Implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX
Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint
Delivery Guide
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[Customer Name]
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Microsoft Dynamics Planning Services
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Table of Contents
1
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1
2
Executive Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 4
2.2
Vision and Scope .................................................................................................................................................... 4
2.3
Risk Assessment ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
2.4
Potential Next Steps ............................................................................................................................................... 5
3
Initiate Engagement .............................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.1
Ensure Readiness for Service ................................................................................................................................. 6
3.2
Conduct Internal Pre-Kickoff Meeting .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.3
Customize Service and Create Baseline Agenda ..................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
4
Kickoff Meeting ....................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
4.1
Understand the Customer’s Situation.................................................................................................................... 6
4.2
Ensure the Customer Benefits from the Engagement ........................................................................................... 7
4.3
Assemble Core Delivery Team ............................................................................................................................... 7
5
Engagement Phases ...................................................................................................................................... 8
6
Initial Demonstration to Customer ................................................................................................................. 8
7
Information Gathering Phase ........................................................................................................................ 9
7.1
Functional Requirements and Fit ........................................................................................................................... 9
7.1.1
General Foundation ...................................................................................................................................... 9
7.1.2
Finance .......................................................................................................................................................... 9
7.1.3
Supply Chain ................................................................................................................................................ 10
7.1.4
Inventory and Logistics ............................................................................................................................... 10
7.1.5
Production ................................................................................................................................................... 10
7.1.6
Planning and Scheduling ............................................................................................................................. 10
7.1.7
Projects ....................................................................................................................................................... 11
7.1.8
Human Resources ....................................................................................................................................... 11
7.1.9
Other Modules ............................................................................................................................................ 11
7.2
Integration and Interfaces.................................................................................................................................... 11
7.3
Data Migration ..................................................................................................................................................... 11
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7.4
Quality and Testing .............................................................................................................................................. 12
7.5
Technical Assessment .......................................................................................................................................... 12
7.5.1
Infrastructure Inventory.............................................................................................................................. 12
7.5.2
Customer Pain Areas ................................................................................................................................... 14
7.5.3
Requirements .............................................................................................................................................. 15
8
Business Process Workshops ........................................................................................................................ 15
9
Findings and Review .................................................................................................................................... 15
9.1
Fit Gap Worksheet ............................................................................................................................................... 15
9.2
Solution Blueprint Report .................................................................................................................................... 16
9.3
Customer Review ................................................................................................................................................. 16
10
Closeout Meeting ..................................................................................................................................... 16
11
Effort Estimate – Work Breakdown Structure ............................................................................................ 17
12
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 18
13
Appendices .............................................................................................................................................. 19
13.1
14
14.1
Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint Process Flow ....................................................................................................... 19
References ............................................................................................................................................... 19
Links .................................................................................................................................................................. 19
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1
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines to Microsoft Partner consultants who are providing a Fit Gap
and Solution Blueprint for customers who are implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX. Areas covered include roles and
responsibilities for the consultant, the customer, and any vendors or partners who may be involved in the project.
Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint should be part of 5, 10 or 15 day Implementing Microsoft Dynamic AX planning
Services engagement. This phase should only be performed after the assessment phased was performed during the
first 3 days of the engagement. Please refer to the table below.
Activity
Preengagement
Assessment
3 days
5 days
Assess &
document
top business
processes &
requirements
Plan AX
implementation
architecture &
suggest
solution fit


10 days
15 days
Showcase
implementation &
Validate
Customer Benefits
Showcase &
Validate
Customer
Benefits
extended
(1 to few
processes)

(3+ processes)

Assessment
and process

documentation
workshop

High-level
Solution
Architecture



High level fit
gap and
scoping




Supporting Documents

Pre-Engagement
Questionnaire
Microsoft Dynamics
Lifecycle Services Business
Assessment Report
Template
Solution Architecture Report
Fit Gap Analysis Worksheet
Scoping worksheet/SOW
Proof-ofconcept


