SAP Enable Now – Canceling object edits

?In my previous article I discussed reporting objects being edited. Your takeaway should be an understanding of how to use reporting to identify objects being edited, how to change views and drill down into the details.

In this article, I will discuss canceling objects being edited. Before we move forward, let’s take a step back to the previous article. I said that I discovered an object was checked out by a peer when I attempted to edit it from within Producer. I never did show you the message Enable Now presented. My reasoning was you only needed to know I could not edit the object so that we could move into the reporting process. I think it is important information to cover, so here is the rest of the story. When I highlighted and attempted to edit the Development folder by clicking the Edit Pencil ICON, Enable Now tried to initiate the edit process as shown here.

?The process was cancelled when Enable Now detected the folder was already checked out. In the message highlighted, you can see the Development folder Start Editing action was blocked because it was not available as shown in the Result message.

?In such instances there is an immediate response to either click the X in the top right corner or select Ok in the bottom right to close the pop-up message. If we take a few seconds to look around the message box, we see that the folder is currently being edited by [email protected]. Look closely in the bottom left just above the Show Only Errors and Warnings checkbox. Had I shown you this in the previous article, there would have been no reason to walk through the Reporting of Objects in Editing. Now let’s move on to the purpose of this article.

Scenarios for Canceling Object Edits

?When we have a situation where another user has an object checked out and they are unavailable to release control of the object, we may need to perform what is called a forced cancel. This means that any edits that were made by the user that were not yet saved to the server, would be lost as part of our actions. This is why we need to be as cautious and patient as we can be to avoid any unnecessary loss of work. Your likely scenarios are as follows:

Scenario 1 – You contact the person who has the object checked out, but they do not have immediate access to Enable Now to finish editing the object. They assure you all of their changes have been saved to the server and there is no risk by you performing the force cancel.

Scenario 2 – It’s the same as Scenario 1 except they have critical changes that need to be checked into the server. Your best option is to wait until they return, check in their changes to the server, and finish editing to release the object before you begin your edits.

Scenario 3 – The person who has the object checked out is not available. If they are expected to return your first option is to weigh the urgency of your access needs against the risk of changes, they may have made that are not yet saved to the server and the length of time you expect to pass before they return. If the changes you need to make are urgent, you should proceed with the understanding there may be work they did that could be lost.

Scenario 4 – The person who has the object checked out is no longer with the project and cannot be consulted. In this scenario you can assume changes they may have made but did not get saved to the server will be lost. You have no option but to proceed with the forced cancel.

Canceling Object Edits in Manager

?Reverting back to the reporting process we covered in the previous article; we retrace our steps by selecting Reporting on the toolbar menu and then select Objects in Editing from the dropdown list.

?We see the Reporting dashboard displayed.

Next, we need to drill into the Group. Remember the Development folder is a Group object. To do this, click on the small pie ICON to display the next level of details.

?We now see the Development folder or Group as it is more appropriately called in Enable Now.

?Next, we use the drill down functionality to take us directly to the Development folder within Manager. Click on the curved down-arrow to proceed.

?The Development folder is highlighted as Enable Now successfully navigated us to the folder. The next action is to click on the Cancel Editing button.

?A warning message is displayed giving us the final option to exit the process before we cancel the editing. At this point we move forward with the process by selecting Yes.

When the Cancel Editing process completes, the status of the Development folder status changes as indicated by the Cancel Editing button being replaced by the Start Editing button as shown here.

Validation by editing

?To validate the Cancel Edits process we can switch back to Producer, highlight the Development folder and click the Edit Pencil ICON as we did at the beginning of the article.

?We now see the Pencil ICON next to the Development folder and the Edit Pencil ICON located in the upper right of the toolbar has been replaced with the Finish Editing Cloud checkmark ICON. I can make my changes and finish editing to save the changes to the server and release control of the Development folder.

?There is another way to validate the Cancel Edits process by using the Reporting function. We will cover that next.

Validation by Reporting

?We repeat the earlier steps of selecting the Reporting of Objects in Editing and this time we see a change. Note the Group count in both the table and the chart have been reduced from 3 to 2 as shown here.

?Next, click on the small pie ICON to display the next level of details.

?Here we see only two objects remaining under edit control by Piga. The Development folder has been cleared through the Cancel Editing process. If more objects need to be released from edit control, the same process can be repeated to complete the action and to verify it was successful.

Best Practices

• The person who has the object checked out should be your first contact. In their absence, the administrator should be consulted.
• The administrator may prefer to manage the canceling of all edits that are not able to be performed by the person with control over the object. This decision and process should be detailed within your organization’s Enable Now guidelines.
• If a content development lead assigns the work, they should also be contacted as they may have visibility to the changes the other user was assigned to make.

Summarizing the process

?Canceling the edits of other users is not uncommon, but it should not be taken lightly. There is a risk of losing edits that were not checked in by the person who has the object in edit mode. If you can discuss the situation with the person holding control over the object, that should be your first step. Where situations do not allow for a conversation, you need to consider all risks before moving forward.

?Your takeaway should be an understanding of how to cancel objects being edited, what needs to be factored into the decision, and how you can verify the success of the cancel edits process.

What’s next?

?In my next article I will cover corrective action when Manager and Producer edit status don’t match.

If you like what I wrote please take the time to share it, as others may find it interesting, if not amusing. Let’s not be just consumers of information or share only the works of others. Your voice matters, and I’m sure you have good ideas that could help others. Try being a thought leader and not just a follower.

To those of you who take the time to read my efforts I sincerely thank you. I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that this is a two-way conversation so put your comments in and let’s have a volley of ideas, so we all continue our intellectual growth.

Mr. Gray is a seasoned business strategist experienced in PMO stand up, digital and business transformation, process development, and best practice guidance. He has developed industry-leading methods for staff modeling, project deployment, financial performance, team onboarding, and business readiness. Mr. Gray is a problem solver at heart and a sharer of knowledge by choice. He has authored more than one hundred and fifty thought provoking articles which are all available on Linked-In.

If Mr. Gray makes you think then he considers the effort worthwhile.

Your PMI Guy can be found on LinkedIn at: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/yourpmiguy/

Follow me on LinkedIn

And on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/YourPMIGuy