Getting a grip on your business process documentation using SODOCA #solman

[TomCenens]

Introduction

Using business process documentation in SAP Solution Manager? Then you definitely want to know about the Solution Documentation Assistant (codenamed SODOCA). SODOCA allows you to verify your business process documentation structure. Are those SAP processes that we have documented really in use and perhaps an even more interesting question, did we miss something? Did we forget to document something?

Are the processes we claim are in use, in use?

The first thing you see when you open up a SODOCA analysis result is the business process structure and the checks that have been performed which are represented by traffic lights.

A green light means:

The process is in use in the SAP system (during the period that was analyzed)

A yellow light means:

One of the underlying processes of this business process is not in use in the SAP system (during the period that was analyzed)

A red light means:

The process was not used in the SAP system (during the period that was analyzed).

Based on this result, the business process documentation can be adjusted. It’s not because a process (or step) is red that you have to remove it. It’s just an indication that it was not in use during the period you analyzed and then you should ask yourself the question, why is that the case?

It can be related to the period analyzed (some processes are only performed once a year for example). To overcome that, you could analyze a period of a year as well for example.

Another reason might be that you think they are using this transaction but in reality they are using another transaction (or report or Z ...) that allows them to do the same thing.

Did we forget something in our business process documentation?

In the result, under the tab Object Usage, you can find a tab Not in Analysis (given you selected these options when you set up the analysis).

Here, you can find an overview of transactions (and other object types when selected) which are reported to be in use in the SAP system but not present in the business process documentation structure. So this is interesting in terms of checking whether or not you didn’t miss anything. It can of course also be the case that a new process has been put in place but the business process documentation was not updated.

A repetitive cycle