BC - Workflow Scenarios in Applications (BC-BMT-WFM)

Table of content1 BC - Workflow Scenarios in Applications BC-BMT-WFM 1.1 Aim and Structure of this Documentation 1.2 Settings and Preparations 1.2.1 Organizational Plan 1.2.2 Customizing

BC - Workflow Scenarios in Applications (BC-BMT-WFM)

PDF download from SAP Help Portal:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_46c/helpdata/en/04/926f8546f311d189470000e829fbbd/frameset.htm

Created on November 17, 2014

The documentation may have changed since you downloaded the PDF You can always find the latest information on SAP Help Portal.

Note

This PDF document contains the selected topic and its subtopics (max 150) in the selected structure Subtopics from other structures are not included

© 2014 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP SE The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice Some software products marketed by SAP SE and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors National product specifications may vary These materials are provided by SAP SE and its affiliated companies ("SAP Group") for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries Please see www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices

Table of content

Table of content

1 BC - Workflow Scenarios in Applications (BC-BMT-WFM)

1.1 Aim and Structure of this Documentation

1.2 Settings and Preparations

1.2.1 Organizational Plan

1.2.2 Customizing for Tasks and Workflows

1.3 SAP Business Workflow

1.3.1 Technical Principles of SAP Business Workflow

1.3.2 General Procedure Model

1.4 Transport Workflow

1.5 CA - Cross-Application Components: Workflow Scenar

1.6 Archiving Application Data (FI)

1.7 Entering Planning Data in the Workflow (CO-PA)

1.8 TR - Treasury: Workflow Scenarios

1.9 RE Real Estate Management: Workflow Scenarios

1.10 LO - General Logistics Workflow Scenarios

1.11 Sales and Distribution (SD) Workflow Scenarios

1.12 MM - Materials Management: Workflow Scenarios

1.13 QM - Quality Management: Workflow Scenarios

1.14 PM/CS - Plant Maintenance & Customer Service: Workflow Scenarios

1.15 Production Planning & Control Workflow Scenarios

1.16 PA - Personnel Management: Workflow Scenarios

1.17 SAP Business Workflow Demo Examples (BC-BMT-WFM)

1 BC - Workflow Scenarios in Applications (BC-BMT-WFM)

Purpose

With SAP Business Workflow, SAP AG provides an efficient cross-application tool enabling integrated electronic management of business processes SAP

Business Workflow is a solution which has been integrated fully in the R/3 System and which enables customer-specific business process flows to be coordinated and controlled on a cross-application and cross-work center basis SAP Business Workflow therefore enhances "ready-made" application software The SAP Business Workflow definition environment can represent business processes simply and can respond to changing external conditions quickly, even in

a live system, by adapting the existing business processes

Workflow Scenarios

Many SAP applications use SAP Business Workflow enabling preconfigured workflow scenarios to be reused in various situations The scenarios can

either be implemented without any changes or configured for your business processes by making minor adjustments These workflow scenarios reduce implementation time significantly and have been optimally configured for the respective application functions

Many workflow scenarios are integrated in IDES (International Demonstration and Education System) It is possible to simulate the business processes of a model

company in this fully-configured system

Features

The workflow scenarios can be divided into three categories:

Creating events

Events are created to report status changes for an application object and to allow a reaction to the changes

Document 4711/98 posted

Material XYZ created

These events can be used as triggering events for your own tasks or workflows The events are therefore "connected" in a flexible and customer-specific way to

application events, without having to modify the standard part of the application.

In some cases, the triggering of these events is not activated in the standard version, but depends on the Customizing settings You can find further information in the application scenario documentation

Providing SAP tasks

A task contains a task description and the connection to the application logic via the method for a business object Before you can use a task productively, you must assign the tasks to its possible agents

The tasks provided by SAP are generally used as steps in SAP workflows, but you can use them for your own developments as well

Release change request

Change purchase order

If a workflow scenario only involves one task, the scenario can usually be regarded as a minimal solution for showing the connection between application functionality and SAP Business Workflow For differentiated control, this SAP task should be replaced by a customer-specific task

