Often SAP Systems are not delivered directly to the "end customer", but initially to a software vendor. This vendor makes modifications to the system and then delivers it to the customer, who subsequently makes another set of modifications. It is also conceivable, that a large company might implement important additional functions centrally for all of its sales offices and that these offices, in turn, might make their own modifications to the system in order to streamline specific work processes.
The Modification Assistant maintains a log of changes made for each system group (development systems, production systems, and so on). This means that a set of modification logs organized according to system group exists for the software vendor, as well as for the customer and for any set of other users in between. The original SAP System plus the modifications made to it (by the software vendor, for example) make up the original for the next generation of users (the customer, for example).
Thus it is possible for a customer's system to contain several rounds of modifications by the time it is delivered.
The source of these layers of modifications should be visible in the naming norms and standard comments inserted into the system. The source of the current, uppermost layer of modifications can be displayed using the log function from the overview.
Change requests and copies always include all modification data when they are transported.
For example, you are making modifications within a system group in a development system. All transportable change requests and copy transports will transport modification data into the next system (test systems, production systems, and so on). Hence, change requests and copy transports should only be imported into a system when you want to adopt the modification data from these requests as well. Adjustment support using the Modification Assistant is only available at upgrade or when applying a patch.