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Jagmohan_Chawla
Advisor
Advisor
In this blog post, I would like to explain

  • How SAP Cloud ALM gives early access to upgrade information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

  • How can you model an upgrade timeline in a Project in SAP Cloud ALM

  • Option1 : How can handle the upgrade Project as a separate Project in parallel to your active implementation Project

  • Option 2: How can you handle an upgrade event in the same running Project


 

so let's get started

If you are completely new to SAP Cloud ALM, I will suggest reading the end-to-end story first on how SAP Cloud ALM can help in your implementation.

Showing Upgrade Information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud


When you use SAP Cloud ALM for managing your implementation, each Project you create gets a preconfigured Overview page that shows you key metrics such as Project status and Task completion. This page also includes a dedicated card Upcoming events


The upcoming event card automatically shows you the information about the key events in your project in the near horizon, such as a phase end or a key milestone but for SAP S/4HANA cloud there is a dedicated capability to show the relevant information.


Now based on this early information, you can already start planning upgrade-related activities

How to model deployment and nondeployment windows in SAP Cloud ALM


SAP Cloud ALM provides you a capability called Release and Deployment planning in which based on the upgrade information you can create a Release and Deployment Plan and assign it to your running Project.

If you have multiple Projects then the same Release and Deployment plan can be assigned to multiple projects. In a Release schedule, you can as an example create dedicated windows for testing or mark certain time ranges as nondeployment relevant.


A Deployment plan contains this Release schedule and the same Deployment Plan can be assigned to multiple Projects, as an example you may have one Project for the EU rollout and another Project for the NA rollout with different timelines.

Later you can use the Release and Timelines application to see if the upgrade window has any impact on running projects.


To know more about this topic you can read this Blog post

Option 1 :How to create a new Project for an upgrade


In case you are comfortable dealing with multiple projects, the simplest option is to create a new Project using the The Activate roadmap for upgrade.


 

But you need to know the overheads or limitations of using multiple projects in SAP Cloud ALM.

Scopes, Requirements, Test cases, and notes they are project-specific entities so you will need to recreate them if required for the newly created upgrade project. Also, SAP Cloud ALM does not have cross Project reporting, there is however the Release and Deployment plan reporting which can cut across Projects

 

Option 2: How to handle upgrade information in the same running Project


In case you do not want to create a new Project for the upgrade event, you can manage things in the same project. As an example

  1. Model upgrade timeline as a custom phase in the current Project

  2. Create a placeholder project using an upgrade roadmap

  3. Download tasks from the placeholder project

  4. Edit the downloaded file and change the phase names

  5. Reupload the edited file into the running Project


you can use the screenshots below to understand it better.

 

Step 1: Create custom phases for Prepare and Realize phase for the upgrade event in the main running Project




Step 2: Create a placeholder Project


Create a placeholder project using the upgrade roadmap template



Step 3: Download tasks from Placeholder Project


Ensure you select all tasks ( except the ones for the Deliverable: SAP Cloud ALM Setup) and then use the option "For creation using Template"



Step 4: Edit the downloaded Excel file


You need to adjust the Task type, Task source, and Timebox

Change Task type Template Task to Project Task

Change Task source SAP Activate Methodology to Manually Created

Change Timebox to match the custom phases you created earlier in the main project

Before editing




After editing




Step 5: Upload the edited file to the main project



verify that tasks show mapped to the custom phases


With this approach, you can reuse the existing teams, scopes, requirements, and test cases during your upgrade timeline and do not need to monitor a separate project.

Next steps


As we publish many blog posts its easy to get lost so please bookmark

Expert Portal for Implementation

and

Master Blog Post

You can also follow jagmohansingh.chawla to ensure you do not miss any updates. Leave a comment, stay tuned, and  have a great day

 
7 Comments
Saumitra
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
0 Kudos
Great blog @jagmohansingh.chawla : Going to help a lot of Upgrades upcoming in Feb 2023.

-Saumi
Guru
Participant
0 Kudos
Is this applicable for 2SL public cloud upgrade also?
Jagmohan_Chawla
Advisor
Advisor
0 Kudos
Hi

The SAP Cloud ALM capabilities such as Release management are. available for 2SL as well. The one difference is Activate does not provide a dedicated upgrade roadmap for 2SL

Regards

Jag
Satyabrat
Explorer
0 Kudos
Hi Jagmohan,

Very nice and helpful information.

When I am going for a upgrade is it possible to get information on the impacted  development and customization (standard/custom objects) implemented currently in the system with help of SAP Clould ALM ? It will be very helpful to act proactively in the system during a upgrade.

 

Thanks & Regards,

Satyabrat
Jagmohan_Chawla
Advisor
Advisor
0 Kudos
Hi

not possible at the moment. We are working to improve Integration with RASD but this impact analysis if not offered yet but maybe a future enhacement

Regards

Jag
Satyabrat
Explorer
0 Kudos

Thanks Jag, for the confirmation.

Should we conclude that at current, impact assesment is only availabel for S/4HANA Cloud and not for SAP S/4HANA cloud Private edition (CPE).

Thanks & Regards

Satyabrat 

LisaSanders
Associate
Associate
I can recommend this Blog Post on how SAP Cloud ALM integrates with the Release Assessment and Scope Dependency tool:

https://blogs.sap.com/2023/07/25/how-to-manage-sap-s-4hana-cloud-upgrade-2308-in-sap-cloud-alm/