Migrating from Solution Manager to SAP Cloud ALM
Introduction
SAP has launched Cloud ALM as the strategic successor to Solution Manager. As the name implies, Cloud ALM is built in the cloud and for the cloud. This represents a significant shift away from the deeply rooted on-premises nature of Solution Manager.
Cloud ALM provides an opportunity to modernize ALM processes, but migrating from Solution Manager carries many challenges. Solution Manager has evolved over decades to support complex scenarios. In contrast, Cloud ALM was built from the ground up with simplicity and standardization in mind.
Cloud ALM is not a direct replacement for Solution Manager, and migrating to Cloud ALM will not be a simple “lift and shift” of Solution Manager processes. But companies that approach this transition strategically have the opportunity to modernize their processes and position themselves for the next big wave of growth.
Critical Challenges Migrating to Cloud ALM
The path from Solution Manager to SAP Cloud ALM presents several notable challenges that require thoughtful planning.
When migrating from Solution Manager to SAP Cloud ALM, organizations should be prepared to address three key challenges:
- Different data structures impede migration: The data models between Solution Manager and SAP Cloud ALM differ significantly. When migrating historic data, organizations will need to set priorities, migrating only the most critical data.
- Workflow differences require process adjustments: SAP Cloud ALM takes a more streamlined approach to certain capabilities, particularly in transport management. Organizations using ChaRM will need to adapt their enterprise change management practices.
- Advanced features may be limited: SAP Cloud ALM has fewer configuration options and creation of custom fields and statuses is limited. Organizations may need to adopt a more standardized approach.
Understanding these challenges helps organizations develop realistic migration plans that account for the necessary adjustments to processes and integrations. With proper planning, the transition to SAP Cloud ALM can be smooth.
The path from Solution Manager to SAP Cloud ALM presents several notable challenges that require thoughtful planning.
Migration Challenges and Considerations
The most successful Cloud ALM migrations follow distinct patterns that balance rapid modernization with practical business considerations.
As organizations plan their transition from Solution Manager to SAP Cloud ALM, there are two strategic approaches:
- Greenfield: For organizations looking to build a holistic end-to-end application lifecycle management process, this approach involves starting fresh with SAP Cloud ALM. Rather than attempting to replicate Solution Manager configurations, companies implement standardized processes aligned with cloud-native best practices. This clean-slate method works particularly well for organizations pursuing RISE with SAP implementations or those seeking to eliminate technical debt by modernizing their ALM practices completely.
- Hybrid or phased: Many organizations continue using Solution Manager for some processes (such as managing ongoing operations), while moving some capabilities to Cloud ALM (for example, new implementation projects). This pragmatic approach allows capabilities to be migrated piece-by-piece. With this approach, it’s best to establish a clear roadmap to ensure the migration will eventually lead to an end-to-end solution on the new platform.
There are many factors influencing this decision, including business priorities, landscape complexity, timeline considerations, and transformation goals. Organizations with primarily cloud-based landscapes tend to favor the greenfield approach, while those with complex hybrid environments often adopt the hybrid model as a more practical transitional strategy.
The most successful Cloud ALM migrations follow distinct patterns that balance rapid modernization with practical business considerations.
Leveraging Enterprise ALM Platforms with Cloud ALM
Understanding the overlap between enterprise ALM tools and SAP Cloud ALM is key to developing a consistent end-to-end workflow.
It should be noted that there is significant overlap between the capabilities of SAP Cloud ALM and enterprise tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, and ServiceNow. Organizations will need to make strategic decisions about how these platforms will work together.
Determining the Leading Tool – One of the first decisions will be selecting the leading tool (i.e. the primary source for new data). This decision should consider enterprise standards, existing team practices, and governance and reporting requirements. If Cloud ALM will mostly be used for a greenfield SAP implementation, it may be selected as the leading tool, feeding Jira or Azure DevOps to keep non-SAP teams in sync. For ongoing continuous improvements, the enterprise tools may lead, syncing critical data to SAP Cloud ALM to leverage the unique SAP capabilities. Of course, it is an option to use both tools side-by-side. But consideration should be given to ensure that a side-by-side approach doesn’t lead to siloed development teams.
