SAP Planning: Best Practices in Implementation

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 5
Part I: Preparing for Your mySAP Business Suite Implementation......Page 24
  Welcome to SAP Planning!......Page 26
  My Audience and Approach......Page 28
  Addressing the Real Challenges of SAP Implementations......Page 31
  What Exactly Is SAP?......Page 32
  SAP Infrastructure Planning—What It’s All About......Page 35
  Special Materials Provided by the Book......Page 42
  Summary......Page 45
  In the Beginning......Page 46
  Tactical Reasons for Implementing SAP......Page 49
  Strategic “Big Picture” Goals of Implementing mySAP.com......Page 50
  Beware—When SAP Projects Are Less Than Successful......Page 55
  Setting the Stage for a Successful Implementation......Page 61
  The Structure and Role of the Steering Committee......Page 70
  Moving Beyond the “Napkin” Plan......Page 80
  Tools and Techniques......Page 81
  Summary......Page 82
  What Is a Solution Vision?......Page 84
  SAP System Landscape Design and Planning Approaches......Page 90
  Capturing Your mySAP Solution Vision......Page 103
  Outsourcing—Another Method of Achieving Your Solution Vision......Page 107
  Summary......Page 113
  Overview—What Is an SAP Infrastructure TSO?......Page 116
  TSO Overview—Roles and Responsibilities......Page 124
  Organizational Chart Approaches in the Real World......Page 126
  Recruiting the Core TSO Leads......Page 135
  Consultants Versus Training Your Own Internal Resources......Page 139
  Revising the SAP Infrastructure Implementation Budget......Page 142
  Summary......Page 143
Part II: Getting Started—Sizing and Blueprinting......Page 144
  Purpose of This Chapter......Page 146
  What Is Total Cost of Ownership?......Page 147
  How the SAP Solution Vision Drives TCO......Page 150
  TCO and the SAP Solution Stack......Page 159
  Lowering TCO Through People and Processes......Page 173
  Updating the RFI, RFP, or Internal Knowledge Repository......Page 181
  Summary......Page 182
  Introduction to Availability......Page 184
  Addressing Availability Early in the SAP Project......Page 188
  Determining Your Required Level of Disaster Tolerance......Page 190
  Remedying Single Points of Failure in the Stack......Page 194
  SAP Data Center Infrastructure SPOFs......Page 195
  SAP Server SPOFs......Page 201
  Disk Subsystem Single Points of Failure......Page 203
  Single Points of Failure Inherent in the OS......Page 213
  SPOFs and the Database Layer......Page 217
  mySAP.com Single Points of Failure......Page 223
  SAP General Availability and DR Best Practices......Page 230
  A Final Look at the SAP System Landscape......Page 240
  Tools and Techniques......Page 242
  Summary......Page 243
  Overview—The Sizing and Blueprinting Process......Page 244
  General Sizing Best Practices and Approaches......Page 253
  Preparing for the SAP Sizing Process......Page 260
  SAP Hardware, OS, and Database Sizing......Page 265
  Sizing Considerations for mySAP Components......Page 273
  Selecting Your SAP Solution Stack Partners......Page 287
  Executing the SAP Infrastructure Planning Sessions......Page 291
  Summary......Page 297
  Best Practices Approach to Staffing the SAP TSO......Page 298
  Staffing the SAP TSO: Rapid Deployment......Page 301
  Bringing in the Best of the Best......Page 316
  How to Retain Your SAP Staff!......Page 321
  Summary......Page 330
  Introduction to SAP Training......Page 332
  Training and the Role of the SAP System Landscape......Page 337
  Approaches to SAP Training......Page 342
  Feedback Loops—Improving the Value of Training......Page 356
  Summary......Page 360
  Introducing the SAP Data Center......Page 362
  The SAP Data Center “Big Picture”......Page 365
  Data Center Physical Requirements......Page 366
  Rack Planning for Data Center Resources......Page 373
  Network Infrastructure for SAP......Page 378
  Network Server Preparation......Page 385
  General Storage Considerations......Page 392
  On the Road to Implementation......Page 399
  Tools and Techniques......Page 402
  Summary......Page 403
  Implementation Methodologies for SAP Installations......Page 404
  Rounding Out Your SAP System Landscape......Page 407
  Leveraging Installation Documentation, Tools, and Approaches......Page 410
  Installing Your mySAP-Enabling Foundation—NetWeaver......Page 420
  Installation Details for mySAP Components......Page 427
  Addressing General mySAP Post-Installation Tasks......Page 438
  Tools and Techniques......Page 445
  Summary......Page 446
  Identifying and Staffing the Remaining TSO Roles......Page 448
  Approaches to “Filling in the Final Holes”......Page 452
  Let’s Give a Big Warm Welcome to the “Specialists”!......Page 461
  The Most Overlooked Critical SAP Support Function......Page 470
  The Role of the SAP Help Desk......Page 474
  Putting It All Together in the Real World......Page 479
  Summary......Page 485
Part III: Moving Into SAP Functional Development......Page 486
  An Overview of Change Management......Page 488
  Change Management Best Practices and Approaches......Page 492
  Change Control Affects Everything......Page 508
  Change Control and the SAP Solution Stack......Page 511
  How to Organize and Plan for Change in the Real World......Page 516
  Change Management Lessons Learned in the Real World......Page 520
  Summary......Page 525
  Back to SAP Operations......Page 526
  What Is the SAP Operations Manual?......Page 527
  Systems Management Techniques for SAP......Page 534
  Piloting a Systems Management Application for SAP......Page 541
  Evaluating Enterprise Systems Management Applications......Page 546
  Additional SAP Management Tools and Approaches......Page 552
  Tools and Techniques......Page 563
  Summary......Page 564
  Testing SAP Business Processes......Page 566
  Three Types of Business Process Testing......Page 569
  How to Approach Business Process Testing......Page 574
  Executing Business-Process–Specific Testing......Page 583
  Tools and Techniques......Page 587
  Summary......Page 588
Part IV: Preparing the Production Environment......Page 590
  Introduction—Preparing for Production Stress Testing......Page 592
  System-Level Stress Testing and Pre-Tuning......Page 597
  Key SAP Stress-Testing Considerations......Page 603
  How to Test mySAP Components......Page 608
  Script Development and Preparation in the Real World......Page 614
  Stress Test Execution During “Test Week”......Page 633
  Additional Stress-Testing Goals......Page 636
  Extracting the Last Drop of Value out of Testing......Page 638
  Lessons Learned in the Real World......Page 640
  Summary......Page 642
  Overview—Preparing for Cutover......Page 644
  Preparing for Technical Go-Live......Page 647
  Final Administrative Technical Details......Page 652
  The Changing Role of the SAP TSO......Page 658
  Preparing SAP Operations and the Help Desk......Page 660
  Addressing Future Service and Support......Page 663
  The First Week of Go-Live......Page 667
  Summary......Page 672
 A......Page 674
 B......Page 675
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 D......Page 681
 E......Page 685
 G......Page 687
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 I......Page 690
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 O......Page 696
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 R......Page 700
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 U......Page 717
 X-Z......Page 718