Lesson 4 of 5
Measuring clean core posture
11 min
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What is not measured drifts. A clean core program needs a small set of indicators that show where the system stands today, whether it is improving and where to act next. SAP provides part of the measurement; the rest is the customer's to define.
What SAP measures for you
For RISE with SAP customers, the RISE with SAP Methodology dashboard in SAP Cloud ALM (also called the clean core dashboard) shows clean core information for development, test and production systems that are fully set up. Its system view covers areas such as version currency (is the installed release current?), clean core tool status (are the data collectors, such as EarlyWatch Alert, active?) and extensibility, where a clean core share KPI summarizes extensions by level. The extensibility figures depend on current ATC results being collected; if the KPI goes blank, check that ATC data is being imported. The levels themselves come from the ATC clean core checks Usage of APIs and Allowed Enhancement Technologies (available since August 2025; SAP Note 3565942 for releases that need it), which by default report level B usage as information, level C as a warning and level D as an error against SAP's published API classifications.
Contoso's KPI set
| Dimension | KPI | Baseline (after conversion) | Target (end of year 1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software stack | Months behind latest feature pack stack | 0 at go-live | No more than 12 |
| Extensibility | Custom objects by level A / B / C / D | 1,200 / 4,000 / 2,000 / 300 | Level D at 0 in order-to-cash and finance (under 20 extensions overall by end of year 2); level C down by half |
| Extensibility | Custom objects with no recorded use in 12 months | Measured from usage data | Retired or justified |
| Integration | Interfaces on released APIs or events | 55% | 75% |
| Integration | Interfaces with a monitoring owner | 70% | 100% |
| Data | Open data quality rule violations for customers | Tracked weekly | Trend down |
| Operations | Roles with no assigned users or no use | Reviewed quarterly | Removed or justified |
Contoso's clean core KPIs. The numbers are the program's own targets, not SAP benchmarks.
The baseline comes from the conversion. Of about 11,800 custom objects in ECC, Kenji's team retired the ones with no recorded use, replaced others with standard apps, and carried roughly 7,500 into SAP S/4HANA, each rated by level. Those 7,500 are the starting point; the target is not zero overall. It is zero level D in the critical processes, order-to-cash and finance, by the end of year one; overall level D below 20 extensions (37 today, holding the 300 level D objects) by the end of year two; and a steady shift from C to B and A.
Not every KPI comes out of a dashboard. Interface counts come from the integration inventory, data quality figures from the data owners' rule reports, role usage from the security team's periodic reviews, and process variants from the process owners. Contoso keeps all of them on one page that the design authority reviews each quarter, with the source and owner of every figure written next to it. A KPI without a named source tends to be estimated the night before the meeting, and estimates drift toward good news.
Reading the numbers
- Go-liveBaseline capturedLevels, interfaces, roles and release currency recorded
- Each monthRun-team reviewDashboard and KPI trend reviewed; new exceptions listed
- Each quarterDesign authority reviewC-level objects scheduled for remediation; unused objects retired
- Each stack or upgradePost-upgrade checkCompare regression effort and defects with the level mix
What would you do?
Three months after go-live, the clean core share KPI on the dashboard shows nothing for the last two months, although earlier months had data. What should the architect check first?
- The RISE with SAP Methodology dashboard in SAP Cloud ALM shows version currency, tool status and extensibility.
- Extensibility figures depend on current ATC data; check collection when numbers vanish.
- Define your own KPIs for every dimension, with baselines and targets.
- Read KPIs together: release currency plus level mix tells you how expensive the next upgrade will be.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Where do RISE with SAP customers find the clean core dashboard?
2. What does the extensibility clean core share depend on?
3. Why should KPIs be paired with spot reviews?
4. Which KPI combination best predicts the cost of the next upgrade?