How to Efficiently Switch from Groups to Spaces and Pages: Best Practice with Predefined Spaces and Mass Assignment
Co-authors: Kattia Jordan-Philipp and Kerstin Groll
Switching from the classic homepage (groups) to spaces and pages in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is a mandatory task (see blog post). There are various approaches to perform the activities involved in the switch.
This blog post describes a best practice to perform the switch activities efficiently and timesaving by making use of the SAP-predefined spaces.
Background
The key mandatory activity when switching to spaces and pages is the assignment of spaces to business roles. SAP delivers predefined spaces: For most of the SAP delivered standard business roles (or business role templates) a dedicated predefined space is delivered.
The approach described here is based on the usage of the function “mass assignment” (as part of the app Maintain Business Roles) for assigning predefined spaces automatically to business roles. The mass assignment is especially useful, if you have created your business roles on the basis of business roles templates (see SAP Help Portal). If you have done so, the information about the corresponding business role template is still available in the system. The system can therefore derive the corresponding predefined space for each of these business roles. The mass assignment makes use of this and thus enables you to assign the corresponding predefined space for all your business roles based on business role templates in one run.
The more business roles you have created based on standard business roles, the more assignments can be done automatically via the mass assignment. The overall effort estimation therefore highly depends on the degree of business roles based on business role templates in your system.
Overall Procedure
To make use of the mass assignment in the most time-saving and efficient way, we suggest the following procedure:
Note
In general, we recommend applying the procedure first in your non-productive system(s), testing the results, and in a second step, applying it in your productive system(s).
- Enable spaces and pages in your system.
- Mass-assign predefined spaces to copied business roles automatically in one run. By selecting all your business roles for the run, the system will assign a predefined space wherever possible (see background). Note
You can revert the assignments done by the mass assignment. This enables you to check the results of the mass assignment and decide whether you want to apply the run to all your business roles or only for selected business roles. - For remaining business roles, manually assign spaces.
For the remaining business roles without automatic assignment, manually assign a space to each business role. You can either assign a predefined space or create a custom space and assign it. There are two options to create a custom space: You can either copy a predefined space and adjust it or create a space from scratch. - Test the assigned spaces in the system and collect feedback.
Ask selected business users to test the assigned spaces in the system and to provide feedback. - Based on the feedback and if required, adjust the assignments or spaces.
Prerequisites
In order to proceed with the single steps, ensure the following prerequisites are fulfilled:
- For a general understanding of spaces and pages, you have read the blog about the mandatory switch to spaces and pages (you can find links to further information as part of the blog).
- For an overview of all available predefined spaces, an excel is available listing all delivered predefined spaces assigned to the respective standard business roles. You can find the excel ready to be downloaded in the SAP Note under Attachments.
- In the system, ensure you have the space Administration (technical name SAP_BR_ADMINISTRATOR) assigned to your administrator business role (i.e., the business role authorizing you to perform the administration tasks). SAP delivers the business role template SAP_BR_ADMINISTRATOR for these tasks.
You can check whether a space has been assigned under Identity and Access Management in the app Maintain Business Roles. Select your administrator business role and click on it. In the tab Launchpad Spaces, you can check whether the space SAP_BR_ADMINISTRATION is assigned.
If the space is not assigned, click Edit and then click Add. In the field Assign Space to Business Role, choose Use Predefined Space and in the field Select a Space, select the space SAP_BR_ADMINISTRATOR. Choose Assign Space and save the edited business role.
Step-by-Step Procedure
[STEP 1]: Enable spaces and pages in your system.
As administrator (you have the business role Administrator assigned), you activate spaces and pages in the app Manage Launchpad Settings. In the app, click Edit.
Scroll for the setting Spaces and switch the setting to ON.
This activation sets spaces and pages as default in your system. After the next logon to the system, you see the spaces assigned to you in the SAP Fiori launchpad. At least, the space Administration should be displayed.
NOTE
In case no spaces are visible, you need to assign the space Administration (technical name SAP_BR_ADMINISTRATOR) to your administrator business role. You can find the details in the section Prerequisites.
NOTE
There are more settings available for spaces and pages, such as enabling My Home (setting SPACES_CUSTOM_HOME) or enabling your end users to toggle between spaces and pages and groups (setting SPACES_ENABLE_USER). We recommend to also activate these settings. You can find more information about the settings in the SAP Help Portal.
