eXtended Change Management (XCM)
Guides
Core Features
Exception Handling in Process Control

Exception Handling in Process Control

Overview

Exception Handling is very important in a change management process to identify if the process has an interruption and handle them by correcting the situation. In XCM exception handling is triggered when required customization is missing for controlling the process, or when no agent is found for a given process step. In such cases, the exception handling mechanism automatically creates a task for the administrator defined in BRF+.

Steps to handle process exception

Process Exception is triggered when the system detects missing customization for the next status, or when the Task ID is not available during process execution.

  1. When this occurs, the system automatically raises a Process Exception dialog task.
  2. If the next status is missing in BRF+ or the relevant customizing entries are incomplete, the Handle Process Exception task is created and assigned to the administrator defined in BRF+. This allows the administrator to review and correct the missing configuration.
  3. Once the necessary customization is corrected, the administrator can approve the dialog task.
  4. Upon approval, the process resumes and continues to the next valid status.
  5. Until the customization is corrected, the Process Exception dialog task will continue to be generated each time the issue is encountered.

Steps to handle No Agent Exception

No Agent Exception is triggered when the system detects that no agent is maintained for a specific team function.
Previously, when no agent was maintained, the Change Request (CR) would result in an error, and users had to create a new CR to proceed further. With the introduction of Exception Handling, it is now possible to correct the missing agent and continue the workflow without restarting the process.

  1. This exception is triggered automatically whenever no agent is found.
  2. When this occurs, the system creates a No Agent Exception dialog task and assigns it to the administrator defined in BRF+. This allows the administrator to review and add the missing agent in the Teams and Responsibilities configuration.
  3. Once the required agent is added in Teams and Responsibilities, the workflow automatically sends a work item to the newly maintained agent, allowing the process to continue.
  4. Until the necessary agent is maintained, the No Agent Exception dialog task will continue to be generated each time the issue is encountered.

XCM BAdI Usage

Enhancement Spot /XCM/ES_BRF_ADMIN
BAdI /XCM/EX_BRF_ADMIN
Interface /XCM/IF_BRF_ADMIN

Description: The administrator determined for XCM notifications is read from the BRF+ administration settings. Where the recipients are maintained outside BRF+, the determination can be replaced by an own implementation.
The method GET_ADMIN_DETAILS returns the administrator users in ADMIN_USERS. No importing parameters are supplied, so the implementation determines the recipients from its own source.
The users returned are used as the administrators for the notification. Where no implementation is active, the administrator maintained in BRF+ applies.

Signature for reference

class-methods GET_ADMIN_DETAILS
  returning
    value(ADMIN_USERS) type /PLMB/T_TD_USER .

Enhancement Spot /XCM/PR_ES_HANDLE_EXCEPTION
BAdI /XCM/PR_EX_HANDLE_NO_AGENT
Interface /XCM/PR_IF_EX_NO_AGENT

Description: The task that is raised for an exception and the user it is assigned to can be influenced by an own implementation, where the administrator maintained in BRF+ is not the right recipient for every situation.
The method CREATE_EXCEPTION_HANDLING_TASK receives the change record header, the header extension and the exception type, and returns the task to be used for the exception handling in TASK_FOR_EX_HANDLING. This allows a different task to be raised per exception type, for example a separate task for a missing agent and for a missing customization.
The method GET_FALLBACK_USER_FOR_EXPN receives the same change record header together with the exception type and the exception handler task, and returns the user in FALLBACK_AGENT_FOR_EXPN. This allows the exception to be routed to a responsible person other than the administrator defined in BRF+, for example the change record author or a support group.

Both methods are optional. Where no implementation is active, the task and the administrator maintained in BRF+ are used as described above.

Signature for reference

METHODS create_exception_handling_task
  IMPORTING change_record_header     TYPE /iam/s_i_root
            change_record_header_ext TYPE /plmi/s_i_cr_hdr_ext
            exception_type           TYPE /xcm/pr_exception_type
  CHANGING  task_for_ex_handling     TYPE /xcm/pr_exception_task .

METHODS get_fallback_user_for_expn
  IMPORTING change_record_header     TYPE /iam/s_i_root
            change_record_header_ext TYPE /plmi/s_i_cr_hdr_ext
            exception_type           TYPE /xcm/pr_exception_type
            exception_handler_task   TYPE /xcm/pr_task_id
  CHANGING  fallback_agent_for_expn  TYPE /xcm/pr_task_agent .

See Also

IMG Customization
BRF Customization

Keywords

Process Exception, No Agent Exception

Prerequisites

  1. Kindly create the necessary Task ID related to the Process exception. please refer to IMG Customization steps to create task ID.
  2. For the decision table of BRF+ to be available, please refer to BRF+ Generation - Process Control