Cross -Process Quality aspects in SAP ERP (HCM ).
Quality in and of itself is a critical success factor for HCM Projects and any ERP projects. It should, however, be based on a clear concept and not simply be implemented for its own sake. Projects can also be needlessly stifled in the name in quality.
Structured Procedure: There are many process models for implementing standard software products. Quality problems arise for the following three reasons:
ü The selected process model is not used because it entails to great a workload.
ü The selected process model is not used because it cannot be applied to the actual situation
ü The process model focuses on implementation and requires clear and sensible definition of the requirement.
An "Off-the -rack" process model can only server as a rough guide. One of the first tasks of a project team is to create a project-specific model from a general process model. The team must not only consider company -specific factors, but also the special characteristics of SAP ERP(HCM). It is not enough for a technically oriented process to stipulate the definition of the most important structures. For a HCM project, the team must define the company and employee structure and use of the Organizational management.
A clear definition of requirements that clearly describes the planned processes is indispensable for Quality. The planned processes are, after all, the means for measuring the success and therefore the quality of Project .
The following points should be clearly documented in some form:
ü What services should the SAP ERP (HCM) system support?
ü How are individual processes reflected in the most important variants?
ü Which exceptions should you be aware of?
ü What technical and organizational interfaces are provided?
These points should be supplemented with a detailed description of the data and
interfaces that can be refined over the course of project .
Documentation and Customizing:
Because the SAP ERP HCM system is constantly changing, the changes in customizing and programming are not only driven by real process improvements, but also by work agreements, wage agreements, and regulatory changes. Another measure of the ERP dynamics is the number of support packages delivered by SAP. It is strongly recommended to have a clean structure and ongoing cleanup of customizing entries and report variants . Also, an easy to go documentation is very important for ongoing maintenance. It is always important to document frequent small changes as quickly as possible. However , you should not be tempted of simply repeating the contents of the customizing table in the documentation. Instead, you should concentrate on following :
ü Reasons for doing the certain settings
ü Reference to laws, work agreements , process descriptions, or other documentation
ü Naming conventions
ü Modifiers or groupings (Specially in SAP HCM)
Clear and Transparent customizing :
Clear Customizing in both the implementation and maintenance phases represents a significant contribution to QA. During implementation, clear conventions are very important, especially when structuring tables that contain many entries. In SAP HCM system it applies when defining wage types or time types, for example. Also, the relationships between the different customizing tables are often extremely complicated and multilayered. Before you make your settings in customizing entries settings , you should graphically display the dependencies for the area of work in and create a configuration design with easy to sue naming conventions. Every time a subsequent change is made to the settings, you will be rewarded for the initial time invested. Many of the settings in HCM are subject to extreme changes, so you should make sure that customizing entries that are no longer required are time restricted. Unfortunately, some table entries cannot be time restricted, because they are not stored with start and end dates. These includes, (Employee Groups/ Subgroups; Personnel Areas/ Subareas).While most users may not see this as a problem, but eventually it will become a problem after several years of production system operation . In customizing, there is a way to improve input help for end users and to indicate obsolete entries. If you add "ZZ" to the beginning of the text description, then the corresponding settings can be recognized immediately. Because most input help programs sort the entries by text, rather than by the key, these obsolete entries will appear at the end of the list(Note that in other input help programs, there is still the option to sort the entries by text, rather than by key, these obsolete programs will appear at the end of the list.
Test Concept:
Tests in SAP ERP (HCM) system often focus on the correct calculation in the areas of time management, remuneration statements, Payroll , and the company pension / benefits plans .While these areas requires heaviest testing, it is important not to forget the tests for more dialog -oriented processes and evaluations. To test dialog applications, CATT processes can be used.
HCM is characterized by strong relationships between individual components and changes to planned results over time. Fr this reason, it is particularly important to document the test cases in a structured way and to setup a lasting test dataset. Setting up test data can be time -consuming and laborious. You have to take into account very different configurations and many exceptions. It is , however, possible to reduce the workload involved in setting up test data .
ü Personnel data(HR master, including payroll etc) can be copied if you use the right programs . This can be done within a system and across systems. Cross -system copying can be used to copy new configurations from the production system to test systems on a regular basis, to keep the test dataset up to date.
ü Objects in personnel planning and development is generally copied on a 1:1 basis from the production system, it is possible to copy the data without a special tool. Instead, you can use ALE functionality to copy Org Mgmt, from prod to test system .
ü Anonymity is probably the most critical factor when copying test data from a production system. Usually, for data security reasons, it is not possible to use original data in test system . Some companies deal with this problem by setting up the test environment within the quality system in which the use of original data is not critical, however the quality system would have to be subject to the same access authorization restrictions that apply to production system.
The following points list criteria that may have relevant when choosing a copy tool :
Ø Is cross system also possible?
Ø Is data security guaranteed during cross -system copying?
Ø Is there an anonymization option?
Ø Is it possible to adapt the range of data to be copied and the anonymization process to your company specific requirements?
Ø Apart from the HR master data, which data can also be copied?
Ø Can several people be copied in one run?What is the selection process and how long is runtime ?
Ø Pricing , including maintenance(Mostly applicable for new releases)
Ø Is there a log that allows tracking of copy options ?
Authorization Concept:
In SAP HCM, the authorization concept check is often seen as particularly critical. This is due to the sensitivity of HR data and the importance that employee representatives. Furthermore, the authorization concept of SAP ERP (HCM) is extremely complicated. In a strongly decentralized implementation of the system, creating, implementing and testing of authorizations are often extremely labor intensive tasks. It is much more important to include authorizations concept from the very beginning of the HCM project. It will reduce the workload at later stages of the project.
Decentralized Use of the System :
SAP ERP HCM is increasingly decentralized(i.e., implemented outside of HR department).This is the best way to support the HR processes while not being limited only to HR department processes.
The decentralized development can, however create some quality problems. Aside from the special requirements for the authorization concept, it is important to bear the following points in mind .
ü For medium sized companies, definition of quality process is implicit, as long as there are limited no of system users. With decentralized implementation, user numbers quickly shoot up to large numbers , which means that process changes can no longer be made at will. Process must be clearly defined .
ü Complexity of the applications must be kept at a much lower level than for users in the HR department. This can be done by efficiently using specific interfaces that can complicate the process for ex : MDT, ESS/MSS, Time manager workplace etc
ü To make processes more efficient and secure, process automation is specially useful when many users outside the HR department are involved. You can use workflows or generation of emails by custom ABAP development.
Auditing Tools:
Basically the auditing tools allows you
ü To define rules about what situations are considered an exception, which leads to a warning message or an error
ü To identify all exceptions with a reporting tool that allows you to deal with each exception(Ex approving or correcting a data ). The tool will keep a track record of each exception and the way it was dealt with, so that the auditor can access the whole process.
