Data Migration Methodology for SAP V01a

Data Migration Methodology for SAP PAGE 1

DATA MIGRATION

METHODOLOGY

FOR SAP

BY CHRISTIAN BERGERON - [email protected]

If one can manage small decisions now, the large ones will gradually disappear or

might never appear in the first place.

Anonymous


ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

This document is free. You can use it and distribute it freely, as long as you do not

change any of its content or sell it.

Goal of this document

This document provides you with a procedure to assist you organizing and performing the data transfer from the legacy

system.

It describes a methodology for data migration I used successfully in different implementations. It is base upon my previous

experiences. There is no warranty on its content or on the results. This guide gives you suggestions. It is up to you to take

the hints and make up your own methodology.

All the templates are derived from models I used in specific implementations and may come from older version of SAP R3.

It most probably will not be 100% accurate or adequate for your use. There may be omissions and the templates can be for

different SAP versions. It is a base to help you build your own template. You can start from them, but do not take for

granted that everything is there.

Whom is this guide for ?

1 Section 1 is for every one involves in the data conversion process. 2 Section 2 is for the project manager and the data conversion manager 3 Section 3 is for the data conversion manager and the members of your team responsible of converting Business

Objects, both technical and functional.


Terminology and Abbreviations:

Note: The terms SAP and R/3 are both use interchangeably to refer to SAP R/3 system.

Big Five : When referring to the Big Five, it means Material Master, Customer Master, Vendor Master, Bill Of

Materials (BOM) and Routings.

Business Objects : To help in the analysis and transfer process, the data are not treated as tables or field contents

but rather as objects in term of business operational. These are called Business Objects.

Business Object DC responsible : Responsible of the conversion process (Legacy data source and integrity,

mapping, conversion rules, etc.) and for the respect of the planned schedule for his Business Object.

Business Object Owner : The one that owns the information in the every day business. This is the person that will

make the strategic choices on functional requirements for the business object and that will do the final validation

of the converted data. Can be identified by finding The highest hierarchical person who will be directly and mostly affected if the business object does not work

Data Conversion & Data Migration : The data conversion process. Data conversion and Data Migration terms are used interchangeably in the document.

DC : Abbreviation for the data conversion process.

Domain: Functional domain within the project, like Finance, Sales, Production, etc.

Flat File : A file format used to import data into SAP. The flat file is a plain text file with a tab separator between

fields. It can be easily generated from Excel or Access.

Intermediate file : An Excel, Access or other type of file, which is manually manipulated in a process between

the LS extraction and the flat file generation.

LS : Abbreviation for Legacy System

LSM or LSMW : Legacy System Migration Workbench. It is a SAP tool for conversion that permits data loading

using flat files extracted from the Legacy System.

Transcodification Table, Cross reference table or X-Ref table : A table that shows the relation between fields

when one value is related to a parent field. For example, the "Sales Organization" will be set accordingly to the

material type.

WBS : Work Breakdown Structure.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION TO DATA CONVERSION ........................................................................................... 6

1.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 7

Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 7

Bases from which this methodology was made ...................................................................................... 7

Philosophy VS techniques ...................................................................................................................... 8

A few facts .............................................................................................................................................. 8

Conversion rules and business object ownership .................................................................................... 8

Main steps of the conversion methodology ............................................................................................. 9

Where you will, for sure, have a timing problem .................................................................................... 9

There is no such thing as a free lunch ................................................................................................... 10

The computer will have the last word ................................................................................................... 10

1.2 DATA CONVERSION GUIDELINES ........................................................................................................ 11

Think SAP ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Prepare the Legacy Database ................................................................................................................ 11

Before the last test run, take into account the customizations of your new system............................... 11

Reduce the amount of historical data to be transferred ......................................................................... 11

Use controls edition in SAP .................................................................................................................. 11

Small is beautiful .................................................................................................................................. 11

Be wise .................................................................................................................................................. 11

Play it safe ............................................................................................................................................. 11

1.3 SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL READINGS ................................................................................................. 12

SECTION 2 - ORGANIZE THE DATA CONVERSION ................................................................................................ 13

2.1 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................. 15

2.2 DATA CONVERSION PLAN ..................................................................................................................... 15

Business Objects ................................................................................................................................... 15

Data type ............................................................................................................................................... 15

Information to complete in the conversion plan .................................................................................... 16

Main Business Objects sequence of conversion.................................................................................... 17

2.3 WBS ( WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE) ....................................................................................................... 18

Why a WBS ? ........................................................................................................................................ 18

How to ................................................................................................................................................... 18

Suggested WBS content for data conversion ........................................................................................ 19

Are you sure ? ....................................................................................................................................... 19

Request to re-evaluate your WBS ......................................................................................................... 19

Some pointers to figure out numbers .................................................................................................... 20

Ballpark figures ..................................................................................................................................... 21

A formula to help . Handle with care ................................................................................................ 21

2.4 CALENDAR PLANNING ........................................................................................................................... 23

Overview ............................................................................................................................................... 23

MS-Project or not. ................................................................................................................................. 24


Sequencing the tasks ............................................................................................................................. 24

Key users and consultant availability to work on Master Data ............................................................. 24

End 'at best' VS 'most probable' ............................................................................................................ 24

Are you sure ? ....................................................................................................................................... 24

Workload analysis ................................................................................................................................. 25

SECTION 3 - CONVERTING A BUSINESS OBJECT ................................................................................................... 26

3.1 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................. 28

Before you begin. .................................................................................................................................. 28

Documentation of your work (conversion spec. and mapping sheet) ................................................... 28

3.2 DATA PURGING AND CLEANSING ........................................................................................................ 28

3.3 MAPPING AND CONVERSION RULES ................................................................................................... 28

About the rules ...................................................................................................................................... 29

A special case for Material Master ........................................................................................................ 30

All other business objects ..................................................................................................................... 34

Directory organization .......................................................................................................................... 37

Version management of conversion rules ............................................................................................. 37

Murphy's protection : Save it often and get good backups. .............................................................. 38

3.4 EXTRACT AND LOAD PROGRAMS .................................................................................................................. 38

3.5 DATA AND RULES ADAPTATION .................................................................................................................... 39

3.6 LOAD UNIT TESTING ..................................................................................................................................... 40

3.7 EXTRACT & LOAD FULL SIZE TESTING AND DATA VALIDATION ................................................................ 40

3.8 ACCEPTANCE SYSTEM FULL LOAD ................................................................................................................ 40

3.9 PRE PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTION LOAD ................................................................................................... 41

3.10 SUGGESTIONS ON THE DATA CONVERSION LANDSCAPE ................................................................................ 41

CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................................................... 42

APPENDIX VARIOUS TEMPLATES............................................................................................................................ 43

A - Conversion plan template ............................................................................................................... 44

B - WBS template ................................................................................................................................. 44

C Material Master - Fields selection sheet ......................................................................................... 44

D - Data conversion specification - Generic template........................................................................... 44

E - Data conversion specification BOM & Routing Template Samples ............................................ 44

F - Materials Classes and Characteristics structure ............................................................................... 44


SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION TO DATA CONVERSION


1.1 INTRODUCTION

Overview

Implementing SAP is an important challenge, both in terms of resources (people, money, time) and in business process. A

lot is at stake and, for most of you, failure is not an option you can afford. To put all odds on your side, you need a good

methodology. One that will provide you with a realistic planning, a solid organization, a way to manage the process and

control tools to detect and correct slippage before it becomes a problem.

