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SAP Cloud ALM · BTP extension

Custom Fields in SAP Cloud ALM

With pony you extend SAP Cloud ALM with custom fields, search functions, mandatory field checks, consistency checks and automations — directly on SAP BTP.

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Background

Why tags in SAP Cloud ALM are not always enough

Additional information that cannot be managed via standard fields is often modeled via tags in the SAP standard. For simple classifications, this approach is sensible and pragmatic.

In real implementation projects, however, it is often about more than pure classification. Customers need to capture business, regulatory or methodological information in a structured way, analyze it unambiguously and in some cases validate it bindingly. When only tags are used for this, long, confusing tag lists, inconsistent maintenance concepts and limited capabilities for reporting, validation and governance quickly emerge.

Custom fields are the prerequisite for capturing company-specific information in a structured way. Without them, this data ends up in free-text fields, Excel lists or external tools — and is lost for analysis, reporting and governance.

Regulated environments

Use SAP Cloud ALM more easily in regulated environments

In regulated industries such as pharma, banking or food, changes to SAP systems often have to be documented, assessed and approved according to defined requirements. The specific requirements often leave organizations room for choice in how they implement them.

pony supports organizations in using SAP Cloud ALM in a practical way also in such regulated environments. Custom attributes such as GxP Relevance, ICFR Relevance, risk class, compliance status or business approvals can be modeled in SAP Cloud ALM in a structured way, analyzed and integrated into validation or approval processes.

  • Simplify the use of SAP Cloud ALM in regulated environments
  • Custom attributes for regulatory-relevant information
  • Structured documentation instead of free text or Excel
  • Support for review, approval and governance processes
Solution

What is possible with pony

Custom fields

Typed fields for requirements, user stories and features — centrally configured.

Mandatory field checks

Context-aware mandatory field checks for native SAP Cloud ALM fields and custom fields, depending on status or project.

Search functions

Search and filter across custom fields.

Consistency checks

Automated checks on save and on status transitions for native SAP Cloud ALM fields and custom fields.

Automations

Rule-based pre-population of custom fields.

Exchange with third-party systems

Custom fields can also be exchanged with third-party systems via cocat.

SAP Cloud ALM areas

Custom fields for requirements, user stories and features

Requirements

Business classification, business area, regulatory context, external references.

User Stories

Acceptance criteria status, estimates, prioritization scheme, ticket IDs.

Features

Roadmap mapping, release context, dependencies, business owners.

Roadmap
We will soon also provide custom fields for additional SAP Cloud ALM areas — specifically for processes, documents, test cases and test plans. The extension is already being implemented.
Practice video

Custom fields, mandatory field checks and automations in practice

In this video we show how pony is used and configured in SAP Cloud ALM.

Watch the video
SAP Community

More details in the SAP Community Blog

A detailed description of how pony brings custom fields to SAP Cloud ALM is available in the SAP Community Blog.

Read the SAP Community Blog
Use cases

Typical use cases

Complete requirements capture

Requirements and user stories can be typed and categorized via custom attributes — e.g. by business type, implementation relevance or project methodology.

Typing of features

Features can be classified in a structured way via custom attributes — e.g. as Bugfix, Standard Change, Minor Enhancement or Major Enhancement.

Linking to ticket and ITSM systems

Capture, validate and make searchable external keys such as incident or change numbers in a structured way.

Clean status transitions

Couple status transitions to mandatory fields and consistency checks — e.g. no approval without acceptance criteria.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Custom fields can be implemented in SAP Cloud ALM in a structured way with pony. pony makes it possible to provide custom attributes directly in the SAP Cloud ALM user interfaces — for example for requirements, user stories and features. This way, additional information is not just captured through tags, free text or external lists, but in a typed, analyzable and process-oriented manner.

Tags in SAP Cloud ALM are well suited for simple classifications. However, when additional information needs to be clearly structured, typed, validated, searched or used for governance and reporting purposes, tags quickly reach their limits. In such cases, custom fields are more appropriate because they make information easier to capture clearly and to analyze.

With pony, custom attributes in SAP Cloud ALM can be configured flexibly and used directly in the relevant user interfaces. Organizations can capture their own information in a structured way — information that is relevant for their project methodology, governance, requirements regarding later auditability or integration processes. Examples are business categories, implementation types, risk classes, GxP Relevance, ICFR Relevance, external references, approval status or feature types such as Bugfix, Standard Change, Minor Enhancement or Major Enhancement. The concrete attributes are configured customer-specifically and can be tailored to each customer's requirements.

With pony, custom fields appear directly in the SAP Cloud ALM user interfaces. They are available where requirements, user stories and features are created and edited. Support for additional SAP Cloud ALM areas such as documents, processes, test cases and test plans is planned.

Yes. pony extends SAP Cloud ALM with search and filter capabilities for custom fields. This allows users to search specifically for structured additional information — for example by certain classifications, external references, audit relevance or customer-specific attribute values.

With pony, mandatory field checks for SAP Cloud ALM can be configured. The checks can be defined both for native SAP Cloud ALM fields and for custom fields. Rules can, for example, be defined depending on status or project. Missing or incomplete entries can be made visible directly in the process, for instance on save or during status transitions.

pony supports validation and governance in SAP Cloud ALM through configurable rules for native SAP Cloud ALM fields and custom fields. This enables organizations to ensure that relevant information is captured completely and in a methodologically consistent way. It makes using SAP Cloud ALM easier in projects with higher requirements regarding data quality, traceability and control.

In regulated industries such as pharma, banking or food, changes to SAP systems often have to be documented, assessed and approved in a traceable manner. The concrete requirements typically leave organizations room for choice in how they implement them. pony supports organizations in using SAP Cloud ALM in a practical way in such environments by allowing regulatory-relevant information to be captured as custom attributes in a structured way and integrated into review or approval processes.

In the SAP Cloud ALM standard, such additional information can only be modeled in a structured way to a limited extent, for example via tags or free text. For simple classifications this can be sufficient. However, when information such as GxP Relevance, ICFR Relevance, risk class, compliance status or business approvals needs to be maintained, analyzed or checked as dedicated attributes, an extension such as pony is appropriate. With pony, this information can be modeled as custom fields in SAP Cloud ALM. This way, regulatory-relevant information can be maintained in a structured manner and used for analyses, checks and governance processes.

Custom fields from SAP Cloud ALM can be connected to and exchanged with third-party systems using cocat. This makes it possible to synchronize customer-specific information from SAP Cloud ALM with systems such as Jira, Azure DevOps or ServiceNow.

pony provides the custom fields in SAP Cloud ALM. cocat handles the exchange of this information with external ALM, ticket or ITSM systems. This way, customer-specific attributes can be used in cross-system processes without having to maintain the information twice.

No. pony does not replace SAP Cloud ALM. SAP Cloud ALM remains the leading system for Application Lifecycle Management. pony complements SAP Cloud ALM specifically with custom fields, search functions, mandatory field checks, validation logic, consistency checks and automations.

pony is particularly relevant for organizations that use SAP Cloud ALM productively and have additional requirements regarding data quality, traceability, governance or later auditability. Typical areas of use are SAP transformation projects, regulated industries, complex rollouts and organizations with their own project methodologies.

Custom fields in SAP Cloud ALM — implement them now

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