Change Request Management enables you to manage your SAP Solution Manager projects (maintenance, implementation, template, and upgrade) from end to end: From change management and project planning, through resource management, to physical transports of changes from the development environment into the productive environment.
Ongoing software and configuration changes, as well as large implementations, are ongoing challenges for managing data consistency and secure project control. Change Request Management enables you to control changes within a system landscape from a central SAP Solution Manager system. It integrates SAP CRM business transaction functionality for managing requests for change, and in a process-oriented fashion extends and documents project control by integrating project planning from the processing of requests for change to the actual transport into productive systems.
Change Request Management includes a predefined set of workflows and processes which are all compliant with the recommendations provided by the IT infrastructure library (ITIL). This supports you when setting up an ITIL-compliant change management process in your company.
The processes supported by Change Request Management include urgent changes for implementing fast and direct changes in the productive environment, and activities for maintenance projects, and implementation, upgrade, or template projects. Cross-system and cross-component changes are supported.
Change Request Management offers you the following benefits:
Increased maintenance and project efficiency
Minimized costs for project management and IT
Reduced risk of correction and project failure
Shorter correction, implementation, and going-live phase
Efficient maintenance of customer developments and implementations
Transparency and documentation of the change process from approval of a request for change to the transport of changes into follow-on systems
Note
For each project, you have the option to activate the central Change and Transport System (central CTS) which provides a technical infrastructure for the enhanced flexibility functions in Change Control Management. For more information, see Change Control Management Using Central Change and Transport System.
Note
When setting up Change Request Management in an existing system that contains previously created transports, continue to use the existing transports, and create new Change Request Management projects in parallel. After some time, the old transports will be finished, and your system will contain only new projects and transports. CTS projects are not mandatory during the transition.
Note
From SAP Solution Manager 7.1, you can create and edit requests for change and change documents using the WebClient UI. We recommend that you finish maintaining all previously created requests and documents using the SAP GUI. New requests and documents should be created and edited only using the WebClient UI. For more information, see Change Request Management in the WebClient UI.
You can also use the Change Management work center as an access point to Change Request Management. For more information, see Change Management Work Center.
For more information about requests for change in the SAP GUI, see the SAP Solution Manager documentation for earlier releases at
.Change Request Management is a scenario of SAP Solution Manager, and contains interfaces to the following SAP solutions:
SAP Solution Manager for managing project content
CRM service transactions for creating and managing requests for change (optional)
SAP Portfolio and Project Management for managing project planning (optional)
Job Request Management
Test Management
System Integration
Distribute software changes of ABAP and non-ABAP objects (for example, Java archives)
For more information, see the online documentation for Change and Transport System and and Transporting Non-ABAP Objects in Change and Transport System
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Management of maintenance and implementations spanning multiple logical components
Powerful service request management plus project management for controlling, planning, designing, developing, testing, and going live
Comprehensive, workflow-driven management of distributed activities, including planning, development, maintenance, and go-live
Powerful project change tracking
Recommendation
We recommend that, apart from using the project phase control, you initially use Change Request Management to manage your urgent changes and maintenance cycles; you can then benefit from additional functionality for managing large implementations, and upgrade and template projects.