SAP Activate – Understanding the UX Adoption workshops

[Jocelyn_Dart]

This blog post is currently applicable to the roadmap SAP Activate for RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition. Similar features may be extended to other roadmaps in future.

You want to bring the new business value of SAP S/4HANA to your business users. You know that means you need to deploy the SAP Fiori for S/4HANA User Experience (UX).

• You like the idea of the UX Value Goals as a way to select UX that fits with your desired business outcome, as explained in SAP Activate – Introducing UX Value Goals for your UX adoption roadmap.


• You have understood how App Selection by UX Value Goals works as explained in, SAP Activate – Selecting apps using the UX Value Goals.


• You want to start small and iterate to grow your UX as explained in SAP Activate – UX Adoption as an iterative process

So now you are wondering:

How can you use the new UX Adoption workshops to guide your team through the UX Adoption process?

The UX Adoption workshops lead you through the conversations you need to have to successfully adopt new UX.   The UX Adoption workshops are listed below including links to the matching workshop accelerators to assist you in preparing for and running the workshops.

STEP	Phase	UX Adoption Workshop
1	Discover	Establish the business benefits of UX
2	Prepare	UX Strategy and Guiding Principles
3	Prepare	Scope the Future
4	Prepare	Envision the Future
5	Realize	Design the Launchpad Layout
6	Run	Review business benefits realized

 

Hint: Workshop Design the Launchpad Layout can alternatively be run in the Prepare phase. See UX Adoption Step 5 below for a discussion of which phase best suits your needs.

Below you will find a summary of each UX Adoption workshop including:

• Purpose


• When is this workshop required?


• What happens in the workshop and why?


• Key deliverables

Each workshop has a matching accelerator in SAP Activate with a suggested workshop plan (example below), inputs, outputs, participants, and additional slides you can use to help you.

Example Workshop Template from the UX Adoption workshop Establish the Business Value of UX

If you want to understand how these workshops can be used to create an iterative adoption process refer to blog post SAP Activate – UX Adoption as an iterative process.

Understanding the UX Adoption workshops

STEP 1 – DISCOVER PHASE - Establish the Business Value of UX

Purpose

Capture initial thoughts and business expectations for UX. Draft a high level UX Adoption roadmap based on UX Value Goals.

Hint: Position your UX Adoption Roadmap as a living artifact that will be updated as you iterate to grow your UX.

When is this Workshop required?

Mandatory for all waves of UX Adoption.

What happens in the workshop and why?

Everyone appreciates an introduction!  For each iteration of UX Adoption, you may have new process experts and interested parties (IT, OCM) who have not been through UX Adoption before.  Your aim is to have a broad discussion on business needs and expectations.

You will need to explain:

• Purpose of new UX, that is how UX changes organizational behaviour towards desired business outcomes.


• Business roles are a way to identify which users’ behaviour you need to change based on the job that they do for your organization. You can use SAP Business Roles as examples of job-based roles.


• You will map your custom business roles to the SAP Business Roles in the Scope the Future workshop to assist with finding available apps in SAP S/4HANAA.


• UX Value Goals provide a way to express how you need to change your users’ behaviour to achieve your desired business outcomes


• Each UX Value Goal maps to standard use cases delivered with SAP S/4HANA, and also to custom use cases possible with extensions (for example in-app extensions, or side-by-side extensions in SAP BTP).

Discuss:

• Who (i.e. which users) do we need to change? Identify users by your custom business roles i.e. the job they do for your organization and how that job is referred to internally in your organization


• How do we need to change these users’ experience and why? Keep the focus on desired business outcomes.


• For each combination of Business Role and UX Value Goal chosen, discuss which use cases and/or tasks are important to meeting desired business outcomes.


• Discuss priorities of the use cases/tasks, e.g. “must have” versus “nice to have”

Avoid:

• Getting into system specifics or detailed demos as that will come later in the Scope the Future workshop.


• Focusing too much on terminology. If a job is known by more than one name, just capture the alternate names. You can decide the role name later in Envision the Future if needed.


• Making negative assumptions about your users’ capacity to change. Part of the UX Adoption process is to make sure the changes and their value are clear to users, and that will feed into training and organizational change management communications.

Key Deliverable(s)

The first/next wave or two of your UX Adoption roadmap.

Keep minutes of the business roles, use cases and priorities discussed.