An important part of this challenge will be the data conversion. Previous implementations of SAP have shown that data

migration can amount up to about 40% of the entire project. Poor data conversion will make your Go Live very difficult, if not impossible.

This guide is aimed at helping you organize the data conversion process, which in turn, will lead to a successful

implantation.

Bases from which this methodology was made

When I was originally asked to come up with a method to convert data, I started by analyzing passed experiences. There I

found the following recurring problems :

While the project is going on:

There are many things being worked on at the same time. Yet, most of them are not progressing.

There are documents all over the place and, somehow, they always seem to be outdated.

Data loaded is regularly incomplete and inconsistent.

Functional changes are not impacted on the converted data.

Data previously loaded with success is suddenly rejected by SAP.

There is a lot of misunderstanding, friction and frustration between the functional and technical team.

At Go Live

Master data deadlines where constantly busted and production load is done in ''rush mode' at the last minute.

Some key parts of the data cannot be loaded in production. Patches are applied to the master data in order to force-load.

Some data just will not get in at all, they will have to be entered after GO Live.

After Go Live

Some Data need to be corrected & entered after Go Live. Because the production system is now living, data are moving targets. This makes the process difficult and time consuming . This translates into a costly operation.

After discussing with people who lived these situation (manager, functional and technical), we identified the following

points :

Planning and resources load estimates where way out (when they existed).

Most of the problems encountered are actually functional issues.

Information does not travel well between functional and technical team. As we get near the Go Live, this becomes much worst.

This methodology was made to solve these issues.


Philosophy VS techniques

The approach I take to the data conversion is as much a state of mind as a technique. Both aspect of it must be applied for

results to show up. This is actually true of any concept. Most of concept failures are due to application of the technique

while neglecting the philosophical aspect of it.

The mindset required in our case is that we must do things right from the start and solve issues as they occur. Take the time

that it requires to do thing properly and thoroughly. No expediting, no bypassing of step, no piling of unsolved issue to keep

going.

Results will initially be slower to come. However, because you will get things right on the fist time, you will eventually

pick-up an impressive speed. As in car racing, it is not the speed at which you enter a turn that is most important, it is the

one at which you get out of it.

A few facts

The data conversion is not some technical stuff to give to the programmers and wait until it comes back. Most, if not all, of

the issues and problems you will encounter in the conversion process will be functional. Although the extract / load process

itself will not be effortless, it is the part between the extract and the load that is the most difficult. Getting the right data at

the right place with the values required for your business process is always a functional problem.

SAP is a process-oriented system and master data is an integral part of this process. Nice, but what does it means? The

answer is that everything is tied together. Master data is dependent of the customizing, the customizing is made accordingly

to the way you do your process, and master data is needed to run your process. If you change master data, it will most

probably change the behavior of the process. If you change customizing, your master data may become incomplete or

incorrect.

Whichever phases you are in the project, data conversion always seem to be the one step that can be pushed a little bit

forward in time when you run behind in the overall schedule. Doing this will put the conversion process too close to the end

of the project. In that situation, you will end up shoveling a ton of data into SAP at full speed with little control, if any, on

data quality and coherence. Remember the old saying "garbage in, garbage out".

There is no 'easy does it' way to do the data conversion and it takes time. Data conversion is made with lot of brain stuff

mixed with hard work and some programming. No technological gadget or guru will make this otherwise.

Conversion rules and business object ownership

Ok, we now know DC is a functional thing, data must not be shoveled-in and it will take lot of work and time. How do we

manage his ?

To solve this, I make the DC process part of the functional process, both in term of timing and deliverable. Key users must

do a thorough analysis of the master data and link their usage to the process as they are customizing. They must understand

which data does what, which are needed, how it relates to the customizing & process flow and figure out where it will come

from. This knowledge will get things to fit progressively one into the other like a set of blocks.

For key user to get this knowledge, I give them the responsibility and ownership of the Mapping and conversion rules. It is

their master data and they will do mapping & rules documents. At first, this process will not simplify the technological aspect of the conversion, nor will it make it shorter or easier say what! As I already mentioned speed will come, eventually. The goal of the mapping and rules writing is to get key users to sweat it out and understand SAP way of doing

things. This will also help the knowledge transfer between consultants and key users. When they are done with this, their

brain will play that master data - business process - customizing - game without even thinking about it.

The mapping document and conversion rules will become the common ground for discussions between the different

domains. Cross reading of DC specs is essential as, for example some action taken by PP may affect SD and FI. Do not

underestimate this, a small change in PP can block all expeditions. I saw this kind of issues in all the projects I worked on.

It will also be the only common language document between the functional team and the technical team.

The mapping document and conversion rules will become the technical staff road map. If it is not in the rules, it does not

exist. So any discussion, decision or answer must be documented in the rules. You will be surprised to see how things

change between verbal decision, sometime made in the hallway between meetings, and written decision which required


thinking about it and assuming responsibility for it.

Again, take the time that it gets to have clear and unambiguous DC rules. When the spec has no ambiguity and has been

cross read and validated by all domains and the technical team, and only then, can you start the development of the extract

and load programs. That will be the point where will start picking up speed, lots of it.

Main steps of the conversion methodology

Before you even start to work on specs, you must first get organized. Getting a good planning and organization structure

take about two weeks for the first draft, which will leave you with some questions on project organization. Getting a

complete and final planning will take at least one more week. Any unsolved issues on these will haunt you throughout the

project, so finish this completely before stating any other step.

The data conversion requires functional and technical resources from most departments. These same resources will most

probably be involved in other part of the project. For this reason, the risk of conflicting task is high and can quickly lead to

a bottleneck where key peoples are overloaded. For this reason, you should consider the data conversion as a project within

the project. This translates into the preparation of a complete conversion plan that will help you go through the process and

will permit to foresee and solve the conflicting resources usage before the bottleneck ever occurs.

The methodology is based on a top down process. Going through this will permit to plan, organize, execute and follow-up

your conversion. As the project is going, you will control the evolution of the data conversion process. Each step has its

own use. You may sometime feel like you are not going to the end by the shortest route. Remember, the goal is not to get

first results faster, it is to finish the whole process faster. This method is based on many projects experience and will help you to avoid the pitfall usually associated with data conversion.

The main steps of the data conversion are:

Organization of the data conversion (Project manager & data conversion coordinator)

Data conversion plan

The WBS with workload estimates

The calendar planning with resources loading

Going on with the Business Objects data conversion (The resource responsible of the Business Object DC)

Data Purging and Cleansing

Mapping and conversion rules

Extract and Load Programs from rules

Data and Rules Adaptation (adjusting rules and programs following testing)

Load Unit Testing (unitary testing - small volume of manual data)

Extract and Load Full size testing (data test and validation - large volume with real extracted data)

Full data loading into ACCEPTANCE SYSTEM

Full data loading into PRE PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Validation of converted data and Key User + Business Objects Owner Signoff

Full conversion into PRODUCTION SYSTEM and final Signoff

Where you will, for sure, have a timing problem

The business process analysis is done by the key users, business issues are dealt with by key users, tests are done by key

users, functional issues are solved by key users, training is prepared by key users, data conversion rules are done by key

users, data validation is done by key user, master data issues are solved by key users . In addition, when you start validating master data, it is usually that time where key users are out giving training.

