Document Management in SAP Cloud ALM

The purpose of the Documents app in SAP Cloud ALM is to simplify the creation, management, tracking, and reuse of existing documentation within SAP Cloud ALM to be the central source of truth for your solutions.

With this central app for documentation purposes, you can develop a holistic approach for all relevant documentation and its corresponding and necessary relations to different entities, such as solution processes or process hierarchies. Furthermore, it is essential to connect documents to requirements, user stories, project tasks, test cases, and features.

You will find the Documents app in the SAP Cloud ALM for Implementation app group, as shown in this figure.

After starting the app, you will see a list of all documents in one central place. You have the ability to filter and group documents by owner, status, change date, priority, process hierarchies, etc. and adapt views based on your individual needs. The filtered documents can also be exported to an Excel spreadsheet via the corresponding button.

In terms of our example scenario, we want to create a technical design document for an interface between SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Network via SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network. To create a dedicated document, select the Create button as shown in this figure.

Project Relations in the Documents App: Make sure you have preselected the correct project, as the document will be created in connection with this project. It is currently not possible to move or remove the project link.

Now define a title for the document and start to specify the dedicated Content within the text area, as shown in this figure.

In the next tab page, Additional Information, you can find more details for your document (in which context it is created, as well as priority, status, owner, and type), as shown below.

For the document status, the following values are available:

• In Progress (the default): You are still working on this document.
• In Review: The document is ready for use but not yet published or released.
• Released: The document is completed and available for assignment.

By default, date and time information for when the document is created and changed are saved automatically, and the creator of the document is defined as the owner. As this field is optional, it is not necessary to fill this column while uploading the document via a spreadsheet. You can, however, change the owner of the document. Another field is mandatory: the Type field. The following standard types can be selected:

• Default Project Documentation
• Business Process Document
• Solution Design Document
• Functional Specification
• Technical Design Document
• Configuration Guide
• Interface Specification
• Test Document
• End-User Documentation
• Training Material
• Fact Sheet

Though you have to define a type when creating a document, you can change it at any time thereafter.

In the next tab page, Relations, you can connect documents directly to solution processes and process hierarchies. In our example, this document is related to the Automation of Order-to-Invoice with SAP Business Network (4A1) solution process, as shown in the next figure. You need to select the Assign button and search in the resulting popup for your solution process, but note that only scoped solution processes can be selected. This relation becomes even more important when you want to track completeness of your documentation within your project. Furthermore, SAP is planning the capability to see related documents in the Solution Process Traceability app. You can also delete existing relations via the Unassign button.

In the next tab page, References, you can link external document sources (e.g., .docx from MS Word, .pptx from MS Powerpoint, or PDFs), as shown here.

For the creation of a reference, you need to select the Create button and enter a Name as well as the corresponding URL. SAP’s general idea is that documentation for cloud solutions should be created directly in SAP Cloud ALM. Document management integration into the SAP Document Management service on SAP BTP and MS Sharepoint is planned. Therefore, stay tuned for what they will release at a later date.

While working with the Documents app, you will notice that everything will be saved, even if you do not save it manually by clicking the Save button. You will also see that all mandatory fields are filled. This is because the Documents app uses the draft versioning concept of SAP Fiori Elements. This prevents data loss and will eventually feature an exclusive lock for document owners. If your editing activity is interrupted or you accidentally close the app, unsaved changes are kept, and when you open the app again, you can continue from the same place you were when you left. This also works if you use another device. The draft versioning prevents you from having multiple editors working in the same document at the same time. If it is necessary to work on a document in a collaborative way, you need to do it sequentially. This locking mechanism expires, however, if the draft owner is inactive for some time. If another user starts editing the document, that user will be informed that unsaved changes from another use exist. The new user can override those changes, however, so you should make sure to save your document so that an ID will be assigned to your document and it can then be released without the fear of being overwritten.

Notes vs. Documents: The Notes app has been present since the beginning with SAP Cloud ALM. After the Documents app was released, SAP announced that the functionality of the Notes app will increasingly be migrated to the Documents app. After a certain time, the Notes app will be retired.

The upload function is another convenient way to upload documents in your SAP Cloud ALM tenant. You need to click the Upload button after you open the Documents app. In the resulting popup windows, you can use the documents’ metadata and, after adding all of your documents, you need to select the created spreadsheet and then you will be able to upload this list of documents.

Recommendations: Some recommendations for uploading a list of documents via a spreadsheet are as follows:

• Only Microsoft Excel files with .xls or .xlsx extension are supported.
• Maximum allowed file size for a workbook is 5 MB.
• Maximum allowed number of rows is 1.000.
• Spreadsheets should only be stored in secure locations with restricted access.
• Column titles must not be changed.
• Title is a mandatory field, with maximum 255 characters.
• Check everything carefully, especially that URLs link to trusted targets, before you start the upload.

Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the book SAP Cloud ALM: Application Lifecycle Management by Matthias Friedrich, Fred Kindler, Marcel Kirsten, Daniel Kloppich, Mathias List, Bert Lorenz, and Lars Teuber.