WORKFLOW BEST PRACTICES

Tue May 9 13:51:52 EDT 2006

Surprising how often this question comes at my implementations.  And one
thing that needs to be considered in this discussion is troubleshooting
versus enhancements issues.  If one needs help desk support, then this is
invovles much lower level training versus hard core troubleshooting and
workflow process enhancements.

>From a best practices standpoint, I almost always tell clients that they
need to have an ABAP developer work with me for 3 - 6 months to learn the
basics of workflow. Even most developers initially have difficult time
understanding how all the workflow pieces fit together.  So in most cases I
recommend a moderately experienced ABAP programmer and then design both
classroom training along with some real client workflows to develop.  This
does not always happen given cost constraints but it is what I recommend.

Regards,
Partha

On 5/9/06, Antonio, Bryan <bryan.antonio at tycoelectronics.com> wrote:
>
> Very interesting conversation indeed. Being a workflow developer gets
> your feet wet on a lot of aspects of SAP (from user exits, bapi's to the
> business accumen). You learn how to command the system to meet your
> needs. Dangerous enough to crash the system.
>
> Just sharing,
> Bryan
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 10:07:05 -0500
> From: <lianghuan.x.hu at accenture.com>
> Subject: RE: WORKFLOW BEST PRACTICES
> To: <sap-wug at mit.edu>
> Message-ID:
>
> <DA8A2E1F7A4B6141AE579B40FF60B9E802B756E3 at AMRXM1108.dir.svc.accenture.co
> m>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>
> Sherie:
>
> Thanks you and I agree with every word of yours.
>
> Not only workflow developers are misunderstood. The workflow itself is
> often treated as a "non-essential" part of a SAP implementation, by
> people who do not understand workflows. But that would be a different
> topic.
>
> Thanks,
> Larry
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf
> Of Munday,Sherie J.
> Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 10:34 AM
> To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
> Subject: RE: WORKFLOW BEST PRACTICES
>
>
> Mark & Larry,
> This is a very interesting conversation point which we have debated
> in-house as well.  There are certainly two aspects to a workflow
> developer.  The first skill set is that of the process analyst/
> developer.  Understanding the business process and the "big picture" is
> essential to delivering a workflow that will benefit the business.
> Being able to communicate with non-technical language to the business
> owners is often neccessary.  In those instances where this can be
> accompished with SAP delivered workflow tools and BOT's, the cost to
> develop and support can be minimal and does not require any ABAP skills.
>
> This second skill is that of the ABAP programmer/ developer.  In the
> frequent circumstances where the standard delivered workflow tools and
> BOT's are not sufficient to meet the business needs, a talented
> programmer is needed.
> If you are fortunate to have all of those skills in one individual, then
> in my humble opinion, you have the dream workflow developer.
> (And by reading the emails in this group I can see that there are
> several of these experts out there.)  However, it is possible to have
> those two skills reside in 2 different people, or even in 2 different
> departments in a large global corporation.
> Best of luck to all of us in our various workflow roles.
> Cheers,
> Sherie
> ________________________________
>
> From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf
> Of Mark Pyc
> Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 10:09 AM
> To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
> Subject: Re: WORKFLOW BEST PRACTICES
>
>
> I guess this gets into the world of demarcation disputes. If you have a
> situation where the WF developer creates a method as a wrapper for a
> function but asks a more qualified developer to deliver that function
> than the statement could hold true. It really depends on how many people
> you have to change the Workflow lightbulb.
>
> On the whole though I believe that the inherent logic of a Workflow and
> the common need to pull apart the standard system (looking for event
> trigger points mainly) requires a strong developer regardless of how
> much code they cut.
>
> Have fun,
> Mark
>
> On 5/9/06, lianghuan.x.hu at accenture.com <lianghuan.x.hu at accenture.com >
> wrote:
>
>        Sherie:
>
>        Thanks for sharing the document.  But I do not agree with one
> point under "Workflow and ABAP" on Slide 9 which says that a workflow
> developer needs only " light ABAP knowledge". In fact, a workflow
> developer is an ABAP developer with additional workflow skills. A
> workflow developer has to write all kinds of ABAP code that regular ABAP
> developer does, the only difference is that he has to put his code
> behind the business object types. The word "light" is both unfair and
> misleading.
>
>        Thanks,
>        Larry Hu
>
>        n
>
> ________________________________
>
>        From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu
> <mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu> ] On Behalf Of Munday,Sherie J.
>        Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 2:21 PM
>        To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
>        Subject: RE: WORKFLOW BEST PRACTICES
>
>
>
>        Anjan,
>        This attachment is a high level summary that we did called
> Workflow 101.  It does not necessarily cover best practices, but you
> might find it useful.  The most important tip I would give anyone
> starting to develop workflows is to make sure that the business process
> is well defined before you design the workflow.  If the process is not
> defined you will waste time and effort chasing a moving target and the
> scope creep will be unbelievable!!
>        Best of Luck,
>        Sherie
>
> ________________________________
>
>        From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu
> <mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu> ] On Behalf Of Rakshit, Anjan (CA -
> Toronto)
>        Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 12:34 PM
>        To: sap-wug at mit.edu
>        Subject: WORKFLOW BEST PRACTICES
>
>
>
>        Our client is requesting information about the high-level
> policies, guiding principles, and governance for Workflow used by other
> SAP users - particularly any high-tech manufacturing organizations.  The
> client is approaching initial design and configuration of SAP and feel
> they need an overall governance strategy for the implementation, change
> management, and on-going maintenance of Workflow.
>
>
>
>        If anyone has a governance document, best practices document or
> tips and tricks on workflow design for SAP, it would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
>
>
>        Thanks and regards
>
>
>
>        Anjan Rakshit
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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