Change Request Management

Expert Guided Implementation

SAP Solution Manager 7.0 EhP1 SP24

Florian Georg Liebl

florian.georg.liebl@sap.com
Change Request Management - Process Example

Date Name Alteration Reason Version

08.12.2010 Florian Georg Liebl Creation 1.0

15.12.2010 Florian Georg Liebl Extension 2.0

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Change Request Management - Process Example

INDEX

1 Example Urgent Correction 4

2 Example Normal Correction 22

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Change Request Management - Process Example

1 Example Urgent Correction

SAP Solution Manager / Transaction CRMD_ORDER:

Choose Extra  Settings  Specific … and choose transaction type SDCR (Change Request).

Now press the Button CHANGE REQUEST to create a new Change Request.

First the status of the Change Request is “To Be Approved”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Fill in all the blanks and choose Urgent Correction (SDHF) as Subject.

If the following pop-up appears press “Yes” to continue.

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The Change Manager has now to approve the Change Request  Choose Action “Authorize Change
Request”.

The Change Manager has to assign the Change Request to a Maintenance Cycle if you have more than
one open for your landscape.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

The status of the Change Request is now “Authorized” … use the Document Flow button to jump into
the Change Document (Urgent Correction) or use the transaction monitor CRM_DNO_MONITOR to
review all urgent corrections.

First thing to do in the following document (Status: “Created”) is to “Set the Correction into
Development”, after that the developer can start working on it.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

After pressing save you are asked to create one or several transport request(s), depending on the
changes you will be making (client independent or not):

In our example we will be adding some entries which are client dependent so we only need a
transport request of type Customizing.

Next thing to do is to logon to the system and check whether the transport request has been made.
For example, if your authorizations are not OK a transport request will not be created, so first check!
Alternatively you can check the Text Log by using the tab “Transaction Data”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Press “ABAP” if the following pop-up appears in your system.

The developer can log on to the development system and make some changes (for example in table
t009t). After that press save and choose button “Own Requests”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Select the corresponding Transport Request which has been created previously.

Go to transaction SE09 (DEV-System) and release directly your transport task.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

After the developer assigned some test instructions he can choose the action “Pass Correction to
Test” (back in the SAP Solution Manager).

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Select the transport request that needs to be released and imported into the QAS-System.

Press continue and the testers can start testing; since the import of the changes will be performed
automatically by the system (ChaRM) into the next system in the system track.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

If you now take a look into the import queue (transaction: STMS_IMPORT) for this client/system you
will see that the transport request is imported; now people can start their testing. For an urgent
correction the import stays in the import buffer for later import with its related Maintenance Cycle.

Open your urgent correction and Logon to the test system(s). Run your test and log your results in the
test report of your urgent correction:

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Check the changes, and if OK, perform action “Confirm Successful Test” or reset the Status to “In
Development” if the test was not successful.

The new status is called “Successfully tested”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

After that the Change Manager can release (reprove) the changes for Production. Press save and the
status will changed to “Authorized for Import”. The import in this case will NOT be performed
automatically. Imports into production always must be done at a chosen point in time!

At this point the IT-Operator can perform the actions “Start Retrofit” or “Import Correction to
Production System”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

The transport requests remains in the import buffers for a re-import. After the phase "Go-Live" of the
Maintenance Cycle all imports belonging to the urgent correction will be re-imported together with
all normal corrections (by keeping the right sequence) and deleted afterwards from the import
buffer.

After the Import into the Productive System check the correction and if everything is OK, perform the
action “Confirm Correction”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

After that you can perform the action “Complete Correction”.

Press “Yes” to complete the correction.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

If a retrofit system is maintained for the maintenance landscape a check will be performed whether a
retrofit has been performed or not. The Information occurs if the action “Start Retrofit” for the
urgent correction has not been performed.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

The Urgent correction is completed now.

Use the “Document Flow” button to jump into the preceding change request or use the transaction
monitor CRM_DNO_MONITOR to review all change requests.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Also the Change Request should be confirmed …

The final Status is “Confirmed”.

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Please note that there exists a separate task list for the urgent correction which is totally independent
from the task list of the project (maintenance cycle).

The task list of an urgent correction always represents the shortest transport track to the target
system. This will be determined automatically for each urgent correction. You can use the report
/TMWFLOW/SCMA_BTCH_SYNC_UC to import urgent corrections that have been completed into
parallel production systems, or into parallel test systems by using the report
/TMWFLOW/SCMA_BTCH_SYNC_TEST.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

2 Example Normal Correction

Solution Manager / Transaction CRMD_ORDER:

Choose Extra  Settings  Tab Specific … and choose transaction type SDMJ (Normal Correction).

Now press the Button NORMAL CORRECTION to create a new Normal Correction.

First the status of the Normal Correction is “Created” if you create the Normal Correction without a
Change Request. If you want to create a Normal Correction out of a change request choose
Normal Correction (Maintenance) as Subject (Recommended Procedure / see Example Urgent
Correction).