You can find further information in the application scenario documentation

Providing SAP workflows

A workflow contains a complete workflow definition covering several steps An SAP workflow has a complete workflow definition, but must still be adapted to the organizational environment of the customer

Release a purchase requisition

Recruitment

In cases in which SAP workflows describe business processes which also occur in your company, or in cases in which changes should not be made to the SAP workflow for technical reasons, the SAP workflows supplied can be used without any changes or adapted using workflow configuration

In all other cases, the SAP workflows can be used as templates for your own developments The existing process structures of the business application components, which are often represented within a transaction, are generally not replaced SAP Business Workflow is seen as an integration level "above" the standard business functions and uses the existing transactions, function modules, and reports

1.1 Aim and Structure of this Documentation

Use

This documentation describes the workflow scenarios which can be found in the standard system (SAP workflows) Each workflow scenario has its own description The descriptions contain information about the features available in the standard system, as well as the options relating to settings and modifications for your own developments

This documentation does not replace the SAP Business Workflow documentation.

For information about using and calling the individual tools of SAP Business Workflow and about taking advantage of the complete functionality for your own enhancements and developments, refer to the SAP Business Workflow documentation

Features

Each description of a workflow scenario is assigned to one of the application components in the R/3 System

Each description has the same structure and usually contains the following topics:

which employees are involved, and what advantages and benefits can be derived from using the workflow system for this scenario

This information is sufficient if you are interested in an initial overview of the options available in a particular application

Technical implementation You learn, in detail, which steps were carried out by SAP in order to represent

the business process in the system

You are familiarized with the object types which form the basis of the scenario and you discover which tasks are defined to describe the activities to be carried out, which roles are resolved, and which events are used The structure of the workflow used, as well as the interface and container, are described in greater detail

This information is particularly useful if you are planning to enhance and modify the scenario and if you must identify the points at which changes can be made This section is not available or is very short if no enhancements are planned or appropriate

Preparation and customizing You learn which application-specific or scenario-specific preparations and

settings are required to adapt the scenario to the business conditions in your company

This section contains notes and recommendations regarding the organizational plan and agent assignment

For further information refer to

Operation and connection to application functionality You learn how the technical and business connection between the scenario and

the application is controlled, how the scenario can be started and how the corresponding application functionality must be called

1.2 Settings and Preparations

Purpose

As far as possible in the technical and business sense, the workflow scenarios can be run directly without any modifications However, there are always some settings which must be entered in your system and which cannot be supplied by SAP

Prerequisites

"Technical" Customizing for the workflow system

The Auto-Customizing function can be used to configure basic technical settings for the workflow system The corresponding functionality is available both in SAP Business Workflow

Process Flow

Maintaining the organizational plan

The company-specific organizational plan describes the organizational assignment of an employee This allows the responsibilities of employees for

performing individual business activities to be defined in the form of activity profiles

The organizational plan is part of the PD component "Organization and Planning" The organizational plan is maintained on a client-dependent basis An organizational plan which was created for personnel management purposes (or is to be created) can be used in SAP Business Workflow without any changes, provided the workflow functionality and the personnel management application run in the same client

Even if you wish to use one of the supplied workflow scenarios without making any changes , you must always define the organizational plan of your company You only need to define those areas of the company in which you wish to use SAP Business Workflow You should only differentiate individual jobs to the extent required by the different activity profiles

The corresponding sections of this documentation contain proposals for organizational plans which have been adapted to the relevant scenario.

Agent assignment for single-step tasks

The SAP tasks supplied by SAP as part of the workflow scenarios are client-independent and their validity period does not expire.

Tasks must always be linked to their possible agents from an organizational point of view It may therefore be the case that several employees with the same

authorization on an organizational basis are offered the same task for execution One of these employees assumes responsibility for and processes the task This

assignment principle supports automatic load distribution within work groups with the same activity profile.

