ALM for SAP? Well, we have the Solution Manager! Indeed: take a checklist for Application Lifecycle Management, and you can be certain that the SAP Solution Manager has checked every box with a green tick. So you can lean back, and by implementing the SAP Solution Manager, you have fully covered the topic of Application Lifecycle Management.
You already suspect that I am not so quick to lean back. An ALM solution reaches its optimal value when all parts interlock and can connect to form a closed process.
The SAP Solution Manager now offers good individual solutions for many areas of ALM — but in the fully integrated ALM I have outlined, there are still some gaps to close, since the integration of individual lifecycle phases has not progressed very far.
The most important first step when introducing an ALM solution: defining the lifecycle phases and the entry points into the lifecycle.
Conclusion: There are already successful reference projects in which integrated ALM solutions for SAP environments have been created using the right tools and methods. The SAP Solution Manager can be a valuable part of this — but customers should not mistake checklist compliance for genuine ALM maturity. The gaps in process integration must be consciously addressed and closed with additional tools and methodologies where needed.
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