Best Practices for a
Successful Upgrade Project
WHITE PAPER
Applies To:
?
IT Management
?
SAP Upgrade Project Team
Executive Summary:
SAP has developed a solid, long-term approach to maintenance. However, a
given release has to be upgraded at some point of time to avoid technical
obsolescence. Upgrades help business to maintain its competitive edge in the
market-space with well-tuned, up-to-date business applications and
supporting infrastructure.
Yet, upgrades pose their own set of challenges. If best practices are not
adopted in execution of important processes and functions of upgrade
lifecycle, it can lead to budget slippages, missed timelines, unprepared endusers and other set backs.
This white paper lists down all the best practices that should be followed in
each and every important processes and functions of an upgrade lifecycle. It
also examines how the risks associated with an upgrade project could be
minimized with the adoption of best practices. At the end it summarizes how
maximum reliability could be achieved in upgrade projects.
Author(s): Vijay Deep, B.S. Bhalla,
SAP Upgrade Competency Center, HCL Technologies
Created on: 16th May,2008
2
Table of Contents
SAP Upgrade Planning
1.1. Developing a Business Case
1.2. Performing Detailed Upgrade Assessment
2.
Upgrade Approach
2.1. Technical Upgrade
2.2. Functional / Retrofit Upgrade
2.3. Strategic Upgrade
3.
Testing Process
4.
Change Management
5.
Project Management
6.
Training & Documentation
7.
Application Optimization
8.
Upgrade Landscape Strategy
9.
Upgrade Strategy
10. Hardware Sizing
11. OS / DB Migration
12. Production Downtime
13. Cutover Planning
Summar
About the Speaker
I.
3
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
6
7
8
9
10
10
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
1.
SAP Upgrade Planning
SAP Upgrade project planning is an important factor and should be done
carefully.
The key challenges that are faced during upgrade project planning are:
©
Determining right timing for transition
©
Defining value proposition
©
Justifying budget for the project
©
Deciding on the target release
©
Estimation of effort/cost for the project
It is important to understand the key requirements and challenges during SAP
upgrade project. Planning should include defining Business and IT
requirements clearly for the project before the upgrade project is actually
started. This can be achieved by performing the following two exercises.
1.1. Developing a Business Case
Business case is important to align the upgrade strategy with overall business
strategy. Creation of a Business Case would help in:
©
Defining a roadmap for future projects leveraging ERP 6.0
©
Facilitating buy-in and involvement of rest of the organization
©
Facilitating review of applications and infrastructure products and
services strategy
©
Generation of feasible options and selection of most optimum
alternative
©
Defining of upgrade project scope and performance metrics
Best Practices for creation of business case are:
©
Business Case preparation should start early keeping 3-5 years horizon in
mind.
©
Overall business case should focus on reduction of TCO and risks
©
Automated tools for assessment can be used for accurate estimation.
©
Business benefits can be achieved by replacing customization with
standard processes
©
Valuable enhancements in the new release should be implemented
©
Involvement of SAP in Upgrade project enhances the strategic business
value
4
1.2. Performing Detailed Upgrade Assessment
Detailed Upgrade assessment helps in defining the technical requirements for
the Upgrade project. It generally addresses the following areas:
©
Dependencies between Applications
©
Determines effort and cost estimates accurately
©
Development of a detail upgrade project plan
©
Minimizes project risks and increase reliability
©
Enables right utilization of resources for critical processes
©
Ensures stability of Production environment and smooth cutover
The following deliverables should come out of an upgrade assessment
exercise:
©
Upgrade Approach and strategy
©
Compatibility analysis of all SAP applications & 3rd party applications
©
System Landscape Strategy
©
Hardware Sizing and Infrastructure recommendations
©
Upgrade Impact Analysis
©
High level upgrade project plan
©
Project and IT resource requirements
©
Effort/Cost estimates
©
Risk Analysis & Mitigation Plan
©
Project Team training Plan
2.
Upgrade Approach
There could be three possible approaches for SAP upgrade.
