SAP AG today announced the global availability of the SAP® Commercial Project Management application.

SAP Commercial ProjectManagement addresses the requirements of the Lead-to-Cash scenario for project business. Extending the capabilities of the SAP Business Suite, the solution allows an end-to-end coverage of the commercial project management process (selling, planning and executing a project).

The SAP solution seamlessly gathers all project-related data and processes into a single system. The user-friendly workspace gives customers a  comprehensive overview of the entire value chain, and provides flexible central command and control. Powerful planning functions make composing both the overall project flow and individual contributions simple.

SAP Commercial Project Management seamlessly connects the entire backend– like financial or personnel systems – with frontend applications such as MS
Excel, so customers can easily plan and forecast project costs and revenues.

This end-to-end integration means that project leads can minutely and fully track project-related issues and ensure consistent change management. It allows project managers to jump from financial planning and control, to managing critical issues or  sudden changes. 

With complete, accurate and up-to-date project transparency, it is easy to scale the business, ensure consistent processes and increase profitability.

Key features of SAP Commercial Project Management:

◦ Project Workspace : Gain real-time access to accurate data across project-related objects and applications, using a flexible environment that is tailored to the needs of project professionals.

◦ Project Cost and Revenue Planning : Estimate, plan, and forecast quantities, costs, and revenues throughout the project lifecycle.

◦ Project Issue and Change Management : Manage and monitor project-related issues, change requests, and their financial impact. Track and manage issues and change requests systematically.

Find out  more about SAP Commercial Project Management and visit our website: www.sap.com/commercial-project-management

Watch the 2-minute  overviewvideo:

For companies that sell projects to their customers the planning of costs and revenues for individual projects forms a key part of their business. During bid stage via planning the project price is determined. The project price is often a key decision criterion for the customer, i.e. it is highly relevant for the win probability. On the other hand the project price directly impacts the project profitability. Creating bids that are competitive and profitable at the same time is of crucial importance for the success of a project business.

During project execution the cost and revenue plan forms the basis of monitoring activities. Here, it is important to early identify deviations from the plan in order to initiate corrective measures. Regular forecasting processes are necessary in order to ensure transparency in the organization about the expected business outcome.

In addition, in many projects change requests play a large role. Proper planning and subsequent monetization of the change requests is often fundamental in order to achieve the desired project profitability.

It is of high strategic importance for project companies to improve the cost and revenue planning in order to further professionalize and scale their business. Important topics are:

• Leverage previous bids to create better bids for future opportunities. Depending on the type of business this could be a fairly unstructured process where the bid managers collect the information. It can also be a highly structured process where the project experiences are leveraged to systematically improve the bid estimates, e.g. by adjusting certain parameters. Also past project experiences can form the basis of productized service offerings
• Identify process and organizational deficiencies. A proper and detailed cost and revenue planning allows to detect process and organizational deficiencies via comparing the planning data with the actuals.  It is e.g. possible to analyze how effective existing risk assessment measures are. It is also possible to correlate the profitability of projects in certain areas with the win rate in these areas or to identify resources where costs are systematically overestimated or underestimated.
• Basis for business development. By simultaneously looking at the profitability of projects in certain areas and the opportunity win rates in these areas
  insights are derived that form the basis of future investments in sales and delivery capabilities.
• Forecast of resource needs. Using the planning information from running projects as well as projects in the pipeline it is possible to get a complete and accurate view on future resource needs. This is for example the basis for the strategy on training, hiring and sub-contracting.

Nowadays, in many project companies the detailed cost and revenue planning of projects is often done using local point solutions which are often not integrated or only poorly integrated with the ERP backbone. In many cases even local MS Excel files are used to store bid estimates, base line plans and forecast versions. This leads to missing transparency in the organization about the true status of projects. As a consequence there are often bad surprises and it is practically impossible to make the project business more predictable and better controllable.

With SAP Commercial Project Management SAP offers now a solution that provides powerful capabilities for cost and revenue planning of projects. The functionality is designed in a way so that front-office users like project managers or project planners can easily work with it. As a frontend MS Excel is leveraged though the data is not stored locally but directly in the central and fully integrated SAP ERP system. With this not only the operative processes will be substantially improved but the now available data form the basis for better business decisions. As described above this helps to create better bid estimates in the future, to detect process and organizational deficiencies, to better plan business development, and to have improved insight into future resource needs. Companies can achieve standardization in their project business which leads to higher predictability, transparency and control. Ultimately this will improve project profitability and customer satisfaction.

Learn more about SAP Commercial Project Management under http://www.sap.com/commercial-project-management.

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: XML-based Gantt customizing

Part 3: ABAP-based Chart engine

Part 4: Conclusion

A very challenging, yet interesting task, that my team and I received last year was to “find a way” to export the project Gantt chart from PPM into our very own Project Status Report (that is, an Adobe Form PDF-based file).

Of course, a PPM project can have lots of objects under the project definition, and again other objects beneath each other. For a simple and clear report, we only needed to display the project phases and some particular milestones.

Just as a hint for those who don’t know much about the cProjects Gantt and what technologies stand behind it, the actual component is called JGantt. It is a Java-based separate software component installed and integrated within the Web AS (NetWeaver Application Server), therefore with ABAP Web Dynpro. JGantt is a variant of the JNet control and is based on a specially formatted XML file. With this type of Gantt chart users can change values at runtime. For instance, you can move bars along the time axis or increase the length of bars. This flexibility is made possible by the high complexity of the JGantt control. The UI Element Gantt is one of the UI elements provided in Web Dynpro ABAP and can be found in the graphiccategory. More information may be found here.

As the Gantt chart is always rendered at runtime, it cannot really be exported as an image (that can later be embedded into the Adobe Form), so we needed to find a workaround. In order to achieve this, we made use of the functionality behind the IGS.

IGS stands for Internet Graphics Services and constitutes the infrastructure to enable the application developers to display graphics in an Internet browser with a minimum of effort. Basically, it offers a way to render graphics using the Web AS. More details about this topic may be found here.

As a prerequisite, you need to have the IGS installed and configure.

The IGS offers different types of interpreters, for example, the XMLCHART interpreter. This can generate business graphics using XML-based customizing and XML-based data.

Next part.

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: XML-based Gantt customizing

Part 3: ABAP-based Chart engine

Part 4: Conclusion

Every IGS graphic needs to have some kind of customizing. Because the Chart Engine used to generate the business graphic is a C++ library, it uses XML-based documents for data transfer. In order to use the CL_IGS_CHART_ENGINE ABAP class, you need to provide two XML documents, one for the chart customizing and the other for the actual chart data.

Hint: A good starting point to get a better understanding of how this works is the standard report GRAPHICS_IGS_CE_TEST.

