SAP HANA Cloud Portal Developer Challenge: Simplifying the Transport Approval Process – Fiori Like Application for Transport Approval Process

Background: SAP provides the necessary mechanism and tools such as the SAP Transport Management System (STMS) for the transport procedure. This is a SAP designed tool to ensure that data and objects are migrated correctly and are accurately tracked from system to system and client to client.

However, In order to simplify the process and enable change management/approvals on the go, We have come up with a custom process which may be used for approving the transport requests from one environment to another. We have come up with a set of applications which can be used for approvals in Development, Quality and Pre-Production, before finally the change is reflected in the production environment. The applications are fiori like i.e. they are built using Fiori principles and can be accessed on desktops/laptops as well as tablets and smartphones.

Let us look at the process:

The Process

We have created a custom transaction in ECC which facilitates the creation of transport packages from the released TR’s. Corresponding custom tables related to package information and user authorization are maintained in ECC. Once the package is created and released for quality by the developer, the status of the package is changed to ‘Pending QA’.

We have built a Fiori like applications for each environment which, which can be used by authorized approvers to review the transport information and approve the transports so that they can be moved further ahead. The user can access the applications via the Fiori Launchpad:

Approve Transports | Dev to QA

Once the user clicks on the tile, he is able to see the corresponding transport requests (and their details) pending for approval (status as pending QA) against his name on the following screen.

The user can review the details and approve the package on the go. Also, if he has the appropriate authorizations, he can filter the requests based on the approver and business area, and approve requests on their behalf if they are not available.

Now, when the user clicks on Approve. Validations are made whether the package contains the TR(s) which have been released, If they are not released an error message is prompted stating All Transports must be released first.

Similarly, if the end user is not authorized to approve a particular package, he gets an error message indicating he is not authorized to approve the transport package.

When the package is completely validated, the package is marked as successfully approved for release to QA environment.

Mark QA Testing Complete: Now the next stage in the process is to test the application (having the status QA approved) and mark the application as QA Tested. Another tile is made available to the user(s) who have the authorization(s) to test and mark the application as QA Tested and approved from QA side.

Similar validations for authorization are tested for as in the Approve Dev to QA Application. And when all validations are successful, the package is successfully marked as QA Tested.

Approve QA to PRD: Now the next stage in the process is to test the application (having the status QA Tested) and mark the application as Approved for PRD. Another tile is made available to the user(s) who have the authorization(s) to review and mark the application as Approved for PRD.

Similar validations for authorization are tested for as in the other two applications. And when all validations are successful, the package is successfully marked to be imported into production.

Thus, the transport approval process is simplified and can be achieved on the go without the approvers needing to be in front of their systems or on their official network.

Hope you, the reader enjoyed this blog. Feel free to comment your feedback, suggestions and improvements to the process/application.