If you try to identify where there will most probably be a bottleneck, do not look any further. The intersection of Master

Data validation, integration testing and training will be 'it'. You will need a very realistic workload estimate and resources

workload planning to avoid key users being schedule 48 hours of work per day.

There are not many solutions to this. Assuming your team is sized correctly, doubling the resources will double the cost,

double problems but probably not double the output. Therefore, we are back to the basic rule, this kind of project takes time

and the best way to minimize it is to plan for it correctly. You will have no other choice than spreading the load throughout

the entire project.


Complaisance planning will just make a long project longer, sometimes much longer and always a lot more expensive.

Trying to go too fast with insufficient resources is usually the basic recipe of most horror story you hear about SAP

implementations.

There is no such thing as a free lunch

This is a simple system, but simple does not mean easy. Doing things right the first time is an investment and like any

investment it has a cost (money, people, time) to be paid before you gets profits. No free lunch here.

You will need discipline, lots of it. Do no pile up delay or issue. Better to slow down, cut your loss and figure out how to

resolve problems than trying to keep going the wrong way.

You must give 100% at all steps to achieve the point where the result will be bigger than the sum of your efforts.

Expediting, bypassing or neglecting a task will have a negative effect further down the road, which will eventually create

important delays.

There is no easy does it way to do data conversion, there are just some path easier than others.

The computer will have the last word

Computer does not do politic and cannot be "convinced" of anything. If the final data set is not accurate and well structure,

your computer will bring you back to reality the hard way.


1.2 DATA CONVERSION GUIDELINES

Think SAP

Forget your actual system and understand SAP. First and foremost, get familiar with the SAP business process you will be

implementing. Then, according to the SAP process needs, establish what the Master Data requirements are. Then, and only

then, see what can be salvage from your legacy system.

Think SAP, do not try to fit in your old system into it.

Prepare the Legacy Database

Clean the data on your legacy system. It is easier to start from a sound legacy system than trying to fix inconsistencies

during the conversion. Delete obsolete data and make the rest of it coherent. These two steps are called data purging and

data cleansing.

This can be done without specific knowledge of SAP and can begin way before the project Kick Off. It will save you a lot

of time.

Before the last test run, take into account the customizations of your new system

Because both the organizational structure and the actual customizing influence the data you transfer for business objects,

finalize all customizations before the last test run. Customizing changes after the final transfer may result in additional

required fields, this requires preparing and transferring more data. It can also invalidate the loaded data, which leaves you

with an incoherent data set that will be very costly to correct after Go Live.

Reduce the amount of historical data to be transferred

If your system has lot of historic data, think about archiving data. There is no need to spend large amount of money to keep

live data that are otherwise used sporadically and could very well be stored in an archive database.

Large data set due to non-archiving of your LS will add a lot of strain on your SAP implementation and will make the data

conversion more difficult because of the volume. Also, because data tend to be less accurate when they where created a

long time ago, it will be much more difficult to adapt them to SAP.

Use controls edition in SAP

Data entered in SAP should de cheeked using some controls reports. This is especially useful for manual data entry and

transactional data.

Small is beautiful

Start small. The first time you transfer data, begin with a few records of a business object. This way, you learn how the

program works. After transferring some records successfully, try transferring a larger amount of data. Make sure that you

transfer each different type of data before you transfer on a larger scale.

Be wise

The full data integration in your production system is the end of the process and should mostly be a technical operation

where we push some buttons to get some results. To reach this goal, it implies that all functional and technical issues where

dealt with before starting the full size transfer from the Legacy System. The hard work is in the mapping and establishment

of conversion rules from the old to the new system. That is where you will make or miss your conversion. Don't even think

about loading large volumes into production if you are not completely ready.

Play it safe

I strongly suggest that you perform a system backup (or client copy) after transferring a significant amount of data. The

backup allows you to secure a specific level you have reached during the data conversion process. If you have any

problems, you can return to this level, and you do not have to begin the process all over again.


1.3 SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL READINGS

SAP Data Transfer Made Easy guidebook. It can be found on the SAP Simplification Group web site

System Landscape (Landscape-II.pdf) fount on SapLabs website

Quick Reference Guide LSMW (How to ) and Presentation of LSMW. Can be found on web site http://service.sap.com/lsmw It require a user name a password


SECTION 2 - ORGANIZE THE DATA CONVERSION


Data Conversion Plan

WBS

Calendar planning


2.1 OVERVIEW

This section describes the organization of the conversion. This is the first building block of your conversion process and

must be completed right at the beginning of the project. This part of the process is to be done by the project manager and

the data conversion coordinator.

2.2 DATA CONVERSION PLAN

Business Objects

A Business object is a general category for data that defines something like material master, vendor master, stocks, orders,

purchase requisitions or organizational units. The first step is identifying which business objects are required in your SAP

implementation.

Data type

There are three types of data involved in a SAP system: master data, transactional data, and historical data.

Master Data. Application master data tends to be more static once defined. Most master data can be driven by the legacy applications. Examples include vendors, customers, charts of accounts, assets, bills of materials, material

masters, info records, and so on.

Transactional Data. Transactional data is current and outstanding transaction data that needs to be captured from the legacy system and defined to the SAP R/3 applications for business process completion. Examples include accounting

documents, open purchase orders, open sales orders, back orders, and so on.

Historical Data. Historical data needs to be brought over from the legacy system to the SAP R/3 System for reference purposes. Examples include closed purchase orders, closed sales orders, summary general ledger information, and so

on.

Data conversion plan sample


Information to complete in the conversion plan

What Which business objects will be converted from the legacy system into SAP.

Where Where are the data, which Legacy System's are involved for the extraction.

How much Estimate the number of records to be ultimately loaded into SAP.

How There are two aspects to be considered :

The way data is extracted from the Legacy System

Automatically extracted from the Legacy system without manual intervention.

Manually filled spreadsheet

Combination of an automatic Legacy System extraction + Manual Entry into a spreadsheet

The way data is injected into SAP :

Automatic data transfer from a flat file into SAP

Manually entering data with online transactions into SAP

Combination of both

The data transfer method you choose will determine the types of resources you need. For example, you

may need temporary employees for the manual data entry and programmers for writing your own

extraction programs. You need to know both what data is in your legacy system and which SAP

applications correspond to the business objects that will be transferred. One person does not have to know

all of this, but the people who know this information should work closely together.

Who Who is involve on each Business Object :

Key user (Functional responsible of BO conversion : Rules, manual data corrections, test, validations)

Consultant

Responsible of data cleaning and purging in the Legacy System

Responsible of the extraction

Responsible of loading data in SAP

Business Object Manager (Hierarchic owner who is responsible of day to day use and integrity of information and the one which will be signing off for data acceptance)

This part seems easy enough. However, you will quickly see that getting a clear answer to these questions

is no easy task. Take the time and energy it needs to answer these questions meticulously. It will avoid a

lot of turning in circle and save you lot of time throughout the project.

