Lesson 5 of 5
Migrating from ChaRM processes
10 min
Contoso's ECC support team has used ChaRM in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 for years. The S/4HANA program started in Cloud ALM. After go-live, the ECC landscape goes away, and so does the reason to keep ChaRM. SAP's transition page states that Solution Manager mainstream maintenance ends on 31 December 2027 and recommends finishing the move before then. This lesson turns that into a plan.
Map practices, not screens
SAP's transition material maps a ChaRM change document to a Cloud ALM feature, and a continuous cycle to a deployment plan with system groups. It also says ChaRM workflows and change documents are not migrated. So the migration is a process redesign, not a data load. Start from the practices your auditors rely on and give each one a home.
| ChaRM practice | Cloud ALM practice | Gap to manage |
|---|---|---|
| Request for change approved by the change advisory board | Requirement approval plus Luis’s weekly feature review | Board decisions recorded on the requirement or feature |
| Normal change document through cycle phases | Feature through statuses within a release | Phase locks become release freeze dates |
| Urgent change document | Feature tagged urgent in the emergency release | Procedure defines the path; review recorded |
| Status-dependent imports | Status-dependent transport actions and production gate at Ready for Production | Similar control; fewer statuses |
| Cross-system object lock and retrofit | Transport checks; retrofit handled by procedure | Plan for parallel landscapes explicitly |
A migration plan
- Month 1InventorySAP Readiness Check for SAP Cloud ALM; list document types, approvals and reports in use
- Month 2DesignWrite the Cloud ALM change procedure: paths, approvals, evidence, roles
- Month 3Set upTransport management per managed system, system groups, deployment plan, projects, roles
- Month 4PilotOne low-risk landscape on Cloud ALM; three-tier and four-tier flows tested
- Month 5Cut overFreeze new ChaRM documents; finish or close open ones; switch
- AfterRetireArchive ChaRM records for retention; decommission Solution Manager functions
Handling work in flight
The riskiest moment is the switch. Changes in flight must finish in one tool. Pick a cut-over date. Before it, stop creating new ChaRM documents. Changes close to production finish in ChaRM; changes still early in development are closed in ChaRM and recreated as features with their transports assigned. Keep a mapping list of old document number to new feature ID so the history can be followed.
- Freeze creation of new ChaRM change documents from the cut-over date.
- Classify open documents: finish in ChaRM, or close and recreate as a feature.
- Recreate features with the same transports assigned and the old document number in the description.
- Train approvers on where their approval now happens, and test that the roles are set correctly.
- Tell the auditors before the switch, and show them the new evidence path on a sample change.
People and roles
SAP's transition material suggests assigning four personas in the new model: developer, tester, change manager and deployment manager, and restricting transport actions through authorizations and feature IDs. At Contoso that maps cleanly: Kenji's developers, Priya's testers, Luis as change manager and Sam as deployment manager. The ChaRM-era roles such as "IT operator" or "change advisory board member" do not exist as such; their duties move into these personas or into the procedure.
What would you do?
On cut-over day, Contoso has 30 open ChaRM normal changes. Twelve are in test, eighteen are still in development. What should Luis plan?
- Migration from ChaRM is a process redesign; documents and workflows do not migrate.
- Change document maps to feature; continuous cycle to deployment plan and system groups.
- Pilot with a low-risk landscape, then cut over on a fixed date with a freeze on new ChaRM documents.
- Keep a mapping of old documents to new features and retain ChaRM history for audit.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which tool helps you inventory current Solution Manager usage before migrating?
2. What is the recommended handling for an open ChaRM change still in early development at cut-over?
3. What does a ChaRM phase lock typically become in a Cloud ALM process?