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Project Tasks

Project Tasks

WATCH the REPLAY from ALM Summit APJ 2022 on Project, Task & Requirements

Get more information on task upload and update through this blogpost.

The tasks can be uploaded into SAP Cloud ALM in the following ways:

  • Mass Upload tasks using Microsoft Excel 
  • Upload tasks from SAP Readiness Check

A. Mass Upload Tasks using Microsoft Excel:

This feature will help you to upload multiple tasks in one go. Using this feature, you can download tasks from one project or a third-party system and upload them into another project. The supported transaction types include project tasks, user stories, and sub-tasks which can be uploaded individually or even as a hierarchy. These are the steps to upload the tasks.

1. Download template:

To upload the tasks, you need a template with a specific format. We currently support Microsoft Excel format which makes it easy and flexible for our users. To understand how to download the template please have a look at my earlier blog post here.

2. Template Structure:

Let us understand the template structure in detail:

  1. You will find 7 worksheets that correspond to the task attributes. Please see the image above with sheets highlighted in red.
  2. The task is the main sheet where you will provide task data. The first row is the header row. Please see the image above with sheets highlighted in green. The column listed is the only one supported. Please do not add further columns.
  3. Other sheets (Types, Sources, etc..) have the available texts that can be used for editing the individual task attributes.
  4. Please make sure that except title and description all other fields have predefined values which you see in the other sheets as explained in point 3.
  5. The description field supports HTML tags to get proper formatting.

 

3. Preparing the data into the template:

  • After you download the template you can edit it based on your requirement if you follow the rules explained in the above section.
  • Do not change the title or order of columns or add a new column to the template as the system will not be able to interpret the data correctly.
  • You can also upload multiple sub-tasks with a parent task. For linking a sub-task with a parent task, you need to specify in the column parent row the row number of the parent task. Please see the example in the image below, where row number 2 is a parent and specified in the parent row column of sub-tasks.

4. Upload into the system:

  • In the task list, click on the upload icon. 

  • As you click on the icon, this pop-up will appear on your screen.

  •  You may now browse the file in your local system and select the file to be uploaded.
  • After the file is selected, please click on the upload button to proceed further.
  • A new pop-up will appear stating the number of tasks that are present in the uploaded file and the number of files that will be created.

 

  • When you click on Create, all the tasks will be successfully uploaded to the system.
  • No tasks will be created if the cancel button is clicked.
  • In case of errors, the system will show you the error details and will give you an option to import only the correct record, whereas incorrect records will be ignored.

 

B. Upload tasks from SAP Readiness Check into SAP Cloud ALM:

 

SAP Readiness Check:

SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA is your first step in the transformation journey. It is a self-service toolset that evaluates your current ERP System and helps you determine what exactly is needed for the successful conversion. On the dashboard, you can see a comprehensive overview of the check results of the analyzed source system. The overview shows a summary of findings that are grouped by check. For more information, you can visit the SAP Help Portal.

 

 

Benefits of SAP Cloud ALM:

SAP Readiness Check identifies activities that customers need to finish by checking their current system and SAP Cloud ALM guides them through the whole conversion project. The whole project contains six phases, Discover, Prepare, Explore, Realize, Deploy, and Run. SAP recommends SAP Cloud ALM to cloud customers to manage their cloud application implementation project.

The ‘Project and Task Management’ module in SAP Cloud ALM contains comprehensive functions to handle implementation-related activities.

The content types in SAP Readiness Check can now be directly mapped to SAP Cloud ALM entities. The Generate Extract for SAP Cloud ALM function allows users to generate an excel template for SAP Cloud ALM from the SAP Readiness Check dashboard. You can upload it into the Project and Task Management module in SAP Cloud ALM. It helps the customer to follow up these activities in SAP Cloud ALM in an easy manner. Let us first understand what information is available in SAP Readiness Check and how it is mapped in SAP Cloud ALM with the help of the following illustration:

  • Simplification Item and Activities:  Converting a system to SAP S/4HANA is complex work. SAP provides information about the relevant changes that might have an impact, grouped by simplification items. Based on these simplification items, used transactions and DB table contents of the system to be converted, SAP Readiness Check provides the user with a list of relevant simplification items and recommends activities for each item. There are two major entities guiding customers to implement simplification item’s finding namely Simplification Item and Activity. Every simplification item will be created as a user story and activities will be created as sub-tasks
  • Add-on compatibility: Each status will be created as a new user story while its components will be created as subtasks. The next steps are covered in the task details

 

  • Custom Code: Each custom code is created as new user story and each custom code topic is created as it’s sub task
  • Business process discovery: One user story is created for business improvement. Subtasks are created for tabs that contain errors or warnings
  • Customer Vendor Integration Analysis: One user story is created for integration issue and subtasks are created for its components

 

Step 1: Download extract from SAP Readiness check in SAP Cloud ALM format:

We have added a new option to download the extract in SAP Cloud ALM format. Please see the option as shown below in the figure.