Ha yes, I forgot one thing, MAKE SURE that all whose name is on the document are aware of it, understand what it mean and approve it.


Main Business Objects sequence of conversion

- GL account Master

(Include primary cost & revenue elements)

- Profit centers hierarchy

Storage Bins

- Profit centers

- Cost centers hierarchy

- Cost Centers

Pre-Required

B O M

Purchase

info recordsCondition record

- Discount

- Pricing

Routing Text

Stocks (VM)

Stocks (IM)

Open Sales Orders

Contracts

Open Purchase Orders

Open A/P

Open A/R

Opening Balances

Open Production Orders

Customer Master

Work

Centers

Vendor Master

Material Master

- Characteristics

- Classes

Optional

Internal orders

WBS elements if PS module.

- Activity types

Banks

Source lists

Sales

info records

Doc Mast

Routing / Task list


2.3 WBS ( work breakdown structure)

Why a WBS ?

Estimates for a project planning must be deducted and justified from a logical process. They represent the real workload

required for the different tasks of the project. The WBS is a great tool to figure out these numbers. It will permit to estimate

the workload of each task without any duration or calendar consideration. Ignoring the date factor help in getting as

objective as possible. The workload is calculated in Person/Days. Whether there is one or five persons assigned to a task,

the workload is always the same. The usage of Person/Days will help in getting a more precise calendar planning and will

make evaluation of the conversion progress easier.

WBS Sample

How to

The idea is to break the project in chunks and then break each of these in tasks. You then proceed to evaluate the workload

required for each of these elements. It will be much easier to get accurate and objectives numbers on small specific tasks

than on a large chunk. How to break it and at which level is more an art & experience mix than it is a science. The more

WBS you do, the better you will get at it.

If your WBS is not granular enough, your estimate is more difficult to get and will be less accurate. An error on one

element will also have a greater impact. As for progress follow-up, it will be less accurate, since any detected slippage will

involve higher number because the element is itself too big.

If the WBS is too granular, you will get lost in a forest of details and numbers. The follow-up will also be much more

difficult and it will be difficult to get the whole team to use it (too complex).

In this methodology, the WBS I suggest is a middle ground between these two limits. I got to this one by trials & errors on

different projects. I think it is granular enough to be precise and usable for efficient follow-up. Yet, simple enough, for the

whole team to easily contribute in evaluating the numbers.


In order to get a successful evaluation, follow these guidelines :

Evaluate each and every element of the WBS while making abstraction of the other tasks. This gets you an objective evaluation of each task independently of each other.

It is important at this point to make complete abstraction of calendar planning or any target date. Forget when this should be finish or how long should it last. Just try to figure out the real workload needed to complete each element of

the DC process. After that, we will see how we can meet deadline by acting on the organization of the project rather

than "fixing up" the estimate. Starting a WBS while taking into consideration a goal to meet, like a specific date or

target total of Person/Days, will only lead to complaisance planning which will be false and get you in trouble.

Suggested WBS content for data conversion

Volumes

Quantity of records

Quantity of fields

% Manual fields

Business Objects Mapping & Conversion ( For detailed information on these items, refer to section 3 )

Data Purging and Cleansing

Mapping and conversion rules

Extract and Load Programs from rules

Data and Rules Adaptation (adjusting rules and programs following testing)

Load Unit Testing (unitary testing - small volume of manual data)

Extract and Load Full size testing (data test and validation - large volume with real extracted data)

Acceptance load and validation

Full data loading into ACCEPTANCE SYSTEM

Full data loading into PRE PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Validation of converted data and Key User + Business Objects Owner Signoff

Full conversion into PRODUCTION SYSTEM and final Signoff

Total

Total - at best (total in Person/Days of each business object)

Total - most probable (total at best + 20 to 25% buffer)

Are you sure ?

"That much, are you sure ?" This is probably the first thing you will hear when showing your WBS. In many projects, the

notion of estimating workload in Person/Days exists in theory only. When you actually get the numbers, it seams a lot of

time and a lot of money just for converting data.

Well "just converting data" is an understatement, as stated earlier this is an important part of the project. A value of 100

Person/Days on a 20 people team is not a lot of time. It adds up very quickly. Just have a 2 hours meeting once a week with

seven people and it will consume two Person/Days each week throughout the project. Stretch the meeting just a little hour

more than expected (sounds familiar!) and the equivalent of a whole day of work, for one person, just went by. Add to this

the little informal meetings between key users, consultants and DC team members for each business object to convert. This

quickly adds up to a non-negligible amount, and that is just for meetings, no tangible deliverable is produce yet.

Request to re-evaluate your WBS

Sometimes, after the "are you sure?", comes the "please re-evaluate with the key users & consultants". This is a very

justified request but. Be careful, this usually results in trying to reduce the largest numbers by hammering them down with various theories, totally forgetting the smaller values.


When getting the numbers for the original WBS, you average each element. Overall, you under estimate some and over

estimate others, but the average law will make it a globally reasonable measure. However, if you start concentrating on

some numbers while forgetting others, the average law is out the window. This is why you must consider, both the large

and small values, when re-evaluating a WBS.

Here are some suggestions I give to those concerned when re-evaluating a WBS :

Explain clearly what a Person/Day is: "let's say you have only this to one task to do and you have to do alone, how many days will it take?".

Explain the work to evaluate. For example, making the conversion rules mean ; talking about it with the consultants and Legacy System experts; writing the first version ; having meetings to answer gray areas ; doing some tests for

uncertain fields ; cross reading the documents and finally, some reflection time. Therefore, as you see, it is lot more

than just figuring how long it would take to write some lines of rules.

Count everyone's time. In the above example, you must count time for you, the consultants, the LS Experts, those present at the meetings, those doing tests, etc. It adds up very quickly.

Explain the average law I mentioned above and make sure they do re-estimate all the elements with the same scrutiny. While some high workload tasks may be overestimated, some smaller one are probably underestimated as well.

Avoid talking about deadline or total workload. They have to evaluate all elements independently from each other.

I personally went through that process a few times. Interestingly in all cases, the re-evaluation turned out with a slightly

higher global number. Mainly because they realize there is more, small but still time consuming, tasks than originally

thought so.

Some pointers to figure out numbers

These are pointers to help you come up with the first draft. You need that first draft as a starting point of discussion before

you start trying to get help from the rest of the team.

If there are two legacy systems, it will take twice the time (see next title 'Ballpark figures for more info).

As mentioned earlier, avoid thinking about deadline or total workload. Just honestly evaluate each element independently from each other.

For some elements, you are clueless. It is very difficult to find someone who knows all, but there is always someone who can help you on a specific topic. This is where splitting a project in small elements will help. Do not hesitate to

ask around.

Take into account the number of fields you need for each Business Object. If you have no clue, take 200 for Material Master, 100 for Customers, 100 for Vendors, 40 for BOM, 40 for Routings. These figures are for an implementation

with modules FI, CO, MM, PP and SD. Later on, you can adjust to values that are more exact.

