Let’s say that Customer 15 in your SAP system buys products from your company.  It sends inbound EDI Orders to you using three different partner IDs because they have 3 internal divisions and they want all transactions to be separate.  You want to keep all sales data for this customer under one customer number in your SAP system and just separate them by a different division.  You are required to send out EDI invoices to this customer, but they must go to the correct EDI Partner ID.  Let’s say you would normally use the Standard SAP Output Type RD00 and  Access Sequence 0003 (Sales Org, Distribution Channel, Division, Customer Number) for producing your INVOIC IDOCs.

Your first step would be to make three copies of the RD00 Output Type (ZRD0,  ZRD1, ZRD2) using transaction V/40.  We will need to make three copies because the Standard RD00 Output type uses Access Sequence 0004.   Select Change mode for this transaction and find the RD00 entry.  Select the RD00 entry and click on the ‘Copy As’  icon on the Menu bar or press the F6 key.

Change the Output Type to ZRD0 and the Access Sequence to 0003 and hit your Enter key.

A prompt will appear with three options.  Copy all, only copy entry, or cancel.  Select the copy all option.

An information message will appear displaying the number of dependent entries have been added.

Hit the enter key and the main Output Type screen will appear with your new output type.  Select the entry and double click the Processing Routines option in the left hand column.  Make sure that the EDI Medium is listed under the Processing Routines.  If not, add it as shown below.

Double click on the Partner Functions option in the left hand column.  Make sure the Partner Function you will be using is listed for the EDI Medium.  In this case we will be using the BP (Bill-to Party) Partner Function.

Hit the save button to save the new output type.  Repeat this process for the other two new output types.  If the Access Sequence you require is not available a new one can be created.  Creating a new Access Sequence is not covered in this blog.

Now we can set up the Partner Profiles for this customer using transaction WE20.  On WE20, expand the Partner Type KU folder and select customer number 15.  Under the Outbound parmtrs section click on the ‘Create Outbound Parameters’ icon.

Fill in the proceeding screen with the as follows.  If you are using an IDOC Extension enter that also.  For this example we are just using the Standard INVOIC02 IDOC.  As you can see I have entered 10 in the Message Code field.  This represents one of the Divisions for this customer.  You can use this field and the Message Function field to differentiate between Divisions or other criteria you wish to use.

Select the Message Control tab and click on the Insert Row icon.

Your Application will be V3 (Billing), your Message Type will ZRD0 (the new output type), and your Process Code will be SD09 (Invoice).  Enter these three values and save the entry.

You will create two more Outbound Parameter entries for the other Divisions.  In these two new entries you will place the other divisions in the Message Code field and the other output type field in the Message Control Message Type field.  Everything else will be the same.

When you are done, the Partner Profile for this customer will look like this.

Finally we will need to create the output determination so the output is created automatically once the invoice is completed.  For invoicing, the transaction for output determination is VV31 for create and VV32 for changes.  We will use VV31 since this is the first time this output type will be used.  Enter ZRD0 as the Output Type and hit Enter or click the Key Combination button.  If more then one Key Combination is available then a pop up window will appear asking which one you want to use.  Once you select one and click the Green check the key fields will appear.  If there is only one, then the key field will appear immediately.  Select the SOrg/Distrib Ch/Division/Customer option.

Enter the Sales Org, Distribution Channel, and Division data.  Then for each customer you will be using this Output Determination for you would enter the Customer Number, Partner Function, Medium (6 = EDI), Date/Time (This represents when/how the output will be processed), and Language (EN = English).  Then hit the save button.  Repeat this process for the other two output types.

Once this is completed every time an invoice is created for this combination of Sales Org, Distribution Channel, Division, and Customer number an Output will be created using the specified Output Type.  Once the output is processed an IDOC will be created with the Division in the Control Record of the IDOC which can then be used in the EDI Software to determine which EDI Partner the data should be sent to.

How do you convert these external customer numbers into your internal SAP customer numbers?

Some may hard code these conversions into their EDI maps.  This approach can be very high maintenance as customers can add new ship-to locations or reorganize their internal numbers which would require changes to your maps.

Others may set up a cross reference table within their EDI translation table to perform the conversion.  This works well at times, but then you are at the mercy of your EDI group to update the table with any new additions or changes to existing entries.

