Long hours of testing and fixing

Long hours of testing and fixing

...and discussing what to fix. Check the dashboard picture, see the time, third working day in a row that meal time has long passed before we went home from the customers' site. SAP SRM in an implementation that is divided in Template versus roll-out localizations. Interesting days full of discussion-based fixing of test-defects.

Template-based implementations: hard to do it perfectly. Either you run into unhappy local users that do not feel themselves fully at-home in the new environment, or you will run into an un-manageable (and thus way too expensive) project/investment when you manage the template not strict enough and want to please users! Caught between that rock and that hard case...

What to do then, how to make it work? To my opinion, after some years of seeing it happen, one golden rule: anticipate the localization-factor before you start your template. Sounds simple, here is what I mean.

1. Have a very clear picture of what it is you want to safeguard with the template strategy! Is it a certain policy you want to uphold, or is it just a manageable and maintainable system? Be sure to clearly state that within your managed change process.
2. Make sure that a proper sounding board is enabled before you start workshops. No inbalance between bloodtypes in your company or different attention to importance of Business Units. Every person in that group should count, from content, expertise, as well as validity and mandate perspective.
3. Design and build your custom developments in such a way that not only the development works as designed, but also easilly allows added development in those spots that allow localization from the basic strategy-standpoint.
4. The first thing that needs design in the project is the "request for change" process, only after that you can start your template P2P design.

Having concluded this from the position I had in some of the projects that I have seen: yes, for sure, it sounds simple enough. But having it managed for a few times as well, I know it is certainly not. But then again, long hours for a few weeks make a real project team, and that is priceless...

Doede van Haperen
www.lakran.com
www.postulit.com