Beteo Blog

Category: Quality Management

  • Integrating HP PPM with HP Quality Center – As Simple as It Looks?

    Very often, the processes of change & transport and quality management in the IT organzation are technically not very tightly integrated. Although organizationally, they are well coordinated, with both processes being clearly defined, digitized, automated and constantly improved, I doubt if their integration is tight enough.

    Integration von Change Management und Quality Management

    HP Software, a significant vendor not only of the process engine for change and transport management HP PPM, but also of HP Quality Center as the leading test management solution, provides a basis for an integrated solution. I was asked to carry this over into practice – an exciting as well as seemingly simple task.

    The first step was to technically join both environments together and logically merge them into one platform.

    The Search

    Well, searching for information in the Internet was not very fruitful or, to be exact: there is none. So I was forced to utilize my good connections to HP to get holf of the documents I needed. Thanks to the competent people I addressed, it was a success.

    Compatibility with versions

    An overview of the compatibility of versions was particularly important and helpful. Our PPM versions required that we used the PPM extension Application Change Lifecycle (ACL 2.0) for the intergration with QC. The newer tool Managing Application Change Tool (MAC) does not yet work with our customer´s version.

    Integration guide

    The procedure of integrating PPM and QC is documented in the Integration Guide of HP and described step by step. So it was my job to work out the 200 pages of this guide one page after another.

    Mappings

    Applying the technical procedure to our actual environment and system landscape was a challenge, particularly with regard to the mappings. The intergrated standard workflows and interface definitions may be a good basis for implementation. But to meet all requirements, the mappings of data, stati, and processes must be elaborated. Careful attention must be paid to the change of stati in the workflow in order to avoid uncontrolled process steps.

    What next?

    So far, I have made a huge step towards the integration aimed for. But I am sure there will be more problems to be sorted out. In due time, I will report on my experience with the ongoing implementation. Comments and further hints from fellow sufferers or sympathizers are welcome.

  • Fresh from SAP TechEd Las Vegas: Panaya 3.2

    At SAP’s TechEd conference, the new releases of Panaya Support Automation 3.2 and Panaya Upgrade Automation 3.2 have been announced.

    Panaya 3.2 Overview

    Upgrade Automation is the fast and accurate way to control the impact of SAP projects and SAP changes in general. It automatically analyzes SAP systems and changes and provides online services to answer key questions such as:

    •    What errors will occur without intervention?
    •    How can they be prevented?
    •    What exactly needs be tested?
    •    What are the most important risks?

    Support Automation analyzes functional changes to SAP system before they are released. Using analysis technology based on a unique algoritm, Panaya evaluates changes in the context of the complex interdependencies of SAP systems. For every change, it automatically creates test plans, classifies changes based on risk, and alerts managers and other stakeholders and informs about risks.

    Upgraded and new Functions in Release 3.2

    Root Cause Analysis (New Feature for Support Automation)
    If all of a sudden something is not working well in your production system, your team could spend hours finding the culprit. Or, you could simply launch Panaya’s new Root Cause Analysis for SAP, enter the transaction that is misbehaving, and you’ll immediately see the primary suspects: all the recent changes that have actually impacted this transaction.

    Real time impact analysis of code changes (New Feature for Support Automation)
    Change any ABAP program, during an upgrade project or during maintenance, and Panaya immediately tells you what is the impact and what must be tested.

    Comprehensive Project Plan for SAP Upgrades (New Feature for Upgrade Automation)
    This is one of the most powerful features: Now Panaya generates a comprehensive project plan for your upgrade, including sensible defaults for effort and people allocation to tasks. The plan can be exported into Microsoft Project

    Completely Redesigned User Interface (Enhanced Feature for Both Products)
    Since we added so many new features, they needed a new home.
    The application is now logically divided into SAP Upgrade, Impact Analysis, Root Cause Analysis, and Transport History

    Code Highlighting (New Feature for Upgrade Automation)
    When opening a program source from reports, Panaya will automatically highlight the upgrade problems in your code. For example: In the “Obsolete Functions” report – Click a program name to view its code and Panaya will highlight all the places in the code that use this function.

    Transport History (New Feature for Support Automation)
    If you need to track changes to your SAP system for compliance, analysis, or other reasons, Panaya keeps the complete transport information.

