DevOps for SAP: Develop on Quality & Deliver On Demand
SAP DevOps represents a paradigm shift in the way ABAP software is developed and delivered. By fostering collaboration, automation, and a culture of continuous improvement, DevOps is reshaping the software lifecycle, enabling organizations to deliver high-quality software faster and more reliably than ever before.
To stay competitive, businesses must deliver software solutions swiftly and efficiently. Traditional ABAP development and operations models often result in silos that slow down the process. DevOps with SAP, which combines development and operations, is the way ABAP software is built, tested, and deployed, enabling organizations to achieve greater agility and improved performance throughout the entire software lifecycle.
DevOps for ABAP is more than just a set of tools or practices; it represents a cultural shift that fosters collaboration between SAP development and operations teams. By breaking down the barriers between these traditionally separate entities, DevOps with ABAP enables faster, more iterative software releases. This close collaboration allows for continuous integration, delivery, and deployment, resulting in shorter development cycles, increased deployment frequency, and more dependable releases.
SAP DevOps: The Key to Efficiency and Agility in the Software Lifecycle
DevOps with SAP helps you deliver updates faster, increase reliability, and foster a more agile ABAP development process
Short Release Cycles
Agile Development enables reduction of time-to-market and fast iteration.
Automation
Automating repetitive tasks to improve efficiency, such as building, testing, and deployment.
Quality
Bugs or performance issues are caught and addressed early.
SAP Delivery Framework
Integrated SAP Transport Management.
Shared Responsibility
ABAP Developers and SAP Operations working together throughout the development cycle.
Monitoring and Feedback
Constantly monitoring SAP systems and infrastructure to get feedback and make improvements.
3 SAP DevOps Offerings That Transform your Projects: Which One Fits Your Needs?
CI/CD Services
on SAP BTP
DevOps with SAP BTP
- ABAP and non-ABAP cloud products
- Configure and run predefined pipelines
- Build and Deploy SAPUI5 / SAP Fiori Applications on SAP BTP
Project
Piper
DevOps for Hybrid Landscapes
- gCTS – Git-Enabled CTS to share source code on Git
- Adapt predefined pipelines in your own CI/CD infrastructure
- Build and Deploy SAP Cloud Application Programming Model
ABAP Build Framework
DevOps with ABAP on-premise
- DevOps for ABAP on-premise and private-cloud systems
- Deploy on-premise with the same pace as cloud products.
- Manage and Track your Transport Requests
Your SAP Landscape is ready for DevOps
Technology
CI/CD in the ABAP world? Yep, it’s no longer a dream. New ABAP technologies like the ABAP Build Framework or Project Piper have stepped up to make continuous integration and delivery a real thing. The best part? DevOps capabilities are already baked in—just waiting to be activated, no hacks or workarounds required. And when you tap into standard SAP products, you’re not just modernizing—you’re also staying secure. Think up-to-date security and reduced risks, all wrapped up with the latest SAP releases.
Harmonize Processes
DevOps processes have already been largely adopted for SAP and non-SAP Cloud Products. A large part of the code base and development efforts is still happening on good old ABAP on-premise systems – it’s still where a lot of the heavy lifting happens.
Deploy Faster
Why should cloud products have all the fun? With the right DevOps approach, you can deploy on-prem at the same pace as the cloud—no more lagging behind. It’s all about keeping things in sync, so your cloud and on-prem environments play nicely together.
Shortening Feedback Loops
By tightly integrating SAP development and operations, teams can quickly identify and address issues, ensuring that software remains stable and responsive to changing user needs. This iterative approach, combined with automated testing and monitoring, enables you to deliver value more efficiently while maintaining high standards of quality.
Acceleration
One of the primary benefits of adopting DevOps for SAP is the acceleration of time-to-market. With a focus on automation and continuous delivery, DevOps practices allow you to rapidly respond to demands and feedback.
Automation
Automated testing and deployment processes reduce the chances of human error and speed up the release cycles, enabling organizations to deliver features and updates with lightning speed.
Quality
Continuous testing and monitoring become integral parts of the process, ensuring that any bugs or performance issues are caught and addressed early. This proactive approach to quality assurance results in more stable and reliable software products.
By integrating development and operations, teams gain better visibility into the entire software lifecycle, which promotes a shared responsibility for the product’s success.
DevOps for SAP focuses on enhancing the entire software delivery lifecycle. This encompasses everything from development, to deployment, and ongoing operations.
At the heart of DevOps lies the goal to improve collaboration, automate processes and ensure continuous delivery. The principles that guide this goal are robust: Treating infrastructure as if it were code, utilizing continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, embracing automation at every step, rigorous monitoring, and establishing feedback loops to continuously improve.
Enable CI/CD for SAP ABAP
As part of the Continuous Integration (CI) development methodology, ABAP Developers have to integrate code multiple times per day. An automated pipeline then validates each check-in, enabling teams to identify issues early.
The logical progression of Continuous Integration is Continuous Delivery (CD), a methodology where teams make sure that all system modifications are releasable and that any version can be imported to production at any time.
In the context of SAP DevOps you can establish CI/CD pipelines by leveraging the Build Framework. Development teams can enhance their workflow, ensure consistency, and minimize manual interventions in the build process.
FAQs
What is DevOps for SAP?
DevOps for SAP is a set of practices, principles, and tools that aim to automate and integrate the processes between ABAP development (Dev) and SAP operations (Ops). The goal is to shorten the ABAP development lifecycle and provide continuous delivery of high-quality software.
Which tools are available to enable DevOps for SAP?
SAP provides purpose-built frameworks tailored to different use cases. For on-premise and private cloud systems, the ABAP Build Framework helps automate and streamline SAP Transport Management. Meanwhile, Project “Piper” offers a set of predefined CI/CD pipelines designed to orchestrate tasks like gCTS-based development or deployments to SAP BTP—making DevOps adoption faster and more consistent.
What is the ABAP Build Framework?
The ABAP Build Framework is a versatile tool provided by SAP that enables you to automate the execution of ABAP deployment steps using a service call. This Framework can be integrated to an existing Change Management Tool to document and track SAP Transport Requests.
It is part of the SAP Basis component for releases 7.50 and above.
What is Project Piper?
Project Piper is an open-source initiative by SAP that provides preconfigured pipelines and reusable libraries to automate and streamline SAP software development processes. It enables developers to build, test, and deploy SAP applications supporting SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and on-premise SAP environments. By offering ready-made pipelines and a shared library of steps, Project Piper accelerates the adoption of DevOps best practices for SAP development.