High- Level Specification

Functional Overview

Over time, many PPM items and SAP Project System (PS) projects reach completion or become inactive but remain open in the system and delay capitalization. This leads to administrative inefficiencies, a cluttered project portfolio, and potential compliance risks. To address these challenges, this enhancement proposes the automation of idle project closure. Additionally, this enhancement introduces a solution to identify idle projects and assets. 

The program offers 2 modes, which will be scheduled as a batch job:

1. Inactive Projects Closure (Quarterly)

Run on a quarterly basis to identify inactive or idle projects, which have not been set to Closed status. The program will attempt to automatically close these projects if all closure criteria are met. If a project cannot be closed due to outstanding issues (such as open balances or commitments), the system will include the projects in a custom table with other significant project information (Project Financial Controller, Project Owner, ect..). A report based on this table is then used to analyzed the projects that got closed, the ones that could not get closed due to related objects and the projects active with all their WBS elements inactive. The Project Financial Controller and the Project Owner appearing at least once in the custom table after an update are notified via the launchpad and invited to consult the report.  

2. Idle AuC Monitoring (Monthly)

Run on a monthly basis to identify any idle Assets under Construction (AuC). The program will feed a custom table listing all AuC requiring attention with the relevant AuC information (Regional Asset Manager, WBS element etc...). Regional Asset Managers appearing at least once in the custom table after an update are notified via the launchpad and invited to consult the report.  

Scope and Objectives

This enhancement specifically targets SAP Project System (PS) projects that meet the following criteria:

• Project status is either "Technically Completed" (TECO) or is still active but all depending WBS elements are set to TECO status, for which no financial transactions have occurred for a given period (defined as an input parameter, example 6 months).
• AuCs assigned to WBS elements for which no financial transactions have occurred for a given period (defined as an input parameter, example 6 months).

The scope includes:

• Assessment of whether these projects can be fully closed in the system.
• Provide 2 reports: 
  • Inactive project report: displaying projects that have been closed by the program, that could not be closed and provide the reason, projects that the program suggests to close. 
  • AuC identified by the program.
• A generic launchpad Notification to the Regional Asset Manager, Project Financial Controllers and Project Owners that are mentioned at least once in the reports. This notification is issued if the user appears at least once in the custom table among the newly created or updated entries. Even if the user appears multiple times, they will receive only one notification prompting them to check the report.

The objectives are: 

• Minimize erroneous postings by preventing transactions on inactive projects
• Optimize reporting by ensuring only active and relevant projects appear as open
• Maintain good data hygiene by keeping project data accurate, 
• Highlighting non capitalized costs and POs or WOs left open.

Process Flow Diagram

1. Inactive Project Closure Review

2. Idle Asset Under Construction (AuC) Monitoring
(for periodic review and notification of AuCs with no recent activity)

Assumptions

SAP PS projects and WBS elements are assigned the TECO status once all project activities have been completed and no further work is expected.

The program can only be run in one mode per execution: Inactive project closure OR Idle AuC monitoring. 

Input parameter Inactivity period is used for the 2 program modes and can be set to different values. 

Dependencies

ERP-512 Sync Project Person Responsible & Applicant with HR Positions - Batch: To derive Project Financial Controller.

ERP-1018 Synch Status from PPM Item to PS Project/WBS: When closing the PPM item, the status Closed is replicated to the corresponding SAP PS project. 

ERP-87 - Getting issue details... STATUS : To derive Regional Asset Manager

2 custom FIORI apps to display the report

Security, Integrity and Controls

Each user that has access to edit the PPM item is able to change its status to Closed. The program is designed in case the projects are not closed by the users when they should be closed. It is executed as a batch job. In exceptional cases, an firefighter user can execute it manually. 

Configuration Requirements

N/A

Language Requirements

Notifications are sent in English.

Special Requirements

N/A

Design Rationale

Functional Requirements

This section describes the business process and decision logic for managing inactive SAP PS projects and idle Assets under Construction (AuCs). It outlines the key steps and criteria used to identify, review, and act on inactive projects and assets.
Please note that technical implementation details are provided separately in the Processing Logic section.