Once you click on this option a new pop-up will appear where you can select the checks and then click generate to download the result excel file.

  It is also possible to filter the check items that you want to download and get a detailed selection of the selected check items.

 

Step 2: Upload extract into SAP Cloud ALM:

Once the extract has been generated, you can upload it in the Project and Task Management module in SAP Cloud ALM where the new user stories and subtasks will be created.

  1. Open the task module in SAP Cloud ALM Tenant and click the upload icon
  2. Select the downloaded excel for SAP Cloud ALM entities and click upload

 

3. A pop up appears in the system after you click upload, providing details like the number of tasks that will be created

 

4. All the tasks i.e., user stories and subtasks are created once you click the create button.

You are now ready to implement your conversion project!

 

You can assign tasks to the available team members.

Pre-requisite:

Mass update can only be used when you have defined an external ID while creating the tasks. Please create tasks using upload capability and assign an External ID unique to the task before uploading into SAP Cloud ALM if you wish to update them in future.

External ID:

An External ID is a custom field that has the external ID attribute, meaning that it contains unique record identifiers from a system outside of SAP Cloud ALM.

Please note that for the purpose of mass update via upload for manually created tasks and tasks from Readiness check, the system matches the title and goes to track the external ID field:

  • If a task with the same external ID is found from the system, it will be updated
  • If no task is found by this external ID, a new task will be created with such external ID

External ID

Hence, please make sure to define a unique external ID while creating the tasks manually in your template. If you create the tasks manually directly into SAP Cloud ALM, there is no external ID assigned to it. These tasks cannot be updated via upload later as the system is unable to find an external ID and creates a new task instead of updating in this scenario. If you wish to use the update capability via upload, please ensure that the tasks are created via upload and are assigned a unique external ID maintained by you. Once the tasks are uploaded, SAP Cloud ALM uses them to identify the tasks later for updates via upload.

How to Mass Update via Upload:

For mass editing or updating the tasks using upload capability, please follow these steps:

Step 1: Download template

In the task capability in SAP Cloud ALM, navigate to Download > Download as Template. You can see my earlier blogpost on Download Capability for more information.

Template Structure

Step 2: Editing/Updating data into the Template

You can now edit the data here as per template requirements, save the changes in your local system and upload it into SAP Cloud ALM. You can see my earlier blogpost on Upload Capability for more information.

Step 3: Upload the Template into SAP Cloud ALM

In the task capability, click the upload icon, select the prepared file and click Upload. A pop up appears stating the number of tasks that will be updated and created.

Once you have clicked on update and create you are done with your final step.  The changes are instantly applied in the system and you are now ready to implement your tasks.

Benefits

The major benefit of Mass updating via upload is the ability to make changes that are not supported by the Mass Edit icon, specifically fields like deliverable and workstreams that are not accessible via Mass Edit icon. Another benefit is that it gives the overview of all the changes and reduces the risk for errors in your data. You can also simultaneously create new tasks and edit the existing tasks at one go.

Both mass updates via mass edit icon and upload capability are extremely powerful tools that will save you hours compared to manual updates. Leveraging these automated tools also reduces the risk for human error when used carefully, though it is highly recommended to run small tests before triggering large updates to ensure that your changes appear as expected before proceeding.

Mass updating using mass edit icon directly into the system is the most efficient way if you want to assign same values to multiple tasks. Here you can mass update the Status, Priority, Start date, Due date, Assigned roles and Assignee in the selected tasks.

In the task capability, select the tasks that you want to edit and then select the mass edit icon.

You can now mass assign the values and click save. The changes are instantly saved and applied into the system.

Mass updates are allowed on header-level fields only and not all fields are accessible for updates. This is a key distinction between the two methods for updating, as any line-level updates and/or updates to fields not accessible via mass edit icon will require the use of a template upload.

You can enter comments in the task. You can also edit or delete your own comments.

You can see the Task History to know the latest changes.