[STEP 2]: Mass-assign predefined spaces to copied business roles automatically in one run.
As administrator, you find the mass assignment in the Administration space on the page Identity and Access Management -> Users and Roles in the app Maintain Business Roles.
Include the column Fiori Launchpad Space Assignment Count to the Business Roles list.
The column Fiori Launchpad Space Assignment Count displays whether and how many spaces have already been assigned to your business roles. To include the column, choose Additional Options -> Other Settings.
Under Columns, select Fiori Launchpad Space Assignment Count and choose OK.
You can save this view with the additional column as personalized view (for more information see SAP Help Portal).
Mass assign predefined spaces to your business roles.
To automatically assign the corresponding predefined spaces wherever possible in one run (you can revert the assignments afterwards), select all your business roles and choose Mass Change.
In the Mass Change Wizard, select Predefined Spaces for Business Role Templates as area and choose Next Step -> Review -> Submit.
Check results of mass assignment.
In the column Fiori Launchpad Space Assignment Count, check for which business roles the system was able to assign a space.
For the business roles without assignments, the system was not able to derive a predefined space. For these business roles you will have to assign spaces manually as described in [STEP 3].
[Optional]: Revert mass assignment to (selected) business roles.
If required, you can revert the automatic assignments. To do so, select the affected business roles and choose Mass Change.
In the Mass Change Wizard, select Launchpad Space Assignment as area and select Remove Launchpad Spaces. Choose Next Step and select the space assignments to be removed. Choose Review -> OK.
[STEP 3]: For remaining business roles, manually assign spaces.
For the remaining business roles without automatic assignment, manually assign for each business role either a predefined space or create a custom space and assign it. For creating custom spaces, you can either copy a predefined space and adjust it or create an own space from scratch.
All options are available from the app Maintain Business Roles. Click the respective business role from the list and choose Edit. On the tab Launchpad Spaces choose Add.
On the screen Add Launchpad Space, choose one of the following options:
Manually assign a predefined space.
For the business roles that are not are still close to standard business roles from a content perspective, you can assess whether a predefined space nevertheless can be assigned. To find out about the deviation, you can use the downloaded excel (see Prerequisites for details on the excel) to assess which apps are included in a predefined space and compare this content to the content of your business roles.
Note
There You can assign a space, even if the space contains more apps than the business role. At runtime, the system only displays those tiles, for which the business user is authorized. It filters out all tiles for which the business user is not authorized.
On the screen Add Launchpad Space, choose Use Predefined Space and select the required predefined space from the list. Assign the space by clicking Create and Assign Space.
Create a space by copying a predefined space and adjusting it.
In case you have custom business roles in your system for which a predefined space only partially matches, you can copy the respective predefined space and adjust the copy according to your needs.
On the screen Add Launchpad Space, choose Create Spaces Based on Predefined Spaces and enter the general data of the space. Assign the space by clicking Create and Assign Space.
In the tab Launchpad Pages, you see the assigned copy of the predefined space. You can click on the space and define the layout of the page(s) of the space.
Create an own space and assign it.
In case you have custom business roles in your system for which no predefined space matches, you can create and assign an own (custom) space to each of them.
On the screen Add Launchpad Space, choose Create New Space and enter the general data of the space. Assign the space by clicking Create and Assign Space.
In the tab Launchpad Spaces, you see the newly created space. You can click on the space and navigate to the app Manage Launchpad Spaces. From there, click on the corresponding page(s) to navigate to the app Manage Launchpad Pages to define the layout of the page(s) of the space.
[STEP 4]: Test the assigned spaces in the system and collect feedback.
If all business roles have at least one space assigned, the system is ready to be tested by selected business users.
NOTE
We recommend using a “user-centric approach” to testing. Please avoid assigning all business roles to you as administrator. This approach does not provide a realistic point of view. You can find more details in this blog post (see section “Recommendation: Take a User-Centric Approach to Testing”).
We recommend testing based on a realistic point of view and assigning the respective business roles to test users from different business areas. Ask these test users to test the spaces from the perspective of their tasks and to provide feedback.
[STEP 5]: Based on the feedback and if required, adjust the assignments or spaces.
If required, adjust the assignments or single custom spaces based on the feedback from the test users before rolling out spaces and pages to all business users.
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