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Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Creating your custom business roles – the end-to-end process and video playlist

This blog post is applicable to both SAP S/4HANA on-premise and SAP S/4HANA, private cloud edition. 

Creating your own custom business roles is an essential skill for any team deploying SAP S/4HANA or just looking to drive more value from your existing SAP S/4HANA system.

Latest Updates:

SAP delivers more than 500 business roles based on real-world jobs, with all relevant SAP Fiori apps and classic UIs available as SAP Fiori launchpad content. Most organizations will want to tailor the delivered business roles to your own needs.  For example:

  • To focus attention on your preferred apps/UIs that best suit your processes
  • To pace the change from older classic UIs to new SAP Fiori apps over time
  • To reduce the content to something more manageable for your users
    • Some SAP Business Roles such as General Ledger Accountant and Purchaser already deliver a choice of over 150 apps and UIs!
  • To add your own custom content, such as new custom apps, navigation to Cloud apps, or custom classic UIs inherited during system conversion from SAP Business Suite

The good news is SAP Fiori implementation tools and accelerators for SAP S/4HANA keep getting better and better. The latest improvements in SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01 and higher make crafting your custom business roles easy.

You can now access an end-to-end video playlist showing you how to craft your own custom business roles using the latest tools and accelerators at openSAP microlearning. Keep reading to find a summary of the process, the related videos and what they cover.

So now the hardest part of crafting your own business roles is just deciding what you want to use!

The Process for Creating Custom Business Roles

There are 2 approaches:

You will find an overview diagram for each scenario and the related videos.

Basic Scenario: Use SAP delivered content only to create your custom business roles

Overview of the Basic Scenario:

  1. Gather content into reusable business catalogs
    1. This includes activating your desired content, if needed
  2. Define the basic layout structure for the role
  3. Assign business catalogs to roles
  4. Organize content into your desired layout

Basic%20Scenario%20for%20creating%20a%20custom%20business%20role%20and%20the%20related%20tools

Basic Scenario for creating a custom business role and the related tools

In  Refining Business Roles with SAP Fiori Launchpad Content Manager [11:47]

You will learn:

  • Prerequisites for using the SAP Fiori launchpad content manager
  • How to copy a SAP Business Role to your own custom business role
  • How to remove unwanted content and layouts from your custom business role
  • How to test your role using a test user

In Activating SAP Fiori Content in Custom Business Roles [11:59]

You will learn:

  • How to recognize activation issues in the launchpad
  • How to check if your custom business roles need to be activated
  • How to mass activate the content in your custom business role using the task list SAP_FIORI_FCM_CONTENT_ACTIVATION

New option: Alternatively you can activate business catalogs en masse. Business catalogs are the sub-level of a role. This is useful where you need to segregate duties or you want to grow a business role over time, i.e. add a new business catalog with the new apps you are introducing. Refer to SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Activating Apps by Business Catalog

In Creating SAP Fiori launchpad layouts for custom business roles [12:00]

You will learn:

  • Understanding launchpad content vs layouts
  • Prerequisites for spaces and pages
  • How to create layouts using SAP Fiori apps Manage Launchpad Spaces and Manage Launchpad Pages
  • How to assign the layout to your custom busines role
  • How to adjust layouts

Advanced scenario: Add your own launchpad content and/or override SAP delivered content with your adaptations or extensions

The Advanced Scenario extends the Basic Scenario with one additional pre-step.

  1. Add your own content and/or override SAP content settings
  2. Gather content into reusable business catalogs
    • This includes activating your desired content, if needed
  3. Define the basic layout structure for the role
  4. Assign business catalogs to roles
  5. Organize content into your desired layout

 

Advanced%20Scenario%20for%20creating%20custom%20business%20roles%20and%20related%20tools

Advanced Scenario for creating custom business roles and related tools

For example, you can create new launchpad content by:

  • creating App Variants of existing apps using Adapt UI
  • creating new KPIs using SAP Fiori apps Manage KPIs and Reports
  • add SAP Screen Personas flavors to classic GUI transactions and WebDynpro ABAP applications
  • adding your own custom Fiori apps
  • adding your inherited custom classic UIs, such as Z transactions
  • adding URL tiles and links
  • overriding texts and icons of SAP delivered content

In addition to the Basic Scenario, the following microlearnings are recommended.