©
Technical Upgrade
©
Functional / Retrofit Upgrade
©
Strategic Upgrade
2.1. Technical Upgrade
Technical Upgrade focuses on pure technology upgrade of the system without
modification or enhancement in existing functionality. This includes version
upgrade of SAP application with minimum modifications that is necessary to
execute the existing functionality in new release.
5
2.2. Functional / Retrofit Upgrade
In Functional Upgrade, the emphasis is on implementing the new
functionality of SAP which replaces the customization done by the customer
in old SAP version. In short, the custom developments are removed as far as
possible in new release, thereby, reducing the system complexity.
2.3. Strategic Upgrade
Strategic Upgrade focuses on extending and implementing new functionality
of SAP ERP and make improvement. It is also used to enable new and
optimized business processes as part of new ERP upgrade.
Best Practices for Upgrade Approach
Technical Upgrade is must and pre-requisite for Functional and Strategic
Upgrade. Combining all three upgrades in a single step approach would
increase project risk. Therefore, it is recommended that a step wise approach
is followed. Functional and Strategic Upgrade should follow Technical
Upgrade after the system is stabilized to reap in the benefits of upgrade. This
approach mitigates overall business risk.
3.
Testing Process
Testing is one of the most critical components of an Upgrade project and
requires maximum time and resources during the project. Extensive and
efficient testing is an important factor for success of the project. Testing
should be well planned and involve business users. The extent of testing may
vary depending upon the approach used in upgrade project. Using computeraided test tools for testing can save significant time and efforts.
Following are the various activities related to testing in each phase of an
Upgrade project:
Blueprint Phase:
©
Test Planning
Realization Phase:
©
Development Unit Testing
©
Functional Unit Testing
©
Security Testing
6
Cutover Planning Phase:
©
System Integration Testing
©
Regression Testing
©
User Acceptance Testing
©
Performance Testing
©
Mock Cutover Testing
Go-Live & Support Phase:
©
Business validation testing
Best Practices used for Testing:
Planning Phase
©
Business Users should be involved in preparing / updating test plans
©
All business scenario should be covered in the test plans
©
Business process should be prioritized by criticality of their usage
©
Automatic scripts should be fixed
Execution Phase
©
A dedicated person should be assigned to drive testing activities
©
User Logins should be allotted much before the testing is started
©
Regression testing of parallel initiatives and production support in
upgrade landscape should be done by Support Analyst
©
Performance test should be done to determine performance under load
and hardware resources should be monitored to determine adequate
sizing
©
Computer-Aided Tools (CATTs) or other automated tools should be used
for cutover planning
4.
Change Management
A large number of changes are carried out during upgrade project life cycle.
©
Modifications Adjustments (SPAU/SPDD Adjustments)
©
Repair of Standard SAP transactions
©
Repair of Custom Developments
©
Security Changes
At the same time developments and bug fixes would go on in the current
production landscape. Hence synchronization of both the upgrade and
production landscape is essential before starting of Integration Testing.
The main challenges that are faced are:
©
Protecting the Production System
©
Maintaining accurate audit trail
7
©
Managing abandoned changes
©
Synchronization of Production and upgrade landscape
Best Practices to control and track changes:
©
Freeze development after Integration Testing begins
©
Track all transports moved to current production boxes using weekly
transport list
©
Upgrade Systems - Mandate developer of original transports to re-key &
rework the changes in upgrade DEV box
©
Peripheral Systems: Move transports from Production Landscape to
DEV and QAS systems in Upgrade landscape
©
Ensure unit testing of re-keyed transports is done before approving for
migration to upgrade QAS box
©
Ensure QAS re-testing is done for all re-keyed transports
©
If a transport needs to be corrected or backed out, it should be overlaid by
a new transport; and both transports should be pushed to production at
go-live.
5.
Project Management
SAP Upgrade should be treated as full fledged project as it involves planning,
execution and monitoring of large number of activities. Upgrade Roadmap in
Solution Manager Lists general activities required for execution of an upgrade
project. These activities can be customized according to specific need of the
project.
