Lesson 5 of 5
Working with process content
9 min
SAP Cloud ALM is not only a tracker; it brings SAP's process content into the project. For each SAP Best Practices solution process you get diagrams, descriptions and accelerators. Used well, this content runs through the whole project: it drives Fit-to-Standard, it frames requirements, and it becomes the starting point for test cases.
What you see when you open a process
| Content | What it shows | How Contoso uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Solution value flow diagram | The business context: the main activities and the value they create | Opening view in each workshop, so business users see the whole first |
| Solution process flow diagrams | BPMN diagrams of the steps by role and system | Walkthrough before the live demo; basis for test case steps |
| Descriptions and accelerators | Process descriptions, test scripts and setup material | Demo scripts in workshops; starting point for test cases |
| Related requirements and documents | What the project has recorded against the process | Review of open deltas and decisions |
SAP's guidance for the process viewer is that the solution value flow appears by default, with the process flow diagrams on a separate tab and a drop-down where there are several. Diagrams can be downloaded, which helps when a workshop needs a printed handout. The same Best Practices content is also published in SAP Signavio Process Navigator, which is the place to browse it outside a project.
Process content in Fit-to-Standard
- Review scopeConfirm the solution processes for the workshop in the project scope
- Show the value flowSet the business context for the process
- Walk the process flowStep through the BPMN diagram by role
- DemonstrateRun the standard test script in the demo system
- CaptureRecord requirements against the process directly in Cloud ALM
Because requirements are captured on the process during the workshop, the link is kept from the first minute. SAP's learning content also recommends organizing workshops around functional areas of the solution, which maps neatly onto the process hierarchy.
From process content to tests
The same content later drives testing. In Cloud ALM's test preparation, test cases can be built from solution processes in scope, reusing the process structure and SAP's standard test content where available, and then adapted to Contoso's org units and data. The test preparation and test plan courses in this track cover that step in detail. For this course, the key point is that test design is only as good as the scope: a process missing from the scope cannot generate tests.
SAP maintains its process content as products change, so the diagrams and accelerators you see in month one may be updated by month twelve. When a new release or Feature Package Stack is planned, Priya's team checks whether the processes in Contoso's scope have changed content, and treats any change as a prompt to review the related test cases rather than as background noise.
Keeping custom content honest
- Author custom solution processes only where the business genuinely runs a different process.
- Model custom process flows in BPMN with the same discipline as SAP's: roles, steps, systems.
- Link supporting documents, such as design decisions, to the process rather than leaving them in shared drives.
- Review custom processes at each gate: are they still needed, and are they tested?
What would you do?
Contoso's Team Order to Cash wants to model its own version of the sell-from-stock process in a drawing tool outside Cloud ALM "because it is quicker". What should Priya recommend?
- Each SAP solution process brings a value flow, BPMN process flows, descriptions and accelerators.
- Use process content to run Fit-to-Standard and capture requirements on the process in real time.
- Test cases are built from processes in scope, so a missing process means missing tests.
- Keep custom process content inside Cloud ALM and review it at every gate.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which diagram appears by default when a solution process is opened in the process viewer?
2. What notation do solution process flow diagrams use?
3. Where can SAP Best Practices content be browsed outside a Cloud ALM project?
4. Why does a missing process in scope hurt testing?