1. business and industrial

Compare & Adjust
How to Guide for Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution
Manager Application Lifecycle Management
www.sap.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
1.0 Motivation ................................................................................................................................................ 4
2.0 Method and Prerequisites ...................................................................................................................... 5
3.0 Usage ....................................................................................................................................................... 7
3.1 One project as single source of truth .................................................................................................... 7
3.2 Solution as single source of truth ......................................................................................................... 8
3.2.1 Copy procedure for Major Release project ............................................................................................... 8
3.2.2 Major Release update by Compare & Adjust ......................................................................................... 9
3.2.3 Roll back changes from Projects to source Solution ............................................................................ 10
3.2.3.1 Run final Compare & Adjust .............................................................................................................. 10
3.2.3.2 Adjust changes .................................................................................................................................... 10
3.2.3.2.1 Business Scenario, Process, Step adjustments ............................................................................... 10
3.2.3.2.2 Interface Scenario adjustments ...................................................................................................... 11
3.2.3.2.3 Document Management in Compare & Adjust ................................................................................. 11
3.3 Template as single source of truth ..................................................................................................... 13
3.3.1 Roll out update by Compare & Adjust .................................................................................................. 13
3.3.2 Run final Compare & Adjust (Roll back from roll out to template) .......................................................... 15
3.3.2.1 Adjust changes .................................................................................................................................... 15
3.3.2.1.1 Business Scenario, Process, Step adjustments ............................................................................... 15
3.3.2.2.2 Interface Scenario adjustments ........................................................................................................ 16
3.3.2.2.3 Document Management in Compare & Adjust ................................................................................. 16
3.3.3 Final update of solution .......................................................................................................................... 18
4.0 Additional features in Compare & Adjust .......................................................................................... 19
4.1 Mass adjustment........................................................................................................................................ 19
4.2 Push compare............................................................................................................................................ 19
4.3 Structure attributes in Compare & Adjust .................................................................................................. 20
5.0 Linked Documents................................................................................................................................. 21
Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
COPYRIGHT
© 2013 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, StreamWork,
SAP HANA, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries.
Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions, Web
Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business Objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their
respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects Software Ltd. Business
Objects is an SAP company.
Sybase and Adaptive Server, iAnywhere, Sybase 365, SQL Anywhere, and other Sybase products and
services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Sybase Inc. Sybase is an SAP company.
Crossgate, m@gic EDDY, B2B 360°, and B2B 360° Services are registered trademarks of Crossgate AG in
Germany and other countries. Crossgate is an SAP company.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data
contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.
These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its
affiliated companies ("SAP Group") for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any
kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only
warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty
statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as
constituting an additional warranty.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
1.0
Motivation
Within SAP Solution Manager Release 7.1, SAP delivered capabilities to control and manage changes to
Solution Documentation in the Application Lifecycle. These capabilities include the extension of the
Compare & Adjust functionality to detect deltas between two (or more) dependent objects. For the first time,
you can compare content of a project and a solution as well as propagate delta modifications from target
back to the source.
These capabilities are available for all types of Application Lifecycle use cases including:




Project centric
Solution as single source of truth
Template as single source of truth
Lifecycle model as single source of truth
Compare & Adjust requires a clear definition of governance procedures for adjustment activities with an
adjustment sequence, time constraints and responsibilities.
This document describes the procedures on how, when and who could perform Compare & Adjust to
control changes done to business processes and their assignments in different use cases.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
2.0
Method and Prerequisites
In general, Compare & Adjust allows the comparison of structure content and its assignments to determine
changes to the structure (business scenarios/processes/steps) as well as to assignments (transactions,
documents, technical objects and attributes).
The ability to compare two projects/solutions is allowed in two directions:


From source to target (e.g. template changes during roll out)
From target to source (e.g. information roll back from roll out project to template)
Furthermore the comparison is allowed for all predecessors and successors in the SAP Solution Manager
Application Lifecycle.
Method
Every structure node in SAP Solution Manager (business scenario, process or step) is defined in the system
by a unique ID. Structure IDs are stored in a matrix. This provides for the historical trace of a node’s origin.
This is explained in the following Figure 2.0-1 using an example of a single business process step.