Key planning documents used in upgrade projects are:
©
ASAP Upgrade Roadmap
©
Upgrade Manuals
©
Upgrade Scripts
©
Relevant SAP Notes from SAPNet
Best Practices for Project Management:
©
Should have dedicated project manager
©
Should have dedicated project team
©
All stake holders should be involved in the project
©
Integrated project plan should be constantly referred by the team
©
Manage "scope creep" and implement a clear scope control process
8
©
Maintain up-to-date, detailed application documentation
©
Monitor resource requirements continuously
©
Keep buffer for testing activities
©
Perform Project Issue Management and Risk Management
6.
Training & Documentation
Training and Documentation should never be under estimated during upgrade
project. The requirement of training and documentation remains through out
the project life cycle. The various activities at each phase of an upgrade project
are listed below:
Project Preparation Phase:
©
Planning for project team training
©
Project team training
Upgrade Blueprint:
©
Creation of documentation guidelines
©
Creation of training curriculum
Upgrade realization Phase:
©
Development of training materials
©
Tailoring of SAP system operation manual
Final Preparation for Cutover:
©
Conducting end user training
©
Training for operators
Best Practices for Training & Documentation
©
A blended learning approach to be followed combining
©
Self Study(e-learning)
©
Classroom training(Traditional or Virtual)
©
Coaching(traditional or virtual)
©
On-line performance support
©
All Documentation should be managed in single place
©
Documentation should be changed in synchronized manner
©
Delta training approach should be adopted for upgrade training
©
Users should be involved during the design stage of the project
©
Personalized training curriculum should be created based on usage and
roles
©
If possible, investing in training simulation tools should be considered
©
Separate environment for practicing should be provided
©
Training should be provided in the classroom by Super Users and Project
Team Members
9
7.
Application Optimization
Custom Object Clearing:
It has been seen from experience that a significant part of the custom
developments are not used productively in customer environment. It is
recommended as a part of the upgrade project to clear up the obsolete custom
developments which have not been used in last one year.
Performance Optimization:
It has been seen from experience that custom developments consume about
70% to 80% of the system resources whereas standard processes consume
only 20 to 30% of the system resources. Hence it’s recommended to take up
this opportunity and do some optimization exercise on custom developed
programs.
This would result in:
©
Reduction in data corruption risk from un-cleared objects
©
Reduction in security risk from un-used objects
©
Lower cost of maintenance – Lower TCO
©
Savings in system resources
©
Enhanced productivity of end users
8.
Upgrade Landscape Strategy
Upgrade landscape strategy defines the hardware landscape required for SAP
Upgrade. The strategy depends on many factors such as availability of
hardware, production down time window and compatibility of hardware with
upgraded version etc. Prototype or Dual Landscape Strategy could be used
for defining landscape. The organization can select most suitable strategy for
upgrade depending upon above factors.
Typical challenges for the system landscape are:
©
Optimization of System Landscape
©
Minimum business downtime
©
Landscape Synchronization
©
Support on-going production activities
©
Support on-going upgrade changes
©
Hardware architecture compatibility with new release e.g. 32 bit / 64 bit
and Unicode / Non-Unicode
©
Dependencies and compatibility issues with Non-SAP system landscape
(Bolt-on applications, interfaces, middleware etc.)
10
Typically following points are considered for defining landscape:
©
Transport Process for tracking of transports
©
Development Freeze and Emergency Fixes
©
Interfaces, internal and external email notification
©
Security (user login/role)
©
Historical tracking of versions for audit purpose
©
Backup and restore
Considering the above factors dual-landscape strategy is more appropriate.
Depending upon the requirements Production Support landscape or Upgrade
landscape build options can be used in dual landscape.
9.
Upgrade Strategy
There are two basic strategies for SAP Upgrade. Organizations can select any
or combination of these strategies depending upon availability of resources
and business down time. Upgrade Strategies are (i) Downtime-minimized and
(ii) Resource-minimized.
Downtime-minimized
This strategy is used to minimize the server downtime during upgrade and
generally used for Production System upgrade. The strategy demands
increased system resources due to parallel operation of production and
shadow instances.
Resource-minimized
This strategy is used to minimize system resource requirement during upgrade
and generally used for DEV and QA system upgrade. The server downtime is
longer in this strategy as limited system resources are used.
10. Hardware Sizing
SAP Upgrade may require new hardware or upgrade of existing hardware to
support higher upgrade version. Minimizing business downtime and
performance improvement could be other reasons to upgrade hardware.
