In SAP Implementation, many managers resist Agile/Scrum because, from their point of view, it is largely a waterfall model that is the way to go. In the hype of Scrum/Agile, Client is usually unaware (or worse, not concerned) about the challenges this transition might cause and without understanding the nuance of agile, certain principles are implemented to give a superfluous impression of Scrum/Agile without adopting the core idea.

What are the major challenges? First: Scrum is designed for a product development, not the implementation of a software in a landscape. Second: Many SAP developments which are of product nature are usually big in size – ABAP/UI/Functional Configuration – and more than often a three-week window is not enough for an end to end testing. Third: SAP Area is usually skill intensive. Within a team, cross training is possible but the productivity falls down dramatically which is counterproductive.

These are the challenges that a development team faces. There are other challenges like – release management is a complex concept and is usually controlled by a team with planned schedules, the business process is in black/white situation i.e. either it follows original legacy logic or SAP logic, making the independent shippable product a little more complicated and similar problems related to modalities.

So, can we use Scrum to make Implementation quicker/better?

~S