Portfolio &Project Management on SAP Solution Manager 7.2

PM in Solution Manager 7.2 - Kishore Konathala

In short :

It plays a critical role in ALM as a poor Project Management may lead IT projects to failure, thus throwing hundreds of thousands or even millions of US dollars in the trash.

SAP Solution Manager 7.2 is the right tool for Project Managers handling implementations of SAP solutions, because it is integrated with SAP Portfolio and Project Management (PPM) 6.1. IT departments can benefit from embedded integration with other ALM processes. 

Long Story

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines Project Management as “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project

activities to meet the project requirements." It plays a critical role in ALM as a poor Project Management may lead IT projects to failure, thus throwing hundreds of thousands or even millions of Euros in the trash.

The Project Manager is the person in charge to orchestrate the delivery of planned scope with high quality standards based on defined success criteria within available time, budget and resources.

There are several tools available in the market, and the most known is Microsoft Project. Although its powerful capabilities, unfortunately it cannot provide real-time progress and execution information as the statuses of tasks and activities must be previously collected and manually maintained in the tool. Another challenge companies experience is the lack of transparency of unplanned changes in the project scope due to the usage of different tools for project Planning and Execution.

SAP Solution Manager 7.2 is the right tool for Project Managers handling implementations of SAP solutions, because it is integrated with SAP Portfolio and Project Management (PPM) 6.1. IT departments can benefit from embedded integration with other ALM processes.

Finally, SAP Solution Manager 7.2 provides a Project Analysis dashboard. All project-related data and scope-related data is displayed in one view. The project analysis dashboard in SAP Solution Manager gives the customer a common view of the integrated information.

SAP Activate is a new methodology that encompasses 3 key pillars: the methodology itself, best practices and guided configuration. SAP Solution Manager 7.2 can import Work Break-down Structures (WBS) based on an XML schema supplied by SAP in few minutes to support e.g. SAP S/4HANA implementations either On-Premise, On-Cloud or Hybrid environments. All relevant phases and tasks from chosen SAP Activate methodology are described in detail, and accelerators are provided to jump-start project initiation, planning, execution and completion.

Project Management provides 3 views: detailed, or in the form of a table or a graphic. Of course, the latter is the Gantt Chart which was invented by Henry Gantt in the 1910s

PPM also offers a role-based Resource Management function. The entire lifecycle is supported, from role definition, assignment of tasks to roles, staffing of resources, and finally to assignment of assigned resources to specific tasks. The example below lists two roles, Project Manager and Developer, and provides additional information such as the remaining demand or assigned effort.

As other SAP Solution Manager capabilities, Project Management is integrated with other ALM processes such as Requirements Management, Solution Documentation and Change Request Management.

The figure below shows the solution “ACME Corporation” is assigned to the current PPM project. Hence, Solution Documentation entities can enrich project information. 

If Change Request Management (ChaRM) is enabled, a change transaction (e.g. Request for Change, aka RfC) can automatically be created out of a PPM task. This integration adds more value to the businesses because it provides more transparency and visibility of changes in the project scope, thus Project Managers can make decisions in time, and minimize the impacts.

Furthermore, it is technically possible to jump to assigned transaction type on ChaRM from a PPM project in a single mouse-click:

Last but not least, IT Project Management offers a function to Import / Export projects into Solution Manager 7.2 / to an external application. Two options are available: XML files and MS-Project.

Keep in mind this function must be used only for initial loads as upload of deltas is not supported.  

Customers can now easily create and approve business requirements in an SAP Fiori app, and exchange data across different organizations, to define and confirm project scope and scope changes easily.

To manage project scope and scope changes easily, Requirements Management and project management can be used as integrated scenario. Project managers can assign the IT Requirement and Request for Changes on each structure element of the project. The resource assigned will be transferred to the IT Requirement or Request for Change. The time the architect or developer spends on the IT Requirement, Request for Change, and/or on a Change Document, is recorded and sent to the PPM task by a background job. The Business Context viewer contains ad-hoc reporting in one click, which provides the status, and planned and confirmed times of the assigned elements.