Planning remediation and business impact actions

SI check results and relevant items turn into two kinds of work. Remediation fixes what would stop the conversion: consistency errors with return code 8 or 12, and return code 7 errors that cannot or should not be exempted. Business impact actions prepare the business for what changes: process changes, master data work, training, and follow-on tasks after conversion. Both need owners and dates long before the first mock conversion.

Working the consistency errors

Fixes are highly application specific; the log and the item's note explain them, and many areas offer dedicated tools. SAP's experience, as described in its SI check guidance, is that most inconsistencies are historic: old archiving errors, failed data conversions, wrong configuration or incomplete data from years ago. That has two consequences: cleanup can be a pre-project of its own, and once clean, few new errors should appear, though you should keep re-running the checks.

Worked example: Contoso's business partner pre-project

The Business Partner Approach item returned code 12 in the first runs: EP1 had 4,850 customers, including about 400 one-off aftermarket customers, not yet synchronized to business partners. The master data team ran it as a pre-project in ECC. Report CVI_FS_CHECK_CUSTOMIZING checked the CVI Customizing (business partner groupings, number ranges, roles); the synchronization cockpit MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT created the business partners and showed every failed record.

Plan remediation backward from the conversion cycles. Contoso's rule: every return code 8 or 12 is cleared in EP1 before the Mock 1 copy is taken, every exemption is decided before Mock 2, and anything still open after Mock 2 goes to Grace as a risk. That gives the mocks a clean starting point and leaves the final weeks for the data that keeps arriving.

Exemptions are decisions, not shortcuts

Return code 7 messages usually point to imminent data loss, deprecation or required activities after conversion. Exempting one, in /SDF/RC_START_CHECK in client 000 via the "Exemption Possible" column, records that you have read and accepted the consequence; it does not make the consequence go away. Exemptions are specific to the target stack, so a change of target release brings them back. At Contoso, every exemption needs the owning process owner's written agreement, stored with the item log.

Keep the check stable through the landscape

SAP delivers corrections and new content for the check regularly. SAP's guidance is to use the latest versions of notes 2399707 and 2502552 and the latest content early in the project, then freeze them after the final conversion of the development system. Before converting development, download the content with "Download Local Simplification Item Catalog"; for quality and production, transport the note implementations from development and upload the saved content with "Upload Simplification Item Catalog". Otherwise, production may meet checks that development never saw.

Business impact actions and runtime

Relevant items without consistency checks still need action when they change the business. The Readiness Check activity list (mandatory, conditional, optional, by phase) is a good starting point. Plan runtime too: checks on large inventory and material ledger histories can run long; SAP Notes 2753888 and 2432689 describe options, and archiving consistently before the project reduces both runtime and cleanup. Be careful that archiving during the project does not create new inconsistencies, such as archiving a material that still has material documents.