.
Key Activities
These are the activities individuals involved in the project should be expected to do during this phase.
- Configuration of the system
- Development objects
- Data mapping
- Data extractions
Inputs and Outputs of the Phase
Inputs will be what information will be used in this phase and the Outputs are results expected during this phase.
Input: Business Blueprint
Output: Designed system
Output: Test scripts and test resources
Resources
These are the roles that should be expected to be involved during this phase. They should always be a part of the communication plan, but will be actively involved in this phase.
Project team
Business Process Owner
Subject Matter Experts
Technical Resources
Common Problems during this Phase
- Lack of Technical Resources for designing the system à More times than not, resources are assigned up front for a project as mentioned in my earlier blog. However, during this earlier phase, the technical work for the project is only estimated based on high level reviews. Therefore, most of the time the technical resources are those we ‘think’ we need. However, after business blueprint, we have the exact technical needs. Although we now know what we need to do, rarely do we adjust our technical resource staff to meet our needs. Usually because of this, technical solutions may not be optimal or may take longer than necessary. Consider reviewing your technical needs at the beginning of this phase and then doing an assessment of your technical resources skillset. Identify if you have any gaps in technical needs. If so, now is the time to make adjustments and not assign work to an unqualified resource.
- Lack of Business Leaders to implement process change within the organization à Coming out of business blueprint, decisions will have been made to modify or create business processes. At times, some of these changes are immediate and some come with the go-live of your project. Nonetheless, if the people who are taking the changes back to the business don’t have ‘authority’ to make those changes in the business. Typically, that area will experience ‘trouble’ at go-live and likely try to identify the go-live as the reason for it rather than understanding that there was a breakdown in their business process or that the project affected their business process which required the change. The message here is to think about this critical task that will happen during your project when you are assigning resources to the project. Think about resources in each area as someone with authority or someone highly respected and this will be a non-event for you.
Keep these common problems in mind as you are selecting resources for the project especially from the business. Your technical resources can always be acquired in somewhat of a short period of time if you need more; however, having resources who have the know-how, the authority and the drive to implement change in your organization can be difficult to find. This will be the game changer for you in how well your areas flourish during the project and beyond.
All the Best for your Project,
Stephanie
ABOUT
SL Smith & Associates became a firm in late 2014. It was a result of the owner, Stephanie Smith breaking out from working for SAP consulting firms and doing it on her own, convinced that the cookie cutter consulting the same way for every one was so frustrating and not getting the job done.
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