Understanding the Parallel Line Capability

Parallel line is a feature in SAP Central Business Configuration that enables you to flexibly make business configuration changes without affecting your daily operations.

• The main line is used for your initial implementation and daily operations. In this line, you select the business process scope to activate, set up your organizational structure, enter configuration value data, and transport the business configuration to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition development system tenants. The data is then transported to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud test system, and finally the production system where the business processes can be used by employees productively.
• The parallel line is used to make business configuration changes and test them safely in a separate environment, without impacting the daily operations in the main line. Once you've made and tested all enhancements, you can merge them back into your main line. This is particularly useful for the rollout of new countries/regions or other larger business configuration enhancements.
• The development line is used to make cloud-ready upgrade-stable custom ABAP code extensions to released SAP objects. Not all objects allow changes to be made to protect the overall system stability. Learn more about Developer Extensibility in the SAP Help Portal.

In the past, you would make all changes in a single main line. The parallel line provides you with two additional tenants (customizing and test - client 120) for optimal flexibility in configuration and testing. This gives you a clearer picture about how changes will impact your implementation, which is helpful especially in complex implementations.

In the past, when you would edit a previously completed activity, configuration is on hold until you've completed all changes. With the parallel line, you can continue working on configuration activities in your main line while making business configuration changes in your parallel line. This gives you the option to prioritize urgent business configuration changes.

Potential dependencies between transport requests in SAP S/4HANA Cloud may affect lifecycle management. With the parallel line, the transport and maintenance of SAP Best Practice business process content runs smoothly so that updates reach the production system more promptly to bring the latest innovations.

If you have determined the need for a parallel line, navigate to SAP for Me and select the Services & Support dashboard. First, submit a service request to run the prerequisite checks to determine whether your main line is ready for branching.

Branching is the operation of creating a parallel line by copying the main line and provisioning the additional Customizing tenant (client 120) in the development system and Test tenant (client 120) in the test system. This includes the deployment and activation of your current business configuration in the new tenants. After the prerequisite check has been completed, you may request the service to create a branch.

Find step-by-step instructions to request the Parallel Line through SAP for Me in this SAP Blog: Parallel Line Branch via SAP for Me.

While you're working in the two lines, checks are in place to ensure that configuration adaptations are done consistently in both lines. These functions are Rebase, Merge, and Delete.

• Rebase is the action of sending changes from the main line to the parallel line. For example, if you've been working in the parallel line for some time, settings changed in the main line will be required in the parallel line. By performing a rebase, you make these settings available from the main line to the parallel line. Regular manual synchronization of these changes is important.
• Merge is the action of sending changes from the parallel line to the main line. For example, once changes in the parallel line have been completed and tested successfully, they can be merged with the main line.
• Delete is the action of resetting the parallel line by starting from scratch based on the main line. The parallel line is deleted and a new one is created.

To initiate rebase, select the workspace of your parallel line, navigate to Settings, and choose Rebase.

You will then need to activate the content by navigating to Deployment Target, and selecting Go to Deployment Target. This brings you to the Display Stagings app in your SAP S/4HANA Cloud system where you can select the changed content and choose Activate.

Learn how to makes changes in the main line and rebase the parallel line in this tutorial.

Merging can be requested by creating a case through the Services & Support dashboard in SAP for Me using the component CBC-BCL-PL. Please refer to SAP Note 3584765 for detailed instructions.

Learn how to make changes in the parallel line and transfer the changes to the main line by performing a merge in this tutorial.

When your main line is stable and you don't require further significant business configuration changes, we recommend that you delete the parallel line by creating a case through the Services & Support dashboard in SAP for Me. This avoids unnecessary synchronization between the lines. You can always request another parallel line in the future if necessary.

Find detailed instructions on how to delete a parallel line in the SAP Help Portal.

A conflict resolution framework is in place to keep the main line and parallel line consistent during rebase and merge activities. Conflicts are identified through validation jobs that run in the background. Conflicts could be related to scoping or configuration.

Scoping conflicts are detected in the following situations:

• You have activated a country/region in the main line after branching. If you add the same country/region in the parallel line, it will create a conflict (or vice versa).
• You have added a new country/region in the parallel line and added a business process scenario in the main line, or vice versa. If the newly added scenario is also available for the newly added country/region, a conflict is detected to ensure the new scenario won’t be added to the new country/region without confirmation.
• You have selected different business process scenarios in the main line and parallel line, however the two scenarios are not compatible and only one can be selected between the two. This will cause a conflict with instructions for you to choose one of the two scenarios in both lines.
• You have selected a business process scenario that has a dependency on another scenario. If the same scenario is not selected in both workspaces (main line and parallel line), the dependent scenario that’s required cannot be automatically added to resolve the dependency conflict.
• You have selected two different business process scenarios that are not compatible with each other in different workspaces, plus a third scenario that has a dependency with one of the other two scenarios. Because the two scenarios are selected in different workspaces, the third scenario cannot be removed automatically.

Scoping conflicts need to be fixed in the project line where they occurred by removing or adding a scenario to scope. These conflicts can occur in the main line or the parallel line. In the Define Scope app within SAP Central Business Configuration, error messages will provide guidance on how to resolve the identified conflicts.

Find more information on scoping conflicts in the SAP Help Portal.

Issues caused by the conflicting configurations between the workspace in your main line and the workspace in your parallel line are detected in transports that have not yet been released, or rebase or merge actions. In the Conflicts app, you can see a list of configuration activities that have conflicts. The Conflicts app is only visible in the parallel line workspace.

For each configuration activity, you can perform the following actions to resolve the conflict:

• Choose Go to Main Line to open the configuration activity in the main line workspace.
• Choose Go to This Workspace to open the configuration activity in the parallel line workspace.
• Choose Compare to compare the configuration records between main line and parallel line for the configuration activity. You can use the Implementation Activities app in the customizing tenant of the development system in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to compare the content of a customizing object associated with configuration activities among different systems and tenants. This app allows you to adjust the configuration values if necessary.
• You can always start your parallel line from scratch by deleting the existing parallel line.
• Choose Details to go to the details page of the conflict. The fields with inconsistent values are marked with a warning icon.

Once the issue is resolved, the system will recognize the changes and the issue will be automatically closed. If you do not see the issue disappearing, refresh your browser.

Find more information on configuration conflicts in the SAP Help Portal.