Example: UX adoption roadmap - a key deliverable of the workshop Establish the Business Value of UX

STEP 2 – PREPARE PHASE - UX Strategy and Guiding Principles

Purpose

Agree on some initial guidelines to ensure coherence across roles and to narrow the technical architecture needed for the first/next waves. Establish entry points, cross-process features and best practices, and responsibilities. Position the UX Strategy as a living artifact that will be updated as your UX Adoption Roadmap proceeds.

When is this Workshop required?

Mandatory for your initial wave of UX Adoption. Optional, but recommended, for subsequent waves.  For example, you may decide to run the workshop for subsequent waves when the next wave brings:

• major changes to the volume of users, or


• major changes to the technical architecture (such as the introduction of new intelligent technologies),


• or you are changing launchpad features that impact existing business users already on SAP Fiori.

What happens in the workshop and why?

Review the default best practices as a starting point for setting guidelines.

Examples of Guiding Principles from the UX Strategy and Guiding Principles workshop

The most important discussion in your initial run of this workshop is the single-entry point for users moving to new UX, including how users launch to that that single-entry point every day.  Consider whether your chosen entry approach encourages and reinforces new behaviours.

Hint: For example, consider using a dedicated bookmark or launch icon to open the SAP Fiori launchpad.  Avoid granting SAP GUI Transaction /UI2/FLP from SAP to business users. Transaction /UI2/FLP is an aid to configuration for administrators, it is not intended as an entry point for business users.

Discuss:

• What entry points will be provided for users moving to SAP Fiori and for those users who might be staying on classic user interfaces for now


• What access channels are needed, such as Internet, VPN, or Intranet and related cyber security considerations


• Where mobile UX is an early expectation, what types of devices and will they be company issued or BYOD


• What common features will be made available in your local SAP S/4HANA Launchpad or SAP BTP Launchpad Service and who will configure these, e.g. Search, Notifications, User Assistant, App Support, My Inbox, etc.


• What in-app extension capabilities will be available and who will have access to make these extensions


• Support capabilities that will be available by default to aid in internal incident reporting and troubleshooting, e.g. About, App Support.

Avoid:

• Limiting personalization, as this is a critical to providing self-service capabilities for your business users that make them more productive and more comfortable with their new UX.


• Limiting launchpad features to make it easier for your support team, at the cost of making your UX less usable for your business users. Instead discuss what features and tools you can use to make support more manageable.

Key Deliverable(s)

Your initial/updated UX Strategy.

STEP 3 – PREPARE PHASE - Scope the Future

Purpose

Select standard use cases and consider custom use cases for the target UX Value Goals for Business Roles in scope.

Shift mindsets from old to new approaches.

Prepare for app evaluation (in fit-to-standard) and custom role creation.

Example of the App Selection guides provided for UX Value Goals - the table of contents from the Be more ADAPTABLE guide

When is this Workshop required?

Mandatory for all waves of UX Adoption.

On subsequent iterations, if your participants are already familiar with the concepts of business roles and UX Value Goals, and provided your UX Adoption roadmap is agreed, you may be able to combine this with a condensed version of the Establish the Business Value of UX workshop. 

What happens in the workshop and why?

Review the standard and custom use cases available for your SAP S/4HANA release that fit with the current wave of your UX Adoption Roadmap. That is, you review which UX content – SAP Fiori apps, features, and intelligent technology solutions - are available based on who (your custom business roles) and what (your selected UX Value Goals) you need to change.

If workshop participants are new to SAP Fiori, a brief demonstration or showcasing videos are essential to ensure a common understanding.

To prepare for fit-to-standard and to minimize questions about what is possible, you explain (or preferably demonstrate) how to evaluate apps.  The most important feature to show in-app extension options so that participants understand that many apps have hidden fields and/or can support custom fields, and how these features can be found.

To minimize the most frequently asked questions, give participants some understanding of how the selected content will come together during realization.  Briefly explain (e.g.  using a system demonstration or a showcasing video) how custom business roles are refined and how launchpad layouts are adjusted.

Discuss:

• Mindset shifts needed when evaluating UX content such as:
  
  
  
  • Launchpad features that may be an alternative to apps or classic UIs;
  
  
  • Intelligent use cases that may avoid the need for some apps or classic UIs;
  
  
  • Insight-to-action, e.g. using SAP Fiori to bring complementary insights/triggers that launch to actions performed in classic, familiar GUI transactions
  
  
  
  


• Entry points to tasks and what should logically happen next, as a starting point for evaluating app to app navigation

Avoid:

• Making a final decision on individual apps based on first impressions only. Remind participants that the UX content will go a further round of scrutiny during fit-to-standard.