For BOM and Routings, if they are merged in a single structure in your LS (i.e. multilevel), count that BOM will take double the time you originally estimated and Routing will most probably have to be done manually from scratch. SAP

is Single Level (unless it changed in newer versions) which mean that materials hierarchy is in the BOM and the

operations sequences are in routings.

Material Master is huge. It requires time and energy, lots of it. On top of being a difficult one, it is the first one you will have to do.

It involves many of people from different domains.

There is much to learn while doing Material Master, and this learning will put in question the process, which key users though they had already cornered.

Different people come up with their own set of rules, which need to be put together in a single Material Master. This will create collisions and conflicts, which will need meetings, discussions and testing before the

issues are solved.


The conversion rules are different for each Material Type and it is not always the same key users who have the info for the different types.

Other than the Big Five, workload estimates are rarely linked to the number of fields. The key is then the quality of the Legacy System data. Here are some factors on that will make the process much longer:

Historical data that was never purge

Inconstant data (well, no one have these in their systems, right!)

Part of the data existing aside in Excel, Access or other non formal system

Information spread into different systems

No clear owner or manager of a business object in the Legacy System (then it is probably messy)

Be conservative, in doubt, over estimate rather than under estimate. Never mind how much you investigate or know the LS. There is always one business object where you will discover, at the last minute, that it just will not fit into SAP

without major unplanned efforts. It is not bad luck, it just happens every time. Bad luck is when you did not consider it

in your planning.

If the data is not extracted from the LS but generated manually, it will take longer. The time is however more predictable as manual data is rarely bugged.

When you extract data automatically from the LS, it should be faster. However take into account that programming means possible bugs. It also needs modifications when the rules change (and change they will), which again may bring

bugs

If you have part automatic and part manual, like "yes we can extract most of it, but need to do some adjustments in Excel", add extra time (50 to 100% more). At first glance, this seems like the easiest way to go. Well, its not! Trust me, these will be real headaches. Although almost impossible to avoid them, try having as little as possible of these. In

all cases, prefer maximum usage of conversion rules.

Ballpark figures

Here are some figures to give you a ballpark of the projects I worked on. These are not absolute figures, as they vary from

one project to another.

In projects involving the modules FI, CO, MM, PP and SD, having from 20 000 to 40 000 material master items with all

related BOM and Routings, about 2 000 vendors/customers, 10 000 inventory records and all other basic DC stuff, it gave

me something between 400 to 600 Person/Days per legacy system.

I say per legacy system and this is something important to consider. If you have different legacy systems, you tend to think

the second one will go faster than the first. There is absolutely no gain. Each system must be evaluated as if it was a

different project. If one take 500 Person/Days, than two LS will take 1000 Person/Days. This will probably be a major

disagreement point among the team when you will show your numbers. Keep in mind that for all the projects I worked on,

it proved to be true. Mapping is different, conversion rules are different and issues with LS data will not be the same. Since

these three items represent the bulk of the DC process, you can see why two LS will be twice the energy.

A formula to help . Handle with care

Here is a formula for the Big Five. I came up with it when I started doing data conversion. I established it by looking back

on previous projects. I asked how many Person/Days it took in average to do each of the Big Five. This was the total time

including meetings, writing rules, updating data manually, programming loading tool, etc. Then, with the precious help of

people who had first hand experiences doing DC, we came up with a formula to calculate a first estimate.

As I went on different projects, I realized it was good enough to give me a first estimate in all cases. However, handle this

with care. This really needs to be used as a tool that will help on a first draft. You need to challenge these numbers and use

your judgment to adjust the values.


Base on the volume data from your WBS, you can calculate as follow :

For mapping : Count 10 min per field (0.02 day per field) and add 1 day to the total for set up and explanations

Conversion rules : Count 10 rules per day (0.1 day per field)

Data and Rules Adaptation : Count 12 seconds (~0.000416 day) per record and by field (number of fields x number of records x 0.000416). There is more, later on, explaining what is Data and rules adaptation.

As you see, you need to establish how many fields need Data and Rules Adaptation. I use a percentage in the WBS so that I

can recalculate all the workload easily as I learn more about the LS. Base this on the number of fields you will populate in

SAP. I usually count that about 80% of the fields are solved by conversion rules and 20% will need data and rules

adaptation. If the data are in bad shape in the LS, go toward 70%-30%.

This formula is most pertinent for Material, Customer and Vendor masters. For BOM and Routing, the time is less

dependent on the number of fields than on the complexity of the data to extract. For those two, you can use the formula and

then add between 50% to 100%, depending on the legacy data complexity. As stated earlier, if BOM and Routing are

merged in a single structure in your LS (i.e. multilevel), count that BOM will take double the time you originally estimated

and Routing will most probably have to be done manually from scratch.

Other than the Big Five, the number of fields has little to do. It is the complexity of the process, which needs to be taken

into consideration. If you really count all the time spent on one business object, none will take less than 10 Person/Days.

Use you judgment and apply between 10 to 30 Person/Days per business object according to expected complexity. Each

time someone tells you "this is a one day thing", make a note of it and follow the time it really took from start up to a

loaded and validated data set you will see, nothing takes less than 10 days.

Another business object, which is also special, is inventory. At first it look simple enough, but getting 100% of the data in

SAP will prove to be a challenge... if you plan to shoot less than 100%, go back to page 1 of this document.

If you use WM in SAP, it will be even more challenging.

If you have a good working WM in your LS, it will be a challenge.

If you use WM in your LS and it is not working perfectly, it will be a great challenge.

If you do not have WM in your LS and want to use WM in SAP, than you are in for a heck of a ride. In this situation, consider converting without WM and implementing it later, once you system has been stable for a while in production.

For Inventory, count 30 days for IM + up to 100 days for WM according to the three possible scenarios I just mentioned. If

you have a doubt, try finding someone who went through it before. Done right the inventory load takes lots of work but the

process will go well. Badly managed it will keep you up 24hrs/day for a few days before GO Live and after.


2.4 CALENDAR PLANNING

Overview

At this point, you have assigned resources in the Data Conversion Plan and estimated the charge for each of the WBS

elements in Person/Days. You must now transform this information in duration for each task, this is the calendar planning.

To do the calendar planning, using MS-Project or other planning tool, you will enter the tasks and complete it with the

following information :

Tasks efforts in Person/Days

Tasks dependency

Names of the resources assigned to each task and the percentage of their availability on it

Non working days and Holiday.

This will not only give you a calendar date planning based on an objective workload estimate, but it will also permit a quick

identification of resource over-allocation, overlapping of dependant tasks, and delay due to non working time and

bottlenecks.

On most conversion, the overload on key user is always a major problem. Your key users will be strongly solicited right

from the beginning of the project. Keep in mind that the more you go on with your projects, the more they will be solicited

to troubleshoot problems, and this will be on top of their normal conversion work. The result is that their availability will

only get lower as the project is going on. Do not under estimate this fact in your planning.

Once you will be done with the DC calendar planning, you must integrate it in the overall project planning and do a

resources load analyses. This task is most difficult, time consuming and very frustrating (especially if you do not master

MS-Project).

Calendar planning sample


MS-Project or not.

Most probably, the only planning tool you'll have available will be MS-Project. Although it is a nice tool, it also has great

talent in 'auto messing-up' your schedules (make backup copies and make them often).

