SAP Build Process Automation
The Comprehensive Guide
1st Edition
Published on 23. April 2025
Book
Hardback
611 pages
978-1-4932-2629-0 (ISBN)
Description
SAP Build Process Automation is here-so get the most out of it with this comprehensive guide! First, create a business process project step by step using low-code and no-code tools. Then add capabilities to your workflows by configuring action, automation, and decision artifacts. Enhance your processes with prebuilt content and extensions, and learn to manage the complete lifecycle of a business process project. Finally, secure and maintain processes by setting up monitoring, governance, authorizations, and more!
Highlights include:
1) Architecture
2) Artifacts
3) Business process project
4) Process designer
5) Events
6) Business project lifecycle management
7) Monitoring
8) Governance
9) Authentication and authorizations
10) Extensions
11) SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)
More details
Persons
Author
Chaitanya Priya Puvvada is a senior customer solution adoption specialize for SAP Build Process Automation with more than a decade of SAP experience. She began her professional journey at SAP as a developer and has since excellent in various roles, including business analyst, client interface, and consultant. Priya is an expert in SAP Build Process Automation implementation and in providing technical support to consultants and solution advisors working with the service. She has conducted enablement workshops, hands-on sessions, and openSAP courses. Additionally, she has produced engaging webinars, podcasts, and written articles, sharing her knowledge and insights with the community. Her contributions to the SAP Community have earned her the status of a featured member. She is also an esteemed member of the Women in Technology community and has been recognized for her contributions in the field of robotic process automation (RPA) as part of the Women in RPA initiative. Her passion for innovation is evident through her participation and victories in several global innovator challenges and Hackathons.
Seshadri Sreenivas Ramanarayanan is a senior product manager for SAP Build Process Automation at SAP SE, based in Walldorf, Germany. Since joining SAP in 2007, he has specialized in workflows and business rules, shaping the automation solutions. A seasoned speaker at conferences like TechEd, Sapphire, and bpmNext, Seshadri is known for his insights on process automation and digital transformation. Over the years, Seshadri has played a pivotal role in driving SAP's product strategy in the process automation area, helping various enterprises successfully streamline their operations and achieve efficiency through automation. Beyond the world of SAP, Seshadri is an International Cricket Council (ICC) certified coach and an avid sports enthusiast who is passionate about playing cricket and tennis whenever he can.
Archana Shulka is a senior director of product management at SAP. She has more than 19 years of experience and plays a key role in product strategy, product definition, and customer success of SAP Build Process Automation. She has led multiple strategic projects at SAP, and was instrumental in defining and executing content strategy working across different LoBs, partners, and customers. She also heads the product leadership forum of SAP Labs, India, where she is responsible for building programs to nurture future product managers, user experience designers, and product support teams. Archana has conducted numerous workshops and webinars, hosted SAP BTP podcasts, authored blogs and articles and is a well-known speaker at multiple international conferences. She has been recognized for her contributions towards coaching young aspirants and leaders across the country. In addition to her work at SAP, she also provides expert technical advisory to developers, consultants, and solution architects and is an eminent member of SAP Community. Her contributions to the IT industry have won her the prestigious Indian Achievers Award 2022 and Golden Pinnacle Award 2023 from the government of India.
Content
... Preface ... 17
... Objective of This Book ... 17
... Target Audience ... 18
... Structure of the Book ... 19
... Acknowledgements ... 22
1 ... Introduction to Enterprise Automation ... 25
1.1 ... What Is Enterprise Automation? ... 26
1.2 ... Why Enterprise Automation Is Needed and How It Has Evolved ... 27