The corresponding sections of this documentation contain proposals for linking the task in a scenario to the relevant employees

Activating the triggering events for a task

Tasks can be started via events in response to status changes for an object A task can have several triggering events If one of the triggering events is generated in the system, the relevant task is started ( "OR" operation)

If the task is used in a workflow, the workflow that contains the task as a step is not started by the event

The triggering events of a task are entered in its definition If you activate the triggering events, the system automatically activates the associated event receiver linkage

If the workflow scenarios described in this documentation are started via triggering events, this fact is mentioned in the relevant sections If this is the case, the linkage between the triggering event and the receiver (task or workflow) must always be activated This is usually carried out in Customizing, but can also be carried out later during production operation

Customizing for individual workflow scenarios

Additional customizing activities will generally be necessary within the environment of the individual application scenarios These are described in the following sections of this documentation

1.2.1 Organizational Plan

Definition

Representation of the task-related, functional structure of your enterprise, created using tools from the Organizational Management component

This functional organizational plan differs from the administrative enterprise structure and the personnel structure whose elements are relevant to Payroll Accounting (company code, personnel subarea or employee group, for example) These structures are found in their corresponding components

Use

You can create several organizational plans in different

in one plan version, you depict your current valid organizational plan which you use for your current business processes (evaluations, Workflow, personnel planning, for example)

In additional plan versions, you can depict organizational plans as planning scenarios (for Business Process Re-Engineering, for example)

You can compare the current organizational plan with the planning scenarios and transfer data from the simulated structures into the current organizational plan

Structure

Organizational plans are normally created by assigning objects of the following types to each other:

Organizational Unit

Position

Job

Task

If you are using your organizational plan for Workflow, the following object types are also available:

Standard task

Workflow template

Task group

The main elements of an organizational plan are

an

Integration

Organizational plans are generally related to objects from other components

If

These functional (organizational plan) and administrative (personnel and enterprise structures) structures come into contact if a person is assigned to an organizational plan (as the holder of a position) as well as an enterprise or personnel structure (that is, to a personnel subarea etc.)

If the

1.2.2 Customizing for Tasks and Workflows

Use

In this Customizing activity you activate triggering events of tasks and workflows and assign possible agents to them

Integration

This Customizing activity enables you to set up centrally in the implementation phase all the tasks and workflows that you will use

However, you can also carry out the steps required individually within the relevant definitions You only have to call the definition in display mode to carry out the activities described You do not have to call the definition in change mode

Prerequisites

You must know:

Which of the tasks and workflows belong to scenarios that you want to use

The application component to which these tasks and workflows are assigned

Features

The Customizing of tasks and workflows involves the following activities:

Activation of triggering events

If SAP’s usage of the task or workflow includes starting with a triggering event, the linkage is supplied inactive and you have to activate it if required This

is the only way to restrict the workflow functions to the areas in which you actually want to use them

Assignment of possible agents

All tasks that are represented by

step or as a step in a workflow is immaterial

All workflows that are to be started in dialog also have to be assigned to their possible agents

Activities

This function for customizing tasks and workflows can be found in SAP Business Workflow Customizing under

You access the Customizing for particular tasks and workflows via the relevant application component

1.3 SAP Business Workflow

Purpose

SAP Business Workflow

can be used to define business processes that are not yet mapped in the R/3 System These may be simple release or approval procedures, or more complex business processes such as creating a material master and the associated coordination of the departments involved SAP Business Workflow is particularly suitable for situations in which work processes have to be run through repeatedly, or situations in which the business process requires the involvement of a large number of agents in a specific sequence

You can also use SAP Business Workflow to respond to errors and exceptions in other, existing business processes You can start a workflow when predefined events occur, for example an event can be triggered if particular errors are found during an automatic check

SAP provides several workflows that map predefined business processes These workflows do not require much implementation For an overview of these SAP workflows, refer to Workflow Scenarios in Applications

Integration

SAP Business Workflow

uses the existing transactions and functions of the R/3 System and does not change the functions You can combine the existing functions of the R/3 System to form new business processes with SAP Business Workflow The workflow system takes over control of the business processes If you are already using SAP Organizational Management , you can use the organizational structure created there to have the relevant agents carry out the individual activities It is possible to have an activity carried out by a position This ensures that the respective occupiers of the position can carry out the individual activities during execution of the workflow This means that personnel changes in your organization are taken into account immediately in the execution of a workflow

Features

SAP Business Workflow

provides a number of tools for defining and analyzing workflows as well as for monitoring operation

The Workflow Builder is for displaying and making changes to workflows You can make small extensions directly to the original workflows supplied by SAP,

such as carrying out your own agent assignments or changing deadline monitoring

There are several Workflow Wizards to support you in the definition of workflows, with which you can create specific parts of a workflow The Workflow Wizard

Explorer gives you an overview of the existing Workflow Wizards.