Figure 2.0-1: Compare & Adjust M ethod: technical realization
The unique ID enables the comparison of projects and solutions that are directly or indirectly related. There
are some restrictions due to the technical realisation of this functionality. Only one line of information is
stored in the matrix for a template, an implementation project, a solution, a maintenance project or an
upgrade project. If several projects of the same type are created based on each other, then only the most
recent one is stored as a representative on the matrix for the appropriate project type. Please consider the
following illustration in Figure 2.0-2.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
Figure 2.0-2: Compare & Adjust M ethod: restrictions
In general, changes to structure nodes on different tabs are detected and include the following:
 Structure changes (changes on business scenarios/processes/steps)
 Addition/deletion of documents on the General Documentation tab (where a template project or BPR
has been used)
 Addition/deletion of assignments on the Project Documentation tab (for projects excluding template
project)
 Addition/deletion of assignments on the Documentation tab in solutions
 Addition/deletion of assignments on the Configuration, Development, Test Case, and Training tabs
including documents
In cases where a previously referenced document is copied when it is changed (known as “late copy”)
Compare & Adjust does not display both a document deletion and a new document but a changed
document with an unequal sign (see Figure 2.0-3).
Figure 2.0-3: De tection of document conten t chang es
This makes it easier to find changes in documents. Changes within a referenced document cannot be
detected by Compare & Adjust.
Compare & Adjust excludes the following:






All changes made within the Administration tab between projects
Status changes on the Configuration or Development tab
Changes on document attributes or content if the document is not copied
Changes on logical component assignment to business process steps
Graphical representation of the business process
Changes of remote objects, e.g. BC Set content or eCatt content
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
Prerequisites
1) The main prerequisite of Compare & Adjust is that the structures to be compared are directly or
indirectly related to each other. As pictured in Figure 2.0-2, it is not possible to compare occurences
which are in the relation line but are not a part of the matrix.
2) To ensure that interface scenarios are considered during Compare & Adjust, they have to be
resolved in the target project/solution (right mouse button: “Resolve External Interfaces). Once the
interface information has been stored locally, it can be treated like a business process.
Restrictions
Up to Support Package 09 (SAP Solution Manager Release 7.10) it is not possible to detect changes on
graphical business process representation (Component View tab). This includes the connections between
business process steps, their order as well as the interface assignments.
Recommendation
To use the Extended Compare & Adjust it is recommended to use SAP Solution Manager Release 7.10
Support Package 06.
3.0
Usage
Depending on the ALM concept, how Compare & Adjust is used can vary. In general, from the
organizational point of view, the roll in activities are related as tasks to the team who maintains / owns the
source of the data (for e.g Template Roll Out). However the roll back is typically seen as the last project
activity to run against the source. After this run, persons who are responsible for business scenarios or
processes have to bring deltas into their respective areas of responsibility.
However the procedures dealing with old/new business processes/scenarios and assigned interfaces have to
be clearly specified before using ALM and Compare & Adjust. The clear rules and procedures are
described in the following chapters.
3.1 One project as single source of truth
As business process structures are not re-used in other places, Compare & Adjust will simply be restricted
to the comparison of the former with the current version.
Figure 3.1-1: One Project as single source of truth
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
3.2 Solution as single source of truth
Compare & Adjust is restricted in the solution-centric model to only Solutions and Major Release projects.
Due to the Check Out/In activation, changes made in maintenance will be automatically reflected in the
solution after Check In.
3.2.1 Copy procedure for Major Release project
In general we have two possibilities on how to scope the Major Release project from solutions. Below you
will find detailed descriptions of the procedure and their comparison.
1) Copy Solution to Project
In this method the SAP Solution Manager is copying the whole structure from solution into project.
This includes:
 Business Scenarios
 Business Processes/Steps
 Interface Scenarios/Interfaces
 Scenario in-/dependent Master Data
 Scenario in-/dependent Organisational Units
 All assignments attached to the above listed structures
So every structure node is then also comparable to the solution when you roll back changes
performed on business scenarios, processes, steps, master data, organizational unit and
Interface scenario structures. Just the global configuration node (visible in SOLAR02) will not be
copied and has to be brought manually into the project scope if needed.
Advantages
Disadvantages
 All changes on every node will be
detected including additions and deletions
of structures and their assignments
(transactions, documents or other
technical objects). So, for example, new
business scenarios created during this
major release will be easily detected and
localized in the source solution.
 Easy creation of project and content.
 Inflexible scoping for major release
restricted just to one solution (mixing of
different scenarios from different solutions
is not possible).
 All business scenarios are copied
independently if they are to be changed in
the project or not.
