ALM How-To: Designing and living IT processes in SAP Cloud ALM
This time, our blog series “How to ALM ” (HTALM) is about the possibilities of modeling and documenting ALM processes directly in SAP Cloud ALM (CALM). We show how to “activate” the predefined ALM best practice flows in SAP Cloud ALM and then customize them.
❓ Why document ALM processes in SAP Cloud ALM?
The predefined best practices in SAP Cloud ALM already provide a clear structure for onboarding, project setup, build, test and deployment. Nevertheless, every organization has individual requirements for IT processes that make it necessary to adapt the processes. And here’s the best part: you can adapt and document the best practice processes directly in SAP Cloud ALM BPMN Modeler.
⚽️ ALM Kick-start Modeling
SAP Cloud ALM comes with detailed BPMN process diagrams for the following areas:
- Onboarding
- Projektsetup
- Fit-to-Standard
- Build
- Test
- Deployment
- Fix & Enhance
How can we now activate and customize them? I will give an example of the Fix & Enhance process. This process shows how solutions can be improved and enhanced iteratively – usually in the so-called maintenance phase, which comes after the project phase. In this Fix & Enhance process, you may want to integrate the integration of incidents and changes as a starting point from another tool in SAP Cloud ALM with a feature and not with a requirement, as envisaged in the best practice flow.
Important: I am deliberately not talking about an operations/operations “phase” here, but about a maintenance/maintenance “phase”, because the functions for operations/operations are reserved for the monitoring area in SAP Cloud ALM.
Step 1: Create a new scope for the “Tools and technology” solution scenario within a project
Step 2: Include solution processes of the solution scenario in the scope (via toggle switch)
The result can then be viewed immediately, as the solution value flow and the solution process diagrams are visible
Step 3: Create a copy of the solution process
Step 5: The copied diagrams can now be adapted to the company’s requirements, saved and published
💎 Why all this?
Thanks to the visualized roles and activities, everyone involved understands the process. We create transparency and are efficient because we don’t need another tool and can build on the best practices.
Ultimately, this is extremely helpful for following even complex processes and ensuring that nothing is forgotten.
➡️ And one last tip
Uses the initial experience with BPMN for the ALM processes to document the business processes in the same form. This creates uniform standards that generate transparency and promote collaboration between IT and specialist departments.
The integrated tools and best practices in SAP Cloud ALM make ALM process management not only efficient, but also intuitive.