In order to make the functions of the R/3 Systems available to a workflow, you use business objects, which you can define and analyze in the Business Object

Builder These business objects are made available to the workflow in reusable tasks The Business Wizard Explorer gives you an overview of all existing

tasks

The end user receives information about the activities they are to carry out in their Business Workplace This provides them with a central overview of all the

activities that they are authorized to carry out They can commence the activities from here

Several tools are available to the workflow system administrator, with which they can control and analyze the current workflows The workflow system administrator

is notified of problems automatically by the system

1.3.1 Technical Principles of SAP Business Workflow

The definition and execution of a workflow can be divided into four main areas A user executes workflows in their Business Workplace where the work items that they can execute are displayed A workflow must be defined to be executed To this end, a workflow definition is created in the Workflow Builder This definition contains steps that are executed at runtime The step either control the workflow directly or they contain a reference to a task The task refers to a method

of an object type in the Business Object Repository (BOR) and can be executed at runtime either

automatically (background task) or by a user (dialog task)

Business Workplace and work items

work item Only certain types are displayed in the Business Workplace

Workflow and workflow definition

A workflow must be defined before it can be executed This workflow definition s made up of steps that control the workflow or refer to the tasks to be executed You can make additional specifications about agents and deadline monitoring for a step These specifications are evaluated at runtime by the

triggering event (for example the event "material created") When the event occurs, the relevant workflow is started automatically

When you activate a workflow

definition , you automatically generate a runtime version When the workflow is started (manually or automatically), the relevant runtime version is used for the execution If the workflow definition is changed later and a new runtime version is generated, these changes do not affect workflows that are already being executed

Tasks

Tasks describe elementary business activities Tasks always refer to a method of an object type Possible agents are defined for tasks Tasks can refer to automatically executable methods (background tasks) or they can need a user to execute them (dialog tasks)

Object types and objects

An

type Attributes are defined for an object type, which make up its data record (for example, material name or material number) Each object type has methods, in which activities are defined, which can be executed with the data (for example, create material) The transactions and functions of the R/3 System can be called

in a method as can your own transactions or other applications The last important component of an object type are its events These describe the status changes that an object can undergo (for example, material deleted or material changed) A workflow can be started by an event of this kind being triggered

The Business Object Repository provides an overview of all object types in the R/3 System You can use or extend the existing object types as well as create new object types

1.3.2 General Procedure Model

Purpose

With SAP Business Workflow , you can map business processes in the R/3 System and process them (several times if required) under the control of the workflow system A workflow management system can process and monitor structured processes that:

Contain a sequence of activities

Reoccur in the same or similar forms

Involve several people of groups of people

Require a lot of coordination

In addition to this general procedure model for working with SAP Business Workflow, there are also role-specific procedure models For descriptions of these procedure models, refer to

Prerequisites

Before working with SAP Business Workflow , you should have a clear idea of the areas in question and the extent to which you want to change and adapt business processes, and pass them over to electronic process control

Process Flow

Use the following procedure model as orientation when working with SAP Business Workflow

Organizational plan

The enterprise-specific organizational plan describes the organizational assignment of the employees The aim of this is to determine the responsibility of

employees for the execution of individual business activities in the form of activity profiles

You maintain the organizational plan on a client-specific basis You can use an organizational plan that was created (or is still being created) for HR purposes in SAP Business Workflow as well without making any changes, as long as the workflow functionality and the HR application are used in the same client Generally, however, in each client you (only) map those sub-areas and organizational structures of your enterprise, in which you also coordinate business processes using SAP Business Workflow

For further information, refer to

Objects and object type definition

You identify all

control purposes

You check whether the relevant

hierarchy and the option of searching generically for parts of a name help when looking for object types