    Usage of User Exits (New Feature for Both Products)
    Now it is easy to see all the transactions that are using a user exit using a new “Drill Down” report

    Impact Overview Page (Enhanced Feature for Support Automation)
    Now the impact overview page displays the custom transactions and all the Batch or Interface transactions. This replaces the previous functionality

    Cloned Program Analysis (Enhanced Feature for Upgrade Automation)
    An improved algorithm now finds even more cloned programs that were especially difficult to track.

    Availability (Both Products)
    Since Panaya is software as a service, there’s no need to upgrade any software. The capabilities are available immediately to all customers.

    Conclusion

    Changes to SAP systems often entail substantial additional expense and undesirable effects for SAP organizations. Reference upgrade projects show that consistent, pragmatic impact analysis in a SAP Change and Transport Management process can reduce efforts by more than 30%. Risk gets massively reduced and surprises after change implementation eliminated. And beteo partner Panaya’s SaaS solutions can be implemented with little effort and with no or limited adjustments to the system.

  • Test Management – Much Quality for Little Money

    From my point of view, there are three key components for reaching the goal „high quality at low costs“ in test management: adequate methods, adequate staffing, and adequate tools – each at the  right time. If one of these factors are neglected, the  project threatens to fail.

    Luckily, the tool comes with the adequate method, without nailing you down too much, enabling the planning of resources and test phases. I have had some experience with projects where all team members started off highly motivated, applying well thought-out methods, but soon failed to come to grips with the tools – the  worst-case in general being a spread-sheet driven project, in which things like: „Haven´t you run a test? I made an entry in the Excel sheet that you should …. oh, sorry, it is still on my computer, forgot to upload it. …” typically happen.

    Another frequent scenario: the best of all tools has been installed, but nobody ever told the people to make use of it.

    So what should a tool be able to perform that is expected to map a consistent quality management process and make it transparent to all people involved? From my point of view, this tool should

    • provide a simple and intuitive interface,
    • enable global using, i.e. be web-based, without requiring much installation effort,
    • allow requirements to be recorded, categorized, and evaluated,
    • enable risk estimation,
    • allow rights and roles to be managed,
    • allow tasks to be assigned,
    • be able to have test cases recorded, managed, and executed,
    • enable simple release management,
    • allow errors to be recorded and traced in a workflow,
    • facilitate evaluation of the different phases as well as the total project,
    • be able to link all entities and allow detected errors to be assigned to a test case or a requirement,
    • enable test automation – by service tests in an early phase, later also by GUI automation,
    • have open interfaces to other tools.

    A high degree of acceptance by all persons involved should be achieved and the users should be able to apply the solution without too much training.

    Having read my article up to this point, you might think: Okay, I realize that Excel can´t do all this. But I wonder if any other tool can? In my opinion, there is one tool that meets these requirements, Quality Center by HP, originally launched by Mercury Interactive.

    And the best of all: Not only can I observe that it makes my quality and test management projects a success, I also take great pleasure in working with it.

    About the author:
    Gerd Fladrich ist test management expert at Fladrich Consulting, Pliening near München, a beteo partner in the  section of quality management and testing.

  • Is Tool-Supported Test Management Profitable?

    Every software project targets at providing high-quality software within the frame of a cost and time schedule. tool-based IT test management usually accompanies the whole software development process and partly adds to reaching this goal. This includes tasks like requirements management, test planning, test design, test execution, test evaluation as well as a superordinate defects management.

    Practical experience
    However, erratic and unsystemantic testing is general practice in many enterprises. A variety of manual steps, redundancies and inconsistent documentations are the order of the day, resulting in additional costs. On the other hand, high benefit could be achieved by use of a tool-based test management. Introducing the necessary test management tools, along with the suitable methods and processes, improves both the testing process and the software quality. The  benefit  provided for both the test organization and the IT projects can be summarized as follows:

    Testing gets

    • standardized (tool instead of free-text in Word/Excel), more systematic, more reliable,
    • less time-consuming, easier to execute,
    • verifiable (content and coverage), more effective and comprehensive,
    • traceable,
    • reusable, trainable,
    • it can be automated
    • and planned.

    Using test management methods and tools facilitates error recovery and consistently reduces error occurrence. Time and costs for testing and support are enormously reduced as well. This results in a reduction of total costs, higher quality, transpareny, improved system requirements and completion on schedule, if not ahead of schedule. Operation will be less error-prone with reduced breakdown frequency, leading to highest-possible customer satisfaction.

