A strong blueprint is the foundation of a successful SAP S/4HANA project. But before development can begin, that blueprint needs to be translated into a clear and detailed functional design.
In our previous article, we looked at why an SAP S/4HANA project can already be heading for trouble before development even starts.
The blueprint gives you the big picture. You know which rooms you need, how they connect and how you want to use your house.
But before you start building, there is another important step: turning the blueprint into detailed functional design.
This is where business requirements are translated into a solution that can actually be built. It requires more than simply passing requirements from the business to the development team. The requirements need to be understood, challenged and placed within the wider context of the organisation and its processes.
And this is where projects often move too quickly.
The jump from business requirements to development can seem small. In reality, it is one of the most important translations in the entire project.
Here are three pitfalls we see repeatedly.
A business requirement tells you what the business needs. It does not automatically tell you how the solution should work.
Before development starts, there needs to be enough functional analysis to understand the requirement in its wider context.
And perhaps most importantly: what is the simplest way to support the actual business need?
This is where the functional design adds real value.
It is the detailed drawing that turns the blueprint into something developers can actually build.
Skip that step, and you risk building the wrong thing, very efficiently.
A good functional design is not created by throwing requirements over the wall from business to IT.
The business does not need to understand the technical solution. But the functional and technical teams do need to understand the business.
That requires communication.
A functional analyst should be able to challenge, clarify and explore the requirement together with the business. Sometimes that conversation reveals that a different solution can achieve the same business outcome with less complexity.
And this works both ways.
The business may know what it wants, but the functional or technical team may know that there is already a standard SAP capability that can achieve it.
That dialogue is where better solutions are often found.
There is also a balance to strike with agile delivery.
Build in small pieces, but don’t think in small pieces. Certainly not for big projects.
Breaking the solution into manageable increments allows you to show something early, let the business interact with it and gather feedback while changes are still easy.
But every piece still needs to fit into the house you are building.
A perfectly finished kitchen is not much use if it does not connect to the rest of the house.
Once the functional design starts taking shape, another temptation appears:
“We can customise it to make it work exactly the way we want.”
Of course, sometimes that is the right answer.
But every additional layer of customisation adds complexity.
And complexity has a cost. It needs to be:
Because the processes you are designing today will not remain unchanged forever.
A sustainable solution therefore needs more than just today’s requirements.
It needs to be maintainable and adaptable for tomorrow.
Just like when designing a house, you don’t only think about where to put the furniture today. You also think about whether the house will still work when your needs change.
Standard should not be a goal in itself. But complexity should always have a reason.
The build phase is not simply about turning requirements into code.
It is about translating business needs into a solution that works today, fits into the bigger picture and can evolve tomorrow.
So before you start building, ask yourself:
“Have we really understood what we are building, why we are building it and how it fits into the house?”
Because building faster does not necessarily get you to the right destination faster.
Sometimes the most efficient build starts with taking a little more time to design.
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