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Managing Change Releases with SAP Solution Manager

Steve ChristianNIMBL

1

In This Session

• Identify the constraints and challenges in managing multiples releases within an SAP

landscape

• Learn about tools included with SAP Solution Manager to help manage projects, releases,

and change within an SAP landscape

• Understand how we can deploy tools to support ITIL standards-based release

management

2

What We’ll Cover

• Challenges with change management

• SAP’s change and release management tools

• Tool features and functionalities

• Object protection capabilities

• Wrap-up

3

Challenges from the Business

Keep the lights on

• Manage a complex and growing or

changing IT environment

• Growing and changing market

conditions require quick adjustments

Maximize current investments

• Maximize the value of our SAP

maintenance agreements we should

be implementing the latest

functionality from SAP

Business requires new functionality

• Blend of IT services and solutions – on-

premise and cloud-based applications

Investing into new functionalities

and enhanced capabilities within

software is required to support and

sustain the growth of our

organization

4

Challenges Within IT

General Issues

• No overview about all changes

• Unnecessary changes, doubling

of effort

• Compliance to audit rules (e.g., FDA,

SOX)

Organizational Challenges

• No adherence to change process

• Missing control over external

developers

• Process is too complex

Growing complexity of IT

• More and more systems

• More and more people

• Unclear responsibilities

Reduce IT cost of ownership while

maintaining a complex landscape of

systems and staying legally

compliant

5

Typical Change and Release Management Tasks

• Organize requests in a central repository

IT and business requests

Categorize, validate, and review

Assign priorities

• Perform capacity planning for resources

Do we have the resources to deploy?

When can we promise delivery?

• Coordinate and control the implementation

From development to testing and deployment

Determine dependencies and risks

Understand impact to organization

6

What We’ll Cover

• Challenges with change management

• SAP’s change and release management tools

• Tool features and functionalities

• Object protection capabilities

• Wrap-up

7

Change Management in SAP Solution Manager

Improve Visibility and Planning

Leverage Change Request

Management (or QGM) to plan,

organize, and manage change in both

SAP and non-SAP applications

Leverage SAP Innovations

Centralize process documentation support

Go-Live, then monitor and maintain

applications long term

Implement Without Fear

Detect and analyze the impact of

enhancements to your SAP Business Suite

system before implementation

Leverage Scope & Effort Analyzer, BPCA,

Test Mgmt.

SAP Solution Manager provides the

tools required to implement and

operate SAP landscapes in

accordance with industry best

practices

Source: SAP

8

SAP’s Change Management Tools

• Change Request Management (ChaRM)

Manage the Request for Change process

Govern the implementation of change for all applications (SAP and non-SAP)

Integrate with IT ITSM, Test Management, and Change Impact Analysis

ITIL-certified, browser-based UI, central repository

• Quality Gate Management (QGM)

All the technical capabilities of ChaRM, no UI

Change and release documentation not stored in SAP for example, Remedy,

ServiceNow, JIRA, Cherwell, etc.

9

What We’ll Cover

• Challenges with change management

• SAP’s change and release management tools

• Tool features and functionalities

• Object protection capabilities

• Wrap-up

10

SAP’s Request and Change Process

Source: SAP

11

Change Types in ChaRM

Source: SAP

12

Best Practice Workflow

• Workflow is highly customizable based

on SAP CRM

• Actions and conditions already created

• Features pre-configured email

notifications

• Emails based on HTML mail

functionality of SAP CRM

Source: SAP

13

Typical Change Scenario

• Difficult time managing testing

• Overburdened resources

• Resource turn over has significant impact on delivery

• Firefighters always deployed

timeline

Project 1

Project 2

Project 4

Project 9

Project 6

Project 7

Project 8

Project 10

Project 11

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Controlled Change Scenario

• Maximize valuable test resources

• Leverage Agile during Build and Functional test

• Reduce cross-project impacts

Release 1

Scope Build Test Deploy Hypercare Operate

Project 1

Build & Functional Test Go-Live

Project 2

Build & Functional Test Go-Live

Project 3

Build & Functional Test Go-Live

Jo

int

Inte

gra

tio

n T

est

Ph

ase

Synchronized

Go Live

15

Release Management

• ChaRM supports release management processes for better change deployment control

and risk mitigation

Source: SAP

16

Managing Changes and Transports

• Changes can be reassigned to another

project and cycle

• Changes can be taken out of release

and preliminary imported if required

• Transports can be assigned or decoupled

from a change document

Project A Project B

Source: SAP

17

Risk Mitigation

• Process workflow for request for change approval

• Email functionality and completely customizable

• Multiple level approval procedure

• Business partner check for approvals integrated with delegates functionality

Mobile app for approvals

Source: SAP

18

SAP’s Request and Change Process

• Transport of copies is built into standard ChaRM

• Iterative testing in QA without releasing original

transport

• Setup change analysis directly with Business

Process Change Analyzer (BPCA)

• Integration with Test Management

Source: SAP

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Using ChaRM — User Interface

Who’s Involved?

What Project?

Configured

Categories

Reference other tools

Measure

delivery

Enhance text fields

to capture decisions,

minutes, & updates

Source: SAP

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Detailed Logs and Change History

Who did what?