    The benefit is evident. The earlier an error is detected, the easier its recovery. But often, there is no time for testing, the project is behind schedule and people are under time pressure. Testing is considered a necessary evil. But tool-based test management is more than just a cost factor. If used in the right way, test management is a value-adding process.

    Potential return of tool-based test management
    Potential improvements are not easy to quantify. However, experience from successful implementations of the test management tool HP Quality Center has shown that real improvement is possible:

    • Improved product quality leading to
      • Less delay caused by bad product quality
      • Avoiding frequent emergency implementations during production
      • Higher customer satisfaction by meeting expected delivery requirements
      • Cost savings by less re-working and reduced support costs
    • Improved testing process leading to
      • Lower costs per test cycle by standardization and reuse
      • Standardization of planning, documentation and execution of tests
      • Less time and cost effort for preparation thanks to reuse of requirements, testing data and test cases
      • Fast test execution by automated regression testing
    • Improved use of test resources leading to
      • Savings by centralized use of HP Quality Center (hardware, software, support, services)
      • Automated test coverage management avoids the need for retesting or performing unneeded testing
    • Improved project delivery leading to
      • More predictable and optimizated delivery schedule
      • Test automation, less time needed for execution, reduced use of resources
      • Optimized use of project resources, e.g. by higher performance, better prioritization
      • Test resources are earlier made available to new projects (by on schedule delivery)
      • Comparable results allowing to continously improve test processes

    The aspects of potential benefit listed above can be used as a basis for profit calculation. By applying a scoping approach to the project, the relevant data and facts can be derived from above general potential advantages and applied to the particular environment, and the actual return can be calculated.

    Summary
    Test management is necessary and clearly improves the quality of software projects. The advantages of tool-based test management are evident. However, it is not always easy to quantify and clearly define the benefit. Often, a budget for testing projects is approved only after some unpleasant incident has happened. This can be avoided, though.

    Successful implementations of the test management tool HP Quality Center have shown that practical improvements can definitely be realized and the de facto profit can be calculated in advance. The general aspects of potential value can easily be transferred to the particular environment by applying project scoping. Data and facts gained then form the basis of a specific profit calculation. Tool-supported test management does not only pay off, but the benefit can also be quantified.

  • E2E SAP Testing – Halfway Under Control?

    In many blogs, we have discussed the deficiencies in SAP testing. Changes to an existing system are the order of the day. Again and again, errors are corrected, customizing and programs must be adapted, new functions are rolled out. Also, technical changes as hot fixes and service packs must be installed, as well as upgrades. In view of the large number of changes, problems with testing is not want you really want. But most SAP customers have come to terms with it, solving retroactively the problems involved with rolling out badly or incompletely tested changes – amidst the applause of the business. This is quite an effort, but still considered a more sensible approach than testing the whole software system.

    Everyone will agree that this is not the approach we want. Fortunately, specialized consulting companies such as FocusFrame as well as manufacturers of testing software such as HP,  Panaya, IntelliCorp, IBIS and above all SAP have taken this to heart. However, we are still far from a real end-to-end (E2E) testing or quality process starting right from the business requirements level, but at least you can start a continuous E2E testing process covering all changes as soon as the transport of a SAP change request is due. And this is already a great benefit.

    What Does This Mean in Detail?

    SAP E2E testing process and tools

    • The first step is to analyze which SAP transactions and programs are affected by the change, on the basis of the changes due for transport and of the system or a model of it. This step is mostly referred to as Change Impact Testing. This task is supported by specialized products like HP Change Impact Testing (CIT) for SAP, SAP Test Automation and Optimization (SAP TAO) as well as IntelliCorp LiveCompare. An exciting alternative is Panaya Inc.´s pure SaaS solution. Using this service, the SAP user does not even have to install any software.
    • Once the involved transactions are known, it must be found out which testing scenarios are necessary. For this step, too, there is reasonable technical support now. As a result, the testing scenarios are identified and together with the underlying test script made available to the test management tool. This is accomplished by using SAP Test Automization and Optimization in combination with SAP Quality Center by HP.
    • In spite of above system support and test szenario reduction, the testing scenarios should – due to their large number – pass another filter. This step is widely referred to as Risk Based Testing. The point here is to reduce the number of tests to be executed to the really relevant ones. This step is supported by SAP TAO and, particularly, by SAP Quality Center by HP.
    • Then, the test management tool executes the filtered tests automatically. The results are evaluated and, if necessary, the defect management process is started and monitored. This task is assumed by SAP Quality Center by HP in combination with HP Quick Test Pro.