1.3 ... How SAP Accelerates Enterprise Automation ... 29
1.4 ... Summary ... 37
2 ... SAP Business Technology Platform ... 39
2.1 ... Introduction ... 39
2.2 ... Architecture ... 41
2.3 ... SAP Build ... 49
2.4 ... Summary ... 54
3 ... Overview of SAP Build Process Automation ... 57
3.1 ... Introduction ... 57
3.2 ... Architecture ... 60
3.3 ... Applications ... 62
3.4 ... Artifact Definitions ... 78
3.5 ... Lifecycle Phases ... 96
3.6 ... Summary ... 98
4 ... Creating a Business Process Project ... 99
4.1 ... What Is a Business Process Project? ... 99
4.2 ... Create a Project ... 100
4.3 ... Components of the Business Process Project Overview Page ... 104
4.4 ... Summary ... 110
5 ... The Process and Its Artifacts ... 111
5.1 ... Benefits of Low-Code Designer Tools ... 111
5.2 ... Process Editor ... 112
5.3 ... Processes and Artifacts ... 113
5.4 ... Events ... 135
5.5 ... Branches ... 143
5.6 ... Mappings ... 147
5.7 ... Forms ... 148
5.8 ... Variant Templates ... 161
5.9 ... Other Activities ... 165
5.10 ... Summary ... 171
6 ... Action Artifacts ... 173
6.1 ... What Is an Action, and How Does It Differ from an Application Programming Interface? ... 173
6.2 ... Connectivity Options ... 174
6.3 ... Create, Configure, and Test Action Projects ... 180
6.4 ... Release and Publish Actions ... 191
6.5 ... Connecting to External Systems using Actions ... 192
6.6 ... Summary ... 195
7 ... Automation Artifacts ... 197
7.1 ... Automation Editor ... 198
7.2 ... Screens: Piloting Applications ... 206
7.3 ... Activities: Making Use of Software Development Kits ... 235
7.4 ... Controls: Complex Automation Flows and Error Handling ... 269
7.5 ... Data: Creating and Managing Data Types ... 282
7.6 ... Automations, Actions, and Processes: Using Existing Artifacts ... 284
7.7 ... Desktop Agent ... 285
7.8 ... Environments ... 290
7.9 ... Summary ... 295
8 ... Decision Artifacts ... 297
8.1 ... Selecting the Correct Decision Solution for SAP Scenarios ... 298
8.2 ... Types of Decision Deployment ... 308
8.3 ... Decision Models ... 312
8.4 ... Working with Decisions ... 329
8.5 ... Summary ... 354
9 ... Business Project Lifecycle Management ... 355
9.1 ... Lifecycle Phases of a Business Process Project ... 355
9.2 ... Technical Monitoring ... 380
9.3 ... Business Monitoring ... 387
9.4 ... Summary ... 390
10 ... Executing Processes, Automations, and Decisions ... 391
10.1 ... Understanding Runtime Environments ... 391
10.2 ... SAP Build Process Automation Application Programming Interfaces ... 398
10.3 ... Running a Process, an Automation, and a Decision ... 412
10.4 ... Summary ... 420
11 ... Monitoring ... 421
11.1 ... Benefits of Monitoring ... 421
11.2 ... Types of Monitoring ... 422
11.3 ... Business Monitoring ... 424
11.4 ... Technical Monitoring ... 458
11.5 ... Summary ... 470
12 ... Governance ... 473
12.1 ... Establishing Governance in Business Processes ... 474
12.2 ... Business Process Access Management ... 475
12.3 ... Environments ... 478
12.4 ... Transport Management ... 490
12.5 ... Approval Flow for Controlling the Project Lifecycle ... 497
12.6 ... Maintaining Business Projects ... 502
12.7 ... Summary ... 503
13 ... Authentication, Authorization, and Audit Logging ... 507
13.1 ... Approach to Authentication and Authorization ... 507
13.2 ... Securely Connect to Cloud and On-Premise Systems ... 509
13.3 ... Audit Logs ... 510
13.4 ... Summary ... 514
14 ... Working with Store Content ... 515
14.1 ... What Is a Store? ... 515
14.2 ... Types of Content ... 519
14.3 ... Discovering and Working with Content ... 524
14.4 ... Creating and Publishing Content to the Store ... 533
14.5 ... Summary ... 535
15 ... Extending Standard Processes ... 537
15.1 ... Standard SAP Processes and the Need for Process Extensions ... 538
15.2 ... Different SAP Process Extension Possibilities ... 543
15.3 ... Using Process Variants ... 548
15.4 ... SAP S/4HANA Extensibility and Creating a Process Extension for SAP S/4HANA Cloud ... 559
15.5 ... Example Extension Scenarios ... 567
15.6 ... Summary ... 571
16 ... Scaling Process Automation ... 573
16.1 ... SAP Task Center ... 574
16.2 ... Enabling Fusion Development for Professional and Citizen Developers ... 588
16.3 ... Summary ... 593
17 ... Conclusion ... 595
1 ... The Authors ... 603
... Index ... 605
... Objective of This Book ... 17
... Target Audience ... 18
... Structure of the Book ... 19
... Acknowledgements ... 22
1 ... Introduction to Enterprise Automation ... 25
