Requirement Management Improvements in Focused Build SP08

Recently, Focused Build for Solution Manager SP08 was released and brought together improvements in different areas of the Requirements-to-deploy process. You can find more information in the blog detailed out here.

In the area of Requirement Management, the following improvements were delivered as part of SP08

1. WRICEF Sub-Classification Filter
2. Solution Column in the requirement result list

Before starting to discussing the new improvements, let us take a brief look at the detailed process flow below. If you have not yet modeled your business processes and only start with a list of requirements, you can create the requirements directly in Requirements Management. Later, you can use this app to assign the requirements to the structural elements of the Solution Documentation. In Focused Build, you can create requirements from within the Solution Documentation by adding them to business processes or process steps. For this purpose, you use the Requirements Management application, a user interface for documenting and assigning requirements.

Use-Cases for Improvements:

1. First, As an end-user, you would like to gain complete transparency on the relationship between Requirements and different Solutions so that you plan the deploy phase effectively.
2. Second, As an end-user, you would like to gain complete visibility on the sub-classification of the requirements of type ‘WRICEF’so that you can effectively deliver to deliver efficiently.

The following two improvements try to address the above use-cases and provide better transparency and visibility in the Requirement Management Application

• WRICEF Sub-Classification 

With SP08, In the Requirement Management Application, a new filter field ‘WRICEF Sub-Classification’ is introduced. Based on your usage, the field can be hidden or made visible. Also, this field is enabled on the selection of the Requirement Classification of type ‘WRICEF’

Similarly in the Requirements result list, a new column WRICEF Sub-classification is added which is hidden by default and can be added to the list based on the usage. So, now it’s transparent how many and which requirements have a specific WRICEF element assigned.

• Solution Column in the requirement result list

If there are multiple Solutions in your landscape, now it is possible to view the solution assignment of these requirements with the help of a new column ‘Solution’. The field is hidden by default but can be displayed via settings. Additionally, there is a sort function enabled for the Solution field.

So, irrespective of the number of Solutions and Requirements in your landscape, If you search cross Solutions (the Solution filter is empty), e.g. for unassigned Requirements, it’s now visible which Requirements are of the same Solution. With that, you can do e.g. some Mass Change operations.

Key take-away:

With the new improvements, you get

1. The transparency of the WRICEF sub-classification for better planning and realization in the DEPLOY phase.
2. Complete visibility on which requirements belong to the same or different solution.

Important Links and Resources :

• Usage Rights :
• SP08 delta presentation to get an overview of the changes and read the highlights blog
• Read how SAP Activate and Focused Build with SAP Solution Manager is working together