1. Scheduled Processing

• The program runs in two modes:
  1. Inactive Project Closure Review: Conducted quarterly to identify and process inactive projects.
  2. Idle AuC Monitoring: Conducted monthly to identify and report on idle Assets under Construction.
• The period of inactivity (default: six months) can be adjusted as needed (input parameter).

2. Inactive Project Closure Review

2.1. Identification of Inactive SAP PS Projects

• • The program identifies SAP PS projects that are no longer active, marked as “Technically Completed” TECO
  • Some Project profiles will be excluded (input parameter). For example, Statistical, Provisional Expense or Intercompany Recharge purposes are excluded from this review.
  • Only projects and WBS elements with no recorded activity (actuals or commitments) in the past X months are considered inactive and subject to further review. X = Inactivity period. 
  • SAP PS projects that are still active (i.e., not TECO, Cancelled, or Closed), where all associated WBS elements have the status TECO, CNCL or CLSD assigned, and for which there have been no transactions during the past X months (with X being the specified inactivity period). In this case if identified, the program feeds the custom table "Inactive project" with the project's details (Project description, Project Financial Controller and Project Owner). If the project is already maintained in the table, the existing record(s) are deleted and a new one is inserted. 

2.2 Closure Criteria Review:

1. 1. In the case of SAP PS projects that are still active (i.e., not TECO, Cancelled, or Closed), where all associated WBS elements have the status TECO, and for which there have been no transactions during the past X months (with X being the specified inactivity period): Insert these projects in the custom table "Inactive project" with Activity = Suggest to close and with the project's details. 

   2. For all identified projects in step 2.1, the program first attempts to close the WBS elements. Closure is only possible if all of the following conditions are met:

      1. Outstanding Time Transfer Check: Confirm that all time bookings have been fully transferred to the relevant WBS elements

      2. No process or work orders with active status
      3. No open purchase orders
      4. Process Orders and Work Orders fully settled
      5. All linked assets under construction are fully capitalized or settled
      6. The WBS element has a zero balance

Some of these conditions are handled by the standard solution. When attempting to close a SAP PS project, the system automatically verifies that these requirements are met and, if not, displays an error message.
However, the standard solution does not perform the checks for (i) outstanding time transfers and (ii) process order status by default. As a result, these checks will be carried out by the custom program in advance, prior to initiating the project closure.

c. Project Closure Action:

• • • If all conditions are satisfied, and the project is linked to a portfolio management item, its PPM item status is also updated to “Close.” If the PS project is not associated with a PPM item status, the program updated the PS project status to close.  The program updates the project record (inserted in section 2.1) with Activity = Closed and time stamp = current date/time. 
    • If any condition is not met, the project remains open and the the program updates the project record (inserted in section 2.1) with Activity = Failed to close, Insert the WBS elements id and description preventing the project closure (1 line per WBS elements), and insert the error message in Reason. If multiple WBS elements preventing the project closure, insert a line per project/WBS element. Time stamp = current date/time. 

3. Idle AuC Monitoring

For each AuC assigned to a WBS element project:

• • Identify any AuCs that have not been fully capitalized or settled.
  • Identify last activity (posting) date.
  • Exclude the AuCs for which the Capitalization date is set to a future date on the WBS element.
  • If last activity date is older than the Inactivity period defined as input parameter and outstanding balance exist, the program inserts/update the Asset in the custom table Inactive AuC. 

All  the entries in the table Inactive AuC are deleted before each execution. The table only contains the AuC identified by the program in the last execution. 

4. Notifications

• • Inactive Project Closure:
    If the Project Financial Controllers and Project Owners are inserted in the custom table Inactive Projects, a launchpad notification is issued. This notification is issued if the user appears at least once in the custom table among the newly created or updated entries. Even if the user appears multiple times, they will receive only one notification prompting them to check the report. A link to the report is provided as part of the notification. 

