Continuous Delivery for SAP: Release Trains, gCTS and Automated Gates

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SAP continuous delivery card

• Train = fixed schedule; ready features board; cut-off is mechanical; each train is a Cloud ALM release.
• Cadence follows regression time; automate critical flows to earn faster trains.
• gCTS: S/4HANA 1909+ (customizing from 2020); transports still record; releases push commits; targets pull.
• Use gCTS where parallel development, multi-landscape delivery or pipelines are the bottleneck.
• Gate stack: developer → commit (ATC P1/P2, ABAP Unit) → integration (transport checks, feature tests) → release (regression).
• Exemptions: owner, reason, expiry. Flaky tests: quarantine and fix fast.
• Separate build, gate rules, deployment user and approval; the pipeline is privileged.
• Pre-approve low-risk categories by gates; named approval for pricing, finance, tax and gate changes.
• Metrics: lead time, deployment frequency, recovery time, change fail rate, rework rate. Trends, not targets.