20 Release Strategy and Planning of Support Packages - SAP ECTR

Link to general Release Strategy of SAP product.

SAP plans to deliver a new release of SAP Engineering Control Center when major changes were done. Otherwise we deliver in Support Packages (SP) and Feature Packages (FP). FPs includes new major enhancements.

SAP plans to support the current and the last 2 predecessor release of a CAD system with its interfaces. In exceptional cases there might might be more (older) CAD releases supported. Please visit the corresponding info page in the PAM.

See also Product Availability Matrix (PAM) for more details, especially here for SAP ECTR 1.1 for S/4HANA.

We spend a lot of effort for testing and regression tests to prevent any errors in every new shipment of the software. In case there are severe errors left, we can solve them either with a SAP Note + correction for ABAP or with a new, immediate patch for the front-end at any time. Severe means here: security issue or loss of data. All other errors are fixed with the next planned patch.

Planning* of Major versions

EOM = End of Mainstream Maintenance

RTC = Release to Customer

(1) SAP has extended the maintenance for S/4HANA releases 1709, 1809, and 1909 for on-premise and private cloud, see https://news.sap.com/2022/09/new-sap-s4hana-release-maintenance-strategy/ (or SAP Note 3246630). Therefore the support of SAP ECTR for S/4HANA 1.1 will also be extended to 31st December 2027. As the frontend component for ECTR 5.2 and 1.1 are similar, both maintenance  dates for ECTR 5.2 and ECTR 1.1 for S/4HANA are aligned.

Long term support version (LTS)

For SAP Engineering Control Center (Frontend) we provide a Long-Term-Support Version, which means, that a defined version (here Support Package, e.g. 5.1.9) will be maintained in parallel to the latest version (Support Package). Customers have the freedom and flexibility to update later to the latest support package while still receiving corrections and smaller improvements as patch (e.g. 5.1.9.3). There is only one LTS version, which means as soon as a new LTS version is released the predecessor LTS version will be obsolete.

LTS versions:

• ECTR 5.1 SP09, released to customers June 2017
• ECTR 5.1 SP13, released to customers June 2018
• ECTR 5.1 SP15, released to customers June 2019
• ECTR 5.1 SP16, released to customers May 2020. This is the last planned support package for ECTR 5.1.
• As we delivered ECTR 5.2 and ECTR for SAP S/4HANA 1.1 in Q2/2019 there will be no downports of major features to ECTR 5.1 and ECTR for SAP S/4HANA 1.0.
  • ECTR 5.1 will run out of maintenance 31st December 2021. Further Support Packages for ECTR 5.1 are not planned after end of maintenance. After end of mainstream maintenance you are automatic transferred into customer-specific maintenance. For details see SAP Note 52505.
  • ECTR for S/4 1.0 will run out of maintenance 31st December 2020. Further Support Packages for ECTR for S/4 1.0 are not planned after end of maintenance.
  • We ask all customers to move from ECTR 5.1 to ECTR 5.2 (For minimum installation requirements see note 2049249 ).
  • We ask all customers to move from ECTR for S/4 1.0 to ECTR for S/4 1.1.
• ECTR 5.2 SP03 released to customers July 2020.
• ECTR for S/4 1.1 SP03 released to customers July 2020.
• ECTR 5.2 SP05 released to customers July 2021.
• ECTR for S/4 1.1 SP05 released to customers July 2021.
• ECTR 5.2 SP06 released to customer July 2022.
• ECTR for S/4 1.1 SP06 released to customer July 2022.
• ECTR 5.2 SP07 scheduled for 2023 (next LTS).
• ECTR for S/4 1.1 SP07 scheduled for 2023 (next LTS).

For the ABAP Backend we use Notes to ship corrections or minor enhancements.

* Disclaimer:

This document and SAP's strategy and possible future developments, products and or platforms directions and functionality are all subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. The information in this document is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. This document is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. This document is for informational purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document, except if such damages were caused by SAP’s intentional or gross negligence. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates, and they should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.