Solution Manager in the Business Blueprint phase
The definition of the Business Blueprint enables you to document your company's business processes that you want to use in your customer-specific solution. First, create a project structure in which the relevant business scenarios, business processes, and processes steps are structured hierarchically.
Next, create project documentation, which can be assigned to individual scenarios, processes, or process steps, to define the relevant functional and technical business requirements. Finally, assign transactions to each process step and define how the business processes run in your SAP systems.
When you create the Business Blueprint for your customer-specific project structure, you can use business content shipped by SAP. This content comprises business scenarios/processes/process steps and associated documentation.
Of course, you can also create your own content
You can also print out the Business Blueprint document and continue to use the defined project structure during configuration and the test organization:
- When you configure your business processes, the system displays the project structure from the Business Blueprint again. You can use the project structure of the Business Blueprint as a basis for configuration.
- Furthermore, you can display and edit the project documentation from the Business Blueprint phase during configuration.
- The project structure from the Business Blueprint is the basis for all test plans that you create during the test organization phase. The transactions that you assign in the Business Blueprint process steps are included in test plans when you generate these and can be processed as function tests to test the relevant transactions.
The central aim is that everything pertaining to an implementation/upgrade project is stored together in a central point – SAP Solution Manager.
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The Business Process Repository (BPR)
The Business Process Repository is a collection of reusable, predefined business process information. It contains:
- Scenario documentation.
- Transaction assignments.
- IMG assignments.
- Business scenario configuration guides.
- Preconfigured processes provided in BC Sets.
- Predefined test cases.
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Dimensions of Business Processes
Customer often claimed that they could not include more information for their business processes, that is what activities should be done, what events are to trigger and so on. Now with SAP Solution Managert 7.1 you can use the function SAP Business blueprinting.
With SAP Business Blueprinting you can use the application SAP NETWEAVER Business Process Management to model processes. And if you have SAP NW BPM installed on an active SAP NetWeaver Process Integration Server you can skip to this installed SAP NW BPM and create the executable business process. (Model-to-Execution Approach).
The content of the Business Process Repository can vary from scenario to scenario.
Note that the latest Business Process Repository content can be downloaded from SAP Service Marketplace at http://service.sap.com/solutionmanager.
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Solution Manager in the realization phase
At the end of the Business Blueprint phase, the Realization phase begins. The objective of this individual project segment is to configure and test in the system the processes that were elaborated in the Business Blueprint phase.
SAP Solution Manager enables process-oriented instead of component-oriented configuration and testing on the basis of the project structure defined in the Business Blueprint phase. Moreover, all associated documentation, such as configuration information and test cases, can be added and saved in the project structure together with the relevant process.
From SAP Solution Manager, you can navigate to the different system components for configuration and test purposes.
If you use objects from the Business Process Repository in your structures, these objects may already be assigned to transactions and BC Sets.
If you create structures without objects from the Business Object Repository, you can make the following assignments yourself:
- Transactions in transaction
SOLAR01 - BUSINESS BLUEPRINT. - BC Sets, IMG objects, and test cases in transaction
SOLAR02 - CONFIGURATION.
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Customizing Distribution
In a distributed solution landscape, selected Customizing settings must generally be maintained synchronously in different systems. Using Customizing Distribution, synchronize the Customizing settings in a source system (for example, SAP R/3 Enterprise) with the Customizing settings in the target systems (for example, an SAP CRM system).
Examples of IMG settings that you may have to synchronize include sales master data and organizational objects such as partner roles, credit functions, company codes, sales organizations, divisions, and so on. In R/3 Enterprise and CRM, for example, these must be identical for transactions and reports.
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Advantages of Customizing Distribution
Customizing Distribution enables efficient and consistent configuration in different systems. In scenarios you define WHICH objects have to be synchronized and WHEN.
In transports, you can process ABAP objects as well as objects in Java, .net, C++ in one common transport track.
In the current version of SAP Solution Manager, Quality Management has top priority. This means that you can take a look at changes to affected objects and have them approved by QM managers before they are transported to your production environment.
Testing and Transition to Production Operation
The test phase follows on directly from Customizing of the new solution.
Solution Manager includes a full test environment with which it is possible to record and document test cases.
The following slide shows the test options in SAP Solution Manager Enterprise Edition.
The Test Data Migration Server (SAP TDMS) of SAP Solution Manager makes it possible to construct a test system, which, for example only takes a fraction of the data from a database with a size of 2.6 terabytes. This means you could specify that you only want to have the data from November 2008 to January 2009 in the test system. The Solution Manager service fetches the corresponding data from the production system and saves it in the new test system.
You can obtain the following data, for example:
- Repository and client-independent data.
- All master and configuration data.
- Transaction data from a particular time segment in addition to all master and configuration data.
- Transaction data of a particular time segment in addition to all master data and configuration of a certain business entity (for example, a company code).
You determine which data is to be extracted from your production system and transport the selected production data using proven data migration technology into your development, test, quality assurance and training systems. You can also use this tool to selectively refresh individual clients in the target system.
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