Tricks which can improve your SAP Projects
Introduction
SAP Projects are very specific. In the world of Agile methodology, Scrum, Design Thinking, Human Centered Approach – we have our ERP Software which needs to be implemented, extended or just somehow modified.
SAP is on the Market since 1972 year. So the very first Consultants are now 70 years old! (Considering they started in their early 20ties). Unfortunately, the way of working hasn’t changed so much. In simple words – most of SAP projects are based on Waterfall model. Hundreds of excels, 100-pages long WORD documents with instructions, requirements and other stuff. For young professionals it is a real pain in the ***.
So how to become a successful Consultant of XXI Century, who is satisfied with the tools that help her/him to deliver projects on time?
Below I would like to introduce you my 4 proposals which describe how you can improve dealing with your SAP Projects.
Use MS Teams at its fullest
Most of us use MS Teams right now. Previously, we sticked to Skype Application, via which we had internal meetings and these with clients as well.
In my opinion Teams brought some fresh air and a lot of cool features. Let’s dive into them right now. I honestly encourage you to:
1) Use post section
It is not a rocket science, I know. It is about using this section properly and regularly. I encourage you to use the text templates, which help you to be consistent with your visual language:
2) Use TAGs
Moreover, there is something like TAGs. You can club specific Consultants into a one TAG, and then by typing in the chat/post section @(tag name) you will mention them, so they will be notified immediately about your post or message.
2) Feedback is the key
Communication is vital in SAP Projects. I know it sounds weird – especially for more experienced Consultants, but the key of good communication is to give feedback. You can address it in MS Teams via emoticons, in meetings you can use reactions like clapping, sending a GIF is also cool!
I wasn’t so optimistic before, even more – I was some kind of Top Enemy of these features. I thought they are very childish, as this emoticons-evenement is quite new and was mostly used by teenagers on Facebook or Instagram. But I have totally changed my mind and I encourage you to do the same!
Service work? Use Kanban Board in Teams!
This is the most exciting part which I want to share with you. It won’t be a rocket science, but this ‘hack’ I find really enjoyful, as I implemented it in one of my previous SAP projects.
Let me put some background first. So there was a service project where we were some kind of Service Desk, but for SAP-related issues. Let’s say you had a problem with Purchase Orders, some custom logic stopped working etc. – you contacted us. Imagine you do not have a Ticketing System yet like ServiceNow – what do you do? Moreover, the amount of issues reported by users is getting bigger and bigger. Excel is fine – but let’s be honest: nobody will manually update your tables everyday with all the comments, updates etc. Nowadays it won’t work. That’s why I implemented Kanban Board:
The process itself is pretty straightforward – we receive emails/calls from users, we want to register their issues, categorise them, update them and mark as solved (if it happens). We also want to link some documents, tips and hints for other colleagues from the support team.
Steps:
- First – go to the MS Teams and choose your team. Now, at the top you will see a + button. Click it and find the app called ‘Tasks by Planner and to do’. Give it a name and save.
- You are almost there! The last thing is to make some ‘configuration’. Let’s define some categories. In my example it will be Basis, Production Planning, Plant Maintenance and Material Management.
- My board needs to consider three stages: ‘to do’ issues, ‘in progress’ issues and ‘solved’ issues. All I have to do is to define new buckets by clicking the ‘Add new bucket’ button:
And that’s all! Let’s see how we can use this tool right now:
Business case: You have just received an email from Brian – an SAP user. He has a problem with Confirmation of Production Order (ABAP dumps).
This is how you can register in in your MS Teams. Once you start working on it – you move it to the ‘in progress’ bucket.
Business case: You have just received an email from Brian – an SAP user. He has a problem with Confirmation of Production Order (ABAP dumps).
You can now use the comments section to give some regular updates, so during your status-calls you know all the details. Moreover, the categorisation allows you to easily filter your tickets or tickets Basis-relevant etc. And the last thing – you can export the list into excel format!
Of course this solution can not beat Ticketing Systems – my intention was to show you, how you can use the very basic tool like MS Teams and bring some joy into your work instead of getting angry with another excel file.
Brainstorming with MIRO
Before I explain how you can do it – let’s make sure we all know, what brainstorming actually is. It is a group problem solving technique, which helps to generate more innovative ideas by all members of your group.
So in a physical form such a brainstorming meeting is quite straight-forward. You gather up in your office, sit next to each other in a circle and interact.
When it comes to online brainstorming, I honestly recommend MIRO. It is a free tool (web and desktop based), which allows you to interact in real time with others. You can do many things there, not only brainstorming. You can use it for your daily meetings as well!
So how to get started? Let me explain it really fast. It’s obvious – we create an account at miro.com, and then you create your own board. It is like a canvas, on which you will put your notes, ideas etc. You can use pre-defined templates as well! Just share the board with your colleagues and start working together in real time. Navigation, tools and such kind of stuff – it is really simple. Just experience it yourself. Below you can see an example of MIRO board which presents output of some daily meeting.
New level of Documentation starts here!
A big part of our job as SAP Consultants is to prepare and maintain documentation. We have to document almost everything – requirements, configuration, test scripts etc. It is not the most attractive activity to be honest. When we learn new things we also generate tons of Word files and notes.
What if I told you there is a solution which will generate a smile on your face during documenting your stuff?
It is called Gitbook – yes, you can write there everything, even your own book. There are a lot of cool features, so let me point out the most important ones:
- it is free (there are paid plans as well)
- real time work with other folks (is is a cloud-based tool)
- import/export from/to .pdf, .docx
- intuitive and eye-catching UI Components
- you can link your documents, .pptx and other stuff
- great User Experience
I could spend another 30 minutes explaining why Gitbook. Instead, I will just show you my own example.
So, my idea is to document all the SAP Knowledge I gain. Sometimes it is SAP Plant Maintenance related, sometimes it is just about the business processes of Maintenance Operations. This is why I created the below sections at Gitbook (called ‘spaces’):
Let me show you one space – SAP Plant Maintenance. Here I store everything related to SAP PM – starting from Master Data, ending with configuration steps. As you can see – I have also attached some .pptx.
The cool thing is – I can easily organise my documentation. As I mentioned – you can use such cool components like ‘hints’, ‘code block’, tables etc. and apply them to your content.
You can build your own team, gather other SAP Consultants and start working on the documentation together. Let me know what you think about it!
Build flowcharts with Flowmapp
This is the last one! As you know there is no documentation without diagrams, flowcharts etc. The traditional approach is that you use MS Visio to build them and then attach to your documentation. It works pretty fine, but what if you do not have Visio? As you know, it is not a free tool. Price is not the crucial factor anyway. From my perspective UX is the thing. That’s why i introduce you Flowmapp – a web-based application which allows you to create user flows in a very easy and user-friendly way.
As you see, just a couple of clicks and you have your process flow started. You can work on it with your teammates at the same time and then export it in many ways. I find this solution very useful, especially when I do not have access to MS Visio.
Summary
All these ideas, which I described above may be obvious for most of the IT experts. However, for SAP Consultants it is still something new, which in my opinion is worth trying. All these things are somehow connected – you can link-up your Gitbook space with MS Teams, you can place your MIRO board in MS Teams as well. Maybe your next step would be to prototype your SAP ERP custom solutions? If so, I encourage you to visit HERE.
For now, that’s everything from my side – I hope you enjoyed it!