LCS azure demo
environment
Azure demo guidance
Customer
Deliverables
Assessment
Findings
Report
Architecture
plan & gap
summary
Microsoft Dynamics Planning Services
PoC Findings
Report
PoC Findings
Report
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Implementation Planning
Guide
Microsoft Dynamics AX
Installation Guide
Microsoft Dynamics Planning Services
2
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
This section describes the major issues facing a customer that may have prompted them to begin the planning
process for a Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint. It describes the overall program, the purpose of the engagement, and
outlines the major activities covered.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is used to refer to an “enterprise view” of a business; it means leveraging
applications to manage the operations and gain a view of a company as a connected single entity, as opposed to a
collection of activity silos. The customer may find the following issues with their current information systems,
prompting them to evaluate ERP solutions:
 Business Processes (BP): They do not support the customer's critical business needs and are not flexible
enough to change as the business itself evolves. They are unable to easily perform core business processes
such as quickly closing a financial period, tracking variances, product costing, or forecasting demand. They
are unable to eliminate manual workarounds to reconcile data and / or transactions between systems.
 Supply Chain (SC): They are unable to provide appropriate access to information for their customers,
suppliers, and partners; processes are independent of one another and not linked together into an overall
chain whose purpose should be to supply the end-user with products or services at the right time, cost and
in the right configuration.
 Business Intelligence (BI): They don’t provide timely access to the information needed to make critical
business decisions and are unable to integrate business related intelligence, information and master data
across company divisions and organizations; it is difficult to “mine” information and produce useful reports
and inquiries.
 Architecture: They lack flexibility due to home-grown applications, old systems or spreadsheets that are
being used to manage the overall business operations.
During the course of their evaluation, the customer may have found that some of their business processes align very
well with Microsoft Dynamics AX. They may also have found that a certain percentage of their processes can be
covered by independent software vendor (ISV) solutions, while some may require custom development.
To quantify this in a more certain manner, the customer can request a Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint. The benefit to
the customer is to gain a clear understanding of the solution’s fit with mission critical and major, key business
processes, before the commencement of the implementation project itself.
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2.1
Executive Summary
The customer engages a Microsoft Partner for the Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint offering for the following reasons:
 To understand the level of Fit between their organization’s requirements and Microsoft Dynamics AX
 To understand what level of customization and configuration will be required
 To understand which ISV solutions may be required
 To obtain a blueprint for the delivery of the solution that can be used in the subsequent project planning
and analysis
Accordingly, the decisions made during this engagement must align with the customer’s overall business level goals
and objectives as follows:
 Validation of the “Degree of Fit” of Microsoft Dynamics AX to the customer’s business requirements
 Gain business buy-in and support for Microsoft Dynamics AX as a solution that meets the customer’s
needs
 Identification of an Implementation Strategy and its associated Project Phases
 Determination of the various staffing and cost options and their implications. This will allow the customer
to select the right balance between costs and benefits
2.2
Vision and Scope
The Vision for this type of engagement is to determine the degree of fit of the Microsoft Dynamics AX with the customer’s
business requirements, as well as to determine the amount of configuration and customization required, and how the
system will be used by customer. This will be accomplished through a series of interviews, workshops, and demonstrations to
the customer’s business and Information Technology (IT) personnel during which feedback on their business and IT
requirements will be collected.
This engagement fits into the overall program by providing the customer with a clear understanding of the solution’s
fit with key business processes, and business objectives, before commencement of the full discovery phase as part of
an implementation project.
Below is a list of in-scope and out-of-scope activities for this engagement.
In-Scope:
 Development of a prioritized list of requirements
 Review of requirements versus those that are available in the current systems
 Estimate of Degree of Fit (i.e. identification of what is native functionality, configuration, or customization)
for the overall environment and in particular identified and prioritized processes
 High-level estimate of the services required for configuration and customization for each requirement
