Stakeholder management in SAP projects

Stakeholders are defined as “anyone with viable interest in the business value delivered by the team, at all levels in the organization and even outside the organization”. Stakeholder management is about how to involve, enthuse and engage the stakeholders that matter.

How to identify and involve your stakeholders

When you are involved in organizing IT delivery, for your team, a group of teams, or an organization as a whole, start with answering the following questions:

• Who are the stakeholders?
• How can these stakeholders be involved?
• What is at stake for each stakeholder?
• What contribution can each stakeholder bring?
• What information does each stakeholder need?
  

Specific SAP stakeholders

For SAP projects there are specific stakeholders to consider. Depending on how the SAP project is organized (Agile, V-Model or hybrid), the roles below can be part of an (SAP) Operations team, Agile team or centralized team. For example:

• SAP Basis Consultant
  Provides technical support and performs system administrations tasks.
• SAP Authorization Consultant
  Responsible for ensuring the internal and external audit requirements are met. Develop and maintain standards and procedures for the SAP Security (Fiori, Application and S/4HANA) and user access controls for all SAP instances.
• (SAP) Business Process Owner (BPO)
  Active decision maker and owner of specific local or global business processes. Can determine change impacts, educate business teams and initiate new business enablement. The process owned by the BPO can overarch the SAP solution, it can include complete end-to-end processes (including legacy/ 3rd party systems).
• SAP Key User
  An experienced representative of a number of business processes, who knows the processes in a specific department or for the whole organization in detail and is involved in taking decisions. They have a leading operational role.
• SAP Master Data Management (MDM) Consultant
  Is responsible for the creation and maintenance of Master Data that are fundamental to business processes that influence the customer experience. Relevant systems and processes include, but are not limited to, the SAP system (like Business Partners, Material Master Data and Financial Master Data).
• SAP Functional Solution Expert
  Is involved in the design, configuration and implementation of functional and module enabled business solutions (LoB) and functions and plays a critical role in connecting business and IT.
• SAP Technical Solution Expert
  Is involved in the design and implementation of technical module enabled business solutions. They determine clients’ business needs, create customized SAP solutions, and integrate SAP applications with existing IT infrastructure. They act as advisors for SAP software deployment and integration. They oversee programming and software development and evaluate existing IT infrastructure and recommend improvements.
• SAP Integration Specialist
  Is responsible for the design, development, and execution of innovative integration solutions between internal and external information of SAP and Non-SAP systems that support the IT strategy and overall business objectives.
• SAP Enterprise Architect
  Evaluates all business requirements and creates solutions that provide an integrated approach for SAP processes. This includes deploying SAP solutions and stabilizing core and non-core SAP systems.
• SAP Test Manager
  Is responsible for the planning, management and execution of the testing process, on time and on budget and at the right quality, for multiple test varieties. The SAP Test Manager reports about progress of the testing process and the quality of the test object.