1.  XML-based customizing

We chose not to hard code the XML document inside our own Chart Engine, but store it as an .xml file inside the MIME Repository (which can be later accessed using CL_MIME_REPOSITORY_API).

Example (The complete file is attached to this page and can be found at the bottom):

The way to parse this code using ABAP/4 and send it to the IGS will be shown in Part 3.

2. XML-based data

To supply the actual data to the IGS, the standard iXML libraries need to be used in order to convert the ABAP structures into XML format.

The first step is to gather the specific project data. For this, we created a new data dictionary structure having the following format:

Also, keep in mind that our scenario only considers the project phases and some particular milestones (the MS table represents the list of milestones for each project phase).

The following code is used to retrieve the project data and collect it into the above structure:

data:
    lo_project type ref to cl_dpr_project,
    ls_project type dpr_ts_project_ext,

    lt_data    type <specific chart table type>,
    ls_data    type <specific chart structure>,

    lo_phase   type ref to cl_dpr_phase,
    lt_phases  type dpr_tt_phases,
    ls_phase   type dpr_ts_phase_ext, 

    lo_task    type ref to cl_dpr_task,
    lt_tasks   type dpr_tt_tasks,
    ls_task    type dpr_ts_task_ext.

  cl_dpr_appl_object_manager=>get_instance( )->load_projects(
      iv_guid            = iv_guid " project GUID as input for Gantt Engine (type dpr_tv_guid)
      iv_change_mode     = cl_dpr_co=>sc_false ).

  lo_project ?= cl_dpr_appl_object_manager=>get_instance( )->mr_mapper->get_application_object_by_guid(
    iv_guid ).

  " project data
  lo_project->get_data_ext( importing es_project_ext = ls_project ).

  ls_data-object_guid = ls_project-guid.
  ls_data-object_type = lr_project->get_object_type( ).
  ls_data-object_desc = ls_project-project_id.
  ls_data-date_start  = ls_project-scheduled_start.
  ls_data-date_end    = ls_project-scheduled_finish.
  append ls_data to lt_data[]. clear ls_data.

  " project phases
  lt_phases[] = lo_project->mr_phases->get_all_ordered( ).

  loop at lt_phases[] into lo_phase.
    lo_phase->get_data_ext( importing es_phase_ext = ls_phase ).

    " phase data
    ls_data-object_guid = ls_phase-guid.
    ls_data-object_type = lo_phase->get_object_type( ).
    concatenate '1' ls_phase-description(3) into ls_data-object_desc.
    ls_data-date_start  = ls_phase-scheduled_start.
    ls_data-date_end    = ls_phase-scheduled_finish.

    lt_tasks[] = lo_phase->get_all_tasks( ).

    loop at lt_tasks[] into lo_task.
      check lo_task->is_milestone( ) eq abap_true.

      lo_task->get_data_ext( importing es_task_ext = ls_task ).

      < check particular milestone types >      

      append ls_task-scheduled_finish to ls_data-ms[].
    endloop. refresh lt_tasks[].

    append ls_data to lt_data[]. clear ls_data.
  endloop.

Next part.

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: XML-based Gantt customizing

Part 3: ABAP-based Chart engine

Part 4: Conclusion

After previously collecting the project data, we now need to convert it into an XML-based document. To realize this, standard iXML libraries come into play. For more information regarding iXML libraries, please refer to the following link.

The chart engine is represented in the system by a global ABAP class:

Also, in the types section:

  types:
    BEGIN OF s_category,
      description TYPE string,
    END OF s_category.
  types:
    t_category TYPE TABLE OF s_category.

  types:
    BEGIN OF s_series_gantt,
      points      TYPE yppm_tty_point,
      label       TYPE string,
      customizing TYPE string,
    END OF s_series_gantt.
  types:
    t_series_gantt TYPE TABLE OF s_series_gantt.

Additionally, a data dictionary structure (E.g. YPPM_STR_POINT) and it’s corresponding table type must be created:

Using the project data from Part 2, we now call the FILL_CHART_CONTEXT method, passing the internal table as a parameter. We’ve used the following code to fill in class attributes MT_CATEGORY_GANTT and MT_SERIES_GANTT:

types:
    begin of s_ms,
        index type i,

       start   type datum,
        end    type datum,
    end of s_ms,
      t_ms type standard table of s_ms.

  data:
    ls_category   type s_category,     " found in the TYPES section
    ls_series     type s_series_gantt, " found in the TYPES section

    lt_point_plan type yppm_tty_point,
    lt_point_date type yppm_tty_point,
    lt_point_ms   type yppm_tty_point,
    ls_point      type yppm_str_point,

    ls_ms         type s_ms,
    lt_ms         type t_ms,

    lv_date1      type string,
    lv_date2      type string.

  field-symbols:
    <fs_data>   like line of it_data[].

  define convert_date.
    concatenate &1+6(2) &1+4(2) &1(4) into lv_date1 separated by '.'.
    concatenate &2+6(2) &2+4(2) &2(4) into lv_date2 separated by '.'.
  

    if lv_date1 ne lv_date2.
      concatenate &3 lv_date1 '-' lv_date2 into &4 separated by space.
    else.
      concatenate &3 lv_date1 into &4 separated by space.
    endif.

  end-of-definition.

  " create all categories first
  refresh mt_category_gantt[].
  loop at it_data[] assigning <fs_data>.
    ls_category-description = <fs_data>-object_desc.

    append ls_category to mt_category_gantt[].
  endloop.

  " create points for each series
  loop at it_data[] assigning <fs_data>.
    ls_point-start_value = <fs_data>-date_start.
    ls_point-end_value   = <fs_data>-date_end.
    convert_date ls_point-start_value ls_point-end_value 'Plan:' ls_point-tooltip.
    append ls_point to lt_point_plan[]. clear ls_point.

    ls_point-start_value = sy-datum.
    ls_point-end_value   = sy-datum.
    convert_date ls_point-start_value ls_point-end_value 'Current Date:' ls_point-tooltip.
    append ls_point to lt_point_date[]. clear ls_point.

    do 5 times. " maximum number of milestones, can be a dynamic value
      ls_ms-index = sy-index.

      read table <fs_data>-ms[] index ls_ms-index into ls_ms-start.

      if sy-subrc is initial.
        ls_ms-end = ls_ms-start.
      else.
        clear:
          ls_ms-start,
          ls_ms-end.
      endif.

      append ls_ms to lt_ms[]. clear ls_ms.
    enddo.
  endloop.

