With proven methodologies in place, your project team can better understand the definitions and requirements for an SAP project. SAP Solution Manager provides Roadmaps and Roadmap accelerators to deliver practical documentation and tools that align with nearly every company’s needs during a project implementation. SAP practices ASAP methodology in Roadmaps and accelerators to ensure project success. SAP also provides Run SAP, which was designed to manage IT solution operations with SAP Solution Manager.

Roadmap accelerators are updated when a new version of the Roadmap is delivered by SAP; in SAP Solution Manager, the Roadmaps are updated when new Support Packages are applied. You can find additional information on Support Packages and updated Roadmaps at the SAP Service Marketplace (https://service.sap.com/roadmaps), which allows you to view Roadmaps and accelerators in an HTML format before they are actually used in SAP Solution Manager (Figure 1). You can download these HTML Roadmaps to individual machines or to a shared network drive. Note that the Roadmap with accelerators in the HTML format does not integrate with any SAP tools for SAP Solution Manager. The HTML version is for viewing purposes only.

Figure 1

The HTML Run SAP Roadmap

It’s best to review the standard accelerators before the project starts and become familiar with documentation that could be useful for upcoming projects. During the project’s initial preparation phase, use the time to review documentation and see if your project team can leverage the best practice tools and methodologies.

Use transactions SOLMAN_WORKCENTER or RMMAIN to access Roadmap accelerators. Work Centers are role-specific within transaction SOLMAN_WORKCENTER and you can access them from one central location. If you are on an earlier Support Package, transaction RMMAIN is sufficient for Roadmap navigation. If your SAP Solution Manager system is current with Support Packages, you can navigate from either transaction to the Implementation/Upgrade Work Center.

Select the Implementation/Upgrade tab and click Show Roadmap to review the most current Roadmap content (Figure 2).

Figure 2

The Implementation/Upgrade Work Center

Select ASAP Implementation (V3.8 Jan 2008) from the Roadmap Structure on the left side of the screen to review all the accelerators and consider them for use (Figure 3). Then, select Goto > Accelerator to search the accelerators that are available and delivered by SAP. You can search at a lower level (e.g., project phase or deliverable group level) in the Roadmap Structure to limit the accelerator information to a particular level. You can modify these accelerators and add company-specific documentation to them after creating your own Roadmap, which I will cover later.

Figure 3

Open available accelerators

You’ll see hundreds of accelerators for the ASAP Implementation (version 3.8, January 2008) Roadmap (Figure 4). The variety of documentation allows project managers and team members to search quickly for specific documentation. Accelerators are searchable with the find  icon (Figure 5). To avoid sifting through the many available accelerators, you can enter terms to narrow the list. In my example, I entered Configuration.

Figure 4

View of all the available accelerators

Figure 5

Search for accelerators

After you complete a search, relevant or matching documents (in this case, the Configuration Specification Template document) are displayed and highlighted as shown in Figure 6. If the result is not the document for which you were searching, you can click the find next icon  for the next document that contains your search term.

Figure 6

Accelerator search results

Double-click the document for which you were searching (e.g., the Configuration Specification Template). The accelerator document is shown on the right side of the Roadmap screen (Figure 7). Accelerators are strategically structured in the Roadmap, and they are set up to provide a brief introduction or overview for a particular project phase or deliverable group. They are displayed below the part of the Roadmap to which they apply (e.g., Final Configuration in Figure 7) to help speed up project deliverables.

Figure 7

Accelerator document

Now I’ll take a closer look at the Configuration Specification Template, which you can view as a Microsoft Word document (Figure 8). This particular accelerator is straightforward: the project team uses it to document configuration. You can use these accelerators as starting points for project team-created documentation for both the duration of the project and for support after the project’s go-live.

Figure 8

Standard accelerator in Microsoft Word format

Figure 9 shows another example of a Roadmap and the additional tabs that project management can review. In each phase of the Roadmap you use different accelerators, which you can assign to certain project team members during the various project phases.

Figure 9

Accelerators on a sample project

Sometimes companies have internal documentation the project managers would like to include as Roadmap accelerators. To accommodate this, you can easily maintain and update Roadmaps for internal use on projects. You can edit Roadmaps for company-specific requirements and add additional content — such as accelerators — using transaction RMDEF. I recommend that you make a copy of the standard Roadmap to ensure that the structure and information is saved before you make changes to the Roadmap. You can add any documentation required for the success of a project in transaction RMAUTH.

SAP projects can begin and end at a fast pace, so it’s important for project teams to have the proper tools to quickly gather documentation from a centralized location. Many teams waste time and resources searching for or creating project documentation without realizing that SAP Solution Manager offers tools to search effectively for standard documentation in a matter of minutes.