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Solution Manager provides various features that can be used during an end to end implementation project. Many of these features are easy to use, and this document brings out some of the main features that should be part of any implementation project, and explains in the simplest way how these features can be used. It explains in detail how to use Solution Manager for some of the frequently used project activities such as project documentation and project status reports. It also explains how to use Solution Manager as single workspace for all your project documentation needs.
Project Planning
Project planning details specific to project dates and resource planning can be incorporated after you have defined the scope of business processes in SOLAR01 transaction. For each of the business process that has been finalized and visible in the left window in SOLAR01, You can maintain the Planned and Actual data in terms of dates, number of resources and team members for each activity in the Administration tab on the right side. The resource planning can be entered in the field Person Days. Some ways of maintaining these data are listed below-
1.
Planned and Actual data can be used either at higher level activity, or at each task level. If your project has team members planned for the overall project rather than any specific phase wise planning, then it will make more sense to enter these data at the higher level. You can also break it down to any of the higher level node where your plan data is fitting in. For instance if you have one resource for Customer master and Material master each, then you can enter 2 resources in the higher node for Master Data instead of individual sub nodes under it, since it will give the same picture as entering at sub nodes.
2.
If the resource planning is based on skill sets, for instance specific skills like MM/EP/CRM expertise is required at specific phase, then enter these data at activity levels since it will give a clearer reflection of the resource planning done during the project. Another example is if you have one resource for Customer master and two resources for Material master, then you can enter 3 resources in the higher node for Master Data, and maintain it in sub nodes under it by entering value 1 under Customer Master and 2 under Material master. This will give a reflection that two resources were utilized for material master business requirement gathering whereas only one was utilized for Customer master requirements.
3.
You can use Solution Manager to get details of your resource planning and its actual utilization. Take a scenario of overstaffing where the planned resources are more than the actual resources utilized. In such a case the remaining difference is shown in the Remaining field. For example out of 4 resources planned for Master Data, only 3 were utilized, then the difference of 1 will be shown highlighting the fact that one resource remained un-utilized. Note that you will not be able to use this feature to find details for understaffing scenarios. So for instance when the actual resource value is more than planned. In such case, the Planned value is by default filled with the Actual value meaning 100% resource utilization.
4.
Assignment of Project Team members for various activities is a useful feature of Solution Manager which enables reports to be pulled out to track member wise tasks and status. Also in
the case mentioned in point 3 above, team member names will enable to point out the common resources working in multiple areas.
Technical objects
After you have completed the business process selection, in SOLAR01 you can see the final list of the processes that will be used in the project on the left hand window. Now against each business process/Master Data on the left node, you will be entering the technical object details such as program names and transactions. After the RFC connectivity of the various testing clients of the landscape has been setup to the Solution Manager, it is now possible to go directly to the desired testing system right from the technical objects you entered. For instance when you double click the particular program or t.code in SOLAR01, it should take you to the sandbox environment for concept testing or initial development. Apart from the customized programs or t.codes that you will be developing for the project and enter it in the Technical objects under the respective nodes,it will be useful to enter standard transactions as well since you will be using many of them during the course of the initial development phase. Some useful ones are listed below SE11/SE16 SE38 SE37 SE80 CMOD SMOD BADI SWO1/SWO2
This will help avoid opening a separate login session to the Sandbox/Development client for example whenever you have to test execute a program or find details in a standard table. This is also useful for projects that involve BADI/EDI and IDOCs interface since you will be repeatedly executing such transactions.
Reports
You can generate a wide variety of reports in solution manager in the Project Analysis section. These reports can be downloaded in either excel or HTML format, though the later format is more useful and presentable to the management. Some of the important and useful reports are listed below that can be used in any implementation project.
Project Documents
One of the most important task for any project is to ensure required documents are uploaded in the solution manager. You will be required to select all the nodes and sub-nodes before generating this report, since all documents assigned to any sub node should also be pulled. This report gives a compresensive list and view of all documents that are assigned by project team at all nodes. The advantage of this report is that many documents get assigned to a particular node that may not be visible or aware to other members. In such a scenario, this report will give a birds view of where and what type of document is attached to each node. This can act as a checklist of documents that are completed before formally completing the project. Additionally this report also gives the particular tab in which the document is assigned to the node. Note that documents can be assigned in any of these tabs Gen Documentation, Proj Documentation, Configuration, Development. So it becomes important to know which particular tab has the document assigned so that it give a general idea of the documents relevance, as well as saving precious time to search all the tabs. For example documents attached to the Development tab is relevant more from technical perspective whereas documents under the Proj Documentation is relevant for all project members from the project perspective.
Transaction List
One of the most useful reports is the list of all the transaction codes that are in scope for the project. This list can be pulled out during the blueprint phase to get a comprehensive list of standard SAP t.codes in scope, as well as during the realization phase to include any customized transactions. This list will also be useful for preparing the BPML.
which ones are automated ones like eCATT (in case you are using such tools). It also gives you the current status if testing not yet commenced for that business process. Other technical detail such as the logical component (representing the SAP environment) in which the testing is to be done, and the results of successful testing run and number of errors in case of failures are also shown.
Roadmap
For an end to end implementation project, the roadmap plays a vital part on how you go about vis a vis the different activities in each phases. It is imperative to create a roadmap that suits and conforms to the project scope. You can use one of the standard roadmaps available in solution manager for your project. But it is good practice to rename it to your project relevant title and modify the phases and activities therein in line with the scope of project.
You can modify/create a new roadmap in transaction RMDEF. Solution Manager has great flexibility to customize a roadmap by features. For instance you can add a node or modify or drag a node to a different location. Since each node represents an activity for the project team, you can ensure to rename it appropriately. Additionally it is good practice to include only relevant activities as a sub node under it. This will ensure that the project team adheres to all relevant tasks and activities, as well as give a correct view of project scope. Hence you can remove nodes or sub nodes from the original standard roadmap that you have copied, that is not included within the scope of your project. Since Solution Manager itself includes a list of tasks to be completed, you will find it useful to include a new node for this purpose and use it to track the activities done in the Solution Manager as the project phase progresses. For example you can add a new node called Solution Manager and include Solution Manager relevant activities under this node. This node can be added in each of the implementation phases and you can mark it as complete as and when the project tasks are done, just as you do with the other nodes. The activities under this node should have Solution Manager relevant tasks like Creating project, System Landscape creation etc. Such a approach will give a prominent view of Solution Manager tasks to be performed by the project team whenever a report or snapshot of project progress was taken (by going to transaction RMMAIN).
A Snapshot of a Roadmap
Accelerators
SAP provides a range of help documents in the form of accelerators which is available in all relevant nodes. It can be a guideline or whitepaper on the relevant activity (which is represented in the form of node) in the roadmap. You can additionally add your own helpful documents such as company specific project guidelines, methodologies and other commonly used templates and logos that becomes vital as project progresses. You can add these at the top node of the roadmap to make it easier to search.