I’ve just added a new transport to the wrong Rev-Trac request. What should I do?
If you have sufficient SAP authorisation, detach the transport from the Rev-Trac request yourself (see Detaching a transport from a request on page 37). Otherwise, ask your Rev-Trac administrator to do this for you.
After detaching the transport from the wrong Rev-Trac request, add it to the correct request using the procedure Adding new or existing transports to a Rev-Trac request on page 35.
How can I add a third-party transport to a Rev-Trac request?
Before you can attach a third-party transport to a Rev-Trac request, you must first import the transport into at least one system where Rev-Trac is installed.
After doing so (for example, by using transaction STMS), you can add the third party transport to a Rev-Trac request by using the procedure Adding new or existing transports to a Rev-Trac request on page 35. When doing so, nominate the system into which you have imported the third-party transport as the TX source in step 3.
Other
Rev-Trac says it is sending me workflow messages, but I am not receiving them
There are a number of reasons why workflow messages may not arrive.
Ask your Rev-Trac administrator to contact [email protected] and request a guide to troubleshooting workflow problems.
Why do some requests have a Dynamic links node?
If the Rev-Trac Workbench displays a Dynamic links node for Rev-Trac request 777, this indicates that:
A request listed under this node contains a reference to request 777, or
A request listed under this node contains a reference that request 777 also contains (for example, both requests include references to the same SAP Note)
Why do my Rev-Trac screens look different from those I see in this Guide?
The Rev-Trac look-and-feel is highly configurable. For example, organisations implementing Rev-Trac may:
Customise the Rev-Trac Console
Select between several different versions of the request details screen, including a tabbed version
Suppress or alter the attributes of individual fields on the request details screen
Customise the layout of request information on the Rev-Trac Workbench (tree) screen
Can any SAP user create or view a Rev-Trac request?
Only suitably authorised SAP users whose details have been entered into Rev-Trac can create, change or approve Rev-Trac requests.
However, any SAP user can view a Rev-Trac request.
What does the Rev-Trac administrator do?
Your Rev-Trac administrator has special privileges not available to ordinary Rev-Trac users.
Typically, these allow your administrator to perform such tasks as:
Creating and maintaining Rev-Trac users (including their internet email addresses for the purposes of receiving Rev-Trac workflow messages)
Maintaining Rev-Trac’s configuration (including approval and migration strategies, and details of your organisation’s structure)
Setting forward the status of Rev-Trac requests
Glossary
Actor
An SAP user who is likely to have an interest in the progress of a Rev-Trac request, but who is not the request owner or programmer.
Whenever the contents of a request's Actor field change and the request is saved, Rev-Trac sends a workflow message to this user asking them to action the request.
From the Rev-Trac Console, actors can quickly identify and review all requests in which they have an interest.
An actor is not required to be a Rev-Trac user.
Approval
During its life-cycle, a Rev-Trac request passes through many different statuses. For example, it may start off with the status “New”, then pass to the status “In development”.
Each forward-moving change of status must be approved beforehand.
Usually this requires a user to perform an electronic signoff, although in some cases Rev-Trac itself may approve a status change automatically (for example, after successfully automigrating transports associated with a Rev-Trac request).
Attachment
A file from a user’s PC (for example, spreadsheet, screen shot or email message) or a SAPscript document that has been stored in compressed form in Rev-Trac and associated with a particular Rev-Trac request.
After being attached to a Rev-Trac request, a file may be edited using the application in which it was originally created and then re-saved in
Rev-Trac.
Attaching documents such as specifications, email messages and test results to a Rev-Trac request makes it easier for those working on the request to find all the information relevant to this business issue in one place.
Automigration
Rev-Trac can migrate SAP changes associated with Rev-Trac requests to other systems automatically after a request has received the appropriate approvals. Automigration may occur immediately following approval, or at set intervals.
Following a successful migration, Rev-Trac can automatically approve a further status change for the request to indicate that it is now, for example,
“In TST” or “In PRD”.