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 Development of a Solution Blueprint which provides details, from a Business Perspective, of how Microsoft
Dynamics AX will be delivered and used
Out-of-Scope:
 The partner should provide a high level fit gap analysis and blue print as the length of the Planning Services
engagement permits, but should include at least one to few processes and an overall high level estimate of
the solution fit.
 Detailed Functional and Technical Specifications
 Detailed “To-be” process maps, training documentation and end user training
 Implementation Plans
 Detailed Project Plan, Return-On-Investment (ROI) calculation or a Total-Cost-of-Ownership (TOC) analysis
 Any other items not explicitly defined as in-scope
Recommendations will be detailed and documented in the Microsoft Sure Step Fit / Gap and Solution Blueprint at
the end of the engagement.
2.3
Risk Assessment
The following items could have a negative impact on the success of the Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint engagement:
 Business requirements are not available
 Supporting documentation is unavailable
 Business and IT subject matter experts are not available during the workshops
 Business and technical decision makers are unavailable
 Lack of an Executive Sponsor to define the scope and champion the engagement
 Inability to reach decisions in a timely manner
2.4
Potential Next Steps
Depending on the outcome of this engagement, and in order to meet the customer’s expectations, several other
activities may be required, which are identified as the “next steps” listed below:
 Scoping Assessment: This consists of a document that provides a high level project cost and resource plan
specific to the customer. It describes how they would go about implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX and
what that implementation would cost. Its objective is to determine a total cost to implement Microsoft
Dynamics AX.
 Proof of Concept (POC): Microsoft Dynamics AX is configured using the online Azure hosted environment
in Dynamics Life Cycle Services around certain critical requirements. This is then demonstrated to the
Business Decision Makers (BDM) and IT personnel in a conference room setting to validate their
requirements.
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FIT GAP READINESS
Fit Gap Analysis and Solution Blue Print should follow the assessment phase which is the first required activity as
part of the Implementing Dynamics AX Planning Services engagement. So, by the time the consultant/s starts the Fit
Gap activities they should be familiar with the customer’s business environment and operating constraints after
reviewing the pre-engagement questionnaire, documenting with the customer the business processes using Life
Cycle Services and delivering the assessment report to the customer including process prioritization. Ensure you
gathered enough information about the customer’s business process you prioritized and their business and technical
requirements and limitations according to the items below during the assessment phase:
2.5
Ensure Readiness for Service
To ensure readiness, the following activities should be performed:
 Identify specific consulting and customer resources that are needed to perform a detailed analysis of each
high-level business process and identify the associated requirements.
 Identify specific consulting and customer resources that can review any system integration requirements.
2.6
Business Requirements
The Business Requirements gathering phase marks the official start of the engagement. The goal of this stage is to
define and document the company’s business requirements related to Microsoft Dynamics and any needed ISV
solutions. These requirements include Business, System, Technical, Integration / Interfaces, Data, and Quality /
Testing. Taking a "big picture" approach at the initial stage of the project allows us to consider all the requirements
and possibilities related to if, how and when Microsoft Dynamics is deployed in the various locations and
departments in the customer’s organization. At this time we also determine which Microsoft Dynamics functionality
is required and document the Deployment Strategy that lays out in what phase of the implementation project the
various modules and / or functionality will be implemented.
2.7
Understand the Customer’s Situation
Before starting the Fit Gap engagement, the consultant should have gathered enough background information about
the current environment so that the engagement is focused in the right areas. This is not an in-depth analysis, which
is beyond the scope of this exercise, but it should capture how the customer currently feels. Some examples of areas
that should be covered include:
 Customer’s general need for a business solution
 Current system and the reason for changing it
 Current architectures in use within the organization
 Enterprise architecture standards, principles, and constraints
 Code development standards
 Current technologies in use within the operation
 Integration and interface standards
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 Current master data and transaction volumes
 Number and type of users
 Current skill levels
 Current change control management processes
 Current ERP environment, and any other such tools that are in use
 Current status of any initiatives in the organization relating to the current ERP environment
The consultant also needs to know whether the customer has a current technology roadmap. This may either be