My first advice is that you should learn the basics of MS-Project before you get into it. It will be a much less frustrating

experience. Some quick learning books can be found and are useful

Whichever tool you use must be able to give you a resources load analysis. This will be a key element of you planning.

Sequencing the tasks

When I sequence the task within one business object, I never overlap two tasks. Yes, since the process between test and

rules and loading is iterative, we should be able to do them in parallel. However to do this realistically you would need to

consider the effort on each task to be non-linear. If you get into this, your planning will take forever if ever you finish it.

Experience has proved that the best way to get an accurate calendar planning for the DC process, while keeping it simple

enough, is to never put task in parallel within a business object.

Key users and consultant availability to work on Master Data

When assigning key users and consultant to the Data Conversion tasks, count only 20% of their time available. This gives

you an average of the time they will be able to give you throughout the entire project. Sometime it will be less, sometime it

will be more, but overall it will be 20%.

"20%, that is only one day a week!". Yes, remember that bottleneck we mentioned before. You'll see that getting this much

attention from key users will be quite a challenge when you get towards that bottleneck.

And remember, if you take 20% of the key users time for DC, whoever is planning other work on the project must take into account that the key users are available at only 80% for them.

End 'at best' VS 'most probable'

In the WBS you estimated all the tasks as honestly as possible, which gives you the required workload at best. Then you added 20 to 25% buffer, which gives you the most probable effort.

In the calendar planning, all tasks are entered with the WBS value at best. The end date will then be the "at best". To get the most probable end, you need to add a single task at the very end of that planning which is equal to the buffer in the

WBS is entered. The resources allocation is to all key users at 20% (take into account only lead key users for each domain,

not support consultants).

For example,

My calendar planning end on April 30th

I had 200 days buffer in my WBS

I have 5 key users

At the very end of the calendar planning, I will add a 200 days task with 5 resources. This will translate as a 20 days duration buffer for the lead key users.

Now I have the most probable end date.

Believe me, it is very difficult to do better than the most probable date.

Are you sure ?

"That long, are you sure ?" Here we go again, the same phenomena as in the WBS will occur. Many peoples will challenge

your calendar planning. They would whish all could be done quicker, faster, easier and all in parallel. As in WBS, they will

focus only on some big tasks, generate great theories and totally ignore the overall picture and possible side effects on the

overall planning caused by any change on some tasks.

Remember the part in the first section of this document, which stated "It takes the time that is needed." Here is the part

where this statement takes most of its sense.


- Do not parallel the task hoping to save time. There are only 24hrs in a day and people need sleep.

- Do not forget the 20-25% margin

- Do not change the Person/Days established in the WBS, it is the most objective values you can get.

- If you need to finish a task faster, never change an end date or the workload. Changes the resources allocations to obtain

the timeframe you want then re-validate the resources workload.

Workload analysis

Here you are, now you have to identify the resources overload and play with the task sequencing until all resources are in

normal workload.

This is a very difficult and frustrating step. In addition, since MS-Project will regularly mess things for you, MAKE

BACKUP copies before making changes in the calendar planning.

Once the planning is done and resources workload is realistic, you are ready to go. At this point you'll only have to identify

slippage as the project go and take corrective action before it has an impact on the project duration.


SECTION 3 - CONVERTING A BUSINESS OBJECT


Acceptance System full load

Pre Production System full load

Pre Production System Signoff

Production Load & Signoff

Mapping & Conversion Rules

Extract and Load Programs

Data and Rules adaptation

Data

Purging

&

Cleansing

Extract & Load Full Size Testing and Data Validation

Load

Unit

Testing

Project kick-off


3.1 OVERVIEW

This section gives you information on the major steps involve for each Business Objects. Each person who is responsible of

a Business Object should read this.

In the previous section we saw one of the methodology main ingredients. It involved mainly planning and is actually a

basic management concept, which is applicable to any kind of project, computing or other. The second main ingredient of

the methodology, which will make it so efficient, is the way we deal with the conversion process itself.

Before you begin.

When working on the conversion, do not try to fit your Legacy System into SAP. Think SAP and understand it. Then you

can see what can be recuperated from your Legacy System. Converting into SAP while having in mind your Legacy System

process will for sure lead you into the wrong path. Get familiar with your SAP Business Object. Create object, read the on

line documentation, understand the requirements, go through your complete process. This will make the conversion easier.

Documentation of your work (conversion spec. and mapping sheet)

Keep in mind that SAP is a highly integrated system. Master Data has direct and indirect impacts on all process, which is

not always obvious. For this reason, all rules and mapping must be documented in clear format to permit cross reading and

validation among the whole functional team. This will permit a better circulation of information between domains and

awareness of other modules decisions.

Although a structured documentation process might take a bit longer at first, it will permit to have a synergy that will

eventually make the whole bigger than the sum of the parts. I know, it sound like a theory from a big book, but it really

does work.

3.2 DATA PURGING AND CLEANSING

The purging and cleansing of the Legacy System will save you lot of time and effort in the following steps of the

conversion. Start this as soon as possible and do as much as possible. This can be done without specific knowledge of SAP.

Data Purging

Before transferring data from your legacy system, delete all the old and obsolete data. For example, you may delete all

one-time customers or those for which there where no transaction in the last two years, also delete unused materials.

Data Cleansing

This process corrects data inconsistencies and ensures the integrity of the existing data during the migration process.

For example, there are often lots of inconsistencies in Customer and Vendor address fields. You will quickly find that

SAP will not let you load any address fields unless you get them clean.

3.3 MAPPING AND CONVERSION RULES

The documentation of each business object will contain the Data conversion rules (or specification), which include :

Legacy sources and extraction procedures.

From which Legacy system(s) are we extracting the data and how. Document here specific steps that need

to be taken.

Purging and cleansing rules

What are the cleaning steps to be taken and extraction filters to be used.

General Conversion rules

Guidelines to apply or rules that is used by many fields (thus avoiding to retype it and making updating

easier as it is only in one place).

Fields Specific rules

Which SAP fields to use and how do we get the final value for each SAP field.


About the rules

Getting the conversion rules to be written is a key element of this methodology. Getting rules, rather than getting raw data

in Excel, permit the following :

Key user must understand SAP fields usage

Key user are ask to question their Legacy System values and integrity

Rules permit a clear statement of what a key user think. Thus permitting to identify conflict and misunderstanding between domains.

Rules document can be versioned, making change management easier as the project is progressing.

Communication between functional and technical people is facilitated by using a common ground language.

You'll have to keep in mind that these will be made by key users who may not be familiar with writing computing rules.

Therefore, it is necessary to give some example and to explain some basic key element in rules writing.

Basic properties of a rule :

General rules VS Field Rules

General rules are the one that does not yield directly to a field value. For example the way in which we

differentiate the material types in the Legacy System is such a rule. Field rules are those that give a value for

a specific field.

Fields names

This is a crucial one. When discussing or writing notes, ALWAYS refer to a field in the form TABLE-FIELD.

You will quickly realize that as the project go, different people will start using different names for the same

field. As well they may start using the same name for different fields.