 All interface scenarios have to be copied
independently if they are going to be
changed.
2) Select all relevant business scenarios from solution into project by input help in SOLAR01.
For this method, the project has to be created first by using transaction SOLAR_PROJECT_ADMIN.
Within this transaction just the project, title and KW Enhancement has to be selected Afterwards
relevant business scenarios can be selected on the Structure tab under transaction SOLAR01 for the
major release project. Please select there for the source “Solution”. While copying, the system
landscape for the project will be extended automatically.
After relevant business scenarios are copied you can resolve (copy) all relevant interfaces by moving
to the highest level of the structure tree and depressing the right mouse button. This action will
propose interfaces which are still stored centrally in the solution so you can separate and copy only
those which are relevant to be changed in this Major Release.
By following this procedure you can copy:
 Selected Business Scenarios
 Business Processes/Steps
 Selected Interfaces
 Scenario dependent Master Data
 Scenario dependent Organisational Units
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
Advantages
Disadvantages
 Very flexible scope for Major Release
project from several solutions. Only
relevant scenarios or processes are in
scope for the project.
 Flexible scope for interfaces.
 Newly added business scenarios will not
be detected automatically especially if
you combine several business scenarios
from several different solutions. For such
cases, the roll back into solutions requires
a manual decision where the new
scenario has to be stored to.
 Scenario-independent Master Data and
Organisational Units have to be selected
manually in case they have to be
changed in the project.
General Remark:
To create project, please select a different KW Enhancement (e.g. /KWCUST/KW, release 630) to achieve
the “late copy” document behaviour. For the second copy option, you can alternatively use the setting “Flag
Documents to be Copied” while copying relevant business scenarios.
Figure 3.2-1: Solution as single source of truth
3.2.2 Major Release update by Compare & Adjust
During the time in which the Major Release project is running, the solution can be changed slightly by
maintenance activities as well as by other projects. All changes brought into the Solution during a Major
Release project can also be populated by Compare & Adjust periodically as a part of regular retrofit
activities. For this purpose, please select from Major Release project menu Utilities  Compare Project
and select direct “Predecessor” for comparison nodes. The background job will flag all changes to the
appropriate business scenarios/processes/steps on relevant tabs.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
Recommendation
It is recommended to define time slots in which such an adjustment will be performed to all relevant
projects besides the solution.
3.2.3 Roll back changes from Projects to source Solution
After a re-design of the business scenarios/processes and successful testing, the changes have to be
brought into the Solution from which the data have been taken from.
3.2.3.1 Run final Compare & Adjust
It is recommended to start the Compare & Adjust transaction always from the place that you would
like to see the deltas in. In this case we start the compare from solution(s) using menu Utilities 
Compare Solution or by typing directly “compare“ into the command field. This will start the Compare
& Adjust transaction with pre-filled fields for the Solution ID. In the area “Specify Comparison Nodes”
please select radio button “Successor Nodes” and change the proposed entry in field “Source of
Comparison Nodes” from “Solution” into “Project”. In field “Successor Project/Solution” select your
Major Release project. Decide which tabs
have to be compared in this comparison
run and execute the transaction.
These Compare activities can be seen as
last project activities as the project
team/management knows where the
scope for their project is coming from.
Hence the Compare information is made
available and visible to business process
owners who will adjust the productive
business process information and merge
changed documents.
After the background job has completed,
the detected deltas will be displayed in
the appropriate solution and are ready for
adjustment. The icon ( ) serves as the
indicator for delta information noted for
relevant business process structures with
their tabs as well as interface structures.
3.2.3.2 Adjust changes
Due to the fact that the Solution itself is
locked for changes, the adjustment
cannot be done directly in the solution directory but has to be performed in the Maintenance project. In
general, we can distinguish between two different types of adjustments depending on where the
changes were detected. While the business process adjustment will be performed in a maintenance
project, the changes on interface scenarios will be performed in the solution directly.
Figure 3.2-2: Compare & Adjust Selection
3.2.3.2.1 Business Scenario, Process, Step adjustments
In order to perform the adjustment you have
to check out all deltas relevant to business
scenarios, processes and steps. All of them
are signed by the icon . This icon will
remain displayed also in the maintenance
project and thus give information in which the
business process owner has to make
adjustment. To navigate between the
relevant comparison differences use
the search button as shown in Figure
3.2-3.