Enforcement
By using an appropriate configuration setting, your Rev-Trac administrator can force SAP users to associate new transports they create with a new or existing Rev-Trac request.
Applying such a restriction is called “enforcement”.
You Rev-Trac administrator can turn on enforcement for all users, or for selected users. If enforcement is turned on for all users, your Rev-Trac administrator can exempt specific users from this requirement.
When Rev-Trac enforcement is turned on, Rev-Trac displays the Rev-Trac enforcement popup whenever a user seeks to create a new transport.
Enforcement popup
A dialog box that Rev-Trac displays whenever a SAP user attempts to create a transport while Rev-Trac enforcement is turned on.
The dialog box gives the user two options:
Create a new transport linked to an existing Rev-Trac request
Create a new Rev-Trac request, then create a new transport linked to the new Rev-Trac request
For details on how to work with the Rev-Trac enforcement popup, see Inserting a new transport into a Rev-Trac request using the Rev-Trac enforcement popup on page 34.
Foreign overwrite
If a user is proposing to migrate ZZ_SOME_OBJECT to a target system, and if Rev-Trac detects that the most recent change to
ZZ_SOME_OBJECT in the target system is in a transport that is not also present in the system from which ZZ_SOME_OBJECT is about to be migrated, Rev-Trac issues a "will overwrite foreign" warning.
This migration is potentially unsafe, as Rev-Trac is unable to determine which version of ZZ_SOME_OBJECT is the earlier. It is even possible that the object about to be migrated, and the object with the same name in the target system, and two different objects that happen to share the same name in which case proceeding with the migration could lead to very unfortunate consequences.
Master system
Rev-Trac is installed on multiple SAP systems.
One Rev-Trac system (usually your primary development system) is designated as the master system. This system controls and co-ordinates Rev-Trac functions that run on the other systems.
Other development systems under the control of the Rev-Trac master system are known as "slave systems". All other system under the control of the Rev-Trac master are known as "monitored systems".
Monitored system
See glossary entry for Master system above.
Orphan transport
A transport that has not been attached to a Rev-Trac request.
Overtake
An overtake occurs where two versions of a software object or
the later version to a test or production system without first migrating the earlier version.
This situation presents several risks. One is that the second version of the change may depend on the presence of the first version. Another is that the earlier version of the object or configuration setting may subsequently be migrated to the test or production system, perhaps accidentally, and may potentially reverse the change contained in the second version.
Overwrite
An overwrite occurs when a recent version of a software object or configuration setting has been imported into a system, and an earlier version of the same object or setting is subsequently imported.
The effect of an overwrite is typically to undo a later version of a change, and replace it with an earlier version.
Owner
When creating or changing a Rev-Trac request, you can nominate a Rev-Trac user as the request owner.
The request owner is not necessarily the person who created a request, but is the person with primary responsibility for overseeing the work.
Some organisations configure Rev-Trac so that the request owner is responsible for approving some statuses of a request.
Only the request owner may delete a request.
Project
Each Rev-Trac installation defines one or more projects.
A Rev-Trac request's project and request type jointly determine what approval strategy will be used to manage a request, and what migration actions will occur as the request progresses.
Dividing the total work effort into different projects makes it easier to report on the progress of different major groupings of work.
There is no connection between Rev-Trac projects and projects defined in the SAP Project System (PS) module.
Programmer
When creating or changing a Rev-Trac request, you can nominate a Rev-Trac user as the request programmer.
The request programmer is normally the person who is responsible for implementing the work at a technical level by writing code or making configuration changes.
Some organisations configure Rev-Trac so the request programmer is responsible for approving some statuses of a request.
Reference number
A Rev-Trac request may include references to external documents or records (for example, to SAP Notes or help desk records).
Such references are stored in Rev-Trac using brief codes which may be purely numeric or which may also contain alphabetical characters. In Rev-Trac, these codes are known as “reference numbers”.
