SAP Implementation Lessons Learned
This is a practical guide to building a lessons learned for a sap implementation project — what went well and badly, captured to improve future projects, adapted to the realities of implementing SAP modules across finance, supply chain and operations.
What a Lessons Learned is
A lessons learned is what went well and badly, captured to improve future projects. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Lessons Learned. On a sap implementation project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for a SAP Implementation project
SAP Implementation projects live or die on implementing SAP modules across finance, supply chain and operations. A well-built lessons learned gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how sap implementation projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- What happened
- Impact
- Root cause
- Recommendation
SAP Implementation-specific considerations
Tailor the lessons learned to the risks that most often derail sap implementation projects:
- Scope and customisation creep
- Data migration complexity
- Change management across departments
Example
On a real sap implementation project, the lessons learned would be shaped by implementing SAP modules across finance, supply chain and operations. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — scope and customisation creep, data migration complexity, change management across departments — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.