• • Idle AuC Monitoring:
    If the Regional Asset Manager are inserted in the custom table Inactive AuC, a launchpad notification is issued. This notification is issued if the user appears at least once in the custom table among the newly created or updated entries. Even if the user appears multiple times, they will receive only one notification prompting them to check the report. A link to the report is provided as part of the notification. 

Proposed Technology to Use

Application job.

Data Source Considerations

Data Validation Considerations

Custom Tables

Master Data

Inactive Projects  /SYQ/T_PROJECTS

Table listing the projects identified by the program: 

1. Projects that the program could close
2. Projects that the program could not close for some reason
3. Projects that have all their WBS elements inactive but remain active

Inactive AuC  /SYQ/T_AUC

Configuration Table

Selection Screen Enhancement

Processing Logic

1. Scheduled Processing

The program can be executed in 2 modes: 

1. Inactive project closure review: The identification and processing of inactive projects must occur Monthly.
2. Idle AuC Monitoring: The identification and reporting of idle AuCs must occur monthly.

Only one mode can be executed at a time. A single input field, "Inactivity period," is defined and can be applied to both modes.

2. Inactive project closure review

For each identified inactive project, the program:

2.1.Identification of Inactive SAP PS Projects

• • The program identify SAP PS projects with:
    • status TECO: 
      • JEST: Object Status (stores status information for objects like projects and WBS) STAT field = TECO and INACT = Blank
      • PROJ: Project Definition (main project header data)
      • Join the 2 tables to keep only project definitions.
      • Result: List of project definitions (IDs) that are TECO.
    • Exclude PS project with Project profiles values mentioned in Selection screen - PROJ-PROFL

• • • Check that no transactions for the past X months (X = Inactivity period) months: no Actuals nor Commitment posted on the related WBS elements.

Get all the related WBS elements table PRPS field PSPHI = Project id

Query ACDOCA where OBJNR = PRPS_OBJNR (WBS element Object number)

• • • • • Filter by BUDAT for posting date.
        • Check that the latest posting date is older than (Current date - X (Inactivity period))
    • Insert the identified projects in custom table "Inactive Projects" along with the Project Description, Project Owner, Project Financial Controller. Last Changed = current date/time.
    • If the project already exist in the table, delete the existing entries (it can be multiple) and insert a new one. 

• • The program also checks for the SAP PS projects that are still active (i.e., not TECO, Cancelled, On Hold or Closed) with all their associated WBS elements in status TECO/Cancelled or Closed:
    • Identify active projects = Projects not assigned to statuses TECO, CNCL, CLSD, HOLD.

BAPI_PROJECTDEF_GETLIST can be used to select the projects based on system and user statuses.  
Exclude system status TECO, CLSD and user status HOLD and CNCL.

• • • Exclude PS project with Project profiles values mentioned in Selection screen - PROJ-PROFL 

• • • For the projects identified, check if all Level 2 (L2) WBS elements have inactive statuses TECO, CNCL or CLSD.

• • • • Table PRPS field PSPHI = Project id
      • Table: PRPS field STUFE = 2.
      • Table JEST-STAT: Check that all L2 WBS elements have the status TECO, CNCL or CLSD assigned with field INACT = Blank.

• • • If not, ignore the project. 
    • If so, then check if all WBS elements at other levels also have the status TECO, CNCL or CLSD.

• • • • Table PRPS field PSPHI = Project id and field STUFE > 2
      • Table JEST-STAT: Check that all WBS elements have the status TECO, CNCL or CLSD assigned. 

• • • If so, Check that no Actuals nor Commitment posted on all of the related WBS elements for the inactivity period defined.
      • Get all the related WBS elements table PRPS field PSPHI = Project id
      • Query ACDOCA where OBJNR = PRPS_OBJNR (WBS element Object number)
      • Filter by BUDAT for posting date.
      • Check that the latest posting date > X (Inactivity period).

