SAP - Landscape and Functional specification/ IDOC related topics

                        ASAP MethodologyConcept: ASAP stands for Accelerated SAP methodology, where it’s an important SDLC (Software development life cycle) software to be used for implementation of projects. whoever is using SAP should follow the ASAP methodology process for the implementation process, its an SAP's own and the best methodology to follow to cut down costs.The SAP implementation process takes a long time and it requires many department manpower along with a lot of effort to understand the AS-IS and TO-BE process to implement and satisfy the clients. It will be very risky if the proper plan is not determined to implement, as this purpose starting all the managers and department heads will involve making sure everything is in I proper way by following the ASAP methodology process.ASAP methodology is a roadmap for the process, where consultants/managers should follow their guidelines as per ASAP methodology, Project management team will be taking care of the smooth functioning of the process by updating clients. ASAP methodology consists of several phases that are included in SDLC as mentioned above, here it divides the ASAP methodology phases and marks time for each phase and it divides the work as per the modules (SD/MM/PP/QM)Each phase will be called as Milestone and every milestone needs documents that we have done and gets that approved from clients accordingly.ASAP methodology provides guidelines and a roadmap for implementation/Enhancement /Customization that requires as per the project support.Phases of ASAP Methodology:1.Project Preparation2.Business Blueprint3.Realization4.Final Preparation5.Go Live6.Production support/Post-productionWe have all 6 phases, which are important to implement as per the process, we are discussing in detail all the phases.Introduction to client and bidding for project: Before all these 6 phases, whoever is interested to move to SAP software, then they will be approaching the software company directly to buy the software.Note: Once they have bought the software that the client uses to bid for the project implementation with several companies, bidding happens in terms of price and time taken to finish the project.Note 2: There will be one more bidding with service companies for production support, here Implementation and production support clients are different by 90%, because of some privacy and quality purpose 2 biddings and 2 clients will get selected and given the project as per that.1.Project Preparation: Once the client has been decided on this implementation partner, this 1st phase will start and here they will decide on Landscape requirements first.Kick off meetings, Scope, and out-of-scope modules will be discussed for implementation.Maintain server Information like how many servers are required and how many test clients are required in each server like we have unit tests and integration testing.Even in quality and production, we can have different clients as per the requirements, suppose a big MNC company may have 6 production clients in the production server and accordingly they will have 6 clients in the development server so that independent requirements can be enabled as per the client and no need to depend on other clients.Project cost and resources required from how many modules are there for your requirements and each module contains members to complete the whole process.All the above requirements will be discussed by the higher management (managers and business members) where a few from clients and a few from an organization that is implementing.The project management team (PM) will study the organization's requirements with respect to interfaces, how many interfaces are required, and the present process and requirement of interfaces. Here we will study all possible things and their process called AS-IS.The timeline will be for this process in 2-3 Months2.Business BlueprintThis is a very important phase in the business, where functional consultants will take care of gaps by finding as-is process to to-be process and complications that is possible with SAP if not interacting with ABAP to develop those configurations, so all these things are handled in this phase.If any requirement is not possible with SAP then ABAP’er will try to do enhancement and this scenario will be in GAP analysis, same like this there will be many cases where GAP analysis will come into the picture to fill the process and mention to the client that this is the gap between your process and to-be process.What are the integrations required with other departments like with MM-FI, MM-SD, MM-PP, and MM-QMInterfaces/what kind of interfaces is present, so as per that what methodology should be used for processing?Functional consultants will work first with all functional requirements and once this is done then if any gaps and development are required the technical consultant will come into the picture.The testing team will be testing all the configurations prepared.Based on As-Is and To-be documents we will create a BBP document and get it signed by clients.This phase will take 2-3 months.Example: in the old process, if you are an Oracle tool then there will be a price indicator increase or decrease option shown by the system but in SAP we don’t have that functionality.So, this will be maintained in as GAP and mentioned in the BBP document and gets signed that -by ABAP we will do this customization (Refer FRICWE concept)3.Realization phase: This is the phase where all functional consultants carry out their customization and even development is also done if required for customization, so all the customizations/integrations/interfaces are completed- all back-end SPRO settings and everything will be moved to the quality server by basis team- All testing’s for the TR’s will be done in Quality server.All the integration testing and unit testing take place in this phase.BPP -Business process procedure has been created in this phase and will be taken from the superuser with signed.This phase will take 2 months.4.Final Preparation phase: Final preparation is the phase where we will move all the TRs will be moved to production and user manuals are created by taking UAT from super users and cut-over activities like master data uploading for material and vendor and initial entry of stock in inventory.UAT-User acceptance test- which will be done by power users like whether is it working, or any issues related to configuration.Training to the end users related to the process.After the final preparation phase, we should make sure only production activities running smoothly without major interruptions.Testing of every phase and UAT manuals/cutover plans need to be approved in this phase where data uploading by using LSMW and BAPIKnowledge transfer and documentation of all processes with UAT documents.This phase will take 2-3 months5.Pre-Golive Phase: The legacy system should be stopped to use in this phasePreparing all the data and ensuring all the data has been migrated and if anything, pending from LSMW to BAPI, should be completed and inventory data and defining class/characteristics for release procedure, number ranges for the document types and everything will be done in production server.Ensure all the TRs are moved to production and interfaces are working properly for monitoring purposes.This will take 1-2 months to complete6.Postproduction support: In this phase, we will be resolving queries related to purchasing and if required giving training to end users.