SAP Activate integration with Solution Manager 7.2
The SAP Solution Manager 7.2 is designed to support the S/4HANA on premise implementation and the complete solution lifecycle. The SAP Solution Manager 7.2 is an environment with tools for project management, process modeling, change management, test management and much more to implement, to run and optimize your SAP software.
You can import the SAP Activate Best Practices into the SAP Solution Manager 7.2:
First SAP provides project best practices: You can load a project plan as a template for the SAP S/4HANA implementation. Project plan templates describe the tasks according to SAP Activate. The templates are provided for different implementation scenarios. You can adjust the template to your need during the planning workshops. In those project management templates you can identify who needs to be involved in the project, when and what kind of skills are required (Resource Management). Following that, you can use it for working with changes which result from Fit/Gap analysis.
Second SAP provides process best practices: This includes process models and configuration for SAP S/4HANA editions. You can use this for build design. The delta scoping and new requirements can be documented in the standard BPMN 2.0 in the modeling environment on the process or process step level. SAP Solution Manager 7.2 fulfils the requirements for process modeling, solution implementation and documentation – continues validation of your processes based on system usage.
Finally, SAP provides capabilities to document and apply changes in a consistent and combine way across the multi-system landscape. Based on the process models you can setup, later on, the business process monitoring for elements of the process, process step or interfaces.
Using SAP Solution Manager 7.2 in combination with SAP Best Practices for S/4HANA and configuration work in SAP S/4HANA system, you will be required to document only the changes to the standard solution (Model Company) and not to start from scratch.
With the SAP Activate content import into SAP Solution Manager 7.2, you will get:
- The business process structure in the new business process model design: The SAP Activate business process model content should be imported in a non-production solution brunch to filter the processes in scope of the implementation.
- Libraries of objects: The SAP Best Practice content creates also Libraries of objects (e.g. executables / configuration objects) which you can use to create own processes on top of SAP delivered process.
- Accelerators and Building Blocks: With the process structure and object libraries, the best practice documentation e.g. configuration documentation or business process documentation will be imported as well.
- Process diagrams: Editable process models are part of the imported content. You can adjust the process diagrams or create new ones in a system-based or role-based representation to facilitate the interaction with your LoBs.
Additionally, depending on the implementation scenario, further documentation e.g. test scripts or the integration best practices are provided with the imported content for SAP S/4HANA.
The PPM project template plan can be also imported into the IT PPM in SAP Solution Manager. The project describes the tasks and work which need to be done. This template can be edited and adjusted. First, you have to download it directly from the Roadmap Viewer and then upload in PPM. The Roadmap Viewer is part of the SAP Content Cloud and is where key roadmap content can be accessed to accelerate your SAP S/4HANA project: https://roadmapviewer-supportportal.dispatcher.hana.ondemand.com/.
Below you find a few screenshots, for your “look and feel”, of the SAP Activate content which will be available in SAP Solution Manager 7.2.
SAP Activate in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 – SAP Best Practice Content Upload:
SAP Activate in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 – Business Process Content
SAP Activate in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 – Accelerators and Building Blocks
SAP Activate in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 – Process Diagrams
SAP Activate SAP Solution Manager 7.2 – IT Project Workbreak Structure
SAP Activate in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 – IT Project Structure Tasks
SAP Activate in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 – IT Project Resource Planning
This is a great introduction to SAP Activate!
The information is concise and easy to understand.
Great article. Just a quick point where you say
We have tested changing, for example, a BPMN diagram delivered by the SAP Best Practice Import. Once it is changed you can no longer call it "SAP best Practice" as it is customised by the customer. This is OK, but there is no way back, unless you use the manual workaround of re-importing the best practices by clearing the buffer.
This was on SPS01.
đ
Thanks Andrew, The Best Practice is the starting point, then you need to adjust. That's the goal. Did you try to copy the diagram and then change? Also, maybe you can import the Best Practice in one solution branches (call it a reference branch) and create other one for adjustments.
Hi Andrew,
One quick question, Â could you tell me how to clear the import buffer in order to re-import the best practices? Trying to find it but it does not seem to be very straightforward đ
Thanks!
Hi Ewa Goslawska-Goedecke, Thanks for the information is really good for HANA projects.
