SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

2252618 - SCR Form: XML Software Change Request for Career Development Plans and Learning Activity Plans

Symptom

This article describes what type of changes can be completed by Cloud Product Support via Software Change Request and which changes should be completed by Implementation Partners and Customers for Career Development Plan and Learning Activity templates.

Important Note to Customers:

  • Software change requests should not be initiated via the Chat Channel. 
  • If a supported XML change request is required, please follow the process outlined below under the section "To submit a software change request" to create a support ticket and fill out the required information.

Environment

SAP SuccessFactors Career Development Planning

Resolution

What can be done via self-service tools in Admin Center

  • RBP Permission Changes;
  • Picklist Changes;
  • Change the Name, Introduction, Start and End Dates for the Development plan template;
  • Add/Modify/Delete fields in the Development Plan template;
  • Add/Modify/Delete categories in the Development Plan template. 

Some changes to Development Plan templates can be applied via Admin Center > Manage Templates feature. For more information on this, please refer to the Career Development Planning (CDP) - Manage Templates Wiki Page.

What is considered an Implementation Request

Custom changes that cannot be completed via SuccessFactors Admin Tools can be delivered by Implementation Partners and Professional Services. Some examples are:

  • Career Development Plan template:
    • Defining fields for the plan;
    • Field and Plan permission logic change (Edit, read, delete, lock, etc);
    • Goal Plan States (Lock/Unlock);
    • Define Goal Plan and Form Layout;
    • Changing the numbering format and logic -obj-plan-numbering
    • Change logic to allow a value to be entered greater than x% in the percentage complete field
    • Changing the more-details logic in plans
    • Min/Max for a Goal Plan.
      • Setting logic for max-weight or min-weight
      • Min/Max per Category
      • Min/Max per Objective
      • Objective Count Rules for plan
    • Defining Category and Default-Category that cannot be performed via Admin Center.
  • Learning Activity template:
    • Upload a new Learning Activity template and associate it to a Development Plan template;
    • Defining fields for the plan;
    • Field and Plan permission logic change (Edit, read, delete, lock, etc);
    • Layout Changes;
  • Languages: 3-Tier Language Pack Customization and Translation work.

How to engage an Implementation Partner

  1. Visit our SAP Partners page.
  2. Click the "Search Now" button on "Find a Partner" tile > click the button "Search the SAP Partner Finder".
  3. You can filter the search by solution, industry and location.
  4. From the list, click on the Partner name you want to work with to see contact details for the partner.
  5. Partners can provide quotes and estimates based on your needs.

Please note that each partner may determine the types of services they offer for customers. Pricing can vary between partners. There are a number of partners that are happy to perform the types of changes listed here.

XML Upload via Provisioning

If you made changes in a template XML and now need to upload it in the system in order to update it, please engage your Implementation Partner or Professional Services to fulfill this task. You can also request each supported change individually as per the Software Change Request (SCR) process described below. For more information on this topic please refer to KB Article 3236270 - Requests to upload XML Templates via Provisioning.

Supported XML Changes that can be delivered via Product Support

Supported changes are typically characterized as "existing program maintenance" that are:

  • A necessary change to keep the existing program working as-is
  • Small year-over-year change not possible via Admin Tools
  • Adding functionality driven by SAP’s quarterly releases not possible via admin tools, and required by SAP.

Before Proceeding:

  • This service is available only to Enterprise customers and their designated primary administrators.
  • It is not available to Professional Edition customers.
  • It is not available to Partners.
  • The change process does not cover changes you can make via Admin Tools.
  • Is limited to 1 or 2 changes for 1 template per request.
  • When you have multiple changes and multiple templates, you will need to use partners.
  • Cloud Product Support can take up to 4 weeks to process change requests. Please submit your changes at least 4 weeks in advance.

Itemized List

Details for Supported Change

Change the Learning Activities template being used by the Development Plan template (Development Plan Only) - Implementing and Managing Career Development Planning - Development Goal Plan Templates

Inside the <learning-activities> section of the Development Plan, you need to refer to the ID of the desired Learning Activities Template.

Example: <learning-activities template-id="4001"/>

Add or change a competency filter to be used by the Development Plan (Development Plan Only) - Implementing and Managing Career Development Planning - Linking Development Goals to Competencies

This item will modify the current setup of the Development Plan so the competencies pulled by each Development Goal are filtered according your needs.

The filters can be added inside the <competency-filters> section of the Development Plan. In case the Development Plan does not yet have this section, it can be included between the <category> and the start of the <field-definition> sections.
Make all goals be created as Public/Private (Development Plan Only) - Implementing and Managing Career Development Planning - Action Permissions

This item allows you to determine whether new Development Goals are created as public or private inside the Development Plan.

Edit Permissions (Development Plan and Learning Activities Only):
  • Only standard and non-complex permission changes can be applied by Support, such as adding two new roles under the permission, deleting some, etc.
  • Only the standard set of roles can be applied by Support on the permissions of the templates.
  • The roles can also be edited to include levels above (such as EMM or EM+).
  • Conditions for each permission, such as allowing a user to read a field only when the Status of the goal is equal to a specific value, requires the engagement of an implementation partner.