• Going too deep into detailed process use case discussions. Alignment to process use cases will happen in fit-to-standard. Better to express it as “will use <this app> if it supports use case <y>”.


• Making this a training session on in-app extensions or creating custom business roles. Your aim is to give a general understanding of the possibilities only.

Key Deliverable(s)

• A list of selected standard UX content to be evaluated in fit-to-standard, i.e. SAP Fiori apps, launchpad features, and intelligent technology use cases


• Any inclusion/exclusion criteria that will need to be verified during fit-to-standard


• Custom use cases noted as alternatives or gap-fillers where needed


• Capture discussions around entry points and expected next steps

STEP 4 – PREPARE PHASE - Envision the Future

Purpose

Review the selected app list against to-be business outcomes & consider benefit metrics. Adjust the list ready for fit-to-standard. Clarify role owners & next steps.

When is this Workshop required?

Mandatory for all waves of UX Adoption.

Hint: Why not jump straight from Step 3 “Scope the Future” into fit-to-standard? Anytime you open the “toy box” that is the SAP Fiori apps reference library there’s a risk of scope creep and scope drift.  People naturally get excited or intrigued and start coming back with all sorts of suggestions.  There’s always more you can deploy than you will have capacity to deploy. In this workshop you bring the focus back to your business outcomes and ensure you will be delivering on the promise your UX Value Goals.

What happens in the workshop and why?

This is your playback workshop to look at what has been found and proposed and review them against your desired business outcomes and selected UX Value Goals.  You will need your business process experts to be aware of what UX content has been chosen.  You plan what needs to be verified/evaluated in fit-to-standard.

Discuss:

• Do the standard use cases selected achieve the UX Value Goals you have in mind?


• Are there any nice-to-haves on the list that could be deferred to a future wave of UX Adoption?


• Are there any important gaps that will require custom use cases to be included?


• As you plan for fit-to-standard, who will be the business role owner? – i.e. the final arbiter of whether an app is suitable or not after the app has been verified during fit-to-standard


• Are there any metrics that could be captured to prove the new business value after go-live? What baseline metrics can be captured before go-live for comparison purposes.


• Consolidate your list of UX content, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and other points ready for fit-to-standard

Avoid:

• Trying to resolve immediately how metrics will be captured – note anything that comes to mind and discuss later with your business and technical teams on what can be captured now and later

Key Deliverable(s)

Designated role owners per business role.

Adjust your app list and/or UX Adoption Roadmap.

Update your UX Strategy, if needed.

Example: Key outputs of the Envision the Future workshop

STEP 5 – PREPARE and/or REALIZE PHASE - Design the launchpad layout

Purpose

Prototype your launchpad layouts with your business users and business experts that will make them immediately productive on day 1.

Hint: The aim is to avoid business downtime.  That is, you want design a “good enough” launchpad that your users can continue work on day 1 without having to immediately stop and personalize their launchpad.

When is this Workshop required?

Optional but strongly recommended for all waves of UX Adoption.

If you have a large project with not enough capacity to prototype launchpad for all business roles here are some strategies you can use. These will minimize your effort and target what capacity you have:

1. Run the workshop only with critical user groups, such as for casual and occasional users who are time/skills poor so cannot be reasonably expected to personalize their own launchpad


2. Cover closely related roles together in the same workshop, especially where they work together on the same processes, e.g. Maintenance Planner and Maintenance Technician


3. Consider using SAP delivered Spaces and Pages as a template where your own business roles are well aligned, remembering that anything a user is not authorized to use will be automatically hidden


4. Set some common guidelines that everyone can follow to minimize decisions needed, e.g. first page is a Quick Access page, additional Pages are named after the process area, optional page for Analytics, optional page for Periodic Activities, etc.


5. Where you can’t involve business users directly, use your own business process experts or subject matter experts to make the major decisions. Consider even building the pages directly with them using the WYSIWYG editors in SAP Fiori apps Manage Launchpad Spaces and Manage Launchpad Pages.  If you choose that you may want to do it after task Create your Custom Business Roles so that you have the apps assigned to the role and an empty or starter Space assigned.


6. Worst case, grant the default My Home space to your more capable users and give them some guidelines in building their own launchpads. Remember to factor in extra time into day 1 of go-live and get steering committee approval for this, as business will effectively be in business downtime while users prepare their launchpad. Depending on the complexity of their role, allow at least 1-2 hours for this activity.