implied or explicitly written. The customer’s roadmap and how it relates to the “Microsoft roadmap” is something
that the consultant delivering this engagement should consider, especially when preparing his recommendations.
There are no mandatory deliverables as a result of this exercise, but the consultant should use the key findings of
this exercise as inputs to the findings and recommendations that are delivered at the end of the engagement.
2.8
Ensure the Customer Benefits from the Engagement
Engage all project stakeholders to ensure expectations have been set correctly. The entire project team should have
a common understanding and a buy-in of the vision and scope for this engagement. They should understand the
importance of the Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint, as well as how it fits into the customer’s overall plans and objectives.
Identify tangible benefits and focus on the technical, business, and operations aspects as appropriate. Examples
include:
 Help me understand my environment
 Help me count the number and size of my databases
 Help me know if I am following the latest best practices
 Help me know if my IT environment is configured appropriately
You should be asking yourself these questions when preparing for the engagement:
 What are the key decisions that the customer needs assistance in making?
 What are the potential showstoppers that can be avoided?
 Are there any fundamental knowledge gaps?
 How can we bring the customer to a solution faster?
2.9
Assemble Core Delivery Team
The Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint engagement is created to be delivered by a virtual team with collective knowledge
in, potentially, three disciplines: business, technical, and operations.
The functional part of the engagement can be delivered by one or more Microsoft Dynamics Functional Consultants
who have product training and practical experience in the functional areas that are within scope, as well as
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experience in conducting interviews with relevant stakeholders. The technical part of the engagement can be
delivered by one or more Technical Consultants who have the skills to perform an audit of the environment. They
would be using a number of Microsoft and third-party tools and will conduct interviews with all of the relevant
stakeholders. The Technical Consultant must also have experience in estimating the effort required for configuration
and customization to satisfy business requirements.
This means the customer must provide relevant resources (system architects, administrators, and managers) to work
with the consultant to achieve these goals. For more information about required resources, see the Fit Gap &
Solution Blueprint Resource and Readiness Guide.
3
ENGAGEMENT PHASES
The Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint activities will begin with the onsite team determining the degree of fit of the
Microsoft Dynamics AX solution with the customer’s business processes. In order to determine this, the amount of
development and customization required, and how the solution will be used by the customer.
The following phases have been identified:
 Initial Demonstration to the customer
 Information Gathering
 Business Process Workshops
 Findings and Review
 Close out Meeting
The phases above will involve a series of workshops, demonstrations to, and interviews with, the customer’s
business and IT Subject Matter Experts (SME).
4
INITIAL DEMONSTRATION TO CUSTOMER
The Initial Demonstration is the first meeting of the engagement itself and has the following primary purposes:
 Demonstrate out-of-the-box capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX
 Confirm Customer expectations
 Gather basic information about any additional functionality the customer can readily identify during the
demonstration
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5
ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONAL INFORMATION GATHERING
The Information Gathering phase follows the same framework as the Data Gathering phase, regardless of the
customer’s environment. The following describes the steps, requirements, resources, and tools for data gathering
for this type of engagement.
Note that for the purpose of the engagement, the only environment the delivery consultant needs to be concerned
with is the current production environment. Throughout the interviewing process, it is expected the delivery
consultant will take notes that will be used as inputs for the final set of deliverables.
If the customer has not fully complete the Role Tailored Pre-Engagement Questionnaires it can be useful to complete
these questionnaire on this phase, as it can be used to guide the delivery consultants through each functional area of
the business, and should be used to document requirements in every area. There are five sections of the
questionnaire: General (required in most every business), and separate addendums for (1) Advertising, (2)
Architecture, Engineering and Construction, (3) Manufacturing and (4) Professional Services.
5.1
Functional Requirements and Fit
During the information gathering process, the delivery consultant should identify which of the Microsoft Dynamics
AX functionality is required by the customer. A list of the Microsoft Dynamics AX functionality is included below.
5.1.1
General Foundation
Sample Functionality may include the following:






5.1.2
Graphical user interface requirements
Active Directory Integration
Administration and Security Requirements
Enterprise Portal (EP) Requirements
Document Management Requirements
Reporting Requirements
Finance
Sample Functionality may include the following:






Consolidation processes and needs
Foreign Currencies involved
General Ledger and Budgeting
Bank and Cash Management
Fixed Assets
Financial Dimensions and their use
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5.1.3
Supply Chain
Sample Functionality may include the following:








5.1.4
Sales and Marketing
Intercompany Trade
Pricing and Commissions
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Trade and Sales / Purchasing Agreements
Purchasing and Purchase Requisitioning
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable
Inventory and Logistics
Sample Functionality may include the following:








5.1.5
Items and Item Types
Product Costing
Inventory Model and Dimension Groups
Warehouses and Locations
Remote Warehouse Replenishment (i.e. Safety Stocks and / or Maximums)
Inventory Transfers between Sites and Warehouses
Inventory Receipts
Order Fulfillment
Production
Sample Functionality may include the following:




5.1.6
Bills of Material (BOM)
Routings and Resources (i.e. Work Centers)
Lean and / or Process Manufacturing
Shop Floor Control and Reporting
Planning and Scheduling
Sample Functionality may include the following:





Sales Forecasting and Seasonality Indices
Forecast Consumption and Reduction principles
Master Planning (i.e. Forecasting and MRP)
Coverage Groups (i.e. Order Policies and Order Quantity Modifiers)
Capacity Planning and Scheduling
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5.1.7
Projects
Sample Functionality may include the following:




Project types and groups
Project costing and pricing
Fixed fee projects and estimation models
Project validations
5.1.8
Human Resources
Sample Functionality may include the following:





Organization Structure
Skills, Certifications and Competencies
Recruitment Processes
Performance Evaluations
Time and Attendance Management and Reporting
5.1.9
Other Modules
Other modules may include the following:


5.2
ISV Solution Add-on #1,
ISV Solution Add-on #2 (as needed)
Integration and Interfaces
During this workshop the delivery consultant will have a chance to interview and gather requirements for systems
integration with:
 External systems
 Legacy systems
 Customer’s Shop Floor Control tools
 Production or Plant level data gathering systems
 Portal-based systems
 Integration with other Microsoft products such as:
5.3

