A catalyst for change

However, the same survey also revealed that "74 percent of DSAG members and 13 percent of ASUG members believe that the introduction will have an impact on business processes". It is therefore likely to be a transformation that goes far beyond mere technical issues and will last long after the go-live.

This is one of the reasons why many companies are using their S/4 migration as an opportunity to re-examine entrenched approaches to managing SAP systems, taking this opportunity to ask themselves what an optimal (or best for their particular company) approach might look like - given technological developments, fragmented toolchains and growing demands on the customer side. 

In this series, I examine three changes that are being forced or enabled by the S/4 migration, even if they are not a mandatory requirement for success from a technical perspective.

SAP teams are increasingly using modern software development concepts. The benefits of CI/CD and DevOps are widely recognized. In this context, a new Google survey found that the best in the industry can deploy new code an impressive 6570 times faster than the worst. Similar benefits can undoubtedly be achieved by SAP teams.

An S/4 transformation project provides the ideal justification for exploring new ways of working - not only to accelerate the project, but also to provide greater agility and productivity once the system is up and running. Forward-looking companies may even decide to introduce DevOps as part of their S/4 project before it begins, so that the new way of working is already embedded and can be effective in adding value when the move to S/4 is completed.

Automation is the key prerequisite for DevOps success - whether in the context of an S/4 transformation or not. In either case, you need automation that is tailored to SAP's technical architecture. Software of this type - such as -ActiveControl from Basis Technologies - should also provide the flexibility, agility and lean management to enable rapid response to evolving DevOps processes.

Perhaps more importantly, SAP DevOps automation must link existing tool chains to further protect the change process from waste and risk as S/4 systems are built and optimized. This can be as simple as automatically updating requirements managed in Jira or ServiceNow instead of manually re-entering them, or as complex as integrating SAP into an orchestrated and multi-application delivery pipeline via products like Jenkins or GitLab.

Value stream mapping is a hot topic in the DevOps world. It is the process of defining each step that is part of the change and information flows necessary for the entire journey of a software product from design to delivery. Therefore, it should be a key input when designing your software delivery pipeline. DevOps automation doesn't necessarily make it easier to define value streams, but it certainly plays a central role in managing them - through toolchain integration, software delivery orchestration, KPI monitoring, and more.

Despite the potential benefits of DevOps for SAP, some companies see it as a state to be reached once the challenge of S/4 migration with all its complexity has been mastered. Agile development, on the other hand, is an easier first step for them to realize. In the next issue, I explore how agile development can help SAP teams.