2653483 - SAP Solution Manager Content Activation from 7.1 to 7.2: migration of executable variants

For Content Activation of SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SOLAR content to SAP Solution Manager 7.2 Solution Documentation content, a migration mechanism for executable variants is not available.

In SAP Solution Manager 7.1, executable variants are available for some executable types (for example transactions or reports). Those executable variants in SAP Solution Manager 7.1 can be used like any other executable type (in the transaction tab, as a test object, as key for global attributes and object links).

In Solution Documentation of SAP Solution Manger 7.2, executable variants are not a preferred solution. However, on an executable Process Step level, Solution Documentation provides mechanisms to build Process Step variants in two different flavors:

• Re-usable Process Step variants: In the Process Step library define multiple Process Step originals for the same executable original. These multiple Process Step originals can then be used to create de-facto-variants for the same executable.
  
  
• Local Process Step variants: Within the end-to-end business process assign local properties (assignments and attributes) to Process Step originals thereby creating local Process Step variants. 

In SAP Solution Manager 7.1, the intended use of executable variants had always been at Process Step level only. However, executable variants could be used in SAP Solution Manager 7.1 at all structure nodes within a transaction tab. Nevertheless, the intended use had always been to assign executable variants at Process Step level only.

Therefore, we provide in the guided procedure for content activation a migration mechanism only for executable variants which are assigned at process step level. The executable variants assigned at any other level are not migrated.

In SAP Solution Manager 7.2, executable variants at Process Step level only are strictly enforced. Therefore, a migration workaround is established for SAP Solution Manager 7.1 executable variants which are not defined on Process Step level. This workaround is described in the following.

Basic Idea of the Migration Workaround

The migration of a process step with executable variants in 7.1 leads to a couple of process steps (one basic process step for the base executable and one additional “variant” process step for each executable variant). All specific information related to executable variants are kept (assigned TBOMs and the executable variants as test objects) and assigned to the corresponding additional “variant” process steps.

Note that the migration of executable variants is restricted to executable variants of the transaction tab of process steps. Any other executable variant is not subject of migration, that means they are ignored in the business blueprint migration.

Algorithm of the Migration Workaround

For each executable variant V for a base executable Exe within the transaction tab of a process step PS within process P, the migration works as described in the following algorithm:

• In addition to the standard process step original PS created in the process step library, a “variant” process step original PS-V is created in the process step library.
  The title of the “variant” process step combines the titles of the process step and the executable variant.
  
  
• In addition to the reference to standard process PS within P, a reference process step PS-V is added within P.
  
  
• All assignments of the process step PS which are not depending on an executable variant, are replicated in the process step original PS-V.
  
  
  • In particular the base executable Exe contained in the transaction tab is migrated to a reference into the executable original Exe in the executable library.
    
    
• Those assignments of the process step PS which are depending on the executable variant V are also assigned to the process step original PS-V.
  
  
  • A TBOM assigned to the executable variant V is migrated as child of the reference to Exe within the process step original PS-V.
  • Any test case with test object V is also assigned to process step original PS-V.
    
    
• The executable variant V is not directly migrated to any target element.

Example for a Migration Workaround

Source Blueprint in 7.1

In our example, there are two transaction variants VarA and VarB for the transaction VA01 within a process step PS1. The process step contains two variant specific TBOMs TB_A and TB_B and a variant specific test case TC1. In addition, the process step has a transaction variant independent assignment of document D1.

Target Solution Documentation in 7.2

The Solution Documentation of the migration target has three process step originals in a specific process step folder Folder PS1: the basic step PS1 and two “variant” steps PS1-VarA and PS1-VarB. The variant independent assignment of document D1 is replicated at all process step originals.

All process step original share an assignment of transaction original VA01. The transaction variant specific test case TC1 and TBOMs TB_A and TB_B are assigned only at the corresponding “variant” process step originals PS1-VarA resp. PS1-VarB.

Manual Task to improve the Migration Result

The migration algorithm described above leads to some redundancies in the target Solution Documentation. Manual reworking respectively refactoring tasks have to be performed in the Solution Documentation in order to achieve a high quality Solution Documentation. In particular, the following manual tasks have to be done:

• Merge redundant process step originals in the process step library.
  
  
• Clean up the process step references for the different variants within the processes or revise of the corresponding process diagrams accordingly.

Advantages of the Migration Workaround

The advantages of the migration workaround are:

• You keep all variant specific TBOMs and assignments (at process step level).
  
  
• You keep the variant specific test case assignments (at process step level).
  
  
• You provide an initial definition of variants as re-usable process step originals.

content migration, executable variants, varianten, tranportieren, transport, transfer, Kontent, , KBA , SV-SMG-IMP-BIM , Business Blueprint / Solution Documentation , How To