    From Transport Packet-to-End-Testing up to real E2E Testing
    All this sounds quite simple and logical. In practice, however, it is quite a challenge to set up and operate such an environment. As a methodologist, however, you will consider this „reactive“ approach still suboptimal as the above „E2E“ quality process, instead of starting from the beginning, meaning the requirements management, is initiated not before the changes have been executed and ready for transport. Information about the effects of changes is known to be useful on starting the projects from the project portfolio management, supporting the business analyst as well as the developers and the test team. SAP has become aware of this and is working on a solution using the new Business Process Change Analyzer (SAP BPCA) to enable real E2E quality management.

    Implementing SAP E2E testing correctly will change the poor SAP E2E quality mangement into a model for other commercial software solutions addressing quality management. The benefit of a consistent, comprehensive testing for SAP landscapes can hardly be overestimated. The reduced number of system breakdowns after the weekly roll-out of changes justifies the investment in this area – as every head of a SAP Competence Center will readily confirm. The somewhat less spectacular quality improvement along with the cost and risk reduction reached in the medium term, will provide a considerable profit by introducing a SAP E2E testing project in the context of an application lifecycle management initiative.

  • HP BTO Software Centers – Overview

    HP offers a number of BTO Centers. These software packages support in the context of a BTO strategy specific phases of the application lifecycle. The following overview is meant to shed light on the HP BTO jungle.

    HP BTO Centers

    IT STRATEGY

    • Project and Portfolio Management Center (CIO Office)
      The IT management solution enables control and documentation of the enterprise processes, particularly with regard to an optimization of priorities, staff members and processes in IT organizations. For this purpose, modules for the management of portfolio, demand, time, changes, projects, resources, finances and programs are available. Upon coordination with business processes and enterprise requirements, the distribution and use of resources are optimized and processes are standardized (IT Governance).
    • SOA Center (CTO Office)
      The HP BTO solutions for governance, quality and management of service-oriented architectures (SOA) are designed to help customers to minimize economical risks in SOA project phases and to create a comprehensively controlled, business-oriented SOA basis. HP SOA Center enables registry/repository, policy management, consumer management, policy enforcement, performance monitoring und problem solving.

    APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

    • Quality Center
      With HP Quality Center, a cross-enterprise exchange of information about test requirements, test planning, test execution and error reporting is possible, as well as checking for web security issues covering the entire testing and development team. Through functional test runs, GUI interfaces are automatically tested in applications and various release cycles.
    • Performance Center
      HP Performance Center features a real-time simulation of the maximum access demanded by customer requests using active virtual user input of the applications. This enables system optimization before „going live“ and ensures the desired steady availability. A required optimization can be controlled and accomplished under system load by help of an analysis program. Thus, new web or SAP applications are made secure before going into production.
    • Application Security Center
      By using the technologies of HP Applications Security Center, security gaps in web applications can be identified and judged all across the lifecycle: from development and quality control up to operation. Also applications that are already running in a productive system, can be checked for security gaps. In addition, audit and compliance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIP AA or PCI can be met.

    (IT) OPERATIONS

    • HP Universal CMDB
      HP Universal CMDB is a configuration management database for IT organizations planning to implement business service management and ITIL-based initiatives. This software allows you to take up, document and store – in addition to physical configuration elements – logical elements. It also provides extended functionality such as an effects analysis and access control for building up and maintaining CMDB.

    Business Service Management

    • Business Availability Center
      This solution allows you to monitor the availability and performance of applications in operation for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Business processes, service levels, applications an the underlying infrastructure are coordinated to one another. The infrastructure is visualized by a graphical view with the traffic light set of colors red, orange and green showing the state of operation. A drill down is available for detailed view and error analysis. BAC is used to ensure the active operation of all business-relevant applications and to verify internal or external SLA agreements.
    • Operations Center
      This solution features a comprehensive, service-oriented access to IT management. Information is integrated and synchronized across management silos, IT and business are connected to one another. This distributed, scalable management solution which also includes security features allows you to monitor, control and record the status and performance of different IT environments, covering network, system, databases, applications, services and Internet.
    • Network Management Center
      This network management solution is considered a strategic and particularly important investment. In the last few years it has been established as an indispensible component of error and event management as well as visualization of network topologies. Network configuration, network events, application performance, and network analysis are the main areas involved.