  " create all series
  refresh mt_series_gantt[].
  do 2 times.
    case sy-index.
      when 1.
        " plan series
        ls_series-customizing = 'Plan'.
        ls_series-label            = 'Plan'.
        ls_series-points          = lt_point_plan[].

      when 2.
        " line for current date
        ls_series-customizing = 'ACTDATE'.
        ls_series-points           = lt_point_date[].

    endcase.

    append ls_series to mt_series_gantt[].
  enddo.

  " create milestones
  do 5 times.
    loop at lt_ms[] into ls_ms where index eq sy-index.
      ls_point-start_value = ls_ms-start.
      ls_point-end_value   = ls_ms-end.

      append ls_point to lt_point_ms[]. clear ls_point.
    endloop.

    ls_series-customizing = 'MS'.
    ls_series-label            = 'MS'.
    ls_series-points          = lt_point_ms[]. refresh lt_point_ms[].

    append ls_series to mt_series_gantt[]. clear ls_series.
  enddo.

The next step is to load and parse the XML-based customizing file and use it to fill the class attribute MT_CUSTOMIZING.

  set_graphic_parameter( '/sap/public/ppm/ypdf/gantt_customizing.xml').

We do this by calling the method SET_GRAPHIC_PARAMETER using the MIME path as an import parameter. This method encapsulates the following code:

  data:
    lo_mime_repository type ref to if_mr_api,
    lv_content         type xstring,

    lo_ixml            type ref to if_ixml,
    lo_stream_factory  type ref to if_ixml_stream_factory,
    lo_istream         type ref to if_ixml_istream,
    lo_document        type ref to if_ixml_document,
    lo_parser          type ref to if_ixml_parser.

  " get the .xml file from MIME
  lo_mime_repository = cl_mime_repository_api=>if_mr_api~get_api( ).
  lo_mime_repository->get( exporting i_url             = iv_path                                  
                                     i_check_authority = abap_false
                           importing e_content         = lv_content ).

  if lv_content is initial.
    " raise exception
  endif.

  " generate XML instance
  lo_ixml = cl_ixml=>create( ).

  lo_stream_factory = lo_ixml->create_stream_factory( ).

  lo_istream = lo_stream_factory->create_istream_xstring( lv_content ).

  lo_document = lo_ixml->create_document( ).

  lo_parser = lo_ixml->create_parser(
    document       = lo_document
    istream        = lo_istream
    stream_factory = lo_stream_factory ).

  lo_parser->set_namespace_mode( mode = if_ixml_parser=>co_namespace_aware ).
  lo_parser->set_validating( mode = if_ixml_parser=>co_validate_if_dtd ).
  lo_parser->parse( ).

  " save customizing
  refresh mt_customizing[].
  append lo_document to mt_customizing[].

At this point, we already have the XML-based customizing and the ready to use project data (still in ABAP format).

Now it’s time to convert the MT_CATEGORY_GANTT and MT_SERIES_GANTT internal tables into a XML-based document. We do this using method CREATE_CHART_DATA_XML, having the following source code:

data:
    lo_ixml       type ref to if_ixml,
    lo_document   type ref to if_ixml_document,
    lo_encoding   type ref to if_ixml_encoding,
    lo_chartdata  type ref to if_ixml_element,
    lo_categories type ref to if_ixml_element,

    lo_category   type ref to if_ixml_element,
    ls_category   type s_category,

    lo_series     type ref to if_ixml_element,
    ls_series     type s_series_gantt,

    lo_point      type ref to if_ixml_element,
    ls_point      type yppm_str_point,

    lo_element    type ref to if_ixml_element,
    lv_string     type string value is initial.

  " create document and set header data
  lo_ixml = cl_ixml=>create( ).
  lo_document = lo_ixml->create_document( ).

  lo_encoding = lo_ixml->create_encoding( byte_order     = if_ixml_encoding=>co_little_endian
                                                                     character_set = 'utf-8' ).
  lo_document->set_encoding( lo_encoding ).

  " create main elements for chart data and categories
  lo_chartdata  = lo_document->create_simple_element( name = 'ChartData'  parent = lo_document ).
  lo_categories = lo_document->create_simple_element( name = 'Categories' parent = lo_chartdata ).

  loop at mt_category_gantt[] into ls_category.
    lv_string = ls_category-description.
    lo_category = lo_document->create_simple_element( name   = 'Category'
                                                                                          parent = lo_categories
                                                                                          value  = lv_string ). clear lv_string.
  endloop.

  " build XML structure for each series
  loop at mt_series_gantt[] into ls_series.

    " create series elements
    lo_series = lo_document->create_simple_element( name = 'Series' parent = lo_chartdata ).

    lv_string = ls_series-label.
    lo_series->set_attribute( name = 'label'       value = lv_string ). clear lv_string.

    lv_string = ls_series-customizing.
    lo_series->set_attribute( name = 'customizing' value = lv_string ). clear lv_string.

    " build XML structure for each point of each series
    loop at ls_series-points[] into ls_point.

      " create point elements
      lo_point = lo_document->create_simple_element( name = 'Point' parent = lo_series ).

      " create TIME VALUE start
      lv_string = ls_point-start_value.
      lo_element = lo_document->create_simple_element( name   = 'Value'
                                                                                           parent = lo_point
                                                                                           value  = lv_string ). clear lv_string.

      lo_element->set_attribute( name = 'type' value = 'time' ).

      " create TIME VALUE finish
      lv_string = ls_point-end_value.
      lo_element = lo_document->create_simple_element( name   = 'Value'
                                                                                           parent = lo_point
                                                                                           value  = lv_string ). clear lv_string.

      lo_element->set_attribute( name = 'type' value = 'time' ).
    endloop.
  endloop.

  mr_chart_data = lo_document.

The final step is the actual rendering of the graphic which will be covered in Part 4.

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: XML-based Gantt customizing

Part 3: ABAP-based Chart engine

Part 4: Conclusion

After loading both the customizing (.xml file in Part 2) and the chart data (end of Part 2 and Part 3) into iXML document objects, we now need to bundle these two using the IGS and render the output graphic.

To obtain this, we use class method RENDER_GRAPHIC, encapsulating the following source code:

data:
    lo_igs_ce     type ref to cl_igs_chart_engine,   
    lo_global     type ref to if_ixml_element,
    lo_visibility type ref to if_ixml_element,
    ls_image      type W3MIME,
    lv_image      type string,
    lv_line       type string,
    lv_string     type string value is initial.

  field-symbols:
    <fs_document> type ref to if_ixml_document.

