What is ASAP methodology?

In this post, I will try to explain what is ASAP methodology. It is very useful for SAP functional consultants but an ABAP programmer should also know the terminology. If you say that you have worked in an SAP Implementation project then you may face questions like "What is a Blue Print?".

What ASAP stands for ?
ASAP: Accelerated Systems Application and Products in Data Processing
All implementation projects have the following phases:

Scoping - What is to be implemented i.e. which sub modules are to be implemented some clients may not require credit management for example. Look at the project scope document carefully it will tell you what SAP sub-modules in SAP you should be prepared for. Usually the sales people along with project manager do it.
As is - Here you understand the existing business processes of the client. Your BPO collect all the ISO-documentation (if client is ISO certified), reports and forms at this stage and you analyze how and when the reports/forms are generated, where the data is coming from. You also do a Level -2 training for your BPO so he is made aware of all the required transactions in SAP.
Once this is over BPO can start learning with the consultants help more about SAP. This is crucial because if you miss out any transactions the BPO may forget about some of his Business processes which may come up later. It is a good practice to ask the BPO to make flow charts to explain business processes.
To-Be - In Parallel you map these processes to SAP. Processes that you are not sure of as to whether they are present in SAP or not you try to do a configuration of those processes, and along with the BPO(Business process owner he is the clients employee who knows about the clients business processes probably a middle management guy, there can more than one), BPO involvement is required as he may be able to tell you his requirements better. Once you do the business modeling you will also be made aware of the gaps between as-is and to-be, here decisions have to be made as to whether an ABAP development/system modification is required or not and so on. Involve the BPO as much as possible and document everything it is good practice do not be lazy about it.
Business blueprint: Here the as-is and to-be and gap analysis is explained. This is the document that you will be using to do your configuration in the realization phase.
Realization phase: Here you do the configuration in the development server (there are three clients -development, quality, production). You also decide on the master data format, so that BPO can go collect the master data. You also give ABAP specifications for forms, reports etc, system modifications etc. Unit testing: Your BPOs and a few key users sit down and test your configuration in your module only. It is good to test the BDCs that you need for uploading data at this stage so you have more realistic data and your BDCs are tested.
Integration testing: Once all modules unit testing is over then the configuration is transported to the Quality server, where testing for all the modules is done by BPOs and end user, this is to check if any problems are there in integration between various modules. Once all is okay from the QA server configuration is transported to the production server.
Go live preparations Data uploading: The collected master data is checked and the uploaded into production server (sever and client I have used interchangeably). Now you are ready for go live i.e. users can now use the production server.
Read ASAP methodology for more details you will understand better.

ASAP methodology means nothing but standard process for implementation of SAP, It consists of 5 phases.
1. Project preparation - consists of identifying team members and developing strategy as how to go.
2. Business Blue print - consists of identifying the client current process, requirement and how SAP provides solution. Consists of detailed documentation
3. Realization -The purpose of this phase is to implement all the business and process requirements based on the Business Blueprint.
4 Final Preparation - The purpose of this phase is to complete testing, end-user training,
5 Go Live and Support