• • • If no Actuals nor Commitment posted on all of the related WBS elements for the inactivity period defined:  Insert the project in custom table "Inactive Projects" with along with the Project Description, Project Owner, Project Financial Controller and with field Activity = Suggest to close. Last Changed = current date/time.

2.2 Checks if no outstanding time transfer 

For all the projects identified in step 1, check that all time booking is transferred to the WBS element (Time booked and time transfer completed).

Table CATSCO

RPROJ = WBS element = Project id followed by * to obtain all WBS elements for a given project definition (Example, if the project id = A.000004, then search all RPROJ values starting with A.000004); 

TRANSFERRED = " "

If any records with Transferred = " ", then some records are still expected to be transferred. The project cannot be closed.

The project was inserted in the table in section 2.1. Update the project and the WBS element in custom table "Inactive Projects" with Activity = Failed to close and Reason = "Outstanding time transfer". Last Changed = current date/time.

2.3 Checks related Order statuses

Identify the Work orders and Process Orders assigned to the WBS elements: 

Identify the all the WBS elements assigned to the SAP PS project.

Function Modules:

• • CO_WBS_ELEMENT_ORDERS_READ => retrieves all the orders assigned to a WBS element.
  • STATUS_READ => Read status of an order
  • If status = Created or Released, The project cannot be closed.

The project was inserted in the table in section 2.1. Update the project and the WBS element in custom table "Inactive Projects" with Activity = Failed to close and Reason = "Open Work orders or Process Orders".

If the error affects multiple WBS elements, create multiple lines for the same project and assigned the different WBS elements. 

Last Changed = current date/time.

2.4 Attempt to set the project status to CLSD (Closed). If 2.2 and 2.3 are successful (No outstanding time transfer and Order statuses are closed), simulate a SAP PS Project status change to Closed. If not the below closure criteria are met, the system will prevent the closure and issue an error message.

*If Purchase requisitions are not replicated from Ariba to S4, no check at project closure is done. 

Before performing any actual status changes, the system will simulate the project closure using the following BAPIs:

• • BAPI_PS_INITIALIZATION – to initialize the PS environment

  • BAPI_BUS2054_SET_STATUS – to set the WBS/project status 

  • BAPI_PS_PRECOMMIT – to check for errors prior to commit

In this simulation mode, no status changes are saved. The purpose is solely to detect whether any of the above closure conditions are not fulfilled. 

Update the project in the custom table "Inactive projects" with Activity = Failed to close and Reason = SAP Standard Error message generated when attempting to close the project. 

If the error affects multiple WBS elements, create multiple lines for the same project and assigned the different WBS elements. 

Last Changed = current date/time.

2.5 If all the above criteria (2.2, 2.3, 2.4) are met, meaning that the project closure simulation reported no errors, the project can be closed:

• • • If the SAP PS project is related to a PPM id, the PPM item status be updated:
      • If PPM Item status = TECO/Cancelled => change PPM Item status to Closed/Cancelled.
      • If PPM Item status = TECO => change PPM item status to Closed. 

Check project id exist in /RPM/ITEM_D field ITEM_D

Function Module /RPM/ITEM_CHANGE - This function module allows to change attributes of a PPM item, including its status.

The status change to Close on the PPM item will be replicated to the SAP PS project. 

• • • Else set the SAP PS project to status CLSD.
    • Update the project in the custom table "Inactive projects" with Activity = Closed. Last Changed = current date/time.

2.6 Once the above steps are completed, the program retrieves the entries in custom table Inactive Projects which have not been updated and for which Action = Failed to close or Suggest to close. 

For each project id, check the project status. 

• • Use FM BAPI_BUS2054_GET_STATUS to obtain System statuses assigned and currently valid. It returns a table of statuses for the requested objects. System statuses in format TXT04-TJ02 (e.g. CRTD, REL, CLSD, TECO, etc.)
  • If System Status = CLSD update field Action with value Closed Manually. Last Changed = current date/time.
  • If System Status does not contain CLSD, (this means that the project has been re-activated or that a transaction recently occurred on the project), Delete the entry from the table. 