Figure 3.2-3: Adjust navigation in
SOLAR01/02
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
It will be necessary to switch the comparison source to the last Major Release project as shown on
the following picture otherwise the Compare & Adjust popup will show no differences.
Figure 3.2-4: Sw itch betw een adjustment sources
This method will guarantee that all changes performed and detected during the comparison run,
and all the changes will be adjusted to the structure (new steps, processes or scenarios) or on
assignments (several tabs). Depending on the method in which the major release project has been
scoped (see chapter “3.2.1 Copy procedure for Major Release project”) it might be necessary that
new business scenarios have to be copied into the maintenance project manually as they will not
be detected automatically. Please keep in mind that only structures which are common for both
source and target can be compared.
Example:
Solution contains a business scenario “Procurement to Pay” containing the following business
processes:
 Processing Shopping Carts
 Processing Purchase Requisitions in ERP
 Processing Purchase Orders in ERP
 Quality Assurance & Control
 Contract Management
 Logistics Invoice Verification
Major Release project takes the following business processes
 Processing Purchase Orders in ERP
 Quality Assurance & Control
into scope but not the whole “Procurement to Pay” business scenario.
Besides making changes to the two business processes, it also adds the Warehouse process to this
scenario. This new business process, Warehouse, will not be detected by Compare & Adjust as a part
of the “Procurement to Pay” scenario and thus has to be adjusted manually and placed into the
business scenario.
3.2.3.2.2 Interface Scenario adjustments
New business processes or scenarios can bring new interfaces into the solution. By including these
processes and scenarios into the solution (via maintenance project) the interfaces are still linked to
them as external interfaces. This means that their originality is still in the Major Release project. In
order to bring them into the solution, an additional activity, Resolving External Interfaces, has to be
performed after check in of all relevant business scenarios /processes.
For this reason please select the highest structure node in the solution and depress the right
mouse button. Thereafter, select the option to resolve external interfaces. This will give you the
possibility to copy the interfaces into your solution and group them into already existing interface
scenarios. Afterwards the adjustments on flagged interfaces can be performed directly in the
solution.
3.2.3.2.3 Document Management in Compare & Adjust
Generally the document management in Compare & Adjust requires manual activities between
Solution and Major Release or Roll Out projects. It is not necessary to perform document
versioning for changes done in maintenance project by Check Out/In. This type of document
content change will be adjusted automatically by check in into Solution. For all other projects with
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
Solution as source, specific activities are required. During roll back of changes into solution we can
distinguish between following four situations:
SCENARIO 1
The document “A” hasn’t changed in either Solution /
Maintenance or in projects with Solution as source. This
situation is quite clear to handle because as the Compare
& Adjust doesn’t show any differences, no activity is
required.
SCENARIO 2
The document “A” has changed during maintenance
activities but remained unchanged in projects with
Solution as source. This change (done by maintenance or
other projects) will automatically be reflected in other
projects in case they were created as described in Best
Practice use case “Solution as Single Source of Truth”.
SCENARIO 3
The document “A” has changed in project with solution as
source but remained unchanged in solution. This change
creates a copy of the original document “A1” in the
project. However the source document stored still in
solution is unchanged and still represents the productively
used business process. In this case the Compare &
Adjust will detect that the original document “A” has been
changed and will flag this in solution. This is the most
probable case as the major release project may redesign
business processes so specifications, test cases or
training material documents are expected to be changed.
Merge procedure: Adjust the change by bringing the new
version or the original document “A” into the source. To
do so, you should select the option “Both” as shown on
the illustration. This will assign the new version of the
document to the source and you can start merging the
document content by copying changed parts from the
document copy “A1” into the original “A”. Afterwards the
copy “A1” can be deleted from the productive business
process context.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
SCENARIO 4
The document “A” was changed in Solution as well as in
the project with a Solution as source. The change in the
project creates a copy of the original document “A” 
“A1”. The original document can be also changed in the
Solution as result of maintenance activities. These
changes will not be reflected any longer in the project as it
already contains the copy “A1”. During the Compare &
Adjust the two different contexts have to be merged into
the original document “A”.
Merge procedure: Adjust the change by bringing the new
version or the original document “A” into the source. To
do so, you should select the option “Both” as shown on
the picture beside. This will assign the new version of the
document to the source and you can start merging the
document content by copying changed parts from the
document copy “A1” into the original “A”. Afterwards the
copy “A1” can be deleted from the productive business
process context
Recommendation
It is recommended to define consolidation time frames in which the documentation from Major Release
project will be merged and synchronized with the productive documentation. This time frame shall be aligned
with the retrofit activities.