1.1 ... What Is Enterprise Automation? ... 26
1.2 ... Why Enterprise Automation Is Needed and How It Has Evolved ... 27
1.3 ... How SAP Accelerates Enterprise Automation ... 29
1.4 ... Summary ... 37
2 ... SAP Business Technology Platform ... 39
2.1 ... Introduction ... 39
2.2 ... Architecture ... 41
2.3 ... SAP Build ... 49
2.4 ... Summary ... 54
3 ... Overview of SAP Build Process Automation ... 57
3.1 ... Introduction ... 57
3.2 ... Architecture ... 60
3.3 ... Applications ... 62
3.4 ... Artifact Definitions ... 78
3.5 ... Lifecycle Phases ... 96
3.6 ... Summary ... 98
4 ... Creating a Business Process Project ... 99
4.1 ... What Is a Business Process Project? ... 99
4.2 ... Create a Project ... 100
4.3 ... Components of the Business Process Project Overview Page ... 104
4.4 ... Summary ... 110
5 ... The Process and Its Artifacts ... 111
5.1 ... Benefits of Low-Code Designer Tools ... 111
5.2 ... Process Editor ... 112
5.3 ... Processes and Artifacts ... 113
5.4 ... Events ... 135
5.5 ... Branches ... 143
5.6 ... Mappings ... 147
5.7 ... Forms ... 148
5.8 ... Variant Templates ... 161
5.9 ... Other Activities ... 165
5.10 ... Summary ... 171
6 ... Action Artifacts ... 173
6.1 ... What Is an Action, and How Does It Differ from an Application Programming Interface? ... 173
6.2 ... Connectivity Options ... 174
6.3 ... Create, Configure, and Test Action Projects ... 180
6.4 ... Release and Publish Actions ... 191
6.5 ... Connecting to External Systems using Actions ... 192
6.6 ... Summary ... 195
7 ... Automation Artifacts ... 197
7.1 ... Automation Editor ... 198
7.2 ... Screens: Piloting Applications ... 206
7.3 ... Activities: Making Use of Software Development Kits ... 235
7.4 ... Controls: Complex Automation Flows and Error Handling ... 269
7.5 ... Data: Creating and Managing Data Types ... 282
7.6 ... Automations, Actions, and Processes: Using Existing Artifacts ... 284
7.7 ... Desktop Agent ... 285
7.8 ... Environments ... 290
7.9 ... Summary ... 295
8 ... Decision Artifacts ... 297
8.1 ... Selecting the Correct Decision Solution for SAP Scenarios ... 298
8.2 ... Types of Decision Deployment ... 308
8.3 ... Decision Models ... 312
8.4 ... Working with Decisions ... 329
8.5 ... Summary ... 354
9 ... Business Project Lifecycle Management ... 355
9.1 ... Lifecycle Phases of a Business Process Project ... 355
9.2 ... Technical Monitoring ... 380
9.3 ... Business Monitoring ... 387
9.4 ... Summary ... 390
10 ... Executing Processes, Automations, and Decisions ... 391
10.1 ... Understanding Runtime Environments ... 391
10.2 ... SAP Build Process Automation Application Programming Interfaces ... 398
10.3 ... Running a Process, an Automation, and a Decision ... 412
10.4 ... Summary ... 420
11 ... Monitoring ... 421
11.1 ... Benefits of Monitoring ... 421
11.2 ... Types of Monitoring ... 422
11.3 ... Business Monitoring ... 424
11.4 ... Technical Monitoring ... 458
11.5 ... Summary ... 470
12 ... Governance ... 473
12.1 ... Establishing Governance in Business Processes ... 474
12.2 ... Business Process Access Management ... 475
12.3 ... Environments ... 478
12.4 ... Transport Management ... 490
12.5 ... Approval Flow for Controlling the Project Lifecycle ... 497
12.6 ... Maintaining Business Projects ... 502
12.7 ... Summary ... 503
13 ... Authentication, Authorization, and Audit Logging ... 507
13.1 ... Approach to Authentication and Authorization ... 507
13.2 ... Securely Connect to Cloud and On-Premise Systems ... 509
13.3 ... Audit Logs ... 510
13.4 ... Summary ... 514
14 ... Working with Store Content ... 515
14.1 ... What Is a Store? ... 515
14.2 ... Types of Content ... 519
14.3 ... Discovering and Working with Content ... 524
14.4 ... Creating and Publishing Content to the Store ... 533
14.5 ... Summary ... 535
15 ... Extending Standard Processes ... 537
15.1 ... Standard SAP Processes and the Need for Process Extensions ... 538
15.2 ... Different SAP Process Extension Possibilities ... 543
15.3 ... Using Process Variants ... 548
15.4 ... SAP S/4HANA Extensibility and Creating a Process Extension for SAP S/4HANA Cloud ... 559
15.5 ... Example Extension Scenarios ... 567
15.6 ... Summary ... 571
16 ... Scaling Process Automation ... 573
16.1 ... SAP Task Center ... 574
16.2 ... Enabling Fusion Development for Professional and Citizen Developers ... 588
16.3 ... Summary ... 593
17 ... Conclusion ... 595
1 ... The Authors ... 603
... Index ... 605