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Fill in all the blank fields and enter a “Description of Change”.

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After saving, choose one maintenance cycle if you have more than one open for your landscape.

Current Phase: Development without Release (or Development with Release)

First action to perform is to set the normal correction to In Development. After that the developer
can start working on it. Press save ... and the normal correction get the status “In Development”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Now create transport request(s) depending on the functionality you will be developing, you will
create Customizing, Workbench or both. In contrast to the urgent correction, this action will not
run automatically, but must be performed manually.

Press “Save” and select what you want to create. The description of the correction is copied into
the Short Description of the transport request on the development system.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Now you can see that a transport request has been created, this is the transport number that you
will be using for all your changes belonging to this correction. You can perceive the number by
using the tabs “Transaction Data”  “Objects” inside your normal correction.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Now the developer can log on to the development system to perform his changes on the system.

Make your change on the development system and assign it to the correct transport request when
saving the change. After pressing the button “Own Requests” you may see all transport requests
corresponding to your user.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Release your tasks (transaction SE09) and last leave the Development System (DEV). Now you can
go back to the normal correction on the SAP Solution Manager system.

If your project phase is “Development without Release” the change manager now can switch the
project phase to “Development with Release” so that the developers can complete their
developments (Action: “Complete Development”).

The recommended way to switch the project phase is via the cycle transaction. The project /change
manager can reach the cycle transaction (SDMN) through several ways:

 One possibility to reach the cycle transaction is via the transaction CRM_DNO_MONITOR.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

 Another possibility to reach the cycle transaction is to execute the task “Change Transaction in
Service Desk” within the task list.

Please note that you always switch the phase for the whole project and not only for a single normal
correction.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Current Phase: Development with Release

The Developer can enter a “Test Instruction” for the Tester.

Through the action “Complete Development” a test transport (transport of copies) will be created
and exported from the DEV-System. This test transport is now available in the following import
buffer (usually the import buffer of the QAS-System). A project manager / change manager can
schedule the task “Import Transport Request” for that QAS-System so that a unit test can be
performed on the QAS-System (the test transports are not present in the import buffer of the
production system).

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The result is visible in the Import Queue of the QAS System (Client 802).

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Another possibility to create a test transport is the corresponding action “Test Transport”. This
action does not lead to a status change. The normal correction still remains in status “In
Development”.

Back to the standard workflow: The next status of the normal correction is “To Be Tested”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

The following activity should be performed either by an administrator or project / change manager.
By the help of the task list the test transport can be imported into the QAS-System.

Go to the target system track and schedule “Import Transport Request (Background)”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Choose some scheduling details and press “Schedule Job (F2)”.

On the following pop-up window you can change some import options or just press “Continue”.

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Now the test transport has been imported to the QAS-System (Client 802). The Developer or Tester
can log on to the QAS-System to verify his changes.

The next step is to set the status to “Consolidated” via the action “Confirm Successful Test”.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Through this action the original transports will be released and put into the transport buffer of the
quality assurance system (not yet in the transport buffer of the production system). There they
will remain with all the other normal corrections (in status “Consolidated”) until the whole project
moves to the next phase.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

After that the project / change manager can switch the phase from “Development with Release” to
“Test”.

Current Phase: Test

Because the project (maintenance cycle) has reached the test phase you can schedule the import
of the original transport request into the quality assurance system via the task list. During the test
phase no further normal correction can be exported from the DEV-System. To fix errors during
the integration test so called test messages (SDTM) can be created.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

After running the integration test the project / change manager can switch the phase to
“Emergency Correction”. This phase represents a finished test phase and allows the preparation
of the upcoming go-live.

Current Phase: Emergency Correction

Now the project / change manager prepare the go-live and switch the phase to “Go-Live”.

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Current Phase: Go-Live

During the go-live phase the IT-Operator can schedule the import of all normal corrections within
the status “Consolidated” (corresponding to the project) into the production system (including
the re-import of the urgent corrections) in the correct sequence.

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Change Request Management - Process Example

Now go back to the normal correction and perform action “Set Production Status”. If you want to
change this status for many normal corrections you can use the report
CRM_SOCM_SERVICE_REPORT.

This action checks if all transport requests belonging to that normal correction has been imported
successfully and set the status “Production” for that normal correction.

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After that the project / change manager can switch the phase to “Completing”.

Current Phase: Completing

Now the project / change manager can decide whether to complete the maintenance cycle
(recommended) or to switch the phases back to “Development without Release”.

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Recommended option: Complete Maintenance Cycle.

Now you can call the transaction SOLAR_PROJECT_ADMIN to create a new task list and start a new
maintenance cycle.

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In case there are still open urgent or normal corrections no change processes will get lost. They will
be assigned to the next maintenance cycle.

Now you can start with the developments for the next release.

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