As we all know SAP has some robust documentation and approach in upgrading from lower release of S/4 HANA to higher release. This personal insight is just based on some lessons learned and how we can proactively take control to ensure that we adhere to a timeline with less uncertainty.
While working on some of the upgrade projects, we have come across some common issues, and as we all learn from our experience. This blog will help us to dig into the system and understand it beforehand so that there is no surprise at a later point in time.
certain system requirements need to be done beforehand to upgrade the current landscape to a recent release. SAP has good documentation which can be used for an upgrade.
Link:
https://help.sap.com/doc/760ce610a2af4174a329d2d8315378e2/2020/en-US/UPGR_OP2020.pdf
My idea is to highlight what we did differently to enable find the Technical Inventories of the system to know how they will be affected post-upgrade.
We run TCS ACE+, which is an SAP-certified tool that we use to find the Technical Inventories of the system. It is a lightweight tool and can be installed on a customer Laptop or Desktop. As explained in the picture it is capable of fetching data from any SAP system.
The tool will provide the following details of the system.
- FRICEW objects
- SPDD & SPAU Info
- Batch Jobs details
- User Licenses
- Custom Code impact analysis w.r.t to latest release.
- Impact Analysis for Transaction Codes
- Impact on Security Roles
- Simplification Details etc.
So we are prepared with some basic preparation about the upgrade and its impact. It will provide some confidence that the future upgrade will bring for us.
As far as my knowledge goes I would prefer to run a SI check beforehand with the stack and then run Maintenance Planner for the final generation of the stack. Most of the time we try to avoid the pre SI Check and we run it post Maintenance Planner. We have seen that pre SI checks sometimes provide us some insights that will keep us prepared. This is just a proactive measure.
The second different approach is that I would prefer to run ATC before SUM once. This I know might give you a thought why I am asking to run it. This is because if we run ATC in Development, Quality, Preproduction and finally in production. We shall be prepared with any delta differences which might exist.
So even when I move the transport from Development to corresponding boxes I am sure that there is no surprise waiting for me.
Now that I have given a brief overview on the process, I shall try to explain how I would take care of the most important part of the upgrade i.e. Fiori Hub to Fiori Embedded. I am sure many of us know this very well and aware of the approach. However, this is my insight which might be accepted by you with a smile, as you know how this will save your effort. While I shall explain them stepwise, I shall also provide a diagram for a better understanding of this scenario.
So in HUB, we have a Fiori Front End and a Fiori Back End. The main reason to have my Fiori Backend role is to ensure that when a user is using a Fiori App there is certainly another parameter that is also fetched as the user calls an app.
In a simple example, if I want to see a Purchase Order from my Fiori app. I need to have other objects, hierarchies and other parameters in place to see the Purchase order.
For example, my authorization should be enabled for certain enterprise structures like company code, plant, etc. and parameters, transactions, etc.
This is the main reason that I need to align the backend so that when a certain app is used the front end and back end Fiori roles are aligned to fetch other objects and parameters associated with the app to provide me the data.
So during the migration to Hub to Embedded this Backend and Frontend Fiori Roles becomes redundant because I am in the same box.
Here I would like to provide a simple and easy to go approach in the following steps. This is aligned to Rapid Activation but with a slight variation.
- I identify my all custom UI5 apps and bring them in a transport.
- All Roles, Catalogues, and groups are also captured in a transport.
- All my other components are also captured in a transport.
- I keep them in a sequence just for my understand and ease of Basis associate.
So I have my back end upgraded to S/4 HANA 2020. But my SAP FES is AS-IS. Now I use Rapid Activation in my SAP S/4 HANA 2020 in the following steps.
- Check Prerequisite based on Master Note 2947824
- Check SNOTE to see if any implementation has a gap.
- All the transport I have created in FES which includes Catalogue, Roles, Business group, OData I migrate them to my new SAP S/4 HANA 2020.
- Use SU25 for profile generation
- User- Fiori Admin creation
- Specific Authorization tuning.
- Fiori Admin created.
- Generate Task List
- OData Registration.
- Configure Embedded Analytics
- Fiori and Gateway Basic Setup
- Transport Organizer Configuration
- Fiori Content Activation
- User Roles and Authorization.
- Web Despatcher & Firewall -Adjustment
So now I have a SAP S/4 HANA system with embedded Fiori but I still have both Front End and Backend Fiori Roles.
Here I would like to utilize this opportunity to get rid of redundant roles and merge/enable just Frontend Fiori roles removing all the unnecessary back-end roles.
I would take this opportunity to enable both Business transformation and Change management for Business and end-user. We have some specialized workshops designed which will ensure that Business, End Users and IT work hand in hand to enable the best utilization of Fiori.
- The apps they need.
- The report they run
- The search they do on everyday work
- Analytics is not just reporting but stories as well.
This is the most simplistic approach to ensure we are utilizing an upgrade with a consensus among all parties. Though it is Technical Upgrade Business and End Users will also find the emotional connection with this upgrade. Needless to say, if the customer is happy, it’s a successful upgrade.
At the same time, we get the following advantage from this upgrade.
- The New Role Matrix for seamless Audit Compliance.
- Simple and Intuitive experience of User – High Customer Satisfaction.
- Provide Businesses and Users what they want.
- Establish the emotional connection with Fiori.