SAP Project Manager Roles and Responsibilities
- June 22, 2023
While it’s true SAP projects come in different shapes and sizes, a high degree of success can be attributed to being aware of and controlling issues and risks, both external and internal, as well as foreseen and unforeseen. Any SAP project requires quality resources – be it the right personnel, adequate IT or systems, a solid budget, appropriate onboarding materials, etc. A seasoned SAP project manager is one who recognizes these resource needs and sets the process in place for finding and addressing them.
Planning is an essential task for any project, hence the adage, “If you fail to plan, you will plan to fail” holds true. An SAP project manager is someone who notably has an overall view and knowledge of the project on hand and understands the project goals, the business value, the ROI, and the reasons it was approved. They should visualize the end-to-end execution and should be skilled and capable of foreseeing pitfalls and hurdles even before they occur, mitigating them so that they don’t hinder the progress of the project or become barriers to success.
PROJECT MANAGER ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Below, we outline a few of the roles and responsibilities of a seasoned SAP project manager:
ENSURES COMPLIANCE
- Ensures the team’s compliance with all accounting, human resources, training, and safety goals, as outlined by the Statement of Work (SOW) and other policies and procedures that exist at the company. Companies require adherence to their internal guidelines for business conduct, ethics, information security, and general safety in demanding work environments. Ensuring all SAP project team members comply with and adhere to the client’s working environment becomes the responsibility of the project manager, lest key resources are asked to leave simply because they haven’t complied with the training requirements in a timely manner and thereby put the project (and client) at risk.
- Manages the timely submission of time and expenses to the client, consistently, to stay on schedule and on or under budget.
FACILITATES SUCCESS
- Keeps upper management and stakeholders informed about the progress of the project as well as any risks or deviations from the plan. Communication and transparency are keys to the success of a project. As such, the PM should have a process in place to inform management and stakeholders on the progress of the project, risks, and issues, if any, and steps considered to mitigate or resolve them. These could be through status meetings and collaborative tools.