Lesson 2 of 5
Scopes and solution processes
9 min
A Cloud ALM project knows what it is implementing through its scopes. SAP defines a scope as a container for solution processes and variants that are managed together, for example one location of a company. A solution process describes how a business process is, or will be, implemented in a solution. Scopes and solution processes are the anchor for everything else in this course.
Designing scopes
SAP's learning content suggests grouping processes into scopes when they share an upgrade cycle, serve shared services on one landscape, or serve the same business capability or location. Too many scopes fragment reporting; too few make filtering hard. Contoso started with one scope and added a second only when it had a real reason.
| Scope | Contents | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| US Operations | Order to cash, procure to pay, plan to produce, record to report for company codes 1710 and 1810, plants 1710, 1720 and 1810 | Single go-live, one landscape, one regression cycle |
| Mexico (planned) | Processes for the planned acquisition | Different go-live and possibly a different product |
Contoso's scope design.
Three ways to fill a scope
| Method | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Select from solution scenarios | Choose processes from SAP content such as SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA | Most projects, including Contoso |
| Upload a spreadsheet | Import a predefined list of processes | Large scopes prepared offline |
| Import a Digital Discovery Assessment | Use results from an assessment done in Discover | Public edition projects that ran the assessment |
Within a scope you set processes in or out, and filter by solution scenario, country or region, and business process group. Contoso brought in the SAP Best Practices processes that match its contract, then removed processes its business does not use and flagged the ones that change most from ECC.
Standard and custom solution processes
Most solution processes come from SAP content and carry diagrams and accelerators. When Contoso needs a process SAP does not provide, the team creates a custom solution process in the process authoring area. SAP's content lists what authoring supports: creating and publishing custom processes into a scope, modeling value flow diagrams and BPMN process flows, localizing documentation, and maintaining accelerators. Tightly related variants can be modeled within one solution process.
- Does an SAP Best Practices solution process cover the business process?Yes → use it, adding a variant if needed · No → next
- Is the difference only Contoso-specific configuration values?Yes → keep the standard process and record values as requirements · No → next
- Is it a genuinely different process the business must run?Yes → author a custom solution process and publish it to the scope · No → reconsider; the need may be a requirement on a standard process
The process hierarchy
Above scopes, Cloud ALM offers a process hierarchy: a structure that breaks the company's process landscape into levels from abstract to concrete. Solution processes are assigned to its nodes, so reports can roll up by business area. Hierarchy nodes can be maintained in the app or uploaded from a spreadsheet, and SAP provides an app for managing process hierarchy assignments.
What would you do?
After Fit-to-Standard, Contoso decides to add a warranty returns process for alternators CMC-ALT-100 that was not in the original scope. Maria has already logged three requirements about it in a spreadsheet. What should Priya ask the project lead to do?
- A scope is a container for solution processes managed together, such as one location or capability.
- Fill scopes from SAP solution scenarios, a spreadsheet, or a Digital Discovery Assessment import.
- Use SAP Best Practices processes where they fit; author custom solution processes only for genuinely different processes.
- The process hierarchy rolls solution processes up by business area for reporting.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. What is a scope in SAP Cloud ALM?
2. What does a solution process describe?
3. Where are custom solution processes created?
4. Which scope creation option relies on work done in Discover?