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Function documentationRelease Planning

 

You can use release management to plan, manage, and coordinate your release activities. It comprises release planning and the subsequent execution of the planned activities. The release planning function in SAP Solution Manager is used to plan major and minor releases, specify go-live dates, and assign the release planning data to branches. Release cycles can only be created from the release planning function for each release. Releases are defined for change control landscapes.

Note Note

Change control landscapes are always required for release management since each release cycle is assigned to a change control landscape. Change control landscapes consist of logical component groups, and for each change control landscape, independent releases can be planned. You can use the same set of logical component groups for defining several change control landscapes within the same solution. For example, there can be a logical component group “CRM” with different releases for CRM Sales and CRM Marketing.

End of the note.

When planned activities are executed for a release, IT requirements, requests for change, and change documents are created and assigned to release cycles. When a release goes live, only the changes that have been successfully tested are imported into the production system, depending on their status. Change documents that are not finished are automatically reassigned to the successor release cycle and will be imported into the production system with the go-live of the successor release. If there is no successor release cycle, the system automatically creates a release cycle.

You have various ways of defining your releases:

  • In a dual landscape, you can perform the activities for your minor releases in the maintenance landscape (maintenance branch), and for your major releases in the development landscape. In a single landscape, the activities for both major and minor releases must be performed in the same branch.

  • For different change control landscapes (products, scenarios, or business contexts) you can define different major and minor releases. You can define a release that contains features and changes of a particular change control landscape or you can define individual releases for each change control landscape

  • You can plan releases for different scenarios, for example, sales, marketing, and billing.

The following graphic provides an overview of major and minor releases within release management:

Differences Between Release-Based Change Management (Release Management) and Change Request Management

The following table shows the differences between release management and project-based change request management:

Release Management

Change Request Management

Differences

  • Defined dates for the go-live of new features as part of a release

  • Scope of the new features is flexible. If development and testing is not finished, the change can be assigned to the successor release.

  • You can plan the releases before the changes are executed.

  • Flexible go-live dates of new features and changes, that is, changes are imported into production as soon as development and testing is finished.

  • Scope of the changes is fixed

  • Several cycles with several changes can be implemented in parallel. The go-live dates of these cycles are independent from each other.

Benefits

  • Fewer imports into the production system guarantee a high quality and stability of your solution.

  • The test phases and test resources of releases can be planned long term.

  • When using a pre-production system in which only those changes are imported that are also imported into production after the tests, there are fewer dependencies between the changes.

  • Flexible import of changes into the production system. You can import your changes as soon as they are finished.

Note Note

We do not recommend that you use Change Request Management and release management (based on phase or continual cycles) in the same landscape.

End of the note.

Prerequisites

  • You have maintained your solution landscapes, your change control landscape, and your branches, and you have assigned your logical components to your branches. For more information, see Solution Documentation.

  • You have activated the ODATA Service for Release Planning Tool in the SAP Solution Manager Configuration in the Cross-Scenario Configuration scenario -> Mandatory Configuration -> Infrastructure Preparation -> Step 7 Enable Gateway Services.

    In edit mode, you can either select the Select/Deselect all Gateway Services checkbox, which allows you to enable/disable all Gateway Services at once. If you want to activate the ODATA Service for Release Planning Tool activity only, unfold Change Request Management in the list of Gateway Services and select the checkbox for the AIC_RELEASE_PLANNING_SRV activity in the Selected For Activation column. Save your entries.

    For more information about the SAP Gateway Service activation, see the overview help text of this particular step.

Features

You can use the following functions:

  • Define major and minor releases with specific go-live dates

  • Change release dates

    You can change the go-live data of a release.

  • Delete releases

    To delete, you can select one or multiple releases that are in status Planned at once.

    You can delete a major release only if there is no successor release assigned t it.

    You can only delete minor releases if there is no successor minor release assigned to the same major release. For example, release 1.3 cannot be deleted if there is release 1.4. However, 1.4 can be deleted if the successor release is the major release 2.0.

    When deleting a release, the system performs the following checks:

    1. Does the release have a successor release?

    2. Is the release cycle assigned to a ITPPM project?

    3. Are change documents assigned to the release cycle, request for changes or IT requirements?

    If all checks are negative, the release can be deleted.

    Note Note

    If a change transaction is assigned to a release cycle, you can decouple and reassign it, and delete the release.

    If an ITPPM project is assigned to a release cycle, you can remove the assignment and delete the release.

    End of the note.

  • Create release cycles

    Note Note

    For a selected change control landscape, at least one release cycle must be available. It is used as a copy template for the cycle to be created. The go-live dates and other data of the release cycle is automatically adjusted by the system.

    If there is no release cycle for a change control landscape, you must create the first cycle manually.

    End of the note.

  • Release management uses a predecessor – successor relationship. A successor release can only be imported into the production system when the predecessor release has been imported. This means that the status of a successor release cycle can only be switched to “Test” status when the predecessor release cycle has at least the status “Hypercare” .

  • When a release goes live, only the changes that have been successfully tested and that are assigned to the release cycle are imported into the production system. Change documents that are not ready can be reassigned to the successor release, and will be imported into the production system with the next release cycle.

  • Filter by control landscapes

    To easily view a particular or multiple control landscape(s), you can use a filter.

    1. To apply the filter, choose the Filter by Change Control Landscape icon.

    2. Select the change control landscape(s) you want to filter.

    3. Choose OK.

    By choosing OK, the system will keep the filter settings for your next session.

  • Select multiple lines

    You can select multiple release entries to create or delete release planning data.

  • Display Messages

    The notification bar at the bottom of your screen displays the latest action you performed.

    If you want to view the complete list of actions that you have executed during the current session, choose the Enlarge icon.

    Note: When you exit the release planning tool, all messages will be lost. Also, there is no action log or application log provided.

Activities

  1. For your change control landscape, plan the major and minor releases using the release planning function. Enter the required data, for example:

    • Number and duration of releases

    • Branches for major and minor releases

    • Go-live dates

  2. Create release cycles for your releases.

  3. Perform the activities in the change documents assigned to the release cycle and set their status.

  4. At the go-live date, the IT operator triggers that all changes with the status “Import into Production” are transported into the production system.

  5. Assign the change documents that are not finished to a successor release.

More Information

Defining and Deleting Releases

Release Cycle