Designing Application Architecture

Solution Capabilities are implementations of Business Capabilities, realized by a combination of software components (one or many). Hence, the same Business Capability can be supported by multiple different Solution Capabilities.

At least one Solution Component is mandatory to implement the business capability. Additional Solution Components might be optional to improve the quality/coverage/sophistication of how the business capability is implemented (for example, adding features like automation, intelligence). All Solution Components assigned to a Solution Capability must complement each other functionally and must be able to work together in an integrated fashion.

A Solution Capability describes a functional ability of a single or multiple Solution Components to implement and support a specific business capability.

The benefits of product maps are as follows:

• They help to describe the functional positioning of SAP Solution Components and Products, which support designated Business Domains or Business Areas and should be enabled to meet specific business requirements or objectives
• They deliver a Bill of Material, which supports a proposed target solution architecture
• They can be used to describe an industry-specific Product or Solution Component offering

The following figure is an example of the Product Map for sourcing and procurement.

A Solution Capability describes a functional ability of a single or multiple Solution Components to implement and support a specific Business Capability. The Solution Capability Catalog captures Solution Capabilities structured by Business Domains, Business Areas and possibly Business Capabilities or Solution Components for reference purposes.

Benefits:

• Lists relevant Solution Capabilities structured by business needs
• Helps to identify relevant Solution Components and the role they can play to fulfill the business scope
• Supports the comparison and value proposition of Solution Components

The following figure is an example of a product map for Human Resources.

A Solution Component Diagram is a structural component diagram that provides an overview of a concrete Solution Variant.

It visualizes the main Solution Components, describes structural groupings, and the Communication Channels between Deployment Units.

A Solution Component combines built-in and partially exposed functionality, behavior, and data.

Solution Components are key elements within Solution Architecture description.

Today we separate the following types of Solution Components.

• Software Applications / Software Services
• Solution Component Groups
• External Components

Sub-components below the Software Applications and Services may not be further described.

Solution Component Groups are used to group Software Applications and Software Services or Sub-components.

External Components are not provided by SAP.

Solution Components that can be deployed to different deployment targets, can be operated separately, and collaborate by modeled integration are labeled as Deployment Units.

Deployment Units are Solution Components that bundle Solution Components that can be operated separately from other Deployment Units.

• The interactions between Deployment Units are described as Communication Channels and they provide technical details as Communication Scenarios.
• Interactions within a single Deployment Unit are not described within the SAP EA Methodology. These interactions include, for example, method calls, (direct/non-remote) service calls, modification and access to shared data on a common database.

Deployment Units characteristics:

• Separated operations
• The operations team needs to set up, run/manage/monitor the Communication Scenario, including monitoring and issue fixing

The Solution Component Diagram is a graphical representation of the solution components required for a solution variant, their possible deployment, and the integration among them with the reference to corresponding implementation artifacts, such as APIs and Integration Flows.

Identify the relevant Solution Components which are needed to enable the business capabilities identified earlier during the business architecture phase. Best practice is to use the SAP Reference Architecture to speed up the work. As we saw earlier, the SAP EA Methodology allows navigation from the business architecture domain to the IT Solution architecture domain on all levels. As a result it possible to a navigation from Business Capability to Solution Components.

Identify the communication channels between the relevant Solution Components with the help of the SAP Reference Architecture content.

Visualize the identified Solution Components in the form of a Solution Component Diagram. Visualization is key to get engaged with business stakeholders.

A solution refers to a set of interacting, software-based (solution) components that address a specific need or business scenario. The specific need is often the support of a business process.

A solution process is the realization of a business process. It leverages a defined set of solution components to meet the needs of the business process and realize it in a specific way.

Solution components are the modular, software-based units that perform the following:

• They come together to form the entire solution
• They are configured to perform a specific function to fulfill the business need

Solution components can be configured applications or services.

Solution components can be broken down into more fine granular Solution Components or can be grouped into more coarse-grained solution components to explain the overall structure of a solution:

• In the example, we see on the top level 8 Solution Components: The SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite, SAP Master Data Integration, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Integration Suite, and so on
• The SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite groups the next-level Solution Components: SAP SuccessFactors HXM Core and the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll
• In the picture, the small Cloud Icon separates the so-called Deployment Units from other solution components

A deployment unit is the smallest of all solution components of a solution that can be deployed and run independently in a particular environment. Operations need to take "deployment units" into account during the provisioning process and needs to establish the integration between deployment units.

The deployment type describes if a deployment unit can be operated in a public cloud, a private cloud or an on premise environment.

A communication channel indicates that data has to be transferred from one deployment unit to another - for example, through direct or mediated messaging.

The given example outlines a Solution Component Diagram.

A solution value flow is an abstract representation of a solution process and contains a collection of addressed business activities that create additional value for the stakeholders.

The addressed Business Activities are associated with relevant Solution Components and Solution Capabilities implementing them.

The diagrams showing Solution Value Flows are named Solution Value Flow Diagrams. The associated Solution Components and Solution Capabilities might be displayed.

We will now examine the following:

• Specify Business Activities
• Identify Solution Capabilities and Solution Components
• Understand Process Flow

Depict all addressed value-adding Business Activities. The selected Business Activities are shown in a logical order, which supports easy explanation of the Solution Process. The actual sequence of execution can differ from the shown order.

