Gift #5- 10 naughty development practices

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Gift #5- 10 naughty development practices

Amy Stapleton, ClearReason

Our fifth gift to you is a tip on how to avoid the 10 worst SAP development practices.

Why do unsuccessful SAP projects fail?

In the following excerpt from the article "Avoiding the 10 Worst Practices of SAP Development Projects," which appeared in the September/October 2001 issue of SAP Professional Journal, ClearReason's Amy Stapleton discusses the 10 most common mistakes companies make during development initiatives.

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Worst Practice #1: Proceeding Without Clear Project Objectives

The worst practice (but unfortunately not an uncommon one) is to initiate the development effort without heeding the principles of good project management. Industry best practices tell us to start every project by documenting its objectives in a project proposal (or project charter), yet we all know how bothersome this effort can be. Especially in today's slowing economy, it would be unwise to begin any mid-sized or large development effort without first stabling the right foundation by understanding the basic objectives of the endeavor.

Worst Practice #2: Believing in the Existence of "As-Is" Process Definitions

One of the most common causes of failure for SAP development projects is that the IT team is forced to aim at an unclear and moving target. The current business process that the team is trying to replace, improve, or interface with was never

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well documented. As a result, the way the business works "now" only begins to come into focus as the development effort proceeds. The way the process is supposed to work upon project completion is even more tenuously defined. The more business processes that are being affected by the project, the more compounded the problem becomes, so the development effort inevitably stalls, waits for the picture to clear up, moves forward again, stalls, and sometimes is ultimately canceled altogether.


Read 8 more "worst practices."


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ABAP/BAPI Development

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