The following sections of permissions can be edited by Support:

  1. <permission for="private-access">
  2. <permission for="create">
  3. <permission for="delete">
  4. <permission for="share"> (only in Development Plan template)
  5. <field-permission type="read">
  6. <field-permission type="write">

Apply changes to the Plan layout (Development Plan and Learning Activities Only):

This item supports the changes that are not yet available inside Manage Templates. By default, any fields added to a template via the Manage Templates functionality will automatically include it in the layout, but some configurations (such as the column weights) cannot be determined by Manage Templates. Below is what is supported on this item:

  • Changing the column weight of a specific field on the Development Plan template
  • Adding/removing a field from the layout of the Development Plan template
Make field reportable (Development Plan and Learning Activities Only) - Implementing and Managing Career Development Planning - Reporting on Development Goals

If a field is not currently available for reporting, it can be configured to become reportable via an XML change to it's respective template.
Change the role-assessment form being used (Career Worksheet Only) - Implementing and Managing Career Development Planning - Enabling Self-Assessment for Role Readiness This item allows to modify the form currently being used for the Role assessment inside Career Worksheet.

Example:

<self-assessment>

<each-assessment lang="en_US">61</each-assessment>

</self-assessment>
Change whether job profiles of job roles are shown from Job Profile Builder or Job Description Manager (Career Worksheet Only) - Implementing and Managing Career Development Planning - Configuring Template to Show Job Profiles from Job Profile Builder

Support can adjust the following switch based on where the job profiles should come from:

<switches>

<switch for="disable-jpb-profile-in-cws" value="off"/>

</switches>
Change the label of a field (Career Worksheet and Learning Activities Only) - Implementing and Managing Career Development Planning -<field-definition>Subelements

Support can modify existing field labels, including translations, provided by the customer. Support does not provide translations.

This change can be performed inside the field-label tag of the desired field:

  <field-definition id="name">

    <field-label>Learning Activity</field-label>

  </field-definition>

It's also possible to add multiple languages to the same field, so the system will automatically translate it according to the language of the user:

  <field-definition id="name">

    <field-label>Learning Activity</field-label>

    <field-label lang="es_MX">Actividad de Aprendizaje</field-label>

  </field-definition>

Support will change a maximum of five translations for up to three fields. If more fields require label changes, Professional Services needs to be engaged on the process.
Include mandatory fields (Learning Activities for LMS integration Only) - Implementing and Managing Career Development Planning - Mandatory Fields

There are seven mandatory fields inside the Learning Activities template for the integration between CDP and LMS to work properly. In case the current Learning Activities template does not contain all the mandatory elements, Support can include the missing ones.

Sample code:

<field-definition id="assignee" type="text" required="true" detail="false" viewdefault="on" showlabel="true" field-show-coaching-advisor="false" cascade-update="push-down">

    <field-label>Employee</field-label>

    <field-description>Employee</field-description>

  </field-definition>

 

  <field-definition id="completed_date" type="date" required="false" detail="false" viewdefault="on" showlabel="true" field-show-coaching-advisor="false" cascade-update="push-down">

    <field-label>Completed Date</field-label>

  </field-definition>

 

  <field-definition id="name" type="text" required="false" detail="false" viewdefault="on" showlabel="true" field-show-coaching-advisor="false" cascade-update="push-down">

    <field-label>Learning Activity</field-label>

    <field-description>Name</field-description>

  </field-definition>

 

  <field-definition id="description" type="textarea" required="false" detail="false" viewdefault="on" showlabel="true" field-show-coaching-advisor="false" cascade-update="push-down">

    <field-label>Description</field-label>

    <field-description>Description</field-description>

  </field-definition>

 

  <field-definition id="status" type="enum" required="false" detail="false" viewdefault="on" showlabel="false" field-show-coaching-advisor="false" cascade-update="push-down">

    <field-label>Status</field-label>

    <enum-value value="Planned">

      <enum-label>Planned</enum-label>

    </enum-value>

    <enum-value value="Completed">

      <enum-label>Completed</enum-label>

    </enum-value>

    <enum-value value="Failed">

      <enum-label>Failed</enum-label>

    </enum-value>

    <default-value>Planned</default-value>

  </field-definition>

 

  <field-definition id="guid" type="text" required="false" detail="true" viewdefault="on" showlabel="false" field-show-coaching-advisor="false" cascade-update="push-down">

    <field-label>Product Key</field-label>

    <field-description>Product Key</field-description>

  </field-definition>

 

  <field-definition id="type" type="text" required="false" detail="true" viewdefault="on" showlabel="false" field-show-coaching-advisor="false" cascade-update="push-down">

    <field-label>Product Type</field-label>

    <field-description>Product Type</field-description>

  </field-definition>

 

  <field-definition id="dev_goals" type="text" required="false" detail="false" viewdefault="on" showlabel="true" field-show-coaching-advisor="false" cascade-update="push-down">

    <field-label>Development Goals</field-label>

    <field-description>Development Targets</field-description>

  </field-definition>

 

How to request a change from Cloud Product Support?

If the change you want to apply is listed in the table above, you can submit an case in the Support Portal requesting it. Please use the below template:

SCR Template: (Just copy and paste this into your case)

  1. Data Center (URL of your login screen):
  2. Company Instance ID (where to apply changes):
  3. Name of the Template Changes Will be Applied to:
  4. Itemized Change (from list below, which item needs to be changed):
  5. Other Comments: 

Testing of Software Changes

Once the change is completed, thoroughly test to ensure the content has been coded to specifications and all functionality behaves accordingly and to expectations including all the way to printing and reporting, if applicable.

See Also

  • SAP Partner Finder
  • KB article 2149831 - SAP Professional Services / SAP Certified Partner / SAP Account Management Team [SuccessFactors Cloud]
  • KB article 2706322 - What is Support – What is Consulting: Cloud Solutions
  • KB Article 3236270 - Requests to upload XML Templates via Provisioning

Keywords

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Product

SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development all versions