Leveraging SAP Cloud ALM’s Specialized Capabilities – Organizations should define clear objectives for why they want to use SAP Cloud ALM. For instance, Cloud ALM offers specialized SAP capabilities that go beyond the features of standard enterprise tools. These extra capabilities include transport management, manual and automated testing features, process modeling and monitoring capabilities. Cloud ALM also provides best practices content to accelerate design and testing for SAP business processes. By identifying the drivers for using Cloud ALM, it’s easier to see how the ecosystem of tools will fit together.
Achieving End-to-End Traceability – Many organizations use different tools for different teams (e.g. SAP versus non-SAP teams). This may be sufficient for standalone projects, but most SAP projects involve many integrations. To maintain traceability across an end-to-end business process that spans multiple systems, the ALM tools may require integration. Integrations will allow consistent visibility, reporting and governance from business requirements through technical implementation and ongoing support. With an integrated toolset, it is possible to achieve a consistent process across all applications in the landscape.
Understanding the overlap between enterprise ALM tools and SAP Cloud ALM is key to developing a consistent end-to-end workflow.
Managing the Transition: Practical Next Steps
A successful transition to SAP Cloud ALM requires a structured approach that balances immediate needs with long-term objectives.
As organizations begin their journey from Solution Manager to Cloud ALM, several practical steps can help ensure a smooth transition:
Build a roadmap – Develop a comprehensive migration roadmap that aligns with your organization’s broader IT and business strategy. This should include capability prioritization, timeline estimates, and clear milestones. The roadmap should account for dependencies between capabilities and identify quick wins that can demonstrate early value. Consider both technical and organizational readiness factors when sequencing your transition activities, and ensure the roadmap includes adequate time for training and change management.
Design a target-state process – Rather than simply replicating Solution Manager processes in Cloud ALM, take the opportunity to design optimized workflows that leverage Cloud ALM’s strengths. Start with the end in mind. Even if the first rollout is only a small step, consider the bigger picture, and how the target-state tools will eventually come together. Document new processes thoroughly and establish metrics so you can measure and improve adoption.
Test and learn – Implement a pilot approach that allows teams to gain expeience with Cloud ALM in a controlled environment. Select a specific capability or project that presents manageable risks while offering meaningful learning opportunities. Gather feedback systematically from all stakeholders, including business users, developers, and support teams. Use these insights to refine your implementation approach before broader rollout.
Refine processes while maintaining standards – As you expand Cloud ALM adoption, balance process refinements with the need for standardization. Allow time for teams to adapt to new processes before making changes. When making changes, resist excessive customizations or specializations by team that could lead to working in silos. Avoid bureaucracy but ensure that process changes are subject to a framework of governance.
Continuous improvement – View the transition as an ongoing journey rather than a one-time implementation. Implement regular review cycles to evaluate the effectiveness of your Cloud ALM processes and identify opportunities for improvement. Stay current with SAP’s Cloud ALM roadmap and update your own target-state roadmap accordingly. Maintain a feedback loop with users to ensure the platform continues to meet evolving business needs.
By following this structured approach, organizations can manage their transition at a pace that balances innovation with operational stability, achieving your goals for the new processes.
A successful transition to SAP Cloud ALM requires a structured approach that balances immediate needs with long-term objectives.
Bridging the Gap with Integrated Solutions
Integration tools provide a strategic foundation for successfully managing across platforms while maintaining a single source of truth.
As organizations navigate the transition to Cloud ALM, integration solutions offer a practical approach to maximize the value of both SAP Cloud ALM and enterprise ALM platforms. This approach helps to address capability gaps in individual tools. Rather than using isolated systems, integration allows teams to maintain end-to-end visibility while working in their tool of choice.
Requirements Management and Process Design Integration – Lifecycle management processes generally start with requirements management and business process design. This critical data is key to subsequent steps in the lifecycle, but process designs and requirements are often maintained using different tools. CoreALM provides bidirectional synchronization of epics, requirements, and user stories between Cloud ALM and tools like Jira or Azure DevOps.
Organizations using Signavio for business process designs can leverage integrations with Cloud ALM to ensure that process designs and requirements are captured in the design phase and maintained through the build, test and deployment phases.