On top of this, some fields exist in different views in SAP master data. Sometime it is the same field that is

shown at two places while other times it is really two different fields. The best way to know which case apply

is to have the TABLE + FIELD information.

Example:

In Material Master, the field Availability check exists in the "MRP2" and the "Sales Gen" views. If you

look at the TABLE-FIELD of each view you get :

MRP2 : MARC-MTVFP

Sales Gen : MARC-MTVFP

In both cases the TABLE-FIELD name is the same, so it is the same field.

In Customer Master, the field " Terms of Payment' exist in "Payment Transactions" and "Billing" views.

If you look at the TABLE-FIELD of each view you get :

Payment Transactions : KNVV- ZTERM

Billing Views : KNB1- ZTERM

It is not the same field. In the payment view, the field is linked to the Company Code while for the Billing

view it is linked to the Sales Organization (you find this by looking at the tables keys). So both of these

fields can have different values.

Short and clear

Rules should be short, using IF/ELSE/END structure as much as possible.

Make certain that the use of AND, OR and ( ) is clear. A long sentence embedding many AND & OR will

most probably be wrongly interpreted.

Do not hesitate to spread the rule on many lines, making it easy to read. Chunk of text is difficult to read.


Must be clear and without ambiguities

For example :

If product is a sold semi-finished

. End

This is not clear enough, How do we know which product are "sold semi-finished". This must be clearly

stated in the rule or be part of a general rule.

Usage of discrete values in auxiliary file

In some case, it is impossible to group items or to get values by rules. Values must be entered manually. In

this situation you must enter these values in a separate file (usually Excel) using a search key (like the item

number) and specify in the rule to use the auxiliary file.

In the rules document, all tables must be specified like the following :

Example of a rule referring to an auxiliary table:

IF BUYER-CODE on legacy is blank

THEN

Purchasing Group is Blank

ELSE

Locate BUYER-CODE in Purchasing group table to find Purchasing group

END

A special case for Material Master

Material Master involves all the domains and may require anywhere form 20 fields to a few hundreds depending on the

complexity of your implementation. Some fields will be used by different domains while others will be used by only one

domain but its value will have an impact on functionality used by another domain.

This is the most complex Business Object to document and, at the same time, it is the one you must start with in you

conversion process.

Material Master is a key to all domains and a lot of fields need to be discovered and understood. To get that understanding

from key users we proceed as follow :


1st step : Selection of the fields by each domain

Get each domain with their consultants to go through the mapping file and look at the fields for each material type.

The goal here is to see all the fields that are important and ask questions to understand them. This is done

separately by each domain and documented in different mapping files.

At this point we are not interested about where the values will come from and how will we get them. JUST GET

THE MAPPING DONE and work on understanding what material master is.

Each time a domain select a field for a specific material type, they must enter their domain type in the list. Here are

some (theoretical) examples of mapping from MM, PP and SD

Example of fields selection by each domain

What to do when the same field is found in different views

In Material Master, some fields can be entered / modified in different views. For example, the field

Goods receipt processing time in days (MARC-WEBAZ) exists in views Purchasing, MRP2, Quality management.

When doing the rules and the load program, the same field cant be in different views. To solve this, proceed as follow:

See with all implicated domains who is the lead for the field and decide in which view the field

should be included.


Taking the example of the field Goods receipt processing time in days (MARC-WEBAZ), it can be decided among the domains to put it in the Purchasing view (and nowhere else).

This means that Purchasing is the lead on this, but do not stop other domains to use it of have specific

rules for it. It is however Purchasing role to make sure this field is used correctly.

Be careful, make sure it is really the same field. For example:

In Customer Master, the field " Terms of Payment' exist in "Payment Transactions" and "Billing"

views. If you look at the TABLE-FIELD of each view you get :

Payment Transactions : KNVV- ZTERM

Billing Views : KNB1- ZTERM

It is not the same field. In the payment view, the field is linked to the Company Code while for

the Billing view it is linked to the Sales Organization (you find this by looking at the tables

keys). So both of these fields can have different values.

SPECIAL MULTI VIEWS

In can however happen that no specific domain can be identified as the lead or main user of a field.

Lets take for example, MM / PP status (MARC-MMSTA) which is in views : purchasing, MRP1, workscheduling, costing 1, quality management.

If no one can be clearly identified as the lead for that field, then we put it in a dummy view called

SPECIAL multi views. This is used to put all the fields that exist in different views and for which we cant assign a lead functional.

2nd

step : Regroup selection of all domains

Once this is done for each domain, than you (the DC manager ) have to put together all the results. This would

yield something that looks like this :

Example of fields selection grouped for all domains

3rd

step : Build the data conversion rules template with all the selected fields.

Specify for each field, which domain selected it. If more than one domain selected the same one, put the name of

all the domains who selected the field.


Data conversion rules template sample

4th

step : Get the rules from each domain, independently

Ask each domain to specify the conversion rules for all the fields they are concerned with. This is purposely done

independently for each domain so that misunderstanding or conflicting rules between domains may be put in

evidence in the next step.

5th

step : Merge the rules from all domains.

Make a single document that contains all the functional domain's rules and note, for each one, which domain wrote

it.

6th

step : Analyses of the results and creation of the Issue list.

At this point, I usually create what I call the QUESTIONS LIST. It is a simple Word document where I put all the

questions, the name of who is responsible for the solution, creation date, target date (with history if the target is

changed).

Prepare yourself for a very long list at first. I usually end-up with an average of 2 questions per field. Therefore, if

you have 300 fields, that is 600 questions. And if you happen to merge 3 Legacy Systems into one SAP, you will

have 600 questions per Legacy System. That is 1800 questions. Most of these will be quickly dealt with, they are unclear rules or obvious problems that get solved within the first week.

One interesting thing that usually happens here is rules conflict. This happens when more than one domain use the

same field and they come up with contradictory or incompatible rules. Finding this at the beginning of the process

will be a great time saver, as you just identified important issues between domains before you developed anything.

One of the main challenges of implementing SAP is integration of the different functional domains into a single

product. Failure to understand this is will get you into trouble, and this is true for all the SAP implementation

process, not just the Data Migration part of it.

As the project goes, the QUESTIONS LIST becomes the data conversion TODO LIST. Anything that is promised,

due, scheduled or to be given must be noted there.


You now have Material Master conversion rules documented and a TODO LIST to follow up on the issues to be solved

before you can load the data.

Material Master conversion rules sample

All other business objects

For the other BO, because they are simpler than Material Master and involve fewer people, we will start directly with the

Conversion rules document. It is in this document that we will both, decide which fields we need and, in a second step, start

working on the rules.

Here are some samples of BO conversion rules.


BOM conversion rules sample

Open Account Receivable conversion rules sample


Vendor Master conversion rules sample

Example of general rules

ID RULE G000 Note that SAP term Security deposit equal Retention in PRMS

G001 Type of transaction

TYPE field in PRMS : Partial PMT: Pay. Credit Memo: Cr M. Debit Memo: Dr M. Invoice : Inv. Non A/R cash: Non AR Adjustments: Adj Any other type is an error.

G002 Validation to apply both at extraction and load.