3.3 Template as single source of truth
Importantly, in the use case template as a single source of truth; since the business process structures are
re-used in several places, it makes the Compare & Adjust even more complex. Therefore we have to
distinguish adjustments between Template and Roll Out projects, between Roll Out and Template and finally
update for monitoring relevant business processes collected in the Solution.
3.3.1 Roll out update by Compare & Adjust
During the active roll out, the source in template could be changed by other projects or by other template
updates. These changes will be already partially synchronized with all available roll out/release projects
when the changes were made on documents assigned to General Documentation, Configuration,
Development, Test Case or Training Materials tabs.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
Figure 3.3-1: Template as single source of truth
Changes to business scenario/process structures, additional assignments, or replacements have to be
made visible by Compare & Adjust.
To do, execute the transaction
SA_PROJECT_UPGRADE directly from the roll
out project by using menu Utilities  Compare
Project. Using the direct menu path, the selection
screen will appear with the project ID already
filled in.
In the section “Specify Comparison Nodes”:
 … select “Successor Nodes”
 … In “Source of Comparison Nodes” select
“Project”
 … Select the Roll Out project ID in the field
“Successor Project/Solution”
In the section “Compare Tabs” select all tabs
which have to be compared in this run and
execute the transaction.
The Compare & Adjust run detects all changes
on common business scenarios/processes/steps,
interfaces, master data and organisation unit
structures.
After the background job has completed, you
Figure 3.3-2: Compare & Adjust Selection
can execute transaction SOLAR01/02 to
adjust the detected changes. The adjustment
can be done by taking over and approving the changes one by one or as a mass adjustment. The mass
adjustment can be performed on the business scenario or process level. Depending on the selected
structure level all changes will be adjusted to subjacent structure nodes. However, the adjustment should
be done by project members responsible for the appropriate project parts.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
This type of adjustment should always be done after the business process structures and/or assignments
have been changed in the template project to ensure the synchronicity between the Template and Roll
Out projects.
In case new business processes which use new interfaces have been brought into the Roll Out project,
you can resolve external interfaces if they have to be adopted in the Roll Out project directly.
3.3.2 Run final Compare & Adjust (Roll back from roll out to template)
It is recommended to start the Compare & Adjust transaction always from the place where you would
like to see the deltas in. In this case, we start the compare from the Template project(s) using menu
Utilities  Compare Project. This will start the Compare & Adjust transaction with pre-filled fields for
Project ID. In the area “Specify Comparison Nodes” please select radio button “Successor Nodes” and
change the proposed entry in field “Source of Comparison Nodes” from “Solution” into “Project”. In field
“Successor Project” select the roll out project you want to bring back to the template project. Decide
which tabs have to be compared in this comparison run and execute the transaction.
These Compare activities can be seen as final project activities as the project team/management knows
where the scope for their project is coming from. Hence the compare information is made available and
visible to business process owners who will adjust the productive business process information and
merge changed documents.
After the background job has been completed, the detected deltas will be displayed in the appropriate
solution and are ready for adjustment. This delta information will be indicated on relevant business
process structures, their tabs as well as interface structures by icon .
3.3.2.1 Adjust changes
The adjustments for business scenarios/processes, master
data and business unit folders as well as for interface
scenarios will be done centrally in the template project
based on flagged structures. The navigation between the
relevant comparison differences can use search button as
shown below.
Figure 3.3-3: Adjust navigation
in SOLAR01/02
3.3.2.1.1 Business Scenario, Process, Step adjustments
While adjusting the changes it has to be decided how to roll back the additional information to the
template. In case the changes on business processes are allowed (global attributes) the Roll Out
project will adopt the business processes by changing documentation, thus assigning additional
objects. This information can be rolled back directly to the original business process in the
template project or copied manually to a new place as a “new” version of the business process as
shown in Figure 3.3-4.
How the adjustments will be embedded into the global repository/template influence also the
suceeding or parallel Roll Out projects. In method I) changes will be adjusted to the source of the
business process and thus accumulated in the original source, while method II) rejects the
changes and manually creates a new specific structure for local variants. As method I) directly
changes the content of a template, all rolled back changes can be automatically propagated to all
parallel Roll Out projects which are based on the same content.
