At SAP Fieldglass, innovation is in our DNA and so, finding a new solution or feature to enhance your external workforce and services procurement program is easy. The complexities lay within the potential impact that may arise when you implement the technology change.
To continuously improve your program and confidently adopt new features and functionality, you need to have a solid understanding of the effect on your various users (Hiring Managers, Workers, Suppliers), transactions, and downstream systems.
Below you’ll find enablement and testing tips that you can apply to each stage of the solution you are looking to adopt. Follow this step-by-step guidance for confident, thoughtful, and seamless delivery.
Step 1: Identify Solution
- Become an expert on the solution
- Align technology change to business driver and consider how success will be measured
- Configure the solution in a test environment
- Observe the design and user experience
- Document the design and intended benefits
- Collaborate with team & affected User(s) before agreeing to proceed
Step 2: Assess Impact
- Visibility Assessment – understanding visibility and controls is critical to inform and educate
- Who – By User? By User Role? Suppliers? Workers? All?
- What – Instruction required? Purpose known?
- When – At what point in the workflow is the new solution visible? Ex. after company config is enabled, after further Admin Object step up, after the Approval Group is edited, etc.
- Where – Is the solution observed in the application (user interface), reporting, integration?
- How – How will new objects or Users be associated to the new solution? Ex. manual upload, integration, company default
- Transaction/Object Status Impact – some changes take effect immediately while others may not, depending on the status of transactions and objects. Identify examples of status variations and consider how the ‘visibility’ impact may vary based on object status. Also, if the solution being implemented is an added control, how will related ‘In progress’ transactions behave? Below are some examples to test:
- Existing Objects
- New Objects
- Revised Objects
- Reopened Objects
- Current Users vs. New Users
- Reporting Impact
- Is there an impact to data fields in existing reports – especially any reports used for downstream system updates?
- Are there new reportable fields related to the solution that could help you measure adoption & success? Search Analytics Menu: Report Fields
- Integration Impact
- Are any impacted data fields included in a download or upload? If yes, engage your Config Manager to discuss impact
- Does your change impact the timing / trigger of a record in a download or upload? Or does it change behavior in being included or excluded from a download or upload?
- Collaborate with your PMO team & affected User(s) for impact analysis and brainstorming before agreeing to proceed
Step 3: Validate Design
- Create a list of test scenarios for each impact identified, variation in use case, and exception scenarios where you would expect no change
- Execute each test scenario in the test environment (use appropriate User Role for each step – Hiring Manager, Supplier, Worker, PMO, etc.)
- Observe each affected object in:
- Application (as varying User(s) / User Roles)
- Reports
- Integrations
- Adjust solution design until all test scenarios produce expected and desired results
- Decide on a go-live approach. Will this roll out to all Users/Workers/Templates or select Users/Workers/Templates? Consider a phased approach if a production pilot is needed
- Is change management needed? If so, identify a strategy
- Document program change in the Reference Library, Contextual Help , or custom instruction if applicable
- Collaborate with team & affected User(s) for go-live agreement
Step 4: Deliver Solution
- Enable product changes – know at exactly which step your objects/ transactions/ Users are impacted
- Monitor objects/transactions leveraging new solution in:
- Application (user interface)
- Existing Reports
- Integrations
- Create a report or process to verify solution has been adopted and success measures tied to business drivers are identifiable
- Continuously monitor and adjust solution until success measures are met
Helpful Resources
Download the Feature Adoption: Enablement and Testing Tips one-pager
SAP Fieldglass Help Center (Troubleshooting)
SAP Help Portal (Documentation)
Product Success Collaboration
Test Environments
