SAP S/4HANA – Experience Agile Project Methodology Live

Nils Meißner is Project Manager SAP S/4HANA; he has been with valantic since April 2019. In the interview, he gives us insight into the SAP project world, talks about the challenges of agile project business, and explains what he likes about valantic as an employer.

How was your start at valantic?

I joined valantic in April 2019 and remember my onboarding process as being very comfortable and well-organized. All of my colleagues received me warmly. It was really apparent that everyone was well-prepared and everything from the hardware to the company car was ready for me. In particular, in the first few days, the team and the management took a lot of time for me so that I could get to know both the Langenfeld location and valantic better. I even knew some of the team members from before; that made my start much easier.

Directly after I started, I took over project management for a customer project. Of course that was an exciting challenge since valantic’s project world was still new to me and I could finally experience this world “live” now. Here, I especially liked that my colleagues took a lot of time when I had questions and they were always willing to advise me. My start was very positive and I felt at home right away.

What do you especially like about valantic?

Since I’ve only been at valantic for about a year, I can only tell you about my impressions. I think that communication at the company functions really well despite its decentralized structure. Frequently, cooperation is across locations. So part of the team works on-site at the customer’s, another part works from the office or a home office. The work-life balance is also right for me, which I find very refreshing. The management always has an open ear and you can talk about anything. Regardless of whether the concern is professional or private, we will always find an appropriate solution.

What are the challenges of your job?

There are many. Before coming to valantic, I was with a company that had fixed organizational and process structures, so there was little room for play or to change something. This is different at valantic, and that’s precisely the challenge. I have the opportunity to help design many processes and structures and to build these together with the team. You can let your creativity run free, incorporate your own ideas and implement them. The whole process is a lot of fun, but it’s also very time-intensive.

The Project business also brings some challenges. Our customers have different requirements for cooperation and for the system, so that no project is exactly like another. We can use the toolbox we have, but there will always be tools that we have to create. That’s how work always remains varied and exciting.

What do you do as a project manager who focuses on SAP S/4HANA?

I’m Managing Consultant and project manager at the same time. This means that I manage a small team of project managers and work with them to constantly examine and optimize our existing project methodology. Together, we determine what improvements we can derive from past projects and which phases went especially well. Our goal is to continue enhancing our methodology. Here, my focus is on optimizing our procedure step by step in order to differentiate us from our competitors.

In my role as project manager, I am the interface between the customer and our internal consulting team, which handles the project implementation. My main task is to ensure that all task packages are completed on-time, on-budget, and in a quality that is satisfactory for the customer. This also includes obtaining work estimates from the respective consultants. I check the quality of these estimates and verify them. Based on this, I work with the team and the customer to develop the project schedule and work on the internal resource planning.