When to run this workshop

Run this workshop in the PREPARE phase, after fit-to-standard, when you are reasonably confident that your app list is stable, and/or in your initial UX Adoption wave, when you need to make the new launchpad design more tangible to your business user community to aid your business preparations.

Run this workshop in REALIZE phase before or immediately after creating your custom business roles when there are a lot of unknowns in design that will be resolved during realize. Or in subsequent UX Adoption waves where the launchpad is already familiar to your users, and you only need to make some adjustments to what is already there.

What happens in the workshop and why?

After all the excitement it’s time to bring it all together for your business users and make sure it makes sense to them.

Your aim is to make sure that when your business users log in on day 1 they understand immediately what they are seeing and can start work straight away.

That means making sure the launchpad is organized in a way that make sense to THEM – not to you, not to your sponsor, not to your business process owners.  Remember “You are not your user!”. The best approach is to involve a small number of users per role in deciding what they see on their launchpad.

Demonstrate self-service personalization options to avoid arguments and avoid unhelpful perfectionism.

Discuss:

• What are the tasks/use cases performed every day or multiple times per day that need to be quick to find immediately after login?


• What are the tasks/use cases performed at least once per week that need to be within easy reach?


• What are the occasional but urgent/critical tasks that need to be within reach?


• What are the entry tasks that must be on the launchpad, e.g. to start a new process?


• What does NOT need to be on the launchpad, next steps that will be reached via app-to-app navigation, or tasks that can be started from Enterprise Search?


• What are the rare/occasional tasks that can be left for occasional access in the App Finder, but don’t need to take up space on the launchpad?


• Do the Space, Page, Section and Tile names make sense to our business users or are there any that need to be adjusted. Minimize training effort where you can.

Avoid:

• Your layout needs to make sense for day 1, maybe for week 1. You don’t need a perfect page that works for all time. Remember users will still have self-service personalization options for further adjustments.


• Letting external functional consultants make all the decisions. Remember they may know the process, but they don’t know your users or their day-to-day reality


• For the worst-case option, avoid giving users unrestricted access to personalize their own launchpad without any guidelines. This has a high risk of unintended consequences. For example, a customer who gave all their users SAP Easy Access menu found their users simply searched for all their familiar SAP GUI transactions and tended to revert to the classic UI, so losing many of the benefits of using the new UX.

Key Deliverable(s)

Launchpad prototype for each of your business roles

Example prototype template from the Design Your Launchpad Layout workshop

UX Adoption Step 6 – RUN PHASE - Review business benefits realized

Purpose

Run a retrospective on current state and lessons learned.  Confirm and trigger the next wave of your UX Adoption Roadmap.

When is this Workshop required?

A few weeks after each wave, for all waves of UX Adoption until there is nothing more left to adopt.

Hint: If you have run out of UX in your current SAP S/4HANA release, you may already be planning for your next SAP S/4HANA release upgrade, with even more UX to consider. Or you may be open to introduce more side-by-side innovations using SAP BTP.

What happens in the workshop and why?

Review feedback and lessons learned. Review business benefit metrics. Review the UX Adoption map. 

Discuss:

• Which feedback and metrics best demonstrate the UX Value achieved so far


• When/how can you promote these findings to celebrate what has been achieved and encourage the next wave of UX Adoption, and who should be involved


• For any issues or negative feedback, what immediate/short term improvements can be made, e.g. adding more app to app navigation links, refining authorizations, additional online learning, user communications, etc.


• Are there any adjustments needed to the UX Strategy based on lessons learned?


• Does the next wave of UX Adoption still make sense given current business strategy and other plans, or are there new priorities to consider? If there has been a major shift, schedule a new Establish the Business Value of UX workshop to revisit the UX Adoption roadmap in a more comprehensive discussion.

Avoid:

• Skipping the workshop because it’s all done... remember this is your chance to prove value


• Where there are contentious issues, avoid the blame game. Focus on how to improve or resolve current issues and concerns, and get your UX Adoption Roadmap back on track

Key Deliverable(s)

• Your updated UX Adoption Roadmap


• Your updated UX Strategy, if needed


• Start date of the next wave of UX Adoption

Find out more

Find out more about SAP Activate in the SAP Activate Community

Visit your community topic page for SAP Activate and community topic page for SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA 

Other helpful links in the SAP Community:

• See all questions and answers about SAP Activate


• Follow SAP Activate for more blogs and updates


• Ask a Question about SAP Activate

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[deiamolina]

HI. The link for the Envision the vision workshop PP is broken. Would love to read it. 🙂