3. Idle AuC Monitoring

3.1 Reset table Inactive AuC Delete all entries in the table /SYQ/T_AUC

3.2 Identifying AuC Related to WBS
Use ANLA fields:
ANLN1 (Asset Number)
ANLN2 (Asset Subnumber)
POSNR (WBS Element)
ANLKL (Asset Class — to filter for AuC)
Filter where ANLKL corresponds to the AuC asset class and POSNR matches the WBS element.

3.3 Checking for the last Activity (identifying dormant AuC)
Use BUDAT (Posting Date) in ACDOCA.
If there are no entries for the asset in the last X months (X= Inactivity period), it meets inactivity criterion.

3.4 Checking Capitalization/Settlement
Analyze postings in ACDOCA for the asset to determine if it’s fully capitalized or settled.
Use FM FI_AA_VALUES_CALCULATE to determine if the calculated balance is zero, which indicates full settlement.
If there are still open balances or no settlement/capitalization postings, the asset is not fully settled.

3.5 Capitalization date check

Exclude AuC meeting the above criteria (3.2, 3.3 and 3.4) and for which the Capitalization date PROJ-USR08 is set to a future date (Capitalization date > Current date) on the assigned WBS element.

3.6 If AuCs meets the above criteria, Insert the entry in the custom table Inactive AuC with the relevant information. See section Master Data table Inactive AuC to obtain rules to derive each fields. 

4. Notification

4.1. Inactive project closure review: 

After each execution, the program issues a single launchpad notification to Project Financial Controller and Project Owner if they appear at least once in the newly created entries in the custom table. 

Project Financial controller position is stored in table PROJ, field ASTNR. From the position ID the SAP Personal ID can be derived through table HRP1001. Obtain the user id from table PA0105 field UNAME.

Project Owner position is stored in table PROJ, field VERNR. From the position ID the SAP Personal ID can be derived through table HRP1001. Obtain the Last name First name from table PA0001 field SNAME.

Notification text: 

Subject: Notification: Automatic Project Closure Program Executed

The automatic closure program for projects set to "Technically Completed" with no activities in the past [Inactivity period (input parameter)] months was executed on [Execution Date]. The results are available in the [report link]. As at least one of your projects appears in the output, please review the report and take action where:

• • A project failed to close (reason provided), or
  • The report suggests project closure.

Thank you.

4.2 Idle AuC Monitoring:

After each execution, the program issues a single launchpad notification to the Regional Asset Manager if they appear at least once in the newly created entries in the custom table. To derive the Regional Asset Manager, refer to FS ERP-87 Automate Asset & Settlement Rule Creation - Workflow.

Notification text: 

Subject: Sleeping AuC Detection Program Results

The Sleeping AuC detection program was executed on [Execution Date] and has identified Assets Under Construction (AuC) with no activity for the past [Inactivity period (input parameter)] months. The results are available in the [report link]. As at least one AuC under your scope is listed, please review the report and take appropriate action.

4.5 Handling notification errors (No recipient derived)

If recipients cannot be identified, no notification is sent, error is shown in the job error log report. 

Volumetrics

Unknown.

Performance Considerations

N/A

Error Handling

The job log report should:

• Record the execution details of the program, including start and end times and selection criteria (Execution mode + Inactivity period).
• Log the number of objects processed 
• List PPM items and SAP PS successfully set to closed
• List projects not closed and provide reason (error)
• Capture any errors encountered during execution.
• Provide an overview of the notifications sent (recipient, successful or failed)

Testing

How to Test

Test Conditions and Expected Results

Test Considerations/Dependencies

N/A

Other Information

Development Details

Package

Enhancement Implementation

Other Development Objects

Appendix

Custom Authorization Group Naming Convention

This table is based on the Syensqo development standards document. It provides the naming conventions for authorization groups to associated with custom reports and tables to comply with security requirements.

See also

Change log