Assign Business Activities to relevant Solution Capabilities and Solution Components realizing them.

Associate Solution Process depicted using Solution Value Flow to detailed Solution Process Flows .The related Solution Process Flows depict Solution Activities and provide addition details, such as alternative flows, paths, loops or decision points in the execution.

This Solution Value Flow Diagram for cloud Solution Components with Solution Capabilities shows the implementation of a Solution Process Module by depicting an implementable combination of Solution Components and their corresponding Solution Capabilities for cloud deployment.

This is a visualization of Solution Value Flow provided in SAP Business Accelerator Hub. This example illustrates Business Activities which are liked to related process flows depicted using Solution Process Flow Diagrams.

The Solution Process Flow diagram is a behavioral diagram that is used to describe a concrete process flow of a solution process.

Depending on the level of shown detail, Solution Process Diagrams are basically BPMN 2.0 collaboration or process diagrams with various SAP Enterprise Architecture Methodology extensions used to describe, for example, integration architecture aspects.

Pools in collaboration diagrams represent deployment units (solution components). The message flows describe the collaboration and integration aspects between these deployment units.

Lanes can represent sub-solution components or application roles.

The Solution Process Flow Diagram is a behavioral diagram that is used to describe a concrete process flow of a solution process. The goal is to provide a common understanding on which solution activities are provided by the solution components to realize a particular solution process and the ordering of solution activities. Moreover, Solution Process Flow Diagrams specify how different solution components collaborate in the context of specific Solution Process Flows by depicting the integration between them.

Depict all relevant Solution Activities, each representing one or a part of one or multiple Business Activities, and ordering constraints between them. Define the flow of Solution Activities, including parallel and optional process flow paths.

Assign solution activities to solution components realizing them in the context of the given Solution Process Flow. A solution activity can be assigned to exactly one solution component, which is represented as a pool in the diagram.

Define how integration between the relevant solution component is realized in the content of the given Solution Process Flow. Use message flows to depict different integration points between two solution components.

The example in the following figure outlines the Solution Process Flow for Time Data Management.

The Application Architecture Overview Diagram depicts the relevant Solution Building Blocks (in the context of SAP Solution Components) and their integrations. It is a sum of all relevant Solution Building Blocks (solution components). It is based on the solution concept Diagram and a mapping of included Architecture Building Blocks (functional components) to Solution Building Blocks (in SAP Context, Solution Components). Potential white spots (areas for which no Reference Solution Component exists) are also shown. Options for their implementation are also given (for example, existing Solution Components, 3rd Party, or custom-developed components).

An Application Architecture Overview Diagram sketches in an abstract way all relevant solution components (or solution building blocks) required for a solution variant. Optionally, it shows relationships between the defined solution components. The diagram may be used to visualize an architecture overview in a more illustrative and less formalized form than in the Solution Component Diagrams.

The example in the following figure outlines an Application Architecture Overview Diagram that shows the relevant solution building blocks.

The example in the following figure outlines the corresponding Application Architecture Overview Diagram for the Solution Component Diagram depicted in the previous figure. It is a less formalized architecture overview of key solution building blocks and their relationships.

The example shows an Application Architecture Overview Diagram. It is a less formalized architecture overview of key solution components and their relationships.

SAP BTP Icons are used as markers for different solution components.

The following figure provides you an example shows an Application Architecture Overview Diagram. It is a less formalized architecture overview of key solution components and their relationships.

SAP BTP Icons are used as markers for different solution components.

This is an example created in the content of Total Workforce Management Solution Process.

The Software Distribution Diagram shows how individual solution building blocks (on a high level) are structured and distributed across the IT infrastructure and used technology foundation. The level of detail depends on the granularity of the Solution Components in scope. Generally, only the classification between the following environments is considered in this diagram:

• Premises (own data centers)
• Private Cloud (separated private area in data center of IT partner)
• Public Cloud (applications/services provided in public Hyperscaler data center)

This helps you to understand, within the Application and Data Architecture phase already, the potential impact, risk, and connectivity challenges that may be introduced by the selected Solution Components. Further details about the data center's physical locations, their (virtual private / inter) connectivity and details about the used operational software layer (for example, for virtualization / container technology) are addressed in the Technology Architecture domain.

A Software Distribution Diagram shows you how a solution is structured and how the solution components (or solution building blocks) are distributed across the IT infrastructure and used technology foundation. The purpose of the diagram is to enable a clear view of how the solution is hosted.

Identify the relevant hosting and deployment environments (for example, Public Cloud, Private Cloud and on Premise) for your solution components.

Map the solution building blocks of your architecture to the previously identified hosting and deployment environments and visualizing the Software Distribution Diagram.

Visualize the relationships of type request-response or information flow between the building blocks. This helps you to understand potential latency considerations or network requirements.

An infrastructure provider, as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, provides essential services or resources needed to build, operate, and manage IT environments.

These services or resources can include things like hardware, storage, networking, or support services.

The following graphical representation outlines an example for a Software Distribution Diagram.

The following graphical representation outlines an example for a Software Distribution Diagram.

There are three relevant cloud deployment models as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-145.pdf

Cloud service models describe the scope of the services provided to the customer by the service provider, that is, whether the service provider is responsible for the application lifecycle management or just the hardware.

The following graphic shows the responsibilities by layer and the control over the stack.