  " adjust Business Graphic customizing for PDF printout
  read table mt_customizing[] index 1 assigning <fs_document>.

  lo_global = <fs_document>->find_from_path( '/SAPChartCustomizing/GlobalSettings' ).

  lv_string = iv_height. " dependent on the size of the graphic inside the PDF. E.g. 480
  <fs_document>->create_simple_element( name = 'Height' parent = lo_global value = lv_string ). clear lv_string.

  lv_string = iv_width. " dependent on the size of the graphic inside the PDF. E.g. 640
  <fs_document>->create_simple_element( name = 'Width' parent = lo_global  value = lv_string ). clear lv_string.

  lo_visibility = <fs_document>->find_from_path( '/SAPChartCustomizing/Elements/ChartElements/Background/Visibility' ).
  lo_visibility->if_ixml_node~set_value( 'false' ).

  " create business graphic directly to receive image raw format
  create object lo_igs_ce
    exporting
      destination = 'IGS_RFC_DEST'.

  lo_igs_ce->set_data( mr_chart_data ).
  lo_igs_ce->set_customizing( custom_docs = mt_customizing[] ).
  lo_igs_ce->execute( exceptions others = 1 ).

  if sy-subrc is initial.

    " get image and convert to XSTRING
    lo_igs_ce->get_image(
      importing image      = et_image[]
                      image_size = ev_image_size
                      image_type = ev_image_type ).

    loop at et_image[] into ls_image.
      lv_line = ls_image-line.
      concatenate lv_image lv_line into lv_image.
    endloop.

    " this is basically the final output
    ev_image_xstring = lv_image.

    lo_visibility->if_ixml_node~set_value( 'true' ).
  endif.

The end result looks like this:

Even though it’s not so fancy as the “real thing”, it is still a starting point and from the functional perspective, a working solution.

For any kind of questions, don’t hesitate to contact me!

Tudor

Dear Friends,

I recently came across a requirement to create Item Version snapshot when the Portfolio Item Status is changed to Approved/Rejected and update the notes tab with approvers Comments. I searched SDN Forum but couldnot find any content for this. I decided to create a small blog to list down the function modules and tables which can be used to meet the requirement.

Solution: To track the Portfolio Item status change I used BADI RPM_PROJ_CUST_FIELDS, Interface method CUST_PROJ_ON_COMMIT_CHANGES.

1. To Create snap Shot: We can use Function Module /RPM/ITEMS_VERS_CREATE_SYNCH which calls method CREATE_ITEMS_VERSION of Class /RPM/CL_ITEM_D_API and subsequently calls function Module /RPM/SAVE_CHANGES to save the version.

We need to pass parameters; Portfolio Item GUID, Version Type (01 for snapshot) and Version Name like 'TEST' to create Snapshot using above function module.

2. To update Notes tab with the Approvers Comments: We need to use Function Module "/RPM/COMMENTS_MODIFY" and Pass the Item Version GUID.

This function Module Internally calls method MODIFY_COMMENTS of class /RPM/CL_OBJECT_API.

Following the function module /RPM/COMMENTS_MODIFY we need to calls function Module /RPM/SAVE_CHANGES to Save the comments.

Feel free to post your queries on this or if you feel that above information is helpful.

When dealing with capital projects, “behind schedule and over budget” are like nails on a chalkboard to managers’ and clients’ ears. With millions of dollars being spent on these projects, the stakes are higher than ever before. According to PwC, capital investments increased 7% last year. Development of new buildings, plants, and facilities as well as renovations to existing facilities are just some of the capital projects receiving increased investments from companies in industries like utilities, oil & gas, telecommunications, semiconductors, consumer products and health care.

With its many moving parts, capital project and portfolio management (CPPM) is no easy task regardless of whether the efforts are for your own company or your clients. The key to successful capital projects lies in close management of all the moving parts, especially timelines and budget. Ultimately, even the best managed projects can run into unforeseen delays and end up over budget.

Since “ahead of schedule and under budget” is music to managers’ and clients’ ears, what can be done to mitigate risks? On June 25 at 2:00 PM ET, join SAP and our partners, Platinum DB and Ross Management Services for a free webinar to learn how you can simplify CPPM, improve operating transparency, and increase cost management control across your projects life cycle. For more on the webinar and to reserve your spot, click here.

In an Oxford Economics study conducted recently under enterprise  executives across Europe it is once again reaffirmed that enterprises are spending a disproportionate amount of capital and resources on 'keeping the lights on'. The study, released on December 17th, shows that on average 70% of the IT spend is aimed at operating and maintaining existing environments. This leaves only 30% to be spent on innovation value creation.

In addition, over 50% of the respondents indicated they don't feel they're getting a decent ROI on the investments they make and that the weak processes,

planning and budgeting lie at the heart of that. The study further shows the consensus that enterprises need to aggressively drive down TCO and improve

efficiency to redirect cash and capacity to generating innovative value for the business and to turn IT into a business growth engine.

Set the Right Course

A CIO’s strategy is at the very least a direct derivative of the business strategy. The CIO and CEO and in fact the entire C-suite have a vested interested in both efficient and innovative IT strategies. As professor Donald A. Marchand, a professor of strategy execution and information management at IMD, states in his blog, “All members of the Csuite need to recognize and embrace their fundamental roles” in the realization of the IT strategy.

A simple rule-of-thumb is if you cannot link any business KPI to an initiative or activity, you shouldn’t be doing it. So how does the general and consistent trend of spending 70 percent of your IT cash and capacity on maintaining an existing environment relate to that? That’s right, it doesn’t. Of course you want to be able to do what you’re doing now while looking at new innovative business offerings and accompanying technologies, but with 70 percent of your spend and people focused on ‘keeping the lights on’, that leaves only 30 percent of your money and resources adding value. It’s no wonder that the DSAG CIO Survey on ITEconomics revealed that to “Increase operational efficiency as well as increase business value are top CIO priorities”.

How does IT Project and Portfolio Management help?

IT Departments typically have several projects running in parallel – some under software m intenance, some under hardware maintenance. Some questions that most IT departments cannot answer immediately without having to look up disparate sources for information to pull together are:

How much did the last change you moved to production cost you? Was that change maintenance effort or new functionality? Which project did the change belong to? Which portfolio bucket does that change roll up to? Did you have a forecast on resourcing when the change was being planned? Which project task and under which phase was the change executed?   At this point, IT managers are looking up project plans, file shares, excel sheets, rate cards etc to pull this information together for a CIO who wants a finger on the pulse – how are my development and maintenance projects running.     “What is therefore required is strong governance of IT. Be clear about the decisions concerning IT that need to be made, who gets to make them, how they are made, and the supporting management processes, structures, information, and tools needed to ensure that they are effectively implemented, complied with, and are achieving the desired levels of performance. Clear is that IT needs to have strong governance, processes and policies in place to manage the increasingly complex portfolio of programs and projects. Ideally this is supported by integrated automation tools such as SAP IT PPM and SAP Solution Manager, that provide the necessary data, analysis and insight to make informed decisions about e.g. which initiatives are delivering the most value, which initiatives are running off track and need to be corrected and which should be cancelled altogether.