Hardware sizing for the upgraded environment should be properly done to get
the accurate requirement. The following methods could be used for hardware
sizing.
11
1.
2.
SAP Quick Sizer
Hardware partner’s SAP Load assessment service
The following factors must be considered while performing sizing
activity.
©
Future load of application implementation
©
Interfaces and other applications interacting with SAP
©
Historical and future growth of data
©
Data safeguarding techniques such as RAID or High Availability option
etc.
©
Scalability of Servers
Delta Sizing for SAP Release Upgrade based on SAP Guidelines
©
There should 10-30% increase in CPU power
©
Memory enhancement by 15-55%
©
Database Size 0-25% increase
Delta Sizing for Unicode conversion based on SAP Guidelines
©
30-50% increase in CPU power
©
50% increase in memory
©
36% (UTF-8/CESU-8) and 60-70% (UTF-16) increase in DB Size
11. OS / DB Migration
Typically the following factors are considered for Migration of OS and DB
©
Hardware Scalability
©
Improvement in Performance
©
Availability of new technology platforms
©
Administrative efficiency
©
Reduction in maintenance cost
©
Managing very large data volumes
©
System reliability and continuity
©
Standardization of IT policy
Best Practices for migration of OS & DB / Optimization
©
OS and DB migration should be performed separately as far as possible
12
©
Enhancement in hardware resources can make the process fast
©
Optimization tools should be used for migration such as
©
Migration Tool
©
Package Splitter Tool
©
Table Split
©
Distribution Monitor
©
Unsorted Export
©
Adapt database export/import tuning parameter
©
Adapt parallel export/import process
©
Export/Import of large tables should be performed first
12. Production Downtime
SAP Upgrade requires business / production server down time during
upgrade of live Production server. Long business / operations down time
and the risk of unanticipated system failures are serious challenges during SAP
system upgrade. As the downtime of production server directly affects the
business operations, therefore, the planning for downtime same should be
done carefully. There are a number of factors that affect production down
time. With the use of proper planning, tools, services and hardware, the
downtime could be minimized.
Best Practices to minimize down time:
©
Use of Downtime-minimize strategy
©
Delete unnecessary clients from system
©
Use Downtime minimization service of SAP
©
Decoupling other independent projects with SAP Upgrade
©
Use of latest tools and techniques
©
Use of auto correction tools
©
Use of faster hardware / CPUs
13. Cutover Planning
Cutover Planning is very crucial in overall upgrade planning exercise. The
following points should be considered and planned in cutover planning.
©
Plan the execution of upgrade process according to available business
downtime window
©
Start Planning early and communicate to business users about downtime
13
©
Detailed cutover plan should be prepared with tasks, responsibilities and
dependencies
©
Finalize business contingency plan
©
Communicate and confirm SAP support during Production Server
upgrade
©
Transport of modifications and change requests to production system
should be automated
©
Transport of authorization roles should be automated
©
Backup strategy should be finalized before and after Production System
upgrade
©
Help Desk services should be setup to support users
Summary:
In order to minimize risk in a SAP Upgrade Project, the best practices need to
be adopted in execution of the important processes and functions of an
upgrade lifecycle.
In order to attain maximum reliability in SAP upgrade projects the
following points need to be kept in mind:
©
An upgrade assessment exercise should be performed at early stages of an
Upgrade project planning phase and a detailed business case needs to be
prepared keeping 3-5 years horizon in mind.
©
An upgrade project should be treated as a full fledged project
©
All stakeholders involvement should be ensured
©
Practice of upgrade activities in detail
©
Adoption of best practices in various important processes and functions
of upgrade life cycle
About the Speaker
Vijay Deep is responsible for management of SAP Upgrade Competency
Center at HCL. He is a certified SAP Logistics consultant with over 10 years of
experience in consulting and project management of SAP implementation,
upgrade and maintenance projects in various industry verticals. He has been
responsible for development and dissemination of world class project
accelerators and best practices for the benefit of upgrade projects and is a
speaker in leading events such as Sapphire.
Email: sap.marketing@hcl.in
14