Partial PMT. must be negative in PRMS, if not ERROR Credit Memomust be negative in PRMS, if not ERROR Debit Memo.must be positive in PRMS, if not ERROR Invoice..must be positive in PRMS, if not ERROR Any other type is an ERROR.

G003 LSM Load parameters

KTOPL - Chart of account : CA00 BUKRS Company code: 0070 GSBER - Business Area : 0040

BUDAT Posting Date : 05-31-02 or last day of last closed period. OFFSET Account (2) : REPRISECL SKPERR Skip err : X


Directory organization

As you go, you will end up with lots of documents and versions. To store the different files on your local server, use a

specific directory structure. I suggest having a structure with a directory for each Business Object to store all the files

relevant to the data conversion. Here is an example.

C:\.

Data Conversion 00 - Organization DC PLAN DC WBS DC SCHEDULE Old < Store here previous versions of above mentioned documents > 01 - Material Master Material Master - Field Selection Sheet.xls Material Master - Data Conversion Spec.doc < Keep here only the latest version of each document > Old < Store here previous versions of above mentioned documents > Working Files < Put here various working files > xx -BO name BO - Data Conversion Spec.doc < Keep here only the latest version of each document > Old < Store here previous versions of above mentioned documents > Working Files < Put here various working files >

Version management of conversion rules

As the project goes, rules will change. This is a certitude. As you get closer to Go Live, changes will get more frequent,

they will occur faster and will require a quicker reaction time.

Considering the stress on the whole project team and the overall load on all members near GO Live, there is a real danger to

loose control here. One way to stay on top of things while having extra quick reaction time is good document management,

which will permit a good change management. Although it may sometime feel frustrating to go through versioning for key

users, it will ultimately be the best way to go fast without breaking something else that already works (regression).

Here how it goes :

Creation of the first version rules V01.doc

Freezing version V01

Once everyone agree that V01 is OK (functional and technical staff), freeze the version.

Password protect V01, so no one changes it afterwards

Make a copy of V01 as V02

In V02, activate MS-Word change tracking

Put V01 in the "Old" directory

Unprotect V02 (This is where we start the new version)


Development and testing of V01

Ask the technical team to work on V01 and only on V01.

Any change required by functional team must be done in V02. DO NOT CHANGE V01

Once V01 is programmed, load it and ask functional team to validate.

All correction has to be entered in V02.

Freezing of V02

Once everyone agree that V02 is OK (functional and technical staff), freeze the version.

Password protect V02, so no one changes it afterwards

Make a copy of the document as V03

In V03, accept all changes so that there is no visible change.

In V03, activate MS-Word change tracking (should already be on)

Put V02 in the "Old" directory

Unprotect V03

Development and testing of V02

Ask the technical team to work on V02 and only on V02

ALL CHANGES between V01 and V02 are visible through MS-Word change tracking.

Any change required by functional team must be done in V03. DO NOT CHANGE V02

Once V02 is programmed, load it and ask functional team to validate.

All correction has to be entered in V03.

And so on

If you are not familiar with MS-Word change tracking I strongly suggest that you get acquainted with this functionality.

Murphy's protection : Save it often and get good backups.

You will be working with MS-Word, using change tracking, and Excel. These are nice tools but they regularly go wild and

scrap your document. This is mostly true with large documents. So save often and make backups of all your Data

Conversion documents. I usually keep a 7 days rolling backup of all my files somewhere on a local PC to protect me from

MS-Office bad behavior as well as network failure and human error.

Be certain of two things :

If you have many large MS-Office documents, at least a few of them will go totally corrupted during the project. It always happens.

It also always happens that someone mess-up a document, usually the most critical one. .

This all happens because of a certain Murphy's and there is no way around it.

3.4 Extract and Load Programs

The rules documents for each BO have sections for Legacy sources and extraction procedures and Purging and cleansing rules. This should explain what to clean/purge, what to extract and how to proceed. If it does not, IT MUST BE DONE BEFORE YOU DO ANY PROGRAMMING.

It is essential that this be clearly documented and validated by the key user responsible for the BO. We are at the start of the

process and any error or omission at this point will affect us for the rest of the project. Once this is all documented,

validated and understood, you can start work on the extraction programs and process.

Once the extraction is clear, we must look at the load programs and process. This implicates all the aspects of loading the

required fields into each BO. Again, as for extraction, if there is ambiguity or incomplete information in the specs, DO

NOT PROCEED. At this point, take your time to solve the issues you can see on paper before you do any programming.

This will prove to be an enormous time saver later on.


Most of the time, when you do not begin any programming until all extract and load rules are 100% clear (and I mean

100%), there is a tendency to think that you just make everyone loose time. Not so. If you found issues at this point, it

means that there will be errors in the process and you will have to address these issues anyway. It just will be more difficult

and time consuming to do it after the programming is done than now.

3.5 Data and Rules adaptation

This is, by far, the most time consuming part of the conversion process. This is also the most difficult, where System

Migration Managers can loose control of the conversion process. Remember this throughout the whole process: As in car

racing, it is not the speed at which you enter a turn that is most important, it is the one at which you get out of it.

The migration process is an iterative one.

After you have the specs, you do the extract and load programs

Some questions or issues will arise. You must address them and document in the specs whatever

corrective actions are needed. The specs must always be updated to reflect the new requirements

BEFORE you correct any program.

Do unit testing of the load




Following the modifications, you need to redo the unit testing of the load.

Full size test cycle




Following the modifications, you need to redo the unit testing of the load and redo a full size test cycle.

For all the Systems Migrations I did, these iterations accounted for a major part of the DC process duration. This is time

consuming and can be very frustrating if not properly managed.

In a nutshell, here are the guidelines most useful at this point :

1. First, when something needs a change, it must be documented and validated in the specs so that it is clear and unambiguous to all. Keep in mind that a change from one domain can affect others and they will find this only

later in the process, once everyone forgot about what was exactly changed.

2. The Business Object Key user is the one accountable for the rules (all of them) relating to his/her BO, for their maintenance and for the end result. This is not the technician part of the work. The tech team is there to develop

programs according to what the rule says.

3. If it is not in the rules, it does not exist. So if you do not see what you need, get it documented.

4. Have the discipline to manage change by versioning the documents and making sure they are cross-validated by all implicated stakeholder.

5. It is better to take your time to do it correctly rather than rushing it, which usually means you may have to slow down at some points. Results will initially be slower to come, but you will eventually progress faster and faster. As

problems can accumulate in a snowball effect, so does success (and this is a good news). Take the time to do it

right now and you will eventually pick-up an impressive speed in the next steps.

6. The specs must always be updated to reflect the new situation BEFORE you correct any programs. You must be thinking, OK, stop repeating the same thing again and again, I got it. I do so because this is the most common error I saw on projects that failed. Trying to save time a team starts working on new solutions without taking time

to document, cross read and validate the specs. They sure are getting output quickly this way but are they going in the right direction ?

7. If you start running in all directions and cant keep you head out the water, STOP, and go back to step 1.


3.6 Load Unit Testing

Here we want to test the load programs at a unitary level. The goal is to see if we can load all the fields for all the data types

without error. We are more concerned about going through the load cycle without SAP stopping us, rather than validating

the correctness of the values. For this we use a very small volume

Data Migration Methodology for SAP V01a

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