    Service Automation

    • Data Center Automation Center
      Process automation in IT centers can be effectively supported by HP Data Center Automation Center allowing IT organizations to easily increase cost efficiency and to better meet quality and compliance requirements.
    • Client Automation Center
      More and more security risks, increasing availability requirements, and the rapidly growing number of mobile and remote staff members make it more difficult to effectively and efficiently manage client computers – a requirement, however, which every modern success-oriented enterprise should focus upon. HP Client Automation Center allows you to automate relevant IT processes across the lifecycle of the client computers, no matter where their physical locations are.

    IT Service Management

    • Service Management Center
      HP Service Manager is a comprehensive, fully integrated IT service desk solution targeted to reduce the time spent on problem solving. Thanks to ITIL-based best practice processes and a scalable, service-oriented architecture, consistent, integrated processes can be rolled out all across IT organizations. Event, problem, change, and release management processes can be automated. Service level management and catalog-based service requests are supported. All processes are coordinated by means of configuration management.

  • Forrester: HP is Number 1 for Functional Testing

    According to then most recent Forrester Wave Report dating July 8, 2008 on Functional Testing solutions HP clearly keeps on leading this market.

    Using 96 criteria Forrester evaluated 6 solutions and came to clear results:

    • HP continues leading the functional testing market since it acquired Mercury Interactive in 2006.
    • IBM has a very promising product roadmap and has expanded its support for packaged applications.
    • Borland Software and Compuware reinforced their position with their respective users – Borland for the more technical testers, Compuware fot the less technical.
    • Empirix‘ and Seapine Software’s offers are less-costly but also functionally less-capable mainly because of limited support for applications and technologies.

    Overall Forrester observed functional testing solutions not only keeping up with new technologies but also improving functionality for manual testing, test management and test automation.

    Forrester Research evaluated the the most recent available versions of the following functional testing offerings:

  • Business and IT – Change Impact Must Be Managed

    Continuously growing system complexity
    Nowadays, existing IT systems cover more or less the complete business processes. In most cases, strategic decisions to buy commercial software  – instead of making software – are in place. New developments of complete business systems are the exception to the rule. Against the background of this situation, a new concept of developing applications is required: It is no longer build-centric, but rather change-centric, also see item #4 in the Blog written by Niel Roberston, CTO at ALM-vendor Newmerix.

    Whereas the development of new systems used to be a creative, innovative challenge, the requirement now is to make a varying number of minor or major changes in existing systems or to customize them. The systems are completely built up, they are in use, they are linked to several technical and productive entities or between one another, often via complex mechanisms, and they are localized – covering all system levels from small program components and local customizing up to selected business functions and entire business processes.

    In addition, modern systems are more and more composed from reusable components. Service-oriented architectures allow a clear separation between business processes and functional system components. A prospective design would also offer the possibility to protect services against negative effects caused by partial changes of the system. But obviously, new dependencies have arisen in such a landscape of reusability. Functional components are used by different business processes, and changes made within one business process or one business function may have an effect on various parts of the system.

    System consolidations contribute to this problem. In order to save hardware and software costs, business processes and functional components are locally or globally consolidated on the same system. This implies that changes which result from local requirements must always be seen in the context of the whole consolidated system.

    Impact on the system and on changes
    So before making changes, these interdependencies must be well understood to avoid unpleasant surprises. Experience has shown that in general there are several types of effects on the system which must be recognized and got under control.

    Which components are integrated parts of the system across all levels and must be changed? It is crucial to not only look at components used to run the system but also at all descriptive or organizational objects used during the project. Which other components, that seem to be independent parts of the systems, will be influenced? What is the effect of the change on planned or running parallel projects?

    Another point should be taken into account: In how far will the change add to the existing complexity? Sooner or later, you can make any system too complex to be maintained.

    Finally, the degree of complexity of the existing system must be considered under the aspect of the planned changes. Possibly, a system analysis would bring forward that the system is too complex for even a minor change to be undertaken. An analysis is the only method to get to a realistic estimate of the “environmental tolerance” of a change.

    However, far-sighted concepts of system design or the protection of components such as company templates could be targeted as preventive measures to create a system landscape which minimizes the effects of changes or identifies undesired changes and blocks them.

