A Technical Tryst with SAP Portfolio and Project Management

Just to set your expectations straight i am not a PPM expert, I am not a functional expert.

these are just my experiences with the solution from a technical standpoint.

Without much ado let’s get started.

PPM is inherently very different from all other traditional Modules that I ever worked with like PS/SD/IM/PM you name it.

There were a few surprises for me on the way

• Shocker Number 1.
  • the whole SAP PPM solution is based entirely on WebDynpro, there are no GUI transactions at all.
• Shocker Number 2
  • There are no BAPIs for working with Portfolio Items, please feel free to correct me if I am Wrong.

PPM integrates with multiple sap Modules PS/FI/CO.(It may integrate with more but i have seen only these so far)

The whole product is seemingly held together by a single integration program

/RPM/FICO_INT_PLANNING.

This single program handles the three main pillars of PPM , Integration, Planning and Roll – up.

There are however several enhancements available for us to play around with.

These three processes can be enhanced at every step of the way. The BADi/Enhancement Spot that was the saving grace of the whole solution we provided for the customer by handling all the integration beautifully was

RPM_FICO_INT 

Any enhancement that I wanted to do for WBSe /Cost Elements/Networks.. most of the objects that integrate with PPM,  were handled by this enhancement Spot.

there are hoever many other Enhancements that we can do in PPM, you can find all of them in the package /RPM/API.

The corner Stone of any SAP implementation I have ever worked,custom fields you love ’em you hate ’em you can’t live without ’em.

They integrate quite seamlessly into the whole solution unlike other WebDynpro offerings by SAP wherein you have to do unholy things, like use implicit enhancement  to add your custom field logic, for saving,validation, Search helps.

In PPM you just add them into the CI include

CI_RPM_ITEM_ATT and Voilà.

The solution is so well built that it integrates seamlessly. Once the fields are added into this structure you can simply display these on to the portfolio item Webdynpro screens with just a few configuration action on SPRO. Big thanks to Tudor Riscutia for making my life easier with his contributions in answers

https://answers.sap.com/questions/125522/want-to-add-custom-fields-in-portfolio-items-in-cu.html

https://answers.sap.com/questions/10737538/add-prortfolio-item-custom-fileds.html

https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=42598477 – thank You Francesco Pezzoli

After implementing a few hook methods in the webdynpro component /RPM/ITEM_DETAILS to display the texts for fields like person responsible and cost center it was smooth sailing.

/RPM/FICO_INT_PLANNING.

There is little to no literature that I found concerning the Integration Program that I had to work with.

So here’s what I gleaned from working with it so far.

• The program basically performs 3 actions.
  • Integration:
    • all information for all linked objects to the portfolio Item into the RPM_FIDATA table(Integration). This is the staging table for BW as well. Our BW/BO team used this extensively to generate their ohh so beautiful looking reports.
  • Financial/capacity Planning,
    • All financial/capacity planning information is updated in the table /rpm/fin_plan.
    • the RPM alias PPM tables have a weird linkage from /RPM/ITEM_D to /RPM/FIN_CAT to /RPM/FIN_GROUP, to /RPM/FIN_PLAN.
    • SAP has made it easier by just creating a view that does this linkage for us for all practical purposes you can just use /RPM/V_FIN_PLAN.
  • Roll Up
    • More on this later.

Useful SAP NOTES and KBAs.

Adding a Custom Field to the Item

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2621839

Custom field as checkbox/Drop Down/Calendar Input/Search help

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2548063

Influencing the Portfolio Item ID

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2179188

Influence Fields based on Item Type

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2652214

FAQs for SAP PPM

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1377104

PPM 6.0 Notes and Schedule

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1826383

So that has been my experience so far.

I have consolidated all the information i found useful while on the job with SAP PPM.

I will continue to update this whenever I can. Feel free to add any further information you would like to share in the comments, and I can update it in the blog.

And if there is anything I can do to help concerning PPM please do reach out. I will share what I know.

Kind regards

Vamsi