Method II) can provide a package of modified or localized business processes in a separate
template.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
Figure 3.3-4: Roll back of business process variant
3.3.2.2.2 Interface Scenario adjustments
All interfaces which have been resolved during the Roll Out project will be part of Compare &
Adjust. Thus, all assignments such as documents describing the technical realisation and
interface design will be detected and adjusted to the roll out/release of the template project.
New business processes or scenarios can bring new interfaces into the template project. By
including these processes and scenarios into the template project the interfaces will still be linked
to them as external interfaces. This means that their origin is still in the roll out project. In order to
bring them into the template project an additional activity (resolving external interfaces) has to be
performed after all relevant business scenarios /processes have been copied into the template
project.
For this reason, please select the highest structure node in the template project and depress the
right mouse button. Select the option to resolve external interfaces. This will give you the
possibility to copy the interfaces into your template project and group them into already existing
interface scenarios.
3.3.2.2.3 Document Management in Compare & Adjust
In general all changes made to documents stored in the template project will be immediately
reflected in all Roll Out projects (exception: documents stored in template project on Project
Documentation tab).
However, in case new documents were created in a template project and have to be propagated
to Roll Out/Release projects, a separate Compare & Adjust has to be performed.
For the rollback of information to a template project, we can distinguish between the following four
situations:
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
SCENARIO 1
Document “A” has not changed either in the
template project or in the Roll Out/Release
projects. This situation is quite clear to handle,
since the Compare & Adjust does not show
any differences, no activity is required
SCENARIO 2
Configuration/Development/Training
Material tab provides a document “A” which
was changed in the Roll Out/Release project.
The change creates a new document “A1”
which replaces the original “A”. This document
“A1” will be detected by Compare & Adjust as
a new version of the original “A”. By adjusting
you can replace the original “A” or bring the
new “A1” document in addition to keep the
changes separated in two documents. The
content of the two documents, “A” and “A1”,
can be also consolidated into the old “A”
document. This will guarantee that all still
running roll outs will get the update on the
document.
SCENARIO 3
General Documentation tab provides
documentation which is not directly
changeable in Roll Out/Release projects.
However, copying the appropriate document
from General Documentation tab into Project
Documentation tab in Roll Out/Release
project allows changes on already available
documents. While the original “A” remains on
the General Documentation tab, its copy will
be changed in “A1” on Project
Documentation tab. The Compare & Adjust
detects the new “A1” document on the Project
Documentation tab in Roll Out/ Release
project and highlights it on the Project
Documentation tab in the template project.
Merging of the document content can be done
by opening the two documents locally (after
check out of the documents) and manual
consolidation. The update of “A” will provide
new information to all active projects
automatically.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
SCENARIO 4
Referenced documents stored in a specific
reference folder (consider SAP Note 1236369)
require no additional adjustment because they
are synchronized across the template and all
existing Roll Out/Release projects. So
independently from where the document was
changed the changes will be immediately
visible in all projects using these business
processes.
3.3.3 Final update of solution
As a Solution is exclusively used for monitoring capabilities,
the appropriate business process structure and
transactional assignments have to be updated after every
roll back process.
The Compare & Adjust run for this Solution shall be
performed just for the Structure and Transaction tabs as
shown in the picture below.
Figure 3.3-5: Final update of solution
Recommendation
1)
2)
Define consolidation time frames where the documentation from Roll out/release project will be
merged and synchronized with the template/productive documentation. This time frame shall be
aligned with the retrofit activities.
Schedule Compare & Adjust from template to all active Roll Out/Release project and solution(s) after
every roll back activity in which the Compare & Adjust differs
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
4.0
Additional features in Compare & Adjust
Aside from the standard functionality or compare changes between source and target as well as manual
adjustments, SAP Solution Manager offers additional functions simplifying the procedures and navigation
between places in which changes have been detected.
4.1 Mass adjustment
As of support package 09 of SAP Solution Manager 7.10, Compare & Adjust offers a mass adjustment of
changes. Instead of adjusting all changes manually by navigating from one structure node to another and
from one tab to another you also have the possibility to mass adjust on the business process, business
scenario or on the highest project structure level. The adjustment will be done then exclusively for the
selected structures below.
Example:
 If a specific business process has been selected, the changes will be adjusted for this
particular business process and all business process steps belonging to this business
process.
 If you select business scenario and mass adjust, the system will accept all changes for
this business scenario including master data and organizational unit structures,
business processes and appropriate business process steps
 If you select on the highest structure node for the project and mass adjust, the system
accepts all changes for all structures belonging to the project.
