Unveiling the Making of Implementation Design Principles for SAP SuccessFactors (IDPs)

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Implementation Design Principles for SAP SuccessFactors Solutions (IDPs) are well-known assets providing guidance on real-life implementation challenges by recommending solution designs as well as configuration techniques that complement SAP Best Practices for HXM and SuccessFactors Implementation Guides. You can always find an up-to-date list on SAP SuccessFactors Customer Community via this link.📚📖📚

However, do you know, how IDPs get created and how you can contribute?  This blog post provides a detailed view of behind the scenes of IDP development.

To incorporate the rich experience and perspective of our ecosystem, we at SAP SuccessFactors have chosen a collaborative approach to IDP creation. Therefore, although IDPs are owned by SAP SuccessFactors Product Management and more specifically by the Product Advisory & Partner Success team most IDPs are jointly written by experts from SAP SuccessFactors and our ecosystem. Below is a stepwise process outlining how the end-to-end IDP development works:

1. IDP workshop 📆🔎📌

It all starts with workshops - IDP Challenges and Solution workshops. They provide a common platform for discussing and prioritizing implementation challenges as well as share solution options on the workshop topic. It is via these workshops that our ecosystem, mainly our partners can influence what product challenges gets addressed and published as IDPs.

Attendance to the workshop is by invitation only, making sure that we have sufficient participation from experienced individuals covering a broad spectrum of the ecosystem and regions. Agenda, schedule, and means of registration are announced in our monthly IDP newsletter. Please drop us a note to SAPSuccessFactorsIDPDoc@sap.com in case you are interested in subscribing to SuccessFactors IDP Newsletter. Of course, there are also other aspects influencing our IDP roadmap, however, IDP workshops are a very important input channel for us.

2. IDP Authoring 🖌🖌🖌

Once a prioritized list of considerations worth addressing is agreed upon, a team of experienced individuals holding at least a SuccessFactors Application Associate Certification relevant for the topic at hand is formed, complemented by a lead editor from the SAP SuccessFactors Product Advisory and Partner Success team. In addition to having the associate-level certification, we also ensure the authors have real-life end-to-end product implementation experience that helps them to document the IDP. These are the two important prerequisites to be an IDP author.

It is this team assembled from previous IDP workshops, ecosystem topic experts, and experts from SAP SuccessFactors responsible for authoring the IDP. The authoring team is bound to the direction and scope defined by SAP SuccessFactors considering previously held solution workshops, too. Depending on the topic and the scope, writing an IDP could take several months. During this time the team usually meets regularly to discuss solution details, share research as well as discussions with other experts, and report on solution testing results.

IDP authors earn their coveted IDP Champions Badge once they qualify the author criteria. Please visit the blog post Earn SAP Badge: Implementation Design Principles for SAP SuccessFactors Solutions to know more about the process of how one could earn the IDP Champion's badge.

3. IDP Reviewing & Refining 📝🔍📝

Once the document has reached a draft state, the lead editor initiates a comprehensive review. Reviewers mainly consist of topic experts from SAP SuccessFactors (product, professional services, and support) as well as additional experienced partners.

The authors refine the document based on the reviewer’s feedback while ensuring consistency. At times, fuelled by feedback, discussions are triggered leading to deeper insights that extend document updates. Therefore, it is also not uncommon that multiple rounds of reviews and refinements are necessary. Since the review is geared to make sure that the content is of high quality and adheres to SAP SuccessFactors guidance the whole process could take several weeks and months. The lead author determines when the review is finished and finalizes the document for publication.

4. IDP Publication 📡🎤📡

The finished IDP is published on Customer Community by the lead editor. IDP home page on Customer Community is the central, single source of truth for all IDPs published and is accessible via SAP Partner Edge, SAP SuccessFactors Partner Development Community as well as SAP Help portals.

IDP blog post and IDP webinar are scheduled in the weeks following the IDP publication by the authoring group to increase awareness and adoption of the leading practices and product recommendations. Published IDPs are also further promoted in various newsletters namely IDP Newsletter, SAP SuccessFactors Compass Newsletter as well as SAP Partner Update newsletter.

We hope this blog post gives you some insights into the end-to-end IDP development process and what it entails to become an IDP author. As you can tell, at the core of the IDP creating process, we rely on the rich implementation experience of our broad ecosystem and at the same time, we make no quality compromises.

🎖🎖🎖IDP authors earn their coveted IDP Champion badge for their tremendous contribution. You could also visit this blog post to understand more about the IDP Champion Badge. If you have any feedback or questions on the IDP development process, do reach out to us by writing to this blog post or via SAPSuccessFactorsIDPDoc@sap.com.