Solution Manager Change Request Management Workflows

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Workflow in Solution Manager Change Request Management is the Approval Procedure.
Starting with SAP Solution Manager release 7.10, the approval procedure assignment block from CRM standard was integrated, enhanced and used for Request for Change.
The approval procedure allows customers to use an “approval workflow” that is executed during the Request for Change process when status is set to "To be Approved".
Customers can define several different approval procedures –  each approval procedure consists of one or many approval steps.

Customers can specify whether all the steps will be active for approval in parallel, or whether the approval steps have to be approved in sequence.

If the approval procedure is started, approvers which have to take action get notified via email notification. The email contains a link in order to access the document and execute their approval step – once all the steps are completed the entire document is set to “Approved”, “Rejected” or stays in “To be Approved” only if all approvers choose ‘Not Relevant’.

Approval Procedures

Approval procedures control the approval process for requests for change.

In an organization, certain processes must be approved by the persons responsible, before they can be performed. For example, a request for change must be approved before an urgent or normal change can be made.

• An approval procedure is a process that is executed in the status "To be Approved" of the request for change.


• We can define multiple approval procedures and select one of them, depending on the type, impact or priority of the change.


• An approval procedure consists of one or more approval steps. Each step is assigned to a business partner function, and, in the change transaction, to a business partner.


• When creating or changing an approval procedure, you can specify which steps can be executed in parallel, and which only consecutively.


• Parallel steps have the same sequence number

Rule Policies
We can control approval procedures using rule policies.

• Rule policies invoke specified actions automatically, when their conditions are satisfied.


• Rule policies are a set of rules, which are a combination of conditions and actions. Depending on the conditions, the system performs specified actions.


• We can define rules to determine the approval procedure or the approver for an approval step automatically, based on values in the change transaction.


• The following types of rules are available

1.Approval procedure determination

• To determine which approval procedure should be used.

2. Approval procedure step determination

• To determine which business partner of the transaction should be the approver of a step.

Approval Procedure Statues

An approval procedure step has one of three statuses:

1. "Approved": The approver has approved the change.


2. "Rejected": Each approver has a veto. If, in an approval procedure with multiple approval steps, any step is set to "Rejected", the whole change is rejected.-> All approvers have to approve, for the document to get the status "Approved" (this is indicated in the user profile by the value CAAP in the Transaction column.)


3. "Not Relevant": The approver does not want to participate in the approval. The step is not taken into account in the validation of the change document.

You can register Change Request Management actions and consistency checks to all approval procedures.

Requirements

• You have copied the standard transaction type SMCR, with all status and action profiles, into your namespace, using the copy report in SAP Solution Manager Configuration.


• If you use the option "Approving without Approval Procedure", the PPF actions using HF_SET_STATUS which set the user status "Approved" or "Rejected", are customized.

Default Settings
The following approval options are in the standard setup:

• Change Request Approval Procedure (SMCR0001)


• Change Request Management, per default, uses two types of rule modeler profiles:


• Approving without Approval Procedure

The system sets the status "Authorized" and "Rejected" using a PPF action with the method HF_SET_STATUS, to pass through the Change Request Management framework. Actions and consistency checks can be registered to the status. The multi-step approval procedure is not used. If
you use this option, you can remove the Approval assignment block from your WebClient UI.

How to create a new approval procedure?

1. Under Define Approval Settings, perform the following steps:


2. a) Copy the SMCR0001 approval procedure.


3. b) Define and assign approval steps to the new approval procedure.

Note: Assign only business partner functions to the approval steps that are also assigned to your change transaction type.

2. Create rule policies, as described under Create Approval Procedure Rules.


3. Under Define Service Manager Profile, perform the following steps:


4. a) Copy the service manager profile AI_CM_AP_PROC.


5. b) Under Properties, enter the newly created rule policy.


6. Under Define Approval Settings, perform the following steps:


7. a) Copy the SMCR0001 approval determination procedure.


8. b) Assign the new rule modeler profile (that is, the service manager profile).


9. Under Assign Approval Determination Procedures to Transaction Types assign your new approval determination procedure to your change transaction type.


10. In order to use the enhanced functions, carry out the Customizing activity Activate Enhanced Approval Procedure Functions.

• Define Approval Procedure;

• Define Approval Steps;

• Assign Approval Steps to Approve Procedure;

• Define Previous Steps

• Assign Business Partner Function such as Change Manager, Quality Manager etc;


• 


• Create rule policies

• Create Service Manager Profile in Directly Called Services

• Enter the below properties

• Finally assign Rule Policy to the approval Procedure

• Define Approval Determination Procedures

• Assign Default Approval Procedure to Define Approval Determination Procedure

Go to Request for Change-> Approval->Insert->Go to Step ID and click on F4; we will get the newly created values.


How to edit approval option without approval procedure?

Prerequisites:

• To be able to set the status "Approved" for a request for change, you have created a PPF action which calls the method HF_SET_STATUS. The assigned processing parameter has the value of the status “Approved”.


• To be able to set the status "Rejected" for a request for change, you have created a PPF action which calls the method HF_SET_STATUS. The assigned processing parameter USER_STATUS has the value of the status "Rejected".

To make the settings, perform the following activities:

7. In the Customizing activity Define Action Profiles and Actions, choose the action profile of your request for change. In the default delivery, this is SMCR_ACTIONS.


8. Choose the action definition that sets the status "Approved", and add the processing parameter APPR_RESULT, with the data type CHAR1 and the initial value A.


9. Choose the action definition that sets the status "Rejected", and add the processing parameter APPR_RESULT with the data type CHAR1 and the initial value R.

Enhancements
In this configuration activity, you activate the workflow functions for the enhanced approval procedure. These include the following functions:

• If you have assigned a substitute to an approver, the system also sends a workflow item for notification to the substitute.


• If you have assigned a business partner organization to approval steps, the system sends workflow items to all members of the business partner organization and to any substitutes specified.

Requirements

You have activated the enhanced approval procedure functions. For more information, see Activate Enhanced Approval Procedure Functions.

Activities

1. Choose New Entries.

2.In the Object Type field, enter BUS2000116.

3.In the Delegation Type field, enter BUS2000916.

4.Save your entries.

Activate Enhanced Approval Procedure Functions

 

In this Configuration activity, you activate the enhanced approval procedure functions. These functions include the following:

• Restriction of the approval procedure functions using authorization object SM_APP_AP.


• Definition of a substitute who can also approve or reject your requests for change.


• Assignment of business partner groups (type: organization) to approval steps. (You must first create a business partner group of type “Organization” in the organizational model.)

Activities

Choose New Entries and enter the following data:

1.User Name: <space>

2.Field Name: ENH_APP

3.Sequence Number: 001

4.Field Value: X

Create a Custom Workflow

In order to perform this activity, follow the below steps;

• In SWDD transaction create a new workflow.


• Go to Define Action Profiles and Actions

• Search for SMCR_ACTIONS


• Go to Action Definition and select the action for RFC


• Go to Processing Type

• Go to Interface tab, double click on Execute and then modify the implementation.