General Remark:
New scenarios, business processes (as well as master data, organizational units or configuration structures)
will not be detected by this adjustment if they were not directly in scope of this project already before.
The mass adjustment can be modified by a BAdI AI_SC_PUSH_COMPARE and must be activated in IMG
prior to first use.
4.2 Push compare
The push mode for Compare & Adjust was designed to update several projects centrally from a template
project at the same time. This change push can be related to a template ID which is used in several Roll Out
projects. In this case, all changes represented in a released template will be pushed in one background job
for all Roll Out projects.
There are two ways to initiate the functionality:
 Selection of the template ID in SOLAR_PROJECT_ADMIN
transaction and pushing the button “Distribute Project Changes”
as shown on the Figure 4.2-1 below
This will lead to Compare & Adjust in Push Mode transaction
which allows you to specify which changes have to be pushed.
Figure 4.2-1: Push for
Template
 By directly using the transaction SA_PUSH_COMPARE.
In the Push mode transaction you can flexibly select tabs and adjust them for all Roll Out projects at once.
By default, the push mode follows a few basic rules:
 The standard BAdI implementation does not support the automated adjustment of structure deletions
since this is critical. For documents you can choose between two standard implementations, one that
deletes documents and one that doesn’t.
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
 Changes on a document will just be pushed as long as the document has not been changed in the
target.
 As long as not all changes can be pushed, the comparison will not be completed and the icon remains
in the target project. So you can adjust the reminders manually.
 For the push compare, the system offers the standard copy options for documents. The decision made
on this popup will have impact on the way in which documents will be managed.
 New assignments will be pushed in the same order as the original has been organized. Therefore
transactions, documents and business process steps will be placed in the same order as they are
organized in template project.
In case changes have not made, completion will not be reached so the Compare & Adjust icon will remain
The handling of all business process assignments can be modified by a BAdI AI_SC_PUSH_COMPARE.
This extension can be used to decide which data have to be pushed and completed and which stays in
unchanged status with flagged delta information in the target project. In case the BAdI is not implemented
the system will inform users via an error message. Standard implementations can be activated in IMG.
4.3 Structure attributes in Compare & Adjust
The handling of structure attributes has been managed by the flag “Structure Attributes” in area “Copied
these attributes from Comparison Nodes:” The activation of this flag triggers the overwriting of structure
attributes by Compare &Adjust. The overwriting was executed in the background without any additional
manual activities. As of support package 09, the control of SAP and customer structure attributes is extended
by the BadI SA_STRUCT_ATTRIBUTE_COPY. This BADI controls in the transaction Compare & Adjust in
Push Mode how the SAP and Customer attributes are handled.
The BADI has two methods:
 ADD_OR_CHANGE_CUST_ATTRIBUTES
 ADD_OR_CHANGE_SAP_ATTRIBUTES
The first method is used for the customer attributes while the second is for SAP attributes. Both methods are
called for every structure element of the project or solution hierarchy to be compared.
Example1:
If the source structure element with attribute name ‘ATTRIBUTE1’ has the value ‘A’
and ‘B’ and the corresponding target structure has the attribute value ‘C’ for the
same ‘ATTRIBUTE1’ …
After running the report, the attribute ‘ATTRIBUTE1’ in the target structure gets the
value ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. This behavior will be controlled by activated flag “Structure
Attributes” before executing Compare & Adjust and the appropriate BAdI
implementation.
In case the flag is not activated, the attribute ‘ATTRIBUTE1’ in the target structure
remains unchanged (value ‘A’ and ‘B’ only).
Figure 4.3-1: Example 1
Example2:
If the source structure element with single value attribute ‘ATTR_SINGLE’ has the
value ‘A’,
the same attribute ‘ATTR_SINGLE’ has the value ‘D’ in the corresponding target
structure element.
After running the report, the ‘ATTR_SINGLE’ keeps its value ‘D’ in the target structure
element.
The behavior of single attribute is controlled by parameter
‘IV_REPLACE_SINGLE_ATTR’ which by default is SPACE.
Figure 4.3-2: Example 2
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Best Practice: Compare & Adjust in SAP Solution Manager ALM
5.0 Linked Documents
ALM Architecture Design in SAP Solution Manager
Document Management in SAP Solution Manager ALM
Business Process Redesign in SAP Solution Manager ALM
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