Planning Around SAP's Release and Maintenance Cadence

Keep this: job aid

Release calendar cheat sheet

• Monthly: Security Patch Day, second Tuesday; assess and run targeted tests.
• About every six months: S/4HANA FPS or SPS; plan a regression window outside close freezes.
• Every two years: S/4HANA base release; each has seven years of mainstream maintenance.
• Public edition: February and August upgrades, test system first, production about three weeks later.
• BTP: continuous updates; ABAP environment quarterly with a pre-upgrade option.
• End of 2027: mainstream ends for SAP ECC, Solution Manager and Process Orchestration 7.5.
• Every date has a source, a check date and an owner; recheck quarterly.
• Publish one versioned calendar with a change log; notify only those affected.
• Get acknowledgment from process owners for freezes and UAT dates.