Creating Launchpad Content with the SAP Fiori Launchpad App Manager [12:00]

You will learn:

  • Understand how launchpad content is added to a business role
  • Prerequisites for launchpad app manager
  • How to create a custom technical catalog
  • How to add content to your technical catalog
  • How to copy content from other technical catalogs
  • How to reference technical catalog content to your custom business catalog which is assigned to your custom business role

IMPORTANT: From SAP S/4HANA 2022, the Launchpad App Manager now has an Adaptation Mode so that simple title/icon/keyword etc. changes can be made directly on SAP delivered technical catalogs. This significantly reduces the need to copy tiles/target mappings to custom technical catalogs, which in turn reduces the overall effort of creating custom business roles. Refer to: SAP Fiori Launchpad: New Fast and Easy Option to Adapt SAP-delivered Launchpad Content (for On-Premise and Cloud, Private Edition)

Adapting the UI of List Report Apps [10:59]

You will learn:

  • How to use Adapt UI to adjust SAP delivered content
  • How to save your adaptations as an App Variant
  • You can assign this content as new launchpad content in your custom business role

Even more useful microlearnings available now for SAP S/4HANA

You might also like to look at these videos.

For your business users

Personalizing SAP Fiori Launchpad Basics

How to Search for a SAP GUI Transaction in SAP Fiori

Using Enterprise Search for Reporting in SAP Fiori

Using Default Values and Variants in SAP Fiori Apps

Creating Bookmarks in SAP Fiori Launchpad

For your functional team

In Finding Available SAP Fiori Apps you learn how to find available SAP Business Roles and their apps for your SAP S/4HANA release.

You will also find microlearnings on SAP S/4HANA line of business areas including Finance, Manufacturing, Service, Sourcing & Procurement, and Supply Chain

For your technical team

Activating Fiori Apps Via Rapid Activation shows how to rapidly activate SAP Business Roles for exploration using the Rapid Activation task list SAP_FIORI_CONTENT_ACTIVATION

How to Patch SAP Fiori (SAPUI5) and Why  helps you avoid rediscovering known and already resolved issues by patching your SAPUI5 version to the latest releases

You will also find microlearnings on SAP S/4HANA for Technology Topics and Cross Topics (such as Predictive Scenarios).

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

You can find more microlearnings in the SAP S/4HANA User Experience Playlist.

If you have ideas for more microlearnings you would like to see – please let us know!

If you want to delve deeper into business roles, you might like to refer to the blog series: Understanding SAP Business Roles.

You can find more announcements about the latest SAP Fiori features in SAP S/4HANA 2020 SP01 in Check out the improvements in SAP Fiori launchpad content administration and operations with SP01 of SAP Fiori front-end server 2020

You can also find out more about SAP User Experience and Design in 3 Tips to Stay Informed About User Experience & Design Topics at SAP

You’ll find much more on the community topic page for SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA

Other helpful links in the SAP Community:

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA Customer Care and RIG.

 

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      9 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Warren Nash
      Warren Nash

      Amazing information.....

      Author's profile photo Syambabu Allu
      Syambabu Allu

      Great Blog.Thanks for sharing!!

      Author's profile photo Sofia Carol
      Sofia Carol

      Thanks for sharing such useful information. It is crisp and self-explanatory.

      SAP Fiori is part of SAP S/4HANA, SAP Integrated Business Planning, SAP Customer Experience solutions, and SAP SuccessFactors solutions, and is planned to be introduced into other SAP products in the future.

