If you work in management consulting as a SAP Project Manager working within one of the major management consultancies, you probably know all there is to know about change management risk. However, if you are new to the SAP Project Manager role, you will want to pay attention to this and even if you are experienced, you might pick up some useful pointers here.
Change Management, as a program, is often sub-contracted out, usually to hit a budgetary target during the contract negotiation process. However, there is a secondary level of change management, specifically, the change control process, which cannot be subcontracted out, and that you will need to be aware of throughout your project, if you are to be successful.
In this case, the change management risks you are likely to have to manage is primarily about changes to the SAP HANA system itself. As the PM, you will have to monitor and manage these changes, which are present on virtually every project (all of mine have had changes so far).
To do that, you will need to answer the following questions and have a plan on how to address the answers to these questions. This is one of the critical areas to becoming a successful SAP PM.
SAP Project Managers Must Manage Change
As you can see, managing changes to the SAP software can be a complex process. For the most part, these pointers, which form part of a larger risk management approach to SAP projects, are meant to be brain ticklers. You have to brainstorm, repeatedly, throughout the life of the project to actually identify, manage, and rollout changes to the SAP performance improvement project. Ideally, you will have a risk manager available to bounce ideas off of and to explore areas that are not yet fully clear.
Do you have Change Control Process Techniques you Like To Use?
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