SAP S/4HANA with SAP Business Workflow and the new extension for flexible workflows is one part of the complete process management picture within the SAP product offering. As well as individual embedded workflow solutions within the individual SAP product (such as approvals within SAP Ariba). There is a complete spectrum of workflow / BPM products covering distinct needs.
The figure illustrates:
SAP S/4HANA, which includes the flexible workflow and business workflows running in the Cloud or On Premise described by this course, as well as rules and responsibility management.
SAP Build Process Automation on SAP Business Technology Platform, including process builder, decisions, automations, and manage the workflows.
SAP Signavio for describing processes for documentation and business process transformation purposes.
- SAP Integration Suite as Cloud Integration engine for technical integration across systems without user decisions
- SAP Process Orchestration, for orchestrating on-premise process across systems.
Evolution
The world talks about SAP S/4HANA, but what is SAP S/4HANA and what is the difference compared to an SAP R/3 or SAP ECC system? SAP systems organize their functions in software components and these software components are divided into areas or are assigned to different areas. The areas are called application function and application server.
The main changes for SAP S/4HANA have been made in the area of application functions. The workflow is technically located in the area of the application server. Often the term base is also used for the application server. Conversely, the workflow has been changed little to the bare minimum. The core functions of the business workflow have not changed. On the other hand, the existing functions are extended by new functions.
The main changes for SAP S/4HANA have been made in the area of application functions. The workflow is technically located in the area of the application server. Often the term base is also used for the application server. Conversely, the workflow has been changed little to the bare minimum. The core functions of the business workflow have not changed. On the other hand, the existing functions are extended by new functions.
Position of Workflow
The figure illustrates the position of workflow in the system configuration.
Automatic Workflow Customizing
The automatic workflow customizing - transaction SWU3 - is divided into several areas:
In the Runtime area, all activities that are necessary for workflows are executed.
The Definition Time area performs activities that are required to easily model workflows.
In the Maintain Additional Settings and Services area, you will find activities that are necessary for using certain special functions of the workflow.
The group tasks, in general, have different subareas in which tasks of a functional area can be set to general.
The activities that are checked automatically during the call are displayed. The overall result of the test is indicated by a graphic symbol. In addition, the overall result of the examination of an area is assessed.
If an activity is displayed as faulty, carry out automatic Customizing. To go directly to the maintenance of the activity, choose Automatic customizing.
With automatic customizing, all activities that affect the basic technical settings are executed and all the following default settings are set or made:
Configure a client-specific RFC destination.
The workflow runtime requires RFC destination WORKFLOW_LOCAL- <Mdt.> based on user SAP_WFRT, beginning with SAP S/4HANA 1709, manual creation!)
Therefore, first create a user, SAP_WFRT, of type Background and assign the authorization profile SAP_BC_BMT_WFM_SERV_USER. See note: 2568271 - Change of workflow system user and workflow system jobs with SAP S/4HANA On-Premise 1709. If you then carry out this Customizing activity, you only need to enter the password for SAP_WFRT.
Remarks:
If user SAP_WFRT does not yet exist, it is automatically created as part of this Customizing activity.
To enable error-free operation of the workflow system, make sure that user SAP-WFRT has the appropriate application authorizations in addition to base profile SAP_BC_BMT_WFM_SERV_USER.
Schedule all background jobs of the workflow system.
See note: 2190119 - Background information about SAP S/4HANA technical job repository.
Set an active plan variant.
The active chart variant is set to 01 if no active chart variant was maintained.
Classify SAP tasks and SAP workflows as general tasks.
The generic decision task (standard task for user decision) and other tasks that are used in delivered SAP workflows are classified as general tasks. Some SAP workflows can also be classified as general.
Maintain a system administrator for workflow.
If no system administrator has been maintained for workflow, your user name (the current SY-UNAME) is entered as the system administrator.
After the automatic customizing, also perform the tests described below.
Start a verification workflow.
Select Start Verification Workflow to start a workflow that will test some basic features of the runtime system. Follow the instructions on the screen.
Test event links.
Choose Event Linkages to perform a consistency check on existing event links.
Workflow System Information
In Transaction SWF_SYSTEM_STATUS information on the Workflow System is aggregated.