IT  Project and Portfolio Management offers this missing governance by enabling a CIO to bucketize (by LoB, region etc) all business requirements that are put on his table, perform risk and ROI analyses on these ideas, convert into real life projects those that are most promising, and then go on to track resourcing, financials and execution using ChaRM  (Change Request Management) on solution manager as the execution tool.

Some Key KPIs that weaves together portfolio management, resource management and Project management are:

1. IT Spend as a percentage of revenue.
2. Ratio of Development and Maintenance spend.
3. Split of resources between support and development.

Lifecycle Management for IT Operational Efficiency – A Framework to achieve
lower TCO

Looking at all of the challenges IT organizations are facing, there is a huge potential  for us – as SAP – to help CIOs. We can avail ourselves of 40+ years of knowledge and experience in managing IT in general and SAP in particular, a broad library of frameworks, methodologies, best practices and accelerators and an extensive catalog of Engineered Services and Rapid Deployment Solutions.

How can SAP help?

The service Lifecycle Management for IT Operational Efficiency brings this all together in a holistic engagement model with a dedicated resource, the Efficiency Advisor, partnering with the CIO to turn those challenges into opportunities. In three steps we can:

1. Identify the gap between where they are and where they should be by assessing their current and to-be state along the four dimensions.
2. Provide actionable recommendations in a roadmap to efficiency with a quantified business case and KPIs that describes what they need to do to become more efficient and release some of that 70% cash and capacity to work on innovation value creation instead.
3. Create an assemble-to-order engagement that combines our powerful RDS’, engineered services and potential custom T&M activities to xecute on those recommendations.

We can also offer customers a preview by conducting a two ay on site assessment of the four dimensions and providing an initial view of hat can be done to help them achieve their goals and objectives.

Join the International SAP Conference on Portfolio and Project Management: Düsseldorf, November 17-18

For the shopaholics, the famous “Kö”, the Königsallee boulevard in Düsseldorf, is THE shopping paradise and exciting "going-out mile" all rolled into one. It´s a catwalk for the fashion-daring and a rest stop for epicures. It is this inimitable combination of extravagant luxury and Rhineland joy of life that turned the Kö into a world-renowned trademark and turned a street into an attitude towards life.

In November, this famous street will also become the “place to be” for Project Managers, Program Managers, Product Managers, and IT Experts.

Together with TA Cook Conferences, SAP will host the International SAP Conference on Portfolio and Project Management, which is co-located with the SAP Conference on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).

This two day business-focused event is specifically designed to offer a comprehensive insight into how the SAP Portfolio and Project Management (PPM) suite of solutions can allow you to manage end-to-end portfolios and projects smoother and more efficiently than ever before.

Hear first-hand how major international organizations are remaining competitive in a globalized business environment by ensuring they deliver profitable projects on time and on budget. Discover how you can keep performance on track, make accurate fact-based investment decisions, and maximize resource and workforce utilization.

Discover how SAP PPM can help maximize your business value by linking your ideas and strategies with the necessary project data, workflows and business processes, while synchronizing your strategic and operational portfolio and project management goals.

The agenda will be jam-packed with case studies, latest news, networking opportunities, and workshops featuring best practices for PPM.

Event Highlights:

• Keynote: SAP´s strategy for Portfolio and Project Management
• SAP will introduce the new SAP Innovation Management solution
• 2 Workshops: How to manage innovations and R&D projects; Managing the capital project lifecycle
• Find out how other customers have implemented SAP Portfolio and Project Management: Railnet Denmark, Bombardier Aerospace, Volvo and many more will share their experiences with the audience
• Meet our partners and find out how they can help you to benefit even more from SAP´s solutions.

As this year’s conference is co-located with the International SAP Conference on Product Lifecycle Management,  you are also invited to explore the PLM case studies and expert presentations taking place at this parallel event. With a joint exhibition, you will have the opportunity to meet with peers, share experiences, and make valuable new connections. Don’t miss this opportunity to become part of the vibrant international community using PPM solutions from SAP and discover the value of SAP solutions to your organization.

Learn more, download the agenda and register here: www.tacook.com/ppm

I'm glad to share with you one of the tools that bring me a lot of satisfaction with the creation of rapid reports with BCV (NWBC) in SAP PPM.

This is a real solution for Contextual reports, where the users access to an individual Portfolio Item that they need to know the status of that Portfolio Item.

This BCV report has been taken me more than two months to create it. So I reproduce separately in eight (8) steps that you need to made for a successfully report.

SAP BCV: Business Context Viewer is a framework that allow all SAP Business Suite applications to integrate different kinds of additional information into the context of their applications. Inthis example will show you more information for Portfolio Item in SAP PPM with NWBC.

The report will look like this:

• Step 01) Create Structure Table (Tr. SE11). This structure it's how you would show data fields on BCV report. This table will be very important to show fields that you want to complete with data in program to view in BCV report.

• Example Table: ZSDPR_DATA_WF_DET

• Step 02) Create Report Program (Tr. SE38). This program will get data to complete the data structure. It's very important to put parameters and body program between arguments <QUERY_HEAD> and <QUERY_BODY> then be careful because <QUERY_BODY> has to finish with the "ENDLOOP" to complete data into structure and show data at BCV report.
  • Program query body detail:

                PARAMETERS:     p_guid   TYPE rpm_tv_guid,

                                               p_extui  TYPE dpr_tv_name,

                                               p_vers   TYPE version_number,

                                               p_portid TYPE /rpm/tv_guid.

               *<QUERY_HEAD>

               *write all your body program.

               LOOP AT IT_TABLE_RESULT.

               *!! the following commet MUST NOT BE CHANGED !!

               *<QUERY_BODY>

               ENDLOOP.

• Example Program Name: ZDPR_DATA_WF_DET_RES_ITEM
• This program it's optional, because you can make a simple query report with table links.

• Step 03) Create an InfoSet (Tr. SQ02).
  • Using the created structure table ZDPR_TASK_ITEM
  • Program ZSDPR_DATA_WF_DET_RES_ITEM
  • Using Parameters from program
    • P_GUID
    • P_PGUID
    • P_EXTUI
    • P_VERS
    • P_PORTID
  • User Group: ZDPR_GR_BCV
  • Example InfoSet Name: ZDPR_INFOSET_TAREA_ITEM

• Step 04) Create Query (Tr. SQ01).
  • Using InfoSet ZDPR_INFOSET_TAREA_ITEM
  • Select fields for view data and parameters
  • Example Query Name: ZDPR_TASK_DEV.