SQL Server

Microsoft Office

Microsoft .NET

Microsoft Exchange
Data Migration
The scope of data migration, as defined during the kickoff meeting, is reviewed. This review provides a starting point
for the Delivery Consultant, Key User and IT team members to identify data migration requirements. This exercise
also provides visibility into the customer’s current master data and transaction volumes, and should include an
overall assessment of the data cleansing and updating that is generally required before data migration can occur.
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5.4
Quality and Testing
The Quality and Testing Review is determined by the scope defined during the kickoff meeting. This review provides
a starting point for the Delivery Consultant, Key User and IT team members to identify the Quality and Testing
standards and requirements.
5.5
Technical Assessment
The focus of the Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint engagement is to gather Business and IT requirements. Limited time is
allotted to analyze the client’s technical environment. Therefore, the analysis in this area should be considered as
only a high-level pass.
5.5.1
Infrastructure Inventory
The intent here is to help the delivery consultant discover as many details as possible about the current
environment. Once infrastructure data have been collected, the delivery consultant will have a solid understanding
of all the relevant dependencies. This Inventory will provide crucial data points to help the consultant perform the
gap analysis and make his recommendations.
Due to limited time dedicated to the interviewing process, make sure all areas are covered before you look into the
details. All relevant dependencies must be considered, and only if time is allowed to focus on areas that need more
attention. Focus areas will differ between customers, but typically involve storage, network, and directory services.
5.5.1.1
Environments
One of the first steps is to determine the number of environments that need to be assessed. These can include test,
development, pre-production, and production environments.
To gauge the operational maturity of the customer, it is important to understand if the customer has more than just
a production environment and if so, how code changes are migrated from the development and test environments
to production.
5.5.1.2
Network Infrastructure and Services
Identify the network infrastructure and services.
5.5.1.3
Hardware
The following information should be captured for each discrete system:
Identify core inventory information about the servers.
Key components, including version and revision levels are important when determining applicability and
supportability in complex configurations.
Ensure that the complete configuration is listed on the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (WHCL) at
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx
Focus should be on the current and planned future company standards, as well as a limited number of representative servers
(typically five to six servers from each category) that the customer identifies as being troublesome. This will provide some
insight into the customer’s pain points.
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If the customer does not have this information available beforehand, do not spend too much time collecting it during
this phase.
The most important parts of this inventory are whether or not the systems are on the WHCL and how the hardware
is used by the operating system, such as the settings for the boot.ini file.
5.5.1.4
Storage
Identify the storage components.
5.5.1.5
Directory Services
Identify the Directory Services configuration and setup.
5.5.1.6
Monitoring
If the customer wants to run a high-performance Microsoft environment, it is important to understand the health of
the systems. Discover whether the customer is using Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2000/2005 and, if not,
the reasons for that decision.
5.5.1.7
Maintenance
A detailed inventory of this area is the responsibility of the operations consultant. However, make sure to perform
an overview of the operational maturity of the customer to identify any barriers to implementing the desired
solution.
5.5.1.8
Hygiene
Throughout the interviewing process, it is expected the delivery consultant will take notes that will be used as inputs
for the final report.
Microsoft Dynamics Planning Services
5.5.2
Customer Pain Areas
Additionally to the information which was gathered during the assessment phase, the consultant should collect
additional information on the prioritized processes regarding customer’s pain points. The goal of this process is to
allow the customer to clearly communicate detailed key areas that cause issues within the organization. These
essentially fall into two categories: undesired behavior that is occurring; or desirable behavior that is not. The result
of this interview will be a prioritized list of issues based on the customer’s ranking by importance or impact. The
customer’s background information should be collected prior to engaging with the customer. Based on the
customer’s pain points, the consultant should try to categorize the list into business requirements and underlying
issues, which can be converted to requirements for the new solution. Technical and operational assessments will
help determine the underlying causes of the issues.
5.5.2.1
General
The focus is on computing, support equipment, and services. Throughout the interviewing process, it is expected the
delivery consultant will take notes that will be used as inputs for the final report.
5.5.2.2
Availability
The basic availability focus means the servers are up and in a mode that offers acceptable service to the end users.
5.5.2.3
System Performance
The basic “is it running well?” focus, checks whether the servers are performing as expected. Take note of any
documentation that defines how running well matches with their Service Level Agreements (SLA). The overall
connection between SLAs and performance is a link that the operations consultant should be making in the
interviews. Based on the responses here, he should confirm that this link has been established.
5.5.2.4
Storage
The basic “is it running well?” focus means the storage is performing as expected.
5.5.2.5
Disaster Recovery
The focus is on understanding the customer’s maturity in the Disaster Recovery (DR) area. Use any additional space
to make notes about the Disaster Recovery environment.
5.5.2.6
Third-Party Components
The focus is on understanding any third-party components that affect the environment. Use any additional space to
make notes about third-party applications after obtaining answers.
5.5.2.7
Additional Issues or Concerns
This is the opportunity to allow the customer to freely identify issues or needs not expressly covered in previous
sections.
Microsoft Dynamics Planning Services
5.5.3
Requirements
This section helps the consultant document the customer’s technical requirements as they relate to this
engagement.
6
BUSINESS PROCESS WORKSHOPS
Business Process Workshops are conducted halfway through the engagement to present and discuss current findings
with the customer and to review the business processes that are considered within the scope of this engagement.
The length of the various workshops can be from a few days to a few weeks depending on the scope of the
engagement and the number of business processes that are analyzed.
The onsite team may cover the following topics in the Business Process Workshops:
 Demonstration of relevant components of Dynamics Functionality
 A walkthrough of the business process flow charts, within the scope of the engagement, and a discussion
of how Dynamics would work within those business processes
 A review of the business requirements to determine how they will be addressed in Dynamics
 Prioritization of the requirements identified before and during the workshops
Business Process Workshops provide a good way of validating the requirements information collected during the
Information Gathering Phase.
7
FINDINGS AND REVIEW
After the Information Gathering Phase of the Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint engagement is complete, the delivery
consultant will have number of reports, tools, outputs, and interview documents that will be used as inputs for the
final report.
The consultant should use the results gathered throughout the engagement to create a prioritized list of findings and
recommendations.
7.1
Fit Gap Worksheet
Using the inputs obtained during the Information Gathering Phase, the onsite team constructs the Fit Gap
Worksheet. The following steps may be followed:
 Construct the worksheet using the Sure Step Fit Gap Worksheet tool
 Review the Fit Gap Worksheet with the various Stakeholders
 Finalize the Fit Gap Worksheet by:

Calculating the Degree of Fit

Completing a High-Level Development Estimate
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7.2
Solution Blueprint Report
Following the completion of the Fit Gap Worksheet, the onsite team can determine the Solution Blueprint and the
design of the overall proposed solution. Sure Step’s “Fit Gap Solution Blueprint Template” document can be used for
this effort.
7.3
Customer Review
Once the Solution Blueprint report has been created, the delivery consultant should schedule a review meeting with
the customer. The delivery consultant should address all objectives agreed upon at the beginning of the Fit Gap &
Solution Blueprint engagement.
8
CLOSEOUT MEETING
At the end of the engagement there is a closeout meeting to complete the Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint project. The
closeout meeting is the final activity performed as part the engagement. The findings for the engagement are
presented to the customer and recommendations are delivered.
It is also provides an opportunity to propose any follow-on engagements that may have been identified during this
offering.
Topics related to the closeout meeting are:
 Meet and discuss:

Results to date

Closeout / finding and recommendations presentation which will include a

Discussion of the overall “Degree of Fit”

Analysis of the major items in terms of configuration and customization

Data Migration Requirements

Integration Requirements

Relate findings to original objectives and requirements

Discuss the next steps (i.e. roadmap)
 Determine customer satisfaction
 Close the engagement
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Note: Make sure you identify any possible future engagements for inclusion in the Next Steps section of the
presentation.
The Closeout Meeting is an opportunity to deliver all the documentation and reports that resulted from the
engagement:
 Fit Gap Worksheet
 Sure Step Solution Blueprint Report
 Fit Gap Solution Blueprint Close Out Presentation
 Closeout Meeting Report
9
EFFORT ESTIMATE – WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
This section contains a detailed Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for the Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint engagement.
Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint Activity
Gather and Review Functional Documentation
Time Estimate (Hrs)
8
Gather and Review Technical Documentation
8
Review of Legacy Applications
8
Collate all Functional Requirements
Construct Fit Gap Worksheet
Interview IT and business leadership and review
the Functional Requirements
16
8
Conduct Business Process Workshops
Finalize Fit Gap, calculated Degree of Fit (DOF)
and complete Development Estimate
Determine Solution Blue Print and overall
proposed Solution Design and Write Report
Review with Management Team and incorporate
feedback
Engagement Management
Contingency
Total
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Comments
All requisite documentation to be
collected prior to project start
All requisite documentation to be
collected prior to project start
Customer to provide assistance in
doing functional walkthrough of
legacy applications
8
16
16
16
4
4
8
120
Requirements will be prioritized into
phases with high-level development/
configuration time associated with
each activity
Solution Blueprint review
requirements at a high-level, talks
about the conceptual and logical
architecture of the solution
proposed, major development
activities and any add-ons required
10
CONCLUSION
The Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint engagement represents an important solution offering to the customer.
This delivery guide does not intend to address specific issues and requirements regarding the solution, but only to
provide guidance to the delivery consultant team during the process of conducting and completing a successful
engagement.
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11
APPENDICES
11.1
Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint Process Flow
The process flow to be used to deliver the Fit Gap & Solution Blueprint is depicted in the diagram below:
12
REFERENCES
12.1
Links
Additional links are provided in this section for training and readiness resources. Use this as a resource for
developing your personal learning plan as necessary.
 Microsoft Dynamics – http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/default.mspx - Information on Microsoft
Dynamics.
 Microsoft Dynamics AX – http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/default.mspx - Specific information on
Microsoft Dynamics AX.
 Microsoft Dynamics AX Customer Testimonials –
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/product/customerstories.mspx - Microsoft Dynamics AX
customer testimonials.
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