Reasons to use a tool to document Fiori launchpad

[GregMalewski]

In case you are not sure if you need Fiori launchpad documentation at all, check the post:
Reasons to document Fiori Launchpad applications externally.

Many projects use a shared Excel spreadsheet to document the Fiori launchpad setup. At first glance, Excel looks like a decent choice for documentation. Unfortunately, in the long run, it will reveal the following difficulties:

1. Different team members working on the same spreadsheet can easily cause inconsistencies. For example, it will arise when you involve functional and technical team members who might have different needs for documenting the Fiori launchpad configuration.

2. Excel can only show the 1-N relation of an application mapping to catalogs. When maintaining the catalog’s application list in Excel, you will need to hold two lists of catalogs which will lead to duplications and result in inconsistencies.

3. It is tricky to separate different authorization levels for members that only read and those who should edit parts of the documentation. For example, you might not want to allow all project members to add or remove applications from the documentation that represents the project’s scope

4. Excel does not offer permanent records of the sign-offs. For example, you will need persistent application testing sign-off records if you want to use them to start production imports.

5. Excel does not hold the changes' history and authors.

6. For Excel, holding records for hundreds of applications, browsing and finding the records will become impossible

To get the impression, have a look at a real project example of the spreadsheet:

Example spreadsheet with apps mapping to catalogs

Freely editable Excel lists, for example, for the applications, will not stay stable enough to serve as identification during team members’ communication. As application identification is key to ensuring the reliability of Fiori Launchpad documentation, you will need to manage it tightly.

If you want to learn about the tool for managing Fiori launchpad documentation, please read:
Documenting Fiori Launchpad with Fiori Tracker.

I’m curious to hear your opinions on my thoughts – feel free to comment or contact me on Linkedin.