"Use Case Buddy" - A tool to streamline the ideation phase of use cases for fusion development with SAP Build
In today's complex IT landscape, governance is paramount. This is especially true for low-code technology such as that offered by SAP Build, which is a great way to empower key users (also known as citizen developers) to create innovative solutions for their business needs, and to support the work of professional developers by collaborating in fusion teams – but, how to govern this new development paradigm?
As the volume of use case ideas for consideration quickly grows from a few to a dozen to hundreds, the IT teams responsible for governing the use of SAP Build need to manage ideation and use case selection at scale. Therefore, characterizing the complexity of a use case before development begins is critical to prevent redundancy, avoidable costs, quality issues, and potential security risks.
Selecting use cases requires a clear and efficient process to ensure that they are feasible, aligned with IT standards, and suitable for fusion collaboration. That's why we are excited to introduce the SAP Builders "Use Case Buddy", a framework to specify how complex a use case idea is to develop and maintain.
What is the Use Case Buddy?
The Use Case Buddy is an app for builders to define their use case idea and then automatically submit it to IT for review and to also list it on a repository.
It serves as:
- An enablement tool for IT admins to provide to key users/citizen developers
- An ideation tool for developers to think through requirements for building their use case ideas
- A validation tool that routes submitted use cases to reviewers for initial assessment and alignment on the business need and technical requirements
The Use Case Buddy consists of an app, based on SAP Build Apps, an automated workflow based on SAP Build Process Automation, and a repository page in SAP Build Work Zone. It is packaged as a set of "private label” templates that you can download and then customize for your own organization. You use the templates to build the solution, and then host it in your organization’s landscape for internal use.
Let's take a closer look at how the main components work together to streamline your low-code development and collaboration!
The app: Describe and score use case ideas
The app is built with SAP Build Apps and it allows your users to answer a set of practical questions to describe their use case idea. The questions cover four categories: data & metrics, collaboration & access, timing and routes & logic. Based on their answers, the app will calculate a score and a complexity level for their use case, ranging from easy to very high. The score and the complexity level will help but the requestor and IT to approximate the effort and collaboration needed to build the use case. Lastly, the app forwards the entered data to the automated process.
The process: review and approve your use case idea
The process is built with SAP Build Process Automation and it automates the workflow of reviewing and approving use case ideas. When your users submit their use case idea from the app, an email, and an inbox notification will be sent to the IT admin to review the details. The IT admin can see the answers provided and thus analyze the technical requirements and decide whether to approve or reject. This will be done based on the respective IT bandwidth, requirements, and compliance factors specific to an organization. When the IT approves or rejects a use case idea, users will receive an email with the outcome and the summary of the project. Afterwards, the use cases are automatically submitted to the repository as a centralized reference.
The repository: manage and collaborate on your use case portfolio
The repository is built with SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition and it hosts a use case listing with all the ideas that have been submitted and reviewed by IT. Users and IT teams can view the details of each use case, and comment, contribute, and exchange ideas with other users. The repository is a great way to manage a use case portfolio and collaborate with IT and other stakeholders on your low-code development projects.
Make it your own!
The Use Case Buddy is a set of pre-built content packages that are templates for SAP Build Apps, SAP Build Process Automation and SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition. It has been pre-filled with questions and calculations based on best practices, however everything can be changed and customized to the needs of your organization.
Do you need different questions? Do you want to have other reviewers than IT included? Do you want to change up the branding? Do you like to weigh different factors of complexity more than others? - all these things can be customized by following the tutorial and change up the templates.
Click here to do the tutorial and make the Use Case Buddy your own!
How to get it?
You can get the content packages for the Use Case Buddy from the SAP Build Governance Resource Center (get Early Access here) and follow the tutorial to build your own Use Case Buddy! We hope you will enjoy using the Use Case Buddy and we look forward to hearing your feedback and suggestions - how can we improve the template and what is still missing for you?
Also check out the Discussion on the Use Case Buddy within our SAP Builders Group - let us hear what you think.
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