Understanding the Operational Risks of SAP Change Failure

⇨ When changes are made to SAP systems, whether through upgrades or patches, the potential for disruptions and failures is a genuine concern.

⇨ It is essential for SAP professionals to adopt a risk-centric approach and prioritize quality testing to prevent and address potential challenges effectively.

⇨ A well-defined change management strategy ensures that SAP changes are implemented as intended and crucial updates are not overlooked.

In the dynamic world of SAP environments, understanding and mitigating operational risks associated with change failure is important for ensuring business continuity and success. Failures in change management within SAP systems can have far-reaching consequences, impacting various areas of an organization and may lead to disruptions across departments or regions. It is essential for SAP professionals to adopt a risk-centric approach and prioritize quality testing to prevent and address potential challenges effectively.

SAP systems play a vital role in supporting key business functions such as finance, supply chain, and human resources. When changes are made to these systems, whether through upgrades or patches, the potential for disruptions and failures is a genuine concern. Mismanaged SAP changes have the potential to cause operational delays, financial setbacks, and in some cases, complete system breakdowns.

The following are useful insights and steps that Basis Technologies provides to guide companies towards secure SAP change management.

1. Avoiding Complacency: Remaining vigilant and avoiding complacency even during periods of normal SAP system operation is crucial. Small changes, even those that appear routine, can have unexpected repercussions affecting various areas of a business. Assuming that minor modifications will not impact the broader system can lead to disruptions across departments or regions.
2. Risk-Centric Approach: It is important to recognize that not all changes have the same level of risk. The testing, approval, and validation processes for each change should be tailored based on its potential impact. Changes with a high chance of repercussions may necessitate more extensive testing and oversight, while others can be processed within a short span of time.
3. Emphasizing Quality Testing Over Quantity: More testing does not always equate to better outcomes. Even with comprehensive test coverage, issues related to performance, security, or deployment can surface. Prioritizing the quality of testing ensures that it targets the areas most susceptible to change effects.

Steps to Ensure Secure and Effective SAP Change Management

To mitigate the risks associated with change failures, organizations must adopt a methodical and well-structured approach to managing SAP changes.

Planning and Development:

• Initiating and approving changes with a clear understanding of their impact on the SAP landscape is crucial.
• Integration into tools like Jira or ServiceNow can help ensure that work is triggered based only on changes that have been approved. It is beneficial to track the quality of changes through automated code quality analysis, which prevents the release of any changes that fail to meet the required standards.
• Enforcing peer review and maintaining a clear division of duties during approval and deployment processes can further reduce risks.

Testing and Deployment:

• It is important to determine the right level of testing by understanding what needs to be tested, identifying key participants, and considering security, interfaces, and predicted differences. Conducting regression test automation through external tools can streamline the testing process and improve efficiency. Companies need to monitor and assess whether the regression environment accurately reflects the production system. This ensures that the tests are valid and representative.
• Leveraging an adaptive workflow enables change management based on risk levels, ensuring that critical changes receive additional approvals and testing. It is necessary to identify missing dependent objects, manage overtakes and downgrades, and orchestrate changes across landscapes, transport sequences, and integrations with other pipelines.
• Automated deployment processes minimize human error, ensuring that changes are deployed in the correct sequence and at the most suitable time. Companies should have a rapid rollback option in place to ensure that businesses can quickly reverse changes, if needed.

A well-defined change management strategy ensures that SAP changes are implemented as intended and crucial updates are not overlooked. Contingency plans, such as automatic backouts, provide an extra layer of defense against unexpected failures. SAP change management requires balancing agility with risk mitigation. It is pivotal for sustaining operational resilience. Companies interested in enhancing SAP change management strategy can reach out to Basis Technologies’ team of SAP experts.