    IT Impact Management means IT Impact Analysis & IT Environment Protection
    In this scenario, IT Impact Analysis and IT Environment Protection become core disciplines of system development. For commercial software, there are first approaches to this task. Informatics organisations, however, which follow a defined concept of integrating Impact Analysis and Environment Protection into IT processes, are still rare. Instead, enterprises usually make an unnecessary effort all across the application lifecycle at a high price: The projects get too complex and beyond control, dependencies are not recognized, thus tests are not run and errors are discovered not before the system is run.

    However, there are ways out of this dilemma: Impact studies would help judging projects correctly. Even in situations, when parallel projects plan to implement changes of the same components, the process can be understood and controlled. Implementing changes in the context of different projects could even be a commonly targeted action. This would imply that the effort of understanding the component needs to be made just once. Since by an impact analysis the parts and aspects of the system, which will be affected by the change, are made visible, the right things can be tested and the quality of the system before roll-out into production can be tremendously improved. Installations of large commercial solutions can be adapted more flexibly to business requirements and be maintained and used for a longer period of time.

    Summary
    Stringently applied Impact Management, including Business and IT Change Impact Analysis and Environment Protection are rapidly gaining in importance. The use of commercial or newly developed software systems requires a new look on system building – every new requirement primarily leads to a change of the existing system.

    Service architectures and business process management allow re-use, but at the same time the effects of changes are multiplied.

    Change Impact Management, including Impact Analysis and Environment Protection, consistently integrated into the method of system development and supported by suitable tools, allows the systems to be changed across the lifecycle – in spite of a high complexity and with reasonable effort – and helps to avoid even more complexity with every change.

    The benefit of effective Impact Analysis and Environment Protection can be immense. Commercial software installations and service architecture systems can be further developed with reasonable effort and at a high quality level. The systems remain flexible for business and IT and the response times for changes can be shortened. They can endure longer lifecycles without having to be substituted at an early stage because they have become too complex.

  • Put your mind at ease even when SAP support packs roll out

    Typical Situation
    Installing SAP support packs is always quite a challenge. Which parts of the SAP-supported business processes are really affected? What exactly should be tested? Are there any own developments affected? What is the amount of resources required for testing and interventions? These are just some of the possible questions. Unfortunately, they normally can not even be answered so that in practice, the only secure option is “to test everything”. The effort involved in that, however, would be simply impracticable.

    Experience
    What does “testing everything” actually mean? All processes? All system components? Who has got a list of them? One of the most frequent answers to these questions by SAP operators is “Our key users will know”. To put it bluntly, this is what the usual quality assurance process will be like: The SAP base team installs the packages on the test system, sends an e-mail to all key users on Monday morning asking them to do the testing with the additional remark “if we don´t hear from you by Friday noon, we assume that everything went fine, and will go live.” The result of this approach is well-known.

    Future
    Is it acceptable that the SAP Competence Center as an enterprise service provider confers the task of quality assurance in the installation of support packages completely upon the user, it’s customer? This would mean that the key users are those who are responsible, the quality assurance process is no longer under control. It can neither be monitored nor measured. It is not surprising that public accountants and auditors focus more and more on this process and its documentation.

    A Solution
    How can the individual change management process be smoothly and cost-effectively implemented? A possible solution includes two main elements:

    1. Step-by-step introduction of a tool-based quality assurance process for installing support packs: the existing QA process is extended step by step, each resulting in a visible benefit.
    2. Automation: This includes not only the automation of test execution, but spans the whole cycle of digitalization and automation of the entire change management process, from the tool-supported impact analysis over the selection of the packages to be installed up to the generating of test cases to be executed, including possible troubleshooting.

    Summary
    Introducing targeted test execution for the installation of SAP support packs, the people in business and IT can put their minds at ease and, additionally, a lot of money can be saved: Subsequent to the installation of the support packs, the system availability will be much higher and stressful interventions will be reduced.

    It is crucial to a successful introduction to continuously keep in mind the whole quality assurance process. With every single improvement, for example the introduction of an impact and risk analysis, it must be asked if in practice there is someone to carry it into execution and if it can be smoothly integrated into the QA process. Provided that these requirements are met, the results will de facto be applied, the expected benefit will be seen, and the processes will be monitored by accompanying measures, not only because of ITIL.

