Solution Documentation specific roles and responsibility
The goal of the Solution Documentation is the documentation of processes, information, technical objects, and requirements that need to be addressed to ensure consistent solution documentation and maintenance (but also accelerated innovation management) throughout the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). The Solution Documentation scenario is owned by application management. People with a variety of roles (end-users, business process owners, development architects, project team members etc.) need to work together to implemented and use this ALM scenario.
For example: The solution documentation can be created during a SAP implementations. We say that a correct usage (followed SAP Best Practices) of SAP Solution Manager for a SAP implementation results in a sufficient solution documentation. That’s why a Solution Documentation expert of the ALM team should support new SAP implementation projects in the start phase of the project. The Solution Documentation expert knows the SAP Solution Manager functionality very well, maintains the first steps in SAP Solution Manager, moderates the definition of project standards and does the Solution Documentation knowledge transfer to the project team members. He also participates in the definition of the quality and governance process for Solution Documentation. To ensure that the globally defined standards have been fulfilled, he should set-up and/or attend at regular Q-gates.
The Solution Documentation owner/expert defines maintenance processes to ensure the Solution Documentation is updated consistently and helps to execute the related functionalities. There are multiple ways of keeping your documentation up to date. One is way is to use Reverse Documentation or Library Generation programs to regularly check your processes against your current system usage. Another way is to define organizational structures and roles, such as business process owners, who are responsible for each business process, and note this in the administration tab (Solution Manager 7.1) or in the Attribute pane (Solution Manager 7.2). A quality manager can also assist with, verify, and check processes and documents on a regular basis. Documentation rules need to be defined, for example, each process has to have a process description document which is located on the business process level in the business process hierarchy. He or she can also support the quality management roles to ensure consistent and value-centric reporting to the business and management. In the case the Solution Documentation is created during a project implementation, the definition of roles and responsibilities should be part of the project preparation phase.
In particular, the following functional positions play a key role in the Solution Documentation scenario during a project implementation:
Solution Documentation Owner (Solution Documentation expert or Quality Manager) – Responsible for the Solution Documentation scenario:
- Definition of Solution Documentation processes and procedures
- Involved in the definition of the solution documentation standards
- Involved in the definition of the governance process
- Preparation of training materials and training of the end users (project team)
- Reporting on Solution Documentation progress and completeness.
Basis Resource (SAP Basis or Solution Manager Basis) - Understand how to use Solution Manager for project documentation – technical setup:
- Projects creation in SAP Solution Manager
- Definition of project landscape (systems and components)
- Definition of project standards
- Definition of keywords / customer attributes for documentation purposes.
Security Resource - Provision access to systems and authorization profile definition:
- Solution Manager user creation
- Adjustment / definition of authorization roles.
Project Manager – Decision on standards (document types and templates/naming conventions, document management concept etc.) to be used for the project.
Solution Architects / Business Process Owners – Overall responsibility for documentation of business scenarios and processes (structure).
Functional Consultants (Application and Technical Consultants) – Documentation of the solution and business processes: Creation and maintenance of project documentation e.g. FS, TS, Configuration, Training etc.
Project Lead to understand the overall picture.