• Step 05) Create Connector (BCV Initial Home Page).
  • Access to BCV connector with two alternatives:
    • SPRO --> Cross-Application Components --> Processes and Tools for Enterprice Applications --> Business Context Viewer --> Search Integration --> Define Search Connectors
    • URL --> http://yourserver.com:8000/sap/bc/webdynpro/bcv/wda_cfg_entry?sap-client=200&sap-language=EN
  • Work Area: G
  • Query InfoSet: ZDPR_TASK_DEV
  • User Group: ZDPR_GR_BCV
  • Semantics for all parameters fields table

• Example Connector Name: ZDPR_TASK_DEV.

• Step 06) Create BCV Query (BCV Initial Home Page)
  • Access to BCV query with two alternatives:
    • SPRO --> Cross-Application Components --> Processes and Tools for Enterprice Applications --> Business Context Viewer --> Query Management --> Define BCV Queries
    • URL --> http://yourserver.com:8000/sap/bc/webdynpro/bcv/wda_cfg_entry?sap-client=200&sap-language=EN
  • Key Context: 1RPM_ITEM
  • Search Connector: ZDPR_TASK_DEV

• Step 07) Create Query View (BCV Initial Home Page)
  • Access to BCV query view with:
    • SPRO --> Cross-Application Components --> Processes and Tools for Enterprice Applications --> Business Context Viewer --> User Interface --> Define Query Views
    • URL -->http://yourserver.com:8000/sap/bc/webdynpro/bcv/wda_cfg_entry?sap-client=200&sap-language=EN
  • Table --> TABLE_ZDPR_DATOS (same as BCV Query)
  • Query BCV ID: ZDPR_DATOS_DET_RES_WF
  • User Group Authorization --> Type the created User group for this BCV report.
  • Chart ID (Diagram)
    • Technology: 1BUSGRAPH
    • Diagram Type: 1COLUMN

• Query View Name example: ZDPR_DATOS_RES_WF

• Step 08) Create Overview (BCV Initial Home Page)
  • Access to BCV Overview with two alternatives:
    • SPRO --> Cross-Application Components --> Processes and Tools for Enterprise Applications --> Business Context Viewer --> User Interface --> Define Overview
    • URL --> http://yourserver.com:8000/sap/bc/webdynpro/bcv/wda_cfg_entry?sap-client=200&sap-language=EN
    • Context Key --> 1RPM_ITEM
    • Define Layout:
      • Select Query View --> ZDPR_DATOS_RES_WF

Also I recommend you to visit the folow sites:

• Pradeepkumar Haragoldavar: http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/PLM/Business+Context+Viewer+(BCV)?original_fqdn=wiki.sdn.sap.com
• Business Context Viewer Cookbook: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-24250

Hope this help you.

Best regards,

Mariano

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans”

This quote from Woody Allen is a perfect headline for a blog about project management disasters, don´t you think?

Every day we see businesses respond to a challenging economic environment by deploying scarce investment funds in pursuit of a competitive edge. These initiatives, which are inevitably delivered via projects, represent significant investments for the organizations concerned.

As organizations struggle with the impact of downsizing, increasing complexity and global mobility, successful project management is becoming increasingly important. Executives in high-performing organizations recognize the imperative to identify, prioritize, coordinate and manage the projects that will turn their strategies into reality. In the global competitive environment, value-for-money is a priority. While many businesses have cut back optional spending in recent times, we see others that can no longer hold off essential projects. Effective project management practices help control the added risks that project activity introduces to normal business practice. 

History is littered with project management disasters that show how painful the consequences of poor project management can be: huge time delays, excessive project costs and mockery that ruins the brand value these organizations have built up over years. Here is a recent example of a recent spectacular project management disaster in Germany: 

The Berlin Brandenburg Airport

Normally known for our efficiency, punctuality and engineering mastery, the new airport in Berlin is an embarrassing example of a troubled construction project from the Federal Republic of Germany. Having missed 5 target dates for its opening, the project is still underway and the final opening date still remains unclear. Original plans showed a target opening date of 30 October 2011. The original budget for this massive project was 1.7 billion Euros. To date, almost 5 billion Euros have been spent so far.

The causes for this huge project failure are not completely transparent to the public, but there is one important factor to consider: the public sector often struggles with such large-scale projects, because it’s not responsible to investors but to the people, the tax payers. Project leaders have to act transparently, involve citizens, manage the money and solve complex infrastructure tasks. Public building has reached a level of complexity that is apparently too much for the state to handle.

Slimmed-down administrations are hardly capable of controlling construction projects efficiently. It´s the old dilemma of poor project monitoring and mismanaging resources. In my opinion, there is another important rule organizations should not forget: don´t work in silos, don´t think in silos and set clear project goals. In the case of the Berlin airport, quality management and security experts were obviously not fully integrated in the development process. Also, there was a constant change of requirements and design ideas that made the whole project a disaster.

This is just one example of project failure, among the plethora in the news. For instance SNCF, the French Railway company, found out how one bad assumption can “derail” a project. Following the arrival of the first of its new fleet of regional trains, SNCF discovered that the newly designed trains are too wide to fit into many of the railway stations they were intended to serve. So, 2,000 new trains are too wide for the railway. I see this as a combined R&D and Project Management failure.

After concentrating on failures, let’s focus on what makes projects successful?

• See the entire picture and share the same project data:Project management software increases the speed and efficiency of program and project management by providing integrated information across project portfolios, human resources, and financial systems. Manage multiple projects cohesively and efficiently.
• Detailed financial planning: You have to consider every aspect of your finances from Human Resources, to material, production, supply chain costs, and so on. This is a true cross-organizational effort.
• Resource scheduling: Efficient resource management software enhances resource planning, allocation, and availability analysis, and this helps prevent understaffing and ensure the right staff members are assigned to the right job.
• Impact analysis:coming back to Woody Allen´s quote – unforeseen changes do happen! This happens on practically every project.  You start with a clear concept or at least you thought it was clear when you started.  Then one thing leads to another and before you know it you are involved in a different project.  Structured, logical thinking and software with powerful analytics can help you analyze different possibilities.
• Cope with BIG project data:Analytics solutions based on SAP HANA give real-time insights into the health of the overall business portfolio as well as individual projects. For example, project teams can use analytics to compare a project’s capability demands, opportunities, and actuals against long-term financial plans.

Fortunately, a large percentage of projects are indeed successful, both in time and on budget.  With the help of SAP Portfolio and Project Management, the South-Africa-based railway corporation Transnet experienced $62 million visible savings in two years’ time, increased project transparency and better financial reporting. Read their story.

Needless to say, there is always the risk that something unexpected may arise in your project that software cannot predict. But software can help you adjust your plan, make risk analyses and play what-if-scenarios. That way, you can at least try to outsmart fate…  and if you want to impress God, plan with a software-supported process.

