5 ways to assure quality and build governance into your S/4HANA migration

As companies start their journeys to S/4HANA, the stakes are high. With the potential for both huge gains and catastrophic setbacks, you need to get it right the first time.

So how can you ensure a seamless implementation on time and on budget? Expleo’s Senior Manager in Client Engagement Paul Barrett, who specialises in SAP Quality Assurance, has some invaluable insights.

He says, “Another big project shouldn’t be done while you’re doing a migration or an upgrade – it’s too complicated. It’s also about putting intelligence into testing with the tools available to you.”

From streamlining customisations to setting robust frameworks, Paul delves into five crucial strategies to make your migration a confident and successful one.

1. Don’t over-customise S/4HANA

One of the biggest challenges with migrations is customised code. Streamlining this before migration will make upgrades easier. You don’t need to do it all manually. SAP provides tools to identify unused custom code, allowing you to decommission it ahead of migration to nip potential issues in the bud. Remember, while SAP rigorously tests standard functionalities, they may not cover all custom code.

Every business likes to think it’s unique, but core functionalities like finance or procurement are often similar across organisations. So it’s much more efficient to configure the new system to meet your business needs by using existing data rather than by adding customisations.

We supported one Greenfield implementation where the system integrator prioritised building a customised solution, which was a mistake. Now we’re able to question system integrators on why they’re adding certain customisations when the standard functionality will serve the purpose.

It also underscores the importance of change management in getting the business to adopt standard functionalities or justifying custom developments with a strong business case.

2. Have a clear strategy for implementation

Before diving into the migration process, it’s crucial to have a clear strategy in place. You’ve got to wait for the migration to happen before the testing can commence and having multiple environments in order to test is important, progressing from development migration to implementation development and only then into quality assurance.

If you run other projects during any of these stages, it can pose a challenge. During your migration, you’ll also have your Business As Usual (BAU) activities to handle, which run on a separate track (we call it dual track). Businesses must recognise they need to invest in the infrastructure to support both.

3. Establish a tiered governance framework

At the start of the project, get all team members around the table and give them clearly defined roles and responsibilities. That way everyone understands their tasks and contributions and you can ensure accountability throughout the project. A tiered framework means decision-making is much more streamlined, too.

Data management should be a key focus here. It’s all very well migrating data, but you need to take data limits into account. Ensure the data in your testing environments accurately reflects your production environment. Before you migrate, it’s a good idea to update your old system’s data to make sure your test data is realistic in terms of volume and functionality. Refreshing data from production before a migration or upgrade, to make sure your testing data is representative in terms of volume and functionality, is recommended.

4. Establish a proper testing strategy

It’s essential to develop a robust testing strategy for the migration process. You won’t need to test everything. Tools like Solution Manager let you add some intelligence into the testing, which really streamlines the process.

As you transition from development to a quality environment, setting clear exit and entry criteria is essential. While you don’t need everything to be fixed before production, defined exit criteria can help reduce the risk of unresolved issues causing problems post-migration.

Investing in a proper testing environment is expensive, but vital. Without a representative set-up, you risk coming up against performance issues down the line. Many of our customers have multi-system environments and integration is key. Prioritise the most important interfaces during migration. You don’t have to cover everything – it’s about business risk. Focus on customer-facing systems or those with sensitive data where it will cost you money if the interface isn’t working. And perform post-migration acceptance tests to make sure everything functions seamlessly before going live.

5. Don’t expect to run big projects at the same time as the migration

You shouldn’t run any other big projects while you’re doing a migration or an upgrade. And trying to implement new functionality during an S/4HANA migration isn’t a good idea. For instance, S/4HANA has a new user interface, Fiori, replacing the old SAP ECC screens. It’s a new look and feel from the standard GUI screens, with a more modern and intuitive UX. But many users are reluctant to give up the familiar old-school GUI interface. Moving people over to the new interface would add time and costs to an S/4HANA migration.

In today’s global market, quality is paramount. And in the highly complex world of S/4HANA migration, an independent partner like Expleo can play a critical role by your side.

We specialise in helping organisations implement robust quality processes inside their company for bug-free software and a high quality product. The result is a smoother journey to enhanced user experience which builds trust and adds value to your brand.

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If you’d like help with this or any other part of your journey to S/4HANA, please get in touch