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Project roles vs Authorization roles in SAP Cloud ALM

In this post I would like to explain

  • What are Project roles
  • What are authorization roles
  • How they are related to each other

What are Project roles

SAP Cloud ALM comes pre loaded with a list of Project roles provided by SAP Activate methodology. You can see this list when you visit the teams Tab in project setup . You can use the info icon to know more about the role description.

What is the advantage of Project roles

When you select the desired SAP Activate template during the Project Setup , tasks are generated and they come pre-distributed to the Project roles.

This way if you have a configuration expert in your team , this person already knows which tasks are relevant for him or her roles in the overview page

or by using task list filters

In case you have multiple configuration experts in your team , you can assign all of them to the same project role. so let us assume you have three consultants A, B and C


Now these consultants can filter the task list based on assigned role “Configuration Expert”, they can also create a view using the “my roles” option and use a pull mechanism to distribute tasks among themselves.

Once you select a task belonging to a particular Project role , the system proposes the persons assigned to it to ease the process


You can also easily extend the list of project roles and read this post for details.

What are authorization roles

Authorization roles decide the capabilities each user can have in the system. As an example

  • User administrator can approve onboarding requests for users
  • Project administrator can switch templates after a project is created
  • Project lead can perform the project setup and Team assignment
  • Project member can edit all tasks, requirements scope but not perform Project Setup
  • Project viewer can only see information in a Project but not edit it.

As a User administrator , when you onboard a person you can assign certain authorization roles. You can see the screen below using the tile User Management if you have sufficient authorizations.

How Project roles and authorization roles are mapped

Project Role Authorization Role
Project Lead Project Lead
All roles other than Project Lead Project Member
Custom added roles Project Member

Are authorization roles specific to Project

As per the current implementation , authorization roles are user specific but not Project specific .

Next Steps

We plan to create multiple blog posts on various topics, therefore, please ensure you follow the tag SAP Cloud ALM .

You can also visit and bookmark

Project and Task Management capabilities-Master List

If you are specifically looking for some information, feel free to leave a comment and we can create topic based blog posts on demand.


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