A phase cycle is a type of change cycle that supports phase-driven development and independent import of changes.
In the standard system, the phase cycle has transaction type SMIM.
You use a phase cycle for normal, urgent, administrative, and general changes, as well as for defect corrections.
The phase cycle contains the following phases:
Created
Scope
A transport request can be generated but not released.
Note
Use this phase if developments are not to be transported to the test system straight away.
Build
You can release transport requests only once you have reached this phase. It is initiated by the change manager or the change advisory board and allows you to release transports and to import them into the test system for developer tests.
Test
Once changes have been imported into the test system, this phase can start and integration testing can commence. New change transactions can no longer be created for the project. You can use defect corrections to eliminate errors that have occurred during testing.
Withdrawn
Prerequisites: To withdraw, make sure that no change has been executed and transported. This means that all dependent change documents must also be withdrawn.
Transport requests directly created from a task list have to be empty of transport objects. When you withdraw, the task list will be automatically closed and the empty transport request will be deleted.
Go Live
All changes that were successfully tested in the test phase are imported into the production system.
Being Completed
Completed
Each phase cycle has a dedicated task list. The task list is closed once the cycle has been closed, all change documents have been completed, and the transport requests have been imported into the production system. If there are any open change documents or transport requests, they are assigned to the next phase cycle and the task list is continued. If the systems detects an open change document and/or open transport request, you have the option to create a new change cycle.
Note
For changes that are not linked to the transport management system, you can use change cycles without a task list. For more information, see Using Change Cycles Without a Task List.