How to map and trace changes to an SAP application using HCL Accelerate

With our value stream management tool, HCL Accelerate, you can track the whole software delivery process from backlog to production. Keep reading, or watch the demo video below, to learn how to track an SAP application’s journey using HCL Accelerate.

In this example, we’ll make a small text change to the UI of an SAP application.  The change will move through our DevOps pipeline that includes Jira, SAP Web IDE, GitHub, Jenkins, and ServiceNow, all mapped via integrations with HCL Accelerate.

The Value Stream view in Accelerate will map, visualize, and interpret the flow of the change from creation in Solution Manager to deployment in SAP Cloud Platform, by automatically mapping the tools used in the pipeline.  The automatic mappings in the video are done as follows:

SAP Solution Manager Work Package -> Jira Work Item -> HCL Accelerate

SAP Web IDE -> Github -> HCL Accelerate

Jenkins -> SAP Cloud Platform -> HCL Accelerate

ServiceNow -> HCL Accelerate

First, create a work item in SAP to make a change to the title web UI. This change will be linked to Jira. In Jira, update the work item to select it for deployment. In HCL Accelerate’s value stream view, you’ll see that the SAP work item – represented as a Dot – has moved from the “backlog” stage to “selected for development.”

Next, make a change in the SAP web IDE and commit that change to the development branch in GitHub to be merged. This commit contains the work item ID, which is how HCL Accelerate links that item to Jira. When you go back to the value stream in HCL Accelerate, you’ll see that the SAP dot has move to the “in progress” state. Then, when you create a pull request in GitHub to merge this change, your SAP dot moves to the “merged” state in HCL Accelerate.

Once the item is merged, a build will automatically trigger in Jenkins. Upon completion of this build, Jenkins will pass that build information to HCL Accelerate and your SAP dot will automatically move over to the “build” state. When Jenkins completes the deployment through SAP, your SAP dot will move to the dev environment where it has been deployed to.

 

These dot movements are more than just a visual way to see where your work item is in the pipeline. As your work item moves along the value stream, corresponding data is sent to HCL Accelerate. At any stage of the pipeline, clicking on the dot reveals that item’s complete change history and related work items and pull requests. In the “Insights” section of HCL Accelerate, you can see dashboards and detailed reports using the data from all the work items in your pipeline. Use the out-of-the-box dashboards to track things like build counts and deployment charts, or set up custom reports to track your business’s unique key performance indicators.

With HCL Accelerate’s visual “dots” representation of the DevOps pipeline, it’s easy to see where your work items stand. And with easy integrations to connect the software development tools you’re already using, HCL Accelerate becomes your single source of truth for DevOps data. Get started with HCL Accelerate today with our free Community Edition.