If you want to learn from more successful Project and Portfolio Management case studies, visit our International SAP Portfolio and Project Management Conference in Düsseldorf, November 17-18.

Start of Ramp-Up for "SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1"

RTC and Start Of Ramp-Up

On October 29, SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1 had RTC (Release To Customer) and Start of Ramp-Up. The end of Ramp-Up is currently scheduled for April 29, 2015. The Ramp-Up nomination process is currently ongoing and we are still looking for additional Ramp-Up customers. If you want to join Ramp-Up, please contact your SAP Account Manager or SAP Sales contact.

Functional Innovations And New Features

A detailed description of all new and/or enhanced functional innovations and features can be found in the Release Notes (see next chapter for the link). A short summary of the highlights:

Portfolio Management:

• New table technology for item dashboard:
  New table service (ATS) is used for the item dashboard and is integrated into
  the FPM framework of the Portfolio Management. This offers better behavior in
  visualization, scrolling, filtering, sorting and personalization options.

• Search and Display of archived portfolio management data:
  Search of archived portfolio management data has been provided. With forward
  navigation from the search result list the archived data can be displayed in
  the application. In addition the access to archived portfolio management data
  can now be controlled by a new and specific authorization object.

• Multi-Language Handling and Master Language Concept:
  An improved language handling has been provided. This covers handling of
  language dependent texts in Portfolio Management, the possibility to define a
  master language for a portfolio and a service program to support migration, set
  or change of master language of an existing portfolio.

• Further usability features:
  As of SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1 some new usability features have been introduced:
  • Search for buckets
  • Expand and collapse
    buttons for bucket structure: the bucket structure view provides expand and
    collapse buttons to handle single hierarchy levels or the complete hierarchy.
    This functionality is available in the bucket structure view of the portfolio
    structure and the classification hierarchy in Portfolio Management and in
    Portfolio Administration.

Project Management:

• Improvements in Project Structuring and Maintenance have been implemented:
  • Task hierarchies below project definition
  • Checklists below tasks
  • Improved create buttons for project elements.
    • New project element milestone introduced.
    • On creation (or selection) of project element, set focus to field description
  • Allow the inclusion of operational project elements
  • Improved copy and paste
    • Full support of cut/copy/paste (incl. drag & drop) between phases and project definition
    • Copy tasks: copy also role assignments
  • Quick action buttons
    • Delete constraints with button in detail view. Introduce button on task details resetting all constraints.
    • Indent/Out-dent in hierarchy. Introduce buttons to indent and out-dent objects in hierarchy
  • Automatically set POC to 100% on task completion
  • Use operational authorizations in project versions
• Enhancements in Graphical Views:
  • Graphic View Optimizations enabled  to project header and checklist items
  • Possibility to define a default start view in graphic view
  • Graphic View Optimization enabled for Multi-Project Monitor
  • Automatic scrolling prevented to start of task in GANTT Charts
  • Better display of summary tasks bars by using distinct color or pattern in GANTT.
• Improvements in Project Dashboards:
  Several usability features for the project dashboards have been implemented, like:
  • List of all projects I'm authorized for
  • Open multiple projects from project dashboard via button "open“
  • Display project in “My Tasks” list
• Staffing Screens and Search:
  With SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1 the following features have been provided:
  • Additional columns (organizational unit, phone number, location)
  • Type ahead search
  • Deletion and multi-select
  • Delete selected staffings
  • Delete Role in staffing overview
  • Grant authorization to user on staffing to improved consistency and transparency
• Management of Conflicts Between Task Scheduling and Resource Planning:
  For conflicts in project planning, a check functionality is provided to analyze
  and resolve date and distribution conflicts of roles, staffing and
  role-task-assignments in regard to task and project dates. Values are suggested
  and can be used to solve the conflicts by one click or the user can manually
  maintain other dates to solve the identified conflicts.
• Enhancement of XML-Import/Export Functionality:
  For export and import of the project as XML file, the defined text languages
  are considered in the XML data for the object description, not only the log on
  language. In addition checklist references are now included in the XML files.

Integration to SAP Innovation Management via Object Link:

A new object link allows connecting projects, portfolio items or
initiatives to ideas in SAP Innovation Management.

UI Harmonization of object links in Project and Portfolio Management:

The object link creation process in portfolio management is harmonized
with the one in project management based on the existing Create screen

and search dialog.

General Information, Guides, and Documentation

There are some places where you can find information about SAP Portfolio and Project
Management 6.1 which also serve as central points of entry to find additional
details:

• Release Notes, Master Guide, Master Upgrade Guide, Application Operations Guide,
  and Application Help, etc.:
  http://help.sap.com/ppm
     -> SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1
• Configuration Content (aka Configuration Guide): Information about customizing and
  configuration is available as PDF attachment to SAP Note 2026421.
• Product Availability Matrix: Technical and release planning information can be found under:
  https://service.sap.com/sap/support/pam
  Search for “SAP PORTF AND PROJ MGMT 6.1“
• Ramp-up Knowledge Transfer (RKT) - Learning Map
  (for Consultants):
  http://service.sap.com/rkt-plm
     -> SAP PLM
       -> SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1

SP Prerequisites and SP Schedule

Information about the available Support Packages (SPs) and their prerequisites as well as
important notes which should be implemented after implementing a particular SP can be

found in SAP Note 2026050. The current 6.1 Support Package schedule can be found in

SAP Note 2026050, too.

Important SAP Notes

There are some SAP Notes which are in general very important for SAP Portfolio and
Project Management 6.1 and which also serve as central points of entry to find
additional information:

• SAP Note 2026407    FAQs - SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1
• SAP Note 2026422    PPM 6.1: Supported Browsers, Java versions, etc.
• SAP Note 2026421    PPM 6.1: Configuration Content
• SAP Note 2026050    PPM 6.1: Support package information, notes, and schedule
• SAP Note 2026426    PPM 6.1: Performance notes

Dear All,

I was going through BI report of PPM and I found one issue in that i.e. formula for calculating RISK ADJUSTED NPV.  As per my understanding the way we are calculating formula for RISK ADJUSTED NPV is wrong.

Correct me, if I am wrong and also provide inputs and your understanding for the same. 

As per formula used in BI reports for deriving Risk Adjusted

NPV = Net Present Value * Derived Risk / 100.

And Derived Risk: (1- Probability Technical Success% + 1 - Probability Commercial Success) / 2

For Example:

   If pts. = 80% and pcs = 50%

Risk = [(1 - 80%) + (1 - 50%)] / 2

Derived Risk = 35%

NPV = 100000 INR

As per formula, my Risk Adjusted NPV = 100000 * 35/100 = 35000 INR

But as per my understanding, it should be 100000 * (100-35)/100= 65000 INR.

