Organization of Shipment Contents 

From the point of view of software logistics, a product is a delivery unit that can exist in different versions. A product comprises one or more software components that in turn can also have different software component versions. The System Landscape Directory stores the information about which version of a product requires which software component versions (also see: Software Components and Software Products).

From the point of view of SAP Exchange Infrastructure, application components in a Business Scenario correspond to product versions in the System Landscape Directory. An application component that acts as a sender and/or receiver of messages can be assigned to a product version. Therefore, products or application components are important for understanding the entire cross-system process.

The dividing up of a product into software components means that a software component can be implemented for different products. Software component versions are still large delivery units. To sub-divide these into more appropriate development units, you can assign a namespace to a software component version in SAP Exchange Infrastructure.

The delivery content of a product must be complete. Therefore, it is not possible to cross-reference objects in other software component versions. Once a product has been shipped, you must then decide what changes are permitted for the next version of the product in order to guarantee its compatibility (see: Versioning and Compatibility).