    To overcome the technical difficulties involved in SAP risk and impact analysis, there are some useful tools available. The Intelli Corp´s Live Compare with the Assessor Support Pack Template, for example, has proved to be a flexible solution. In the process of support pack QA, these tools allow for a seamless integration with SAP, SAP Solution Manager, and prevalent testing tools such as HP Quality Center.

    About the author: Fritz Mosonyi is senior consultant and division manager for SAP tools at beteo partner SPP Wien.

  • Only Motivated Users Make IT Projects Successful

    The introduction of a new IT solution entails a large deal of different changes. New roles and responsibilities must be defined, supported by additional new software. An early integration of the future users is of great importance, but very often, there is not enough attention paid to it.

    A typical example from a “normal” project: Shortly before the new solution goes live, there is – in most cases – still one pending issue on the to-do-list of the project which has already been postponed several times: the user training. The budget, including several amendments, is already stressed at that time, and the last days before going live are busy with remedial actions.

    Neither client nor project manager and project team have so far attached value to the training of the users, although insufficient training of future users can easily turn into an unexpected obstacle in the project workflow.

    The results are as follows:

    • Instead of a user training, the project team is pursuing “a learning on the job” strategy
    • The users are forced to use the new system without or with insufficient training.
    • The project team supports the users after project finish, so that there are no resources for new projects left.
    • As applying the software is a gradual process, nobody really knows the exact time when change management starts to have an effect.

    The enormous damage for the enterprise is obvious:

    • There are additional expenses, meaning real costs, by the parallel use of the old and the new solution, which involves additional work for coordination and mutual arrangements.
    • The absence of a user training and the delayed transfer of know-how result in further costs, since the new solution cannot be used as scheduled. The planned benefit fails to arise.
    • The users are frustrated and do not come to terms with the new tool. There is an atmosphere of discontent, and the new system runs the risk of not being accepted.

    This suggests the conclusion that the planning and realizing of user trainings ranks among the most important success factors for the introduction of a new system. Also with respect to the implementation of an internal “support structure” and “support culture”, considering the aspect of knowledge transfer from the project team to those who use the solution is imperative.

    This means that the issue of user training must be communicated in the project team at an early stage and be actively promoted. This results in users who are fit for using the new tool when it is going live.

    This target can be achieved by the following measures:

    • From the very beginning, one of the users participates in the project meetings as user representative. He will get familiar with the introduction of the new tool and assume responsibility for the planning and realization of the training. This enables him to have a say in the development of the tool from a user´s perspective and to co-determine the structure and the procedural methods of the training.
    • Fixed dates as those for software updates or data migration, as well as downtimes caused by technical failure and holidays, must be observed when planning the training. Training sessions take place only if all training participants have time not only for taking part in the training, but also for familiarizing themselves with the new solution afterwards.
    • A concept to support the users is figured out: Who is in charge of answering general user questions concerning the application? Who will help the user with the practical use of the solution?
    • The individual roles such as key users, administrators, first and second level support, as well as persons responsible for operation or test execution are clearly defined. The employees assume these roles at an early stage of the project and are trained respectively.
    • The users are informed in time about the introduction of the new software and the training involved with it. An effectively flowing communication within the project, usually referred to as project marketing, is actively supported by all participants and responsible persons.
    • All relevant requirements for a successful training are planned in time, and meeting these requirements is secured by the time the training starts.
    • The training classroom is booked (and well aired :-))
    • The training documents are printed
    • The computers are set up and started, the software is installed
    • The system is ready to get started, training documents are handed ou
    • The users are not disturbed during training times
    • There are breaks for the participants to exchange experiences
    • A printer is available to allow the participants to make screen-shots
    • The trainer is well prepared
    • Feedback by the participants allows for the training to be improved and optimized in future
    • Immediately after the training, the users should be able to use the new solution. The direct transition is important to take advantage of the positive momentum gained from the training. Now the systems along with an uncomplicated support environment must be available.

    Summary
    For the successful introduction of a new software solution, not only the technical requirements must be fulfilled. In addition to consistency, availability and user-friendliness of the solution, it is important that the users are well-informed, personally engaged, highly motivated and well trained. The users should be involved in the project at an early stage of the project, the training must be planned in time, including the means required, and carried out in a professional way. Least not last, the new software must be made available right after the training and be used. The option to use the old system must be abandoned. If these clear principles are observed, the successful application of the new solution – and thus the success of the project – will be secured.

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