      Author's profile photo SRINIVASULU BESTA
      SRINIVASULU BESTA

      Thanks for sharing the useful information. Very informative

      Author's profile photo Sean House
      Sean House

      Great post and one I will be sharing with my consulting colleagues!

      One topic I would appreciate you addressing (perhaps as a logical extension of this blog or in a follow on blog) is the actual provisioning of userids.  As documented in 2570961 - Simplification item S4TWL - Business User Management Fiori deployment and enablement not only requires that a business role be assigned to a userid, but in many cases (PM, SD) a Business Partner of type Person and BP Role Employee must be created and linked to the userid as a technical requirement of the Fiori Apps.  This is an area of contention with our security team, who are accustomed to using SU01 solely, and hits home particularly when HR is "out of scope" for a project... how can a Security resource minimally create a personnel record to fulfil the requirements of Fiori so that the userid they provision is actually able to execute the apps assigned via the role?  Would love to see this documented in your process and hear how others are addressing this...

       

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Sean, Thanks for that thought! The quickest way to resolve that is to use the SAP Fiori app F2288A Maintain Employees (or the predecessor app F2288 as explained in SAP Note 2570961.

      App F2288A does exactly what you are looking for - minimal creation of an employee record when HCM integration is not in scope. I find it quite straightforward to use.

      This is yet another example of an app where the configuration for SAP Fiori is actually done in SAP Fiori as explained more generally in Yes you need SAP Fiori to Configure, Adapt and Extend SAP S/4HANA

      I'll add it to our list of ideas for future content.

      Author's profile photo Mukesh Bablani
      Mukesh Bablani

      Jocelyn Dart  , As always a very helpful blog and embedded videos.

      I was looking at MicroLearning video Adapting the UI of List Report Apps

      Surely it is an easy way to adapt the app and then add it to Custom Catalog and Role.

      One question though, that if we "hide" a button through App variant, does it also reduce user's authorization or is it only a visual appearance change.  My understanding is that it is only a visual change. If user knew the oData service behind the "hidden" button, they could theoretically still perform that action.

      if we need to make it tighter from Security perspective and also visually make button appear based on security authorization for that action, what would be the best approach for a standard app like one in MicroLearning example ?

      Do we need a Fiori Developer or ABAP+CDS developer or both to achieve it ?

      In essence, customers often request these type of changes that appear minor requests to them. And while they want it very secure, it is sometimes hard for them to see that it could possibly need a Fiori Developer + ABAP/CDS Developer + BASIS effort to achieve this change.

       

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      HI Mukesh It's a visual change but of course you should also adjust their authorizations to prevent the action as well just via your usual auth objects. Usually just need the  security person involved.

      Author's profile photo Thava GRC
      Thava GRC

       Hi Jocelyn,

      Thanks for sharing. 

      I have two questions

      Note: Role design happens based on business process definition. Business process owner is basically designing the roles in my clients. UX consultant designs spaces/pages based on workshop  with business users and submits the design to project team. My question is about creating business catalog/space/pages in the system based on approved design

      1. Which traditional SAP role (BASIS/security/ABAP) is more suitable for content admin for basic scenario? Does this role need Fiori DEV skill/security skill? SAP security team designs & creates role menu for ABAP GUI tcodes and NWBC/webdynpro roles,  So security team is more appropriate team for content admin role.
      2. Business Catalog is a basic buliding block for roles. Any role change will trigger change in business Catalog specially SOD remediation, So business Catalog maintenance should be with SAP security team. Otherwise it will impact turnaround time.  Why didn't you include this as a security responsibility?

      Below doc tells catalog creation as basis /security responsibility

      The Basis Expert Role in UX for SAP S/4HANA

      Also BootCamp material is describing catalog/space/page creation under security

      Security team is doing these activities in few clients. So we need more info on Content admin role (Purpose, advantage/disadvantage, required skills)

      Thanks

      Thava