Test Management and Quality Assurance – To ensure that projects meet all requirements, it’s critical to provide traceability between requirements, test cases, and transports. CoreALM’s connectors for Cloud ALM keep requirements in Jira or Azure DevOps in sync with Cloud ALM. Test cases in Cloud ALM can then be mapped to requirements and transports, establishing end-to-end traceability.
Cloud ALM offers comprehensive testing capabilities, both manual and automated, which can be applied to both SAP and non-SAP applications. This supports the best practice of end-to-end integration testing, rather than limiting testing to the four walls of SAP.
Automated testing can significantly accelerate development cycles, and reduces the risk of post go-live defects. Defects identified during testing can be synchronized in real-time between Cloud ALM and Jira or Azure DevOps, which improves timely resolutions.
Change and Transport Management – Although SAP Cloud ALM is not at feature parity with Solution Manager ChaRM, CoreALM’s SAP Transport Management Suite covers transport management requirements for complex landscapes, providing capabilities similar to ChaRM.
CoreALM’s SAP Transport Management Suite is built directly into ServiceNow, Jira and Azure DevOps, so you can manage transports directly from your existing enterprise change management tool without changing screens. This unifies your change management process, covering SAP and non-SAP with a consistent workflow, while taking advantage of advanced SAP features that prevent deployment issues.
CoreALM’s integration solutions are designed for rapid implementation with no custom coding required. The configurable no-code approach for CoreALM’s tools allow for rapid implementation in days or weeks rather than months. Customer administrators are trained to make their own configuration changes so that integrations will evolve as your ALM processes mature.
Integration tools provide a strategic foundation for successfully managing across platforms while maintaining a single source of truth.
Conclusion and Next Steps
Navigating the transition from Solution Manager to Cloud ALM presents a strategic opportunity to modernize processes, unify tools, and accelerate digital transformation.
The migration from Solution Manager to Cloud ALM represents more than a technical upgrade—it’s a pivotal moment for organizations to rethink their application lifecycle management approach. By addressing this transition strategically, companies can break down silos between SAP and non-SAP teams, establish end-to-end traceability across platforms, and create a foundation for future innovation. Rather than simply replacing tool functionality, this transition enables a fundamental shift in how organizations manage their SAP landscapes.
Organizations should begin this transition now to allow sufficient time for process maturation before Solution Manager reaches its end of support deadline. Starting early provides the runway needed to thoughtfully design, test, and refine new workflows without the pressure of an imminent cutoff or increased maintenance fee. This measured approach enables teams to gain experience with Cloud ALM capabilities, adapt their processes to the new paradigm, and make necessary adjustments based on real-world feedback. By the time Solution Manager support ends, organizations that start now will have established mature, optimized processes rather than hastily implemented Solution Manager replacements.
Based on our experience with successful transitions, we offer these three key insights:
- Integration enables unified enterprise processes. The most successful organizations create standardized processes that work across both SAP and non-SAP environments, rather than maintaining separate workflows. CoreALM’s bidirectional synchronization between SAP Cloud ALM and enterprise tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, and ServiceNow allows companies to leverage enterprise platforms while maintaining the specialized capabilities needed for SAP landscapes. This approach eliminates process silos and creates a consistent experience across the enterprise.
- Develop a lightweight roadmap with clear success metrics. Even a simple one-page roadmap can provide essential direction without overcomplicating the planning process. Focus on defining measurable success criteria for each phase that teams can rally around. CoreALM helps organizations quickly establish these success metrics based on industry best practices and then configure solutions to meet these specific objectives. This can be done in just a few collaborative workshops and doesn’t require lengthy planning exercises.
- Validate with proof of value initiatives. Begin with a targeted “proof of value” that delivers immediate results and builds organizational confidence. CoreALM offers trial licenses for these initial implementations, allowing companies to demonstrate value quickly before expanding. These early implementations provide valuable insights that inform the broader strategy while delivering tangible benefits in weeks rather than months.
By integrating SAP Cloud ALM with enterprise platforms like Jira, Azure DevOps, and ServiceNow, organizations leverage the combined innovation power of multiple technology leaders. This approach positions companies to quickly adopt emerging technologies such as AI-powered testing automation, predictive impact analysis, natural language requirements processing, and machine learning-based defect prediction. Organizations that establish this integrated foundation today will be ideally positioned to harness these innovations as they emerge, creating a continuously evolving ALM approach that stays ahead of business demands.
