It’s a bit late for New Year’s resolutions since we are already in the first half of February. But with 10 ½ months of 2018 left, there is still time for some New Year’s resolutions.
Here are three quick questions with corresponding resolutions to help simplify and improve your SAP change management processes in 2018.
- Why am I approving that change?
- Can we automate that step in the approval process?
- Is everyone following the documented process?
Why am I approving that change?
We’ve been having more frequent conversations with organizations who are questioning the purpose and/or need for certain approval steps. If the approval is given one hundred percent of the time and never rejected, there may not be need for the approval. Some organizations we’re working with are setting goals to reduce their total number of approval steps by 25% or more. Streamlining the SAP change management approval process is always a win-win for everyone involved.
Resolution: Review current SAP change processes and eliminate unnecessary or redundant steps.
Can we automate that step in the approval process?
Automating certain steps in the process saves effort, guarantees enforcement, and keeps the auditors happy. For example instead of asking developers to run SAP’s ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) on workbench changes, why not automatically send the code to ATC and auto-approve the next step if the result is positive, or auto-reject if the result is negative. Or if you’ve integrated your SAP change processes and ITSM processes with ServiceNow or other solutions, don’t rely on manual entry for the change ticket and transport numbers into the respective tools. Automate the bi-directional exchange of information between the two applications and you’ll significantly reduce mistakes and frustrations associated with the manual effort.
Resolution: Identify a few key areas of the current process which can be quickly automated.
Is everyone following the documented process?
In large, global organizations there may be different SAP change processes for different regions. In smaller organizations the processes might not be formally documented. If a new SAP developer were starting today, could s/he be given an up-to-date guide on how SAP changes are tested, approved and migrated? The next SAP audit will be infinitely easier if everyone involved is working from the same playbook.
Resolution: Find the current SAP change management process instructions and update them (once you’ve made some process improvements), making them easy for all relevant stakeholders to access.
Next steps
For Rev-Trac customers, making these types of process improvements is easy – once the hard part of deciding what changes to make is done. If you need help with any of your 2018 SAP change management process resolutions, reach out to us at sales@xrsc.com