My colleagues (refered by a SAP customer ) ask me about if there is any option to import SAP Activate methodology in Solution Manger SP14 or later SP before solman 7.2.
There is any option to import the roadmap or methodology in solar transactions ?
Thanks,
Luis
Hi Lluis
No, it's not foreseen for 7.1, content is only available for 7.2.
You can get a SolMan 7.2 SP01 trial going on Amazon AWS to check out the content if you want. Feel free to ping me for more info, I've got this set up on my system on Amazon AWS.
Best regards
Tom
Hi Luis and Tom,
That's right there is no option to import to 7.1. Except accessing the Amazon cloud system, you can also view the SAP activate roadmap here:
Roadmap Viewer -
https://roadmapviewer-supportportal.dispatcher.hana.ondemand.com/
And the Best Practice packages can be viewed at: http://help.sap.com/bp-baseline.
In 7.1 you can also review the Best Practice content by activating a Solution Package in transaction SOLAR_PROJECT_ADMIN -> tab SCOPE -> tab Solution Package Selection.
But this is not exactly the same information.
Regards,
Ewa
Hello,
I have also shot movies of that:
SAP S/4HANA - Import Best Practice Content into Solution Manager 7.2
SAP S/4HANA - Work with SAP Best Practice Content in Solution Manager 7.2
Best Regards
Hubert
thanks for sharing.
Sounds interesting especially for cloud integration - should be very helpful for project implementation and management - nice post đ
Thanks Adam!
Hello Ewa,
is there any chance to download this sap activate best practices content also to solution manager which doesn't have http internet connection to support.sap.com ? Something similar to download/upload variant for SAP notes if you are not able to download note directly via SNOTE transaction?
Thanks a lot for your feedback.
Best regards,
Julius
Hi Julius, at this moment you would be able only to upload the project plan but not the business process content. Regards, Ewa
Thank you very much for sharing this info! I have been asked by customers about details on this integration and I can now point to your blog as a reference.
Hello Ewa,
Is it possible to upload the content for any database instead of SAP HANA or S/4HANA? We are running our SAP Solution Manager 7.2 at a DB6 database.
Kind regards,
Frans
Hi Frans
Perhaps you have to be more specific, not sure if I get your question right here.
The functionality doesn't depend on SAP HANA if that is what you are asking. So it doesn't matter what DB you run SAP Solution Manager 7.2 on. You can import the best practice content regardless of the DB.
Best regards
Tom
Hello Tom,
Thank you for your prompt responds.
I'm in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 SPS02. I have activated Solution Documentation Content via Guided Procedure 2. Via this GP2 a Solution with a Productive and Maintenance Branch is created. Also a Logical Component Group is assigned.
When I follow the presentation above from Henrik Zimmermann, then I have to create a Development and a Sandbox Branch so I can import SAP Best Practices Package.
But when I select the button "Import SAP Best Practices Package" and I select the Sandbox Branch I have created before, I don't get any Best Practice Packages which can be imported.
I hope this clarify the current situation?
Kind regards,
Frans
Hi Frans,
I guess you dont see any best practice packages listed. This is not influenced by branch into which you are importing the packages. Rather its more related to connection of y our solman to SAP rapid store. Make sure the RFC connections described in 2194123 are working properly before you dig in deeper.
Best regards,
Julius
Hi Frans
You probably don't see anything because of missing connectivity, the pop-up uses SAP-OSS RFC destination so you would have to have a SAProuter maintained in transaction OSS1 for this functionality to work.
Best regards
Tom
Hi Ewa,
This is a very good article, thank you. We do not use Solution Documentation today and are highly considering it. The issue is we are heavily customized (also a little further from best practices) in a hybrid of SAP and non-SAP environments.
My question is, instead of starting to Document now in 7.2 with current ECC 6 (as this is a heavy investment of time and effort for a highly customized client) wouldn't it be better to get S4/HANA best practices and modify as we plan S4 journey? So document the future state rather than today?
Also, I am assuming once the best practice is downloaded, we have to manually customize/change the process to what we have. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Appreciate your feedback. Thanks,
Rahim.
