Depending on which industry you are working, the Specifications’ content may vary.
Theatrically, the Functional Specifications describes and gathers Business requirements when it comes to a chosen process.
It contains theatrically no technical information as such (for example customizing).
The best approach would be to support the Business to write the Specifications as :
a) they probably don't know SAP
b) don't have time
c) you must manage expectations and don't let be 'too creative'
d) while writing the document, check the potential gaps with the solution to be provided and if possible start negotiations with the Business to 'bend' their requirements, if they are flexible
e) secure the consistency of the Specifications as it will be your starting point for customizing the solution
f)...
Say you want to get rid of your paper based Leave Request Process.
I trust a Functional Specifications will cover the following topics :
Document's attributes
- Technical reference to the Project (information provided by IT Dept)
- Reference to the Risk and Compliance Validation Team (in certain Business, like Pharmacy, you must abide by some validation rules in order to comply with SOx, the FDA etc)
- Purpose of the document (pitch) : what are we trying to describe and achieve
- List of authors and users who will sign off the document once approved
- Distribution list (as this solution might impact quite a few people, like Infrastructure team, Communication team, etc) : Communicate
- Modifications History
- References to any other material like Business Procedure, Legal Requirements etc
Document's content
- Purpose of the document (full description)
- Area on scope (population, country etc)
- What is not in scope (clearly define it in order to manage expectations)
- Assumptions (for example, when using SAP EP, the backend R/3 system is already setup with Time Master Data)
- Dependencies (like interfaces between systems, synchronization with LDAP etc)
- Chapters’ description (Executive Summary type)
- Chapter : Overview of Business Steps (requirements for the Validation Team) : List of all steps : Map them against a Test Protocol that will be used later on when testing the solution provided. At this stage only provide the reference number as they will be written in a separate document)
- Chapter : Description of Business Process (Ideally, cut it in steps.. that you can link to the Test Protocols as described earlier) + chart
- Chapter : Expected solution in SAP (description of steps)
- Chapter : Access to functionality (for example Portal Menu)
- Chapter : Time Constraints
- Chapter : Detailed description of each step
- Chapter : Other constraint
- Chapter : Error Handling
- Chapter : (optional) Workflow Requirements (point to the Workflow Specifications Document)
- Chapter : (optional) Reporting Requirements (point to the Reporting Specifications Document)
- Chapter : Authorizations requirements (briefly description the types of access and point to the Authorizations Specifications Document)
- Appendixes (if applicable)
Hope the above contents had given you some ideas in preparing your SAP Functional Specification Document.