Kindly Correct and provide your inputs for the same.

With Regards

  Amit Dhār

HI collegues.

I ve implemented report DPR_GET_TREE, that was awesome

After using have questions, could you help me.

For example, I am interested in how report could find records:

- in the table DPR_BUPA_LINK, using as object of search Project GUID

- in the table DPR_PART, using as object of search Project GUID

BR, Alexey

End of Ramp-Up for SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1

Ramp-Up for SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1 ended as of February 20, 2015. SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1 is now generally available (GA) to customers worldwide.

SP01 for SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1 is available since mid of February.

• There are some places where you can find information about SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1 which also serve as central points of entry to find additional details:
• Release Notes, Master Guide, Master Upgrade Guide, Application Operations Guide, and Application Help, etc.:
  http://help.sap.com/ppm
  -> SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1

• Configuration Content (aka Configuration Guide): Information about customizing and configuration is available as PDF attachment to SAP Note 2026421.

• Product Availability Matrix: Technical and release planning information can be found under: https://service.sap.com/sap/support/pam
  Search for “SAP PORTF AND PROJ MGMT 6.1“

• Ramp-up Knowledge Transfer(RKT) - Learning Map (for Consultants):
  http://service.sap.com/rkt-plm
  -> SAP PLM
  -> SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1

Functional Innovations And New Features

A detailed description of all new and/or enhanced functional innovations and features can be found in the Release Notes (see above for the link). A short summary of the highlights:

http://scn.sap.com/community/plm/rpm-collaborative-project-management-and-cfolders/blog/2014/10/30/start-of-ramp-up-for-sap-portfolio-and-project-management-61

SP Prerequisites and SP Schedule

Information about the available Support Packages (SPs) and their prerequisites as well as important notes which should be implemented after implementing a particular SP can be found in SAP Note 2026050. The current 6.1 Support Package schedule can be found in SAP Note 2026050, too.

Important SAP Notes

There are some SAP Notes which are in general very important for SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1 and which also serve as central points of entry to find additional information:

• SAP Note 2026407 FAQs - SAP Portfolio and Project Management 6.1
• SAP Note 2026422 PPM 6.1: Supported Browsers, Java versions, etc. 
• SAP Note 2026421 PPM 6.1: Configuration Content
• SAP Note 2026050 PPM 6.1: Support package information, notes, and schedule
• SAP Note 2026426 PPM 6.1: Performance notes

When I got started on my first PPM project way back in 2005 we implemented cProjects 3.1 and xRPM 2.0. A lot has changed since then and PPM has evolved and grown from a fairly primitive solution into a robust feature rich solution for Enterprise Portfolio & Project Management. As important or even more important than the functionality of the module itself is the quality of the design and implementation. As a consultant I have seen many PPM implementations where the success of project can be considered questionable not because the PPM tool did not have the functionality to meet business requirements, but because the implementation (design, configuration and custom developments) was not done as well as it could have been.

In this blog I would like to share some of my experiences so that you can avoid these common pitfalls in your projects. I would like to preface this by mentioning that these are my opinions and all of my experience has been implementing PPM for new product development project and portfolio management as part of a PLM solution.

1. Having multiple portfolios when all you need is 1– the Porfolio in PPM is an extremely high level object and for most companies you only need a single portfolio. You need multiple portfolios if your projects are completely independent and separate. For example, you are consumer good company and use PPM to manage NPD projects and IT projects. In this case 2 portfolios, 1 for NPDI and 1 for IT makes sense. You should not create 2 portfolios if you want to segregate your product development projects for food vs personal care categories. In this case buckets maybe a better and more flexible option. Other considerations are authorization requirements and portfolio type dependent config.
2. Too many portfolio item and project types– you primarily need different item types if they have different project management processes or Decision Points. You need different project types if you have different integration requirements, field settings, scheduling settings etc. You DO NOT need to have multiple types for reporting purposes which is mistake I have seen only too often. So if you have 25 item/project types and the configuration setting for each is the same or similar, chances are you don’t need that many. If you want to categories items/projects use standard fields such category, subcategory, group or buckets or build custom fields.
3. Too many project templates– a template is a starting point for creating a project structure. The intent is to minimize the work that a project manager would do when planning a project. The keyword being, minimize not eliminate. Due to the unique nature of projects it’s not possible to create templates for every possible scenario. Therefore, the recommendation is to limit the templates to a manageable number and control the creation of new templates.
4. In general when it comes to portfolios, types and templates I try to follow the “less is more” school of thought.
5. Financial integration with PS when it is not required– If you are not going integrate with Portfolio Management Financial Planning or calculate resource/task costs based on an hourly rate and post to WBS elements, reconsider if you really need the added complexity of the standard financial integration. Solutions that I have implemented in the past for a “soft integration” was using a combination of object links to PS project definition and BI reports to analyze date from PPM and ECC.
6. Custom developments that are not required– I’ve seen 2 variations of this. Custom developments have been done when the same standard functionality exists, primarily due to a lack of knowledge of the configuration options. The other variation is doing custom development because standard will do the job, but not exactly the way it is requested. The recommendation here is if “standard” is good enough use it. On the flip side, there are certain custom developments which you are expected to do. SAP provides a sample implementation but it was never intended to be used in production. An example of this is the Project Status Report and Approval Document. Ideally if you are using the function, use the SAP standard form as an example and create your own.
7. Not planning for BW/BI/BO reporting– “Are you sure we can’t do reporting without BW?” is usually the response I get when I bring up the fact we need to plan for BW to do PPM reporting. SAP provides some good standard content that can be leveraged and the ability to do analytical reporting out of PPM is a key benefit for implementing PPM. At the very least plan for basic reporting to start with and make sure BW data modeling / data warehouse design is part of the blueprint phase. Do not treat BI reports as a just another WRICEF object which only requires a developer in the realization phase.
8. Not using ACLs – The PPM security concept is to use traditional PFCG roles with ACL’s and in combination can greatly reduce complexity of your security design and provide more flexibility to end users / power users in managing authorization. All too often I have seen ACL’s not being used and the authorization object ACO_SUPER provided to end users. Doing this in my opinion is a mistake. There is an interesting thread on SCN that discusses this topic in detail - http://scn.sap.com/thread/3452522

I hope this helps you in your projects. Of course, there will always be exceptions and unique scenarios where some of these are not applicable. Feel free to comment if you have any other common pitfalls to share or any questions.

Hi PM Guru's.

Can any one explain me the use of PM02 control key in an organization and if external services performed then how it will be calculated.

Is the service entry sheet is required.

Vardhan

Hi All,

Where can we see only operations cost for maintenance order in SAP PM.

Vardhan