SAP Planning

George Anderson is an SAP Technical Certified Consultant with seven years of SAP design, implementation, training, and project management experience. He has designed hundreds of mySAP system landscapes, helped to implement more than fifty of these, and has assisted in numerous pre-go-live activities like installation and tuning, stress-testing, enterprise systems management integration, and external systems integration. For two years he worked for Compaq's SAP Competency Center, which supports new and existing SAP-on-Compaq customers. George is certified in much of the SAP technology stack, from server and SAN/disk subsystem hardware (HP Professional/Compaq ASE), to deep OS (MCSE), to SQL Server (SAP), to SAP Basis (SAP TCC and HP Master ASE). He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute.

I. PREPARING FOR YOUR MYSAP BUSINESS SUITE IMPLEMENTATION.

1. Introduction to SAP Implementation Planning.


Welcome to SAP Planning! My Audience and Approach. Addressing the Real Challenges of SAP Implementations. What Exactly Is SAP? SAP Infrastructure Planning—What Its All About. Special Materials Provided by the Book. Summary.

2. What an SAP Project Looks Like.


In the Beginning. Tactical Reasons for Implementing SAP. Strategic “Big Picture” Goals of Implementing mySAP.com. Beware—When SAP Projects Are Less Than Successful. Setting the Stage for a Successful Implementation. The Structure and Role of the Steering Committee. Moving Beyond the “Napkin” Plan. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

3. Crafting Your mySAP Solution Vision.


What Is a Solution Vision? SAP System Landscape Design and Planning Approaches. Capturing Your mySAP Solution Vision. Outsourcing—Another Method of Achieving Your Solution Vision. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

4. Designing and Initially Staffing the SAP Technical Support Organization (TSO).


Overview—What Is an SAP Infrastructure TSO? TSO Overview—Roles and Responsibilities. Organizational Chart Approaches in the Real World. Recruiting the Core TSO Leads. Consultants Versus Training Your Own Internal Resources. Revising the SAP Infrastructure Implementation Budget. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

II. GETTING STARTED—SIZING AND BLUEPRINTING.

5. Total Cost of Ownership Analysis in Preparation for Sizing.


Purpose of This Chapter. What Is Total Cost of Ownership? How the SAP Solution Vision Drives TCO. TCO and the SAP Solution Stack. Lowering TCO Through People and Processes. Updating the RFI, RFP, or Internal Knowledge Repository. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

6. Identifying High Availability and Disaster Recovery Requirements.


Introduction to Availability. Addressing Availability Early in the SAP Project. Determining Your Required Level of Disaster Tolerance. Remedying Single Points of Failure in the Stack. SAP Data Center Infrastructure SPOFs. SAP Server SPOFs. Disk Subsystem Single Points of Failure. Single Points of Failure Inherent in the OS. SPOFs and the Database Layer. mySAP.com Single Points of Failure. SAP General Availability and DR Best Practices. A Final Look at the SAP System Landscape. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

7. Sizing: Engaging the SAP Solution Stack Vendors.


Overview—The Sizing and Blueprinting Process. General Sizing Best Practices and Approaches. Preparing for the SAP Sizing Process. SAP Hardware, OS, and Database Sizing. Sizing Considerations for mySAP Components. Selecting Your SAP Solution Stack Partners. Executing the SAP Infrastructure Planning Sessions. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

8. Staffing the Technical Support Organization.


Best Practices Approach to Staffing the SAP TSO. Staffing the SAP TSO: Rapid Deployment. Bringing in the Best of the Best. How to Retain Your SAP Staff! Tools and Techniques. Summary.

9. Critical SAP Training Requirements.


Introduction to SAP Training. Training and the Role of the SAP System Landscape. Approaches to SAP Training. Feedback Loops—Improving the Value of Training. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

10. Developing the SAP Data Center.


Introducing the SAP Data Center. The SAP Data Center “Big Picture”. Data Center Physical Requirements. Rack Planning for Data Center Resources. Network Infrastructure for SAP. Network Server Preparation. General Storage Considerations. On the Road to Implementation. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

11. Performing mySAP.com Component Installations.


Implementation Methodologies for SAP Installations. Rounding Out Your SAP System Landscape. Leveraging Installation Documentation, Tools, and Approaches. Installing Your mySAP-Enabling Foundation—NetWeaver. Installation Details for mySAP Components. Addressing General mySAP Post-Installation Tasks. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

12. Rounding Out Support for SAP.


Identifying and Staffing the Remaining TSO Roles. Approaches to “Filling in the Final Holes”. Lets Give a Big Warm Welcome to the “Specialists”! The Most Overlooked Critical SAP Support Function. The Role of the SAP Help Desk. Putting It All Together in the Real World. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

III. MOVING INTO SAP FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

13. Gaining Control of Change Control.


An Overview of Change Management. Change Management Best Practices and Approaches. Change Control Affects Everything. Change Control and the SAP Solution Stack. How to Organize and Plan for Change in the Real World. Change Management Lessons Learned in the Real World. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

14. SAP Systems and Operations Management.


Back to SAP Operations. What Is the SAP Operations Manual? Systems Management Techniques for SAP. Piloting a Systems Management Application for SAP. Evaluating Enterprise Systems Management Applications. Additional SAP Management Tools and Approaches. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

15. Functional, Integration, and Regression Testing.


Testing SAP Business Processes. Three Types of Business Process Testing. How to Approach Business Process Testing. Executing Business-ProcessSpecific Testing. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

IV. PREPARING THE PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT.

16. Systems and Stress Testing.


Introduction—Preparing for Production Stress Testing. System-Level Stress Testing and Pre-Tuning. Key SAP Stress-Testing Considerations. How to Test mySAP Components. Script Development and Preparation in the Real World. Stress Test Execution During “Test Week”. Additional Stress-Testing Goals. Extracting the Last Drop of Value out of Testing. Lessons Learned in the Real World. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

17. Preparing for SAP Go-Live.


Overview—Preparing for Cutover. Preparing for Technical Go-Live. Final Administrative Technical Details. The Changing Role of the SAP TSO. Preparing SAP Operations and the Help Desk. Addressing Future Service and Support. The First Week of Go-Live. Tools and Techniques. Summary.

Index.