Global attributes in a template project

[Former Member]

Hello folks,

We are setting up a demo of global template functionalites in SM. In the template project we have created we need advice on how to go about with the following.

1) What do the attributes - global, local, harmonized etc.mean from a businesss perspective. The help documentation provided by SAP is not clear enough. Can someone share their practical expericence regarding this.

2) In the project structure created - on what criteria should the project/business team set the appropriate global attribute.

3) What is the effect of setting up of this global attributes - should any implementation projects created in the future has to refer the master template proj.

Probably I am asking quite a lot but the questions seem to be related .

Thank you.

^

Mark

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark,

First of all, it is advised to use this functionality only if you foresee a case of 'active' rollout based projects leveraging these templates. If, a Template Project is created merely to hold an inventory of process definitions, with future usage only as a 'possibility', you need not activate the 'Global Rollout' functionality and attend to the decision making on it at a much later date, when necessity arises. This is not something mandatory to take up right upfront, unless there is a case for it.

1) In terms of practical use in project, I have rarely come across projects which have sought to use the whole range of these attributes; I have been using SolMan since May 2004 and since those days, the usual ones I have had a need to use are at extreme ends of the spectrum - Global or Initial. All those in between vary in their nuances and normally not as much missed ! In early days (SolMan 3.1, there weren't as many varieties).

With regard to the specific ways in which these vary,

[this link|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_sm40/helpdata/en/45/5af1f3e5f81dece10000000a155369/content.htm] in SAP Online help is the best source to find how these attributes impact. Of course, you may have already seen this.

2) The Project Team should have one main consideration - whether to control the structure and content of a delivered scenario centrally or to allow some changes at local rollout level. Accordingly, set the attribute and pass on the same attributes to all layers below that node in one stroke (if the attribute is to remain the same for all contents underneath)

3) The effect is in 'changeability' or the flexibility to adapt the scenario borrowed from Template to suit local rollout/implementation needs. For instance, if the Global Template team has spent thousands of man hours in coming up with a Finance scenario that's Sarbanes-Oxley compliance or GRC proofed, with all local requirements already fed into the Template, it makes sense to define the Scenario or Process as 'Global' and expect all rollouts to make use of it exactly the same way.

If, on the other hand, there is a CRM/ SCM scenario on optimising Order fulfilment, an Asia-Pacific plant rollout may considerably differ in process steps from North American and such scenarios/ processes can be Initial or Local

Trust this helps.

Regards,

Srini

[former_member190969 · Accepted solution]

Hi Srini,

good reply! I agree very much. Just two remarks. These global attributes are inerited from ASAP / Value/SAP methodology. Also the uncleare documentation is coming from that. They already had 4 values and so they were taken over into solman. Nothing changed basically except that nowadays you can control their effect by a BAdI and even remove unused attributes or add new ones. The extension spot is SA_GLOBAL_ATTRIBUTES, the BAdI definition is BADI_SA_DEFINE_GLOBAL_ATTR (See SE18, SE19). The documentation and the fallback class CL_SA_DEFINE_GLOBAL_ATTR explain how it works. Looking at or debugging CL_SA_DEFINE_GLOBAL_ATTR also helps understanding the effect of global attributes in an implementation project from a technical point.

Regards

Andreas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you Srini/Andreas for your replies.

^

Mark

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Andreas,

Thank you very much for your kind words and for sharing further insights. Such helpful posts and fellowship are the main draw for me, into this forum.

Hi Mark,

Many thanks for your generous acknowledgement.

Warm regards,

Srini