BW Impact Analysis

The BW Impact Analysis workflow performs a continuous impact analysis for developer changes that impact BW objects on an SAP BW analysis system. The workflow retrieves transportable tasks from the E070 table on the Analysis system. These provide the set of changing BW objects to be used by the analysis.

The workflow uses a Performance History system to identify used objects and compares the impacted used objects on the Analysis and Comparison systems.

The workflow generates an Excel report which is emailed to the specified recipients. The report lists the Queries, Info Providers and Calculation Views that are impacted by the changing BW objects.

The BW Impact Analysis workflow may be integrated with a Test Repository to identify hits and gaps.

‘Hits’ are impacted object names for which test assets have been found.
‘Gaps’ are impacted object names for which there are no available test assets.

The workflow should be scheduled to run periodically. During each run, an Impact Analysis is performed for the transportable tasks from the analysis system that have not yet been processed.

Parallel impact analysis

You can run the BW Impact Analysis workflow in parallel with other impact analysis apps and workflows.

Prerequisites

The BW Impact Analysis workflow requires access to RFC Destinations for an Analysis system to which BW development changes will be submitted, a Performance History system from which performance history data will be retrieved, and a Comparison system on which impacted used objects from the Analysis system will be compared.

The Create Object Links Cache workflow from the Prerequisites templates folder should be run to create an Object Links Cache database for the Analysis system.

You should make sure that performance history data is available on the RFC Destination selected for the Performance History System. Select the RFC Destination in the LiveCompare hierarchy and click the PHD tab. Set a collection schedule, click Save, and then click Update Cache. See the Retrieve performance history data help topic for details.

If you plan to use the workflow to identify test hits and gaps in a Test Repository, a LiveCompare Editor must run the Create Test Repository Cache workflow from the Prerequisites template folder must be run first in order to populate the Test Repository’s cache.

LiveCompare should also be configured to send emails. See here for details.

Prepare the workflow

The BW Impact Analysis workflow should be run in a separate workspace for each system to be analyzed. To prepare the BW Impact Analysis workflow, follow these steps.

Create a new workspace whose name reflects the system to be analyzed, for example BWIA - <Analysis System>.
Select the Templates > Impact Analysis > BW Impact Analysis template in the LiveCompare hierarchy and choose Copy to Workspace from the context menu.
Select BWIA - <Analysis System> as the target workspace and click Copy. Several dependent templates will also be copied.
Copy the Templates > Impact Analysis > Initialize Task Store workflow to the BWIA - <Analysis System> workspace.
If required, configure the Initialize Task Store workflow to set the date from which to retrieve developer tasks. See the template’s help topic for details.
Run the Initialize Task Store workflow in the BWIA - <Analysis System> workspace.

Select the BW Impact Analysis workflow in the BWIA - <Analysis System> workspace, and configure the workflow as follows.

Set the Analysis System RFC Destination parameter to the RFC Destination for your BW Analysis system.
Set the Performance History System RFC Destination parameter to the RFC Destination for the BW system from which performance history data has been obtained.
Set the Comparison System RFC Destination parameter to the RFC Destination on which impacted used objects from the Analysis system will be compared.
If required, set the Test Repository parameter to the Test Repository in which to identify hits and gaps for the impacted objects.
Set the Search Paths String List parameter to limit the search for test assets to one or more project folders in the specified Test Repository. Each path should begin with the Subject folder, and a backslash (\) should be used to separate path components, for example Subject\Release1.
Set the Email To String List parameter to a list of email recipients for the Developer Impact Analysis report. Each email address should be stored a separate string entry.
Set the From String parameter to the EmailFromAddress value stored in the Configuration – Email screen. You may need to check this setting with a LiveCompare Administrator.

Schedule the workflow

The BW Impact Analysis workflow should be run using a schedule. The following workflows will need to be scheduled. To schedule a workflow, select it in the LiveCompare hierarchy and choose Schedule Run from the context menu.

Create Object Links Cache

This workflow should be copied from the Prerequisites templates folder to each of your BWIA - <Analysis System> workspaces. It should be configured to create an Object Links Cache database for the analysis system and then scheduled to run once each week. If possible, the workflow should be scheduled to run when no developer tasks are being performed on the analysis system (for example, outside office hours).

BW Impact Analysis

This workflow performs a BW impact analysis for the most recent set of transportable tasks submitted on the Analysis system and sends report links to the specified email recipients. It should be scheduled to run as required on a daily basis, for example several times each day, depending on how frequently you wish to review the impact analysis reports.

Workflow results

The BW Impact Analysis workflow generates an Excel report which includes the following spreadsheets.

Home

This spreadsheet lists changing objects (in the CHILD_TYPE and CHILD_NAME columns) and their associated change IDs. Changing objects that don't impact other objects are also included. Click a hyperlink in the CHILD_NAME column to display an Object Differences report for the selected object, which is compared on the Analysis and Comparison systems.

The Queries, InfoProviders and Calculation Views columns list the number of Queries, InfoProviders and Calculation Views that are impacted by the changing object. Click links in these columns to display the impacted Queries, InfoProviders and Calculation Views in separate spreadsheets.

Queries

This spreadsheet lists changing objects (in the CHILD_TYPE and CHILD_NAME columns) with their associated change IDs, and the Query objects that they impact (in the TYPE and NAME columns).

The spreadsheet includes the search depth at which each impacted object was found, and the number of matching tests found for the changing object. Click a hyperlink in the TEST column to list the associated test in the Test Hit Details spreadsheet.

InfoProviders

This spreadsheet lists changing objects (in the CHILD_TYPE and CHILD_NAME columns) with their associated change IDs, and the InfoProvider objects that they impact (in the TYPE and NAME columns). The following are InfoProvider object types:

Data Store (advanced) (ADSO)
InfoCube (CUBE)
Open ODS View (FBPA)
Composite Provider (HCPR)
InfoObject (IOBJ)
BW InfoSet (ISET)
MultiProvider (MPRO)
ODS Object (ODSO)

Calculation Views

This spreadsheet lists changing objects (in the CHILD_TYPE and CHILD_NAME columns) with their associated change IDs, and the Calculation View objects that they impact (in the TYPE and NAME columns).

Test Hit Details

This spreadsheet includes the details for each test asset in the specified Test Repository that matched an impacted BW object, including the matched token, test ID, test name and test path.