Hi Rashmi, Thanks for your feedback. That’s right. You can modify/adjust the best practice content to your needs after it’s downloaded. If you plan to move to S/4HANA - not only technically upgrade the system but also modify the processes (implement SAP standard) then focusing on the future state would be better - you do not want to reengineer something what would be retired soon. However, some analysis of the old system may be useful to see what objects/transactions/custom code is in used. Regards, Ewa
Hi Ewa
its good article to explain the best package content imports.
I am currently using solution manager 7.2 for solution documentation. for which i need create a structure ( Scenario , process and steps ) for the solution. the content of my structure nodes is more than 1000 lines to be created ( excel sheet with more than 1000 lines defined as BPML )
is there any standard template or functions available in 7.2 to upload the whole structure in excel format similar to function available in 7.1 for the structure upload in SOLAR01 for the projects
Thanks
Faizal
Hi Faizal, Thanks for your feedback. Currently there is no template to upload the structure to 7.2. You would need to upload the structure to 7.1 and then activate this project in 7.2. I will check again with my other colleagues if something is being changed around this upload and let you know. Regards, Ewa
Hi Ewa
its one of the mandatory features to have in 7.2 for solution documentation. because it will be tedious task to enter the structure without 7.1.
Please update us with the results from your colleagues
Thanks
Faizal
Hi Ewa
Thanks for the work around solution to create the project in 7.1 and activate this in 7.2. how to achieve this ?
can I directly transport the project from 7.1 to 7.2
or
similar procedure needs to be followed for content activation in upgrade procedure ?
if this is the case, how to download the files as result of prepare_activation step and import into 7.2 as solution ?
Thanks
Faizal
Hi Faizal,
currently, there is no standard functionality to upload an external structure to 7.2. The structure needs to be created either manually or using SAP Best Practice content.
You can not transport projects between 7.1 and 7.2. You can only activate the projects in 7.2 - this is one time process and you cannot activate more projects after you done it. Please review this Wiki for more information:
wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/SM/SAP+Solution+Manager+7.2+Content+Activation.
regards,
Ewa
Hi Ewa,
Currently We installed a fresh Solution manager 7.2 SP01 system and trying to import S4HANA 1511 best practices from soladm tcode.
As per the documentation, I have created the solution and created the branches and assigned logical component group also.
But when trying to import best practices on system landscape tab we don't see any best practice content coming up.
I am not sure do we need to activate and perform any steps for the best practices to be available to import?
Thanks for your help in advance.
Regards
Junaid
Create the RFC Destinations according to the SAP note 2194123
Thanks Narendra,
I was able to load the BP once I created the RFC and imported the certificates.
Thanks for your help.
Regards
Junaid
Hi Ewa,
when importing Best Practice into Solution Manager 7.2Â , there is no logical process sequence how it is imported, e.g it starts with:
J82 - Business Network Integration
J54 - Overhead Cost Accounting
BJ8 - Make-to-Stock Production - Process Industry
Is there a way to get it easily structured according to process groups (Finance, Controlling,....)?
Thank´s for your Feedback,
Regards Alex
Â
Hi Ewa:
Many thanks indeed for your document. Finally something that starts to make sense.
Do you know if there is a step by step document that tells implementation teams which steps are done in S/4 HANA and which ones in Solution Manager? I see in this blog you wrote that in Solution Manager you may import first the SAP Project Best Practices to later on import the S/4 HANA Process Best Practices,. However there are released documents like The SAP S/4HANA Administration Guide for the Implementation of SAP Practices for SAP S/4 HANA that does not even mention the words âSolution Managerâ, at all, and they tell in that document that the step is to import and activate the full SAP Best Practices there.
Is there a correct approach or a best practice approach that tells what is done in SolMan and what is done in S/4 HANA? It seems to me, nothing is really done in S/4 HANA once you take the SolMan approach and do all the work there, except for the development and configuration which are done directly in S/4 HANA through the SolMan gateway or directly in there.
Thanks in advance for the clarification.
Juan Carlos
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I have used Solma Focused Build in 3 last projects. S4 1809 and 1909 uploaded config building blog but last project with 2020 the config img building blocks have not be loaded in spite all the rest best Practices uploaded successfully.
what is the issue and is it possible to upload the delta of the config only ?