You may search for Rev-Trac requests by reference number.
Request
A Rev-Trac request is a collection of resources used to address a specific business requirement. These may include:
Documentation such as specifications, reviews or SAP Notes relating to the requirement
One or more SAP transports carrying workbench objects or customising changes
Reference to other resources, such as records created in other systems
An online approval sheet that records the full approval history of the work, including any backward steps through the approval cycle A Rev-Trac request should not be confused with an SAP transport request. However, a Rev-Trac request does typically contains links to one or more SAP transport requests.
Rev-Trac
An add-on to SAP business intelligence systems that helps you develop your system more safely and easily.
Rev-Trac lives inside SAP, like an SAP module, and continuously monitors all changes in your SAP landscape. Rev-Trac intercepts every change and requires the change maker to relate it to a business issue. Rev-Trac then progresses each issue using a predefined approval and migration process.
Rev-Trac migration queue
Two different migration methods are available in Rev-Trac.
One method migrates transports immediately using a foreground (dialog) process.
The other method, known as queued migration, migrates transports in a two-step process.
In the first step, users add transports to a list maintained in Rev-Trac known as the Rev-Trac migration queue.
In the second step, Rev-Trac's batch migration utility migrates items in the Rev-Trac migration queue to their destinations. This utility is usually scheduled to run in the background.
The Rev-Trac migration queue should not be confused with the SAP import buffer.
Rev-Trac user
An SAP user who has been defined as in Rev-Trac configuration as a Rev-Trac user, and who has adequate authorisation to perform this role.
All SAP users may view Rev-Trac requests, but only Rev-Trac users may create, change or sign such requests.
Your Rev-Trac administrator is responsible for creating Rev-Trac users.
Slave system
See glossary entry for Master system on page 55.
Stand-in
Users who can approve Rev-Trac requests may be defined in terms of the positions they hold in teams within your organisation.
For example, your organisation may have decided the leader of your ABAP team should give certain approvals.
It is possible to configure a “stand-in” for a position within a team. The person who is defined as a stand-in can approve a request if the normal holder of this position is unavailable..
Strategy
A set of rules, configured in Rev-Trac, that determine what statuses a request will pass through, who can approve each status, and who will receive Rev-Trac workflow messages.
Each type of Rev-Trac request within a Rev-Trac project may have its own strategy (although it is more common to share one strategy between several types of request).
A strategy does not determine what migration actions will occur as a request is progressed through different statuses. This is determined by a separate area of configuration.
Status
Each Rev-Trac request passes through a number of different statuses during its life cycle as work proceeds on the tasks associated with the request.
Rev-Trac updates the status of a request after the appropriate users have performed an online signoff (approval).
In some cases, Rev-Trac may automatically alter the status of a request.
This may occur if:
Transports linked to the request have been migrated successfully
The request itself has changed in a significant way (for example, because a user has added a new transport to the request, or altered an important request field)
Template
When creating an attachment to a Rev-Trac request, you may have the option of basing the attachment on an existing template that has been stored in Rev-Trac.
For example, your organisation may have created a word processor document that acts as a model document for functional specifications, or a spreadsheet that acts as a model document for recording test results.
Your Rev-Trac administrator is normally responsible for loading suitable templates into Rev-Trac.
Microsoft Word documents functioning as templates for this purpose must have a .doc filename extension, not a .dot extension.
Transport list
A named list of transports, saved internally in Rev-Trac for later re-use.
Several Rev-Trac utilities can process transport lists as well as individual transports.
Transport lists may be created from text files using the Migration Workbench, or directly from within several Rev-Trac migration reports.
The Rev-Trac Administrator Guide contains more information on working with Rev-Trac transport lists.
Workflow
Rev-Trac can send email messages to notify users that:
A request is waiting for their approval
A request in which they have an interest has reached a certain status
A migration in which they have an interest has failed
Some action is required in relation to a particular request
For an example of a workflow email message sent to an approver, see Figure 2-22 on page 19.