If you find an object type whose definition meets your requirements, you can use it without making any modifications

If you find an object type whose definition does not quite meet your requirements, you extend its definition

If you do not find a suitable object type, you define your own object type

For further information, refer to

Single-step tasks

You identify the single-step tasks involved in your business process Establish which object method is to be executed with the single-step task and who is responsible for executing it You then define the single-step tasks by specifying object type and method, and determine the possible agents of the single-step tasks

In the test and development stage, you should specify all single-step tasks used as

You check whether single-step tasks are already defined

The single-step tasks available are not usually sufficient, meaning that you define additional single-step tasks to meet your requirements

For further information, refer to

Standard roles

You identify possible agent roles in your business process You use roles when agents are to be found using specific, business, functionally-oriented criteria

Specifying roles is always optional

You can initially do without roles in the test and development stage

You check whether you can use any existing roles If you cannot use any existing roles, you define your own

For further information, refer to

Events

You identify the events required to initiate and control the workflow and check whether these events are defined for the relevant object types

If you require an event that is not incorporated in the standard version, you must add the event to the relevant object type definition and ensure that the event is

created

For further information, refer to

Multistep tasks

To describe a business process, which normally comprises several steps, you first create a workflow task and then reference a workflow definition in it You can use these workflow templates as a basis for your own developments, helping you to make a start You can, of course, also use the definition tools to define new multistep tasks from scratch

For further information, refer to

Demo example and tutorials

You can learn the basic principles of workflow definition and execution in the demo example for processing a notification of absence

For further information, refer to

There are also self-teach tutorials that introduce you step-by-step to selected functions See

1.4 Transport Workflow

Purpose

The transport workflow provides a framework for transporting enhancements or new developments of existing business functions in a system landscape It provides a direct connection between development and transport administration The transport workflow manages the transport process, determines the user for each individual step automatically, and then displays an interface which they can use to perform the task directly

It is an efficient method of transporting a selected number of requests into a group of transport targets, and uses clearly defined approval steps to ensure the quality of your target systems The requests can be transportable change requests, Customizing requests, relocation transports or transports of copies The transport targets do not need to be located on defined transport routes However, the transport workflow can involve some risks, caused by the dependencies between transport requests:

Import sequence

It is important that you import requests in the correct order, so that development work is up-to-date in the target system

Incompleteness

It is important that the functions transported in the

A request is not imported, but it contains an important data element You use another request to transport a table that references this data element Since the referenced data element does not exist in the target system, activation errors will occur when you import the second request

The transport workflow is a generic workflow Its ability to process the transport route configuration in TMS enables it to adapt itself to any system landscape This means you can transport multiple requests into multiple targets, even if these targets are not located on the transport routes

This reduces the amount of work for the transport administrator significantly, and also reduces the number of possible errors in the transport process

You can use the transport workflow in two different ways

Transport workflow as a transport strategy

If you have production systems in your landscape that can only accept approved transports, we recommend that you use the transport workflow to organize and coordinate the transport process

To do this, set Workflow-controlled transports as your

When you release a transport request, the transport workflow starts automatically and the screen Create Transport Proposal appears The requests are then released implicitly when the

Special transport workflow (mass transports)

You can use the special transport workflow to make transports that do not follow the defined transport routes or that take place outside the normal transport schedule (part of the mass transport strategy) These transports may be corrections made in the development system that have to be transported into the production system without delay

To use the special transport workflow, set Mass transports as your

Prerequisites

You have

The users involved in the transport workflow have a user in the

One or more users have transport administration

Process Flow

The developer creates a

the transport proposal, for example change its contents and the transport target

After a transport proposal has been approved, the TMS imports the transport requests automatically into the specified target systems If the proposal is rejected, it

is sent back to the

We recommend that you only use the transport workflow to transport into those target systems defined by the direct transport routes Only in the next step should you work out which are the next direct target systems, and then apply to transport into them This is the best way to keep the transport landscape consistent and complete

The transport workflow writes an action log for each transport proposal This log contains all development and transport activities, allowing you to check on the entire process

Developers and transport administrators can communicate directly by writing notes

For more information on transport administration, see

For more information on the development team, see