The Consultant's Blog April 2012
In the early days of SAP implementations, there was only one spec. How technical and how complete it was depended on who wrote it.
Any documentation the developers wrote afterwards to really plan how they were going to implement it was informal and often remained on
white-boards or notepads. Yet in order to ensure the project would proceed without hazard, on time and on budget, the documentation
needed to be more technical. Such detailed technical specifications took time – time wasted if the goals and function of the development
should change or fail to gain approval.
This problem was tackled as more and more seasoned SAP functional consultants from the Management Consultancy firms moved into SAP implementations.
- They brought with them new standards for documentation that helped ensure more accurate plans and less technical problems.
- They introduced a division in the design document between goals and function, and between method and technique.
- They separated the design document into the functional specification and technical specification.
This way, the clients, users or principal designers of the development could review the SAP functional specification and approve the goals and functions of the proposed change, whether it was a new report, enhancement, form or interface – leaving the determination and documentation of the methods and technique up to the technical team of developers.
Therefore, the technical team waited until the functional specification was approved and signed-off before starting on the technical specification.
They worked from the functional specification alone, ignoring any design changes that occurred after sign-off unless the spec was updated and a new schedule agreed to. Thus the division saved time for the developers and gave them more control of the schedule, while still ensuring they had a complete plan for the methods and technique for implementation.
Although some companies still refer to the functional specification as the "design document" and produce a separate technical specification, it is becoming more standard to include the technical spec within the functional design document so that there is only one document in circulation and to be kept current.
See my SAP functional spec templates as examples!
Current Blog
Please click on the appropriate link below to view past blogs or return to the current blog:
The Life of the SAP Functional Spec - May 2012
It's Time - July 2012 Invest in Yourself! - August September 2012 Keep Calm and Carry On! - October 2012 Advice on Troubleshooting - November 2012 All a Consultant wants for Christmas... - December 2012 So...you're still here then? - January 2013 The latest addition to the Consultant's Guide - February 2013 Forward Momentum - April 2013
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