Database Reference
In-Depth Information
change management during this phase of the project. During the build phase, functional con-
sultants will configure the SAP system to meet the requirements of the client's business pro-
cesses and development consultants and integration consultants will build the RICEFW in-
ventory.
After the build activities are completed, Basis administrators build the test systems and
all the development and configuration performed is transported (export and import) to the
test systems. In the test systems integration and user acceptance tests are performed, and
after everything has been successfully tested the solution is ready for deployment.
Deployment of the software is the final phase of the SAP implementation. SAP Basis ad-
ministrators build the production SAP systems and migrate all the changes to this system.
The conversion team performs the data conversion activities from the old systems to the
new SAP systems during a weekend before go-live, and then the new solution will be the
system of record. After the new solution stabilizes in a week or two, the old systems are de-
commissioned.
As explained earlier, SAP Basis administrators play a key role in building the develop-
ment, test, and production SAP systems and in setting up a transport mechanism for moving
the configuration and development changes to different systems. SAP Basis resources also
provide support activities to the project team in the areas of additional software installations,
patch application, performance tuning, monitoring, backup and recovery, transport changes
within the landscape, and so on. Subsequent chapters in the topic will go into more detail re-
garding these activities.
In this chapter, we will look at the preparatory steps required before starting the actual
SAP installation. This will include preparation and planning activities, such as how to trans-
late SAP IT scenarios into installable SAP software usage types, checking the Product
Availability Matrix (PAM) to verify the availability and compatibility of the SAP software
release with regard to a given operating system and database, downloading the installation
manuals, writing a build specification document for the UNIX team to create the file sys-
tem, downloading the software using SAP Download Manager, and referring to SAP Online
Support System (OSS) Notes for addressing any known issues with the installs. Now let us
study each of these preparatory steps in detail.
Business Requirements Mapping to Technical Systems Installation
One of the key tasks of a SAP technical architect and a Basis administrator is to map the
business requirements to the installable technical systems. SAP provides two guides to
provide this mapping and identify the technical components that need to be installed. One is
the master guide and the second is the technology infrastructure guide. The master guide is
the starting point for planning any technical implementation of a SAP NetWeaver solution.
The master guide helps map the business scenarios to be implemented to the technically in-