Track

background

jobs

Who did what?

Source: SAP

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Transparency — Transport Management

• Instantly see all transport and task information

• Track the status of imports from the change document

• Get notified about potential risks or transport errors

Source: SAP

22

Audit Assessment

• Many agencies such as the FDA and EU authorities consider electronic records

equivalent to paper records and electronic signatures equivalent to traditional

handwritten signatures

• For example, FDA regulation 21 CFR Part 11 Electronic Records –

Electronic Signatures

Custom Report

Digital Signatures.

Functionality in

Solution Manager

made available in

ChaRM

Source: SAP

23

What We’ll Cover

• Challenges with change management

• SAP’s change and release management tools

• Tool features and functionalities

• Object protection capabilities

• Wrap-up

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Object Protection

• Retrofit

SAP supported method to perform cross platform/release transports

Can be enabled once ChaRM or QGM is activated

• Cross-System Object Lock

Limit conflicts between project and production support teams

Creates awareness of shared object usage

• Downgrade Protection

Validate objects in transports will not downgrade target

• Critical Object Lock

Create a blacklist of critical objects and control changes to those sensitive objects

Mandates approval to override

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SAP’s Request and Change Process

• Worklist of all transports to be synchronized

• Less manual effort for double maintenance (conflict and sequence visibility)

• Synchronization is tool-based

• Ensure integrity and safety for your IT infrastructure

Source: SAP

26

CSOL and DGP

• Cross-System Object Lock: Identify changes on the same objects in different projects/

Dev environments

• Downgrade Protection: Minimize risk of downgrades and over takers

Change Checks executed at release, re-assignment, and before import of transport

CSOL DGP

Trigger checks,

view conflict

and ignore if

authorized

Source: SAP

27

Critical Object Lock

• Create a blacklist of critical objects and control changes to those sensitive objects

Avoid critical situations caused by changes on important objects

Creates awareness and mandates approval to override

The blacklist.

Workbench and

Customizing

The error

Source: SAP

28

Reporting — Monitoring and Search

• Automatic Change

Tracking – no need

for Excel tracking

sheets!!!!!

• Multiple search

criteria

• Save search filters

• Export results to

Excel

• Graphical

representations

of results

Source: SAP

29

Typical Implementation

• AGILE implementation – Baseline configure, scenario test, user acceptance test, and go-live

• ITIL certified out of the box

• Common enhancements

Field label changes, custom categorization, minor process steps

Email content development and notifications, reporting

Custom UI fields

• Special enhancements

Interface development

Digital signatures and audit reporting

Feb 1, '15 Feb 8, '15 Feb 15, '15 Feb 22, '15 Mar 1, '15 Mar 8, '15 Mar 15, '15 Mar 22, '15

Project

Preparation

Mon 1/26/15 - Fri

1/30/15

Project Execution

Mon 2/2/15 - Tue 3/24/15

Requirements

Gathering

Mon 2/2/15 - Mon

2/9/15

Development Configuration & Test

Tue 2/10/15 - Tue 3/3/15

ITSM Analytics

Configuration

Thu 2/26/15 - Mon

3/2/15

User Acceptance Testing

Wed 3/4/15 - Wed 3/18/15

Training

Thu 3/19/15 - Tue 3/24/15

Project Go Live

Thu 3/19/15 - Thu 3/26/15

Configuration Template

PopulatedMon 2/9/15

Configuration CompleteTue 3/3/15

Go LiveThu 3/26/15

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What We’ll Cover

• Challenges with change management

• SAP’s change and release management tools

• Tool features and functionalities

• Object protection capabilities

• Wrap-up

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Where to Find More Information

• SAP Ramp-Up Knowledge Transfer on the SAP Support Portal

https://support.sap.com/ekt-solutionmanager

• Nathan Williams, “ITSM and ChaRM in SAP Solution Manager” (SAP PRESS, 2013).

ISBN – 13: 978-1592294404

• http://help.sap.com

SAP Help Portal

Technology Platform SAP Solution Manager SAP Solution Manager 7.1

• https://scn.sap.com/people/dolores.correa/content

SCN blogposts by Dolores Correa

• U.S. FDA Title 21 CFR PART 11 Compliance Assessment of SAP® Solution Manager

www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/20a3ed42-f1d6-2a10-609f-

c3a003949060?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&26341034465133

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7 Key Points to Take Home

• SAP provides the tools customers need to manage change in simple and complex

landscapes

• ChaRM provides ITIL-certified, out-of-the-box, functionality to manage releases and

change

• ChaRM can solve release management challenges

Unauthorized changes, visibility into change status

Systematic control of change and change documentation

• Retrofit, Downgrade protection, and Cross-System Object Locking replace manual

process steps – especially useful for geographically dispersed teams

• ChaRM integrates with Change Impact Analysis tools and Test Management tools to

provide a complete end-to-end solution

• Prior to implementation, document your current and desired change process

• Determine (hire if needed) tool and change process owner

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Your Turn!

How to contact me:

Steve Christian

Email: steve.christian@benimbl.com

Twitter: @solman-ninja

Please remember to complete your session evaluation

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