Introduction
Clean core is reducing modifications inside SAP. But as extensions proliferate, complexity is growing faster than governance can keep up.
Clean core initiatives are beginning to show results. Organizations are restricting ABAP modifications, standardizing configurations, and preparing for cleaner S/4HANA upgrades. Development teams are shifting work from SAP core to extensions built on BTP, and the strategy is working as intended. Fewer customizations inside SAP means easier upgrades and lower technical debt.
But now, a new problem is emerging. The complexity didn’t disappear, it just shifted. Business logic that may have once lived in a single ABAP program now spans BTP applications, integration flows, API layers, and cloud services. Rather than moving a single transport, the release strategy now requires a coordinated effort across multiple platforms. SAP handles the core transaction. A BTP extension manages the workflow automation. An integration layer connects to Salesforce. A Node.js service exposes data to a mobile app. Each piece works independently, but the business process depends on all of them moving together.
Most organizations already have an enterprise governance model, often controlled in ServiceNow, managed as an agile project in Jira, or automated in a CI/CD pipeline in Azure DevOps. This works great for digital applications, microservices, SaaS integrations, and custom development. Teams deliver quickly, safely, and with full traceability.
SAP often sits outside that model with transports following a separate path for approvals. This is typically managed with different tools, like Solution Manager ChaRM. And now with side-by-side extensions in BTP, most organizations are realizing that their governance model hasn’t kept up with their clean core strategy.
This new way of working requires coordination across SAP, BTP and other enterprise applications. The discipline applied inside SAP must extend to the application perimeter, and the governance model that already works for the enterprise must include SAP and BTP. Without that unification, complexity will continue to migrate outward.
Clean core is reducing modifications inside SAP. But as extensions proliferate, complexity is growing faster than governance can keep up.
How Companies Currently Govern BTP and Extension Changes
Most organizations manage BTP changes separately from SAP, creating coordination gaps that surface too late.
Most organizations are managing BTP extensions through one of three patterns:
No formal governance. In many organizations, BTP development happens with minimal oversight. Developers build extensions, deploy them when ready, and coordinate with SAP teams informally or not at all. Even when basic DevOps practices exist, such as managing code in Git or tracking work in Jira, there’s rarely any connection between BTP deployments and the SAP transports they depend on. Changes move independently until something breaks.
Separate governance streams. BTP has its own approval workflow, often in the same enterprise tools used for other cloud apps. SAP follows a different path, managed through SAP-specific tools or legacy processes from Solution Manager. Coordination happens manually. Dependencies surface late.
SAP Cloud ALM. Some organizations use Cloud ALM to track both SAP and BTP in one tool. This provides visibility but lacks the governance controls required for complex landscapes, particularly around approvals, automated validations, and integration with enterprise platforms like ServiceNow.
The problem isn’t that these approaches are wrong. The problem is they’re disconnected. When a business process depends on changes across platforms, there’s no workflow to ensure changes move in sync.
Most organizations manage BTP changes separately from SAP, creating coordination gaps that surface too late.
Unified Governance: Bringing SAP and BTP Into the Enterprise Model
The solution isn’t building new governance for SAP and BTP. It’s bringing them into the model that already works.
Adopting the clean core model opens the opportunity to bring SAP and BTP into the enterprise change model. Here’s how to make this a reality:
Link SAP transport management to your enterprise platform. Integrate SAP with your enterprise change tool using CoreALM’s Transport Management for ServiceNow, Jira or Azure DevOps. This makes SAP transports visible in the same system that tracks everything else.
Track SAP and BTP changes in the same workflow. When a business process requires both an SAP transport and a BTP deployment, manage them as a single change request. Both changes follow the same approval path and appear in the same dashboard.
Coordinate releases across platforms. Establish release windows where dependent changes move together. If a BTP application depends on an SAP configuration, both deploy in the same release cycle. If an integration layer connects SAP to Salesforce, all three components are sequenced as part of one coordinated deployment.
Clean core initiatives have reduced complexity inside SAP. Unified governance extends that discipline across the application landscape, ensuring synchronized releases and full traceability.
The solution isn’t building new governance for SAP and BTP. It’s bringing them into the model that already works.
Conclusion
The solution isn’t building new governance for SAP and BTP. It’s bringing them into the model that already works.
SAP organizations are pushing their clean core initiatives by standardizing their business processes, migrating capabilities to the cloud, and accelerating development of side-by-side extensions in BTP. The opportunity now is to create a unified governance model that covers all changes across the enterprise.
By enabling visibility and control of SAP transports in enterprise change tools like ServiceNow, Jira, or Azure DevOps, and coordinating releases across SAP, BTP, and other platforms, organizations gain a single view of what’s changing, synchronized deployments, and complete audit trails. Dependent changes move together instead of colliding in production.
Organizations that establish unified governance now avoid the coordination debt that compounds as landscapes grow in complexity. And as these workflows mature, further acceleration becomes possible through automation. Clean core succeeds when governance expands with the application landscape, not just within SAP.