I find the best way to perform this conversion is within your SAP system.  Mainly because SAP has given you a standard utility to perform the conversion.  All you need to do is populate a few fields of the incoming IDOC and populate the EDPAR table using transaction VOE4 with the internal and external customer numbers.  The Function Module used to process the IDOC takes care of the rest.  SAP uses the Sender Partner Number of the IDOC Control record along with the PARVW and LIFNR elements from the E1EDKA1 segment to look up the correct entry in the EDPAR table.  In your EDI maps you would populate the PARVW element with the partner function code for the external customer number (AG = Sold-To, WE = Ship-To) and populate the LIFNR field with the external customer number received in the EDI file from that partner.  All other fields would remain blank in the E1EDKA1 segment.

Sender Information Partner Number from the Control Record:

E1EDKA1 Segment for the Sold-To Partner (AG):

E1EDKA1 Segment for the Ship-To Partner (WE):

Use transaction VOE4 to populate the EDPAR table.  You enter the value from the Sender Partner Number in the IDOC control record in the Customer field, the function code for the partner in the Ext. Function field.  Note: The Ext. Function field will not be the same as the Partner Function (PARVW) element of the IDOC.  (AG in IDOC = SP on VOE4, WE = SH).  The External Partner is the number received in the EDI data from the customer which is also the number in the LIFNR element of the IDOC.  Int. no is the SAP customer number associated with the External number.

VOE4 transaction with required entries for the Sold-To and Ship-To for IDOC information above:

Using the EDPAR table for customer conversion allows this function to remain in control of those responsible for customer accounts.  Users can be trained to use the VOE4 transaction to update the EDPAR table so when new ship-to or sold-to numbers need to be added they can be done in a timely matter and not rely on other departments.  It also takes this responsibility away from the EDI group so they don’t have to maintain maps or tables for this function.

This function can be used for other incoming IDOCs as well.  You will need to check the Function Modules used to process incoming IDOCs to determine if EDPAR can be used for customer number conversion and on which IDOC segment you would send the external number.

Outbound IDOCs can use either the EDPAR table or the PUMA table to cross reference external customer numbers.  Again, it depends on the IDOC type.  I will cover this topic in a separate blog.

For the element that’s text cannot be hardcoded or the element that’s visibility needs to change during runtime, the context needs to be used. The data that is seen on the screen is not stored within the web browser itself. The Web Dynpro application makes calls to the server to retrieve data to be displayed. This is where the context comes into play. The context is the memory on the server that stores data for the Web Dynpro application. When setup correctly a context can hold tables, structures or single element variables. Here is an example of how to build a context and then make method calls to read or set the context.

Select the ‘Context’ tab. Right click on the context node and select ‘Create’ -> ‘Node’ and fill out the fields according to the picture below.

Right click on the BUTTON_PROPERTIES node and select ‘Create’ -> ‘Attribute.’

Now we have created an attribute in the context that will hold a string value. By the names I have given to the node and the attribute you can guess that this node will hold any attributes related to the button we created. The attribute that we created will be used to hold text value of the button.

Now that the context attribute has been created, let’s fill it with a value. Go back to the button properties under the ‘Layout’ tab and find the ‘onAction’ properties under ‘Events.’ Click the create button, it looks like a white piece of paper with the top right edge folded down, and fill in the fields as below.

Double click on the name of the new action we just created, SHOW_TEXT and this will take you to the methods tab. Here we are going to use the Web Dynpro Code Wizard to set the value of the attribute.
Click on the Web Dynpro Code Wizard icon (or Ctrl +F7), select ‘Read’, click and select the attribute that was created, TEXT. (Illustrated Below)

Now repeat the same steps starting with the Web Dynpro Code Wizard except this time select ‘Set’ instead of ‘Read.’ Each time the Web Dynpro Code Wizard is used DATA variables are created.

Note: If there are multiple attributes within a node, all of the attributes can be read or set at once by selecting the node.

After using the Web Dynpro Code Wizard the second time we now have two copies of the data variables that will not compile. Select the second set and delete them and in place put the following code:

Now if the application was tested the value of the attribute TEXT would be changed  between ‘Hide Text’ and ‘Show Text’ every time the button is pushed.

That is the rundown of how to build, read and set the context’s nodes and attributes. Now the context needs to be linked or ‘bound’ to the UI elements. Go back to the Layout tab and select the button. Under the properties find the ‘Text’ property. Click the yellow box to the right of the property and select the attribute to create the binding .

Binding

Binding is linking the data in the context to the UI elements. Here we have created an attribute that holds text. The ‘Text’ property of the button is set to the value within that property. Activate the Web Dynpro Component, create an application and test it.

For a little extra practice, add a TextView by dragging and dropping into the layout or right clicking on ROOTUIELEMENTCONTAINER and selecting ‘Insert Element.’ In the properties section set the Text value to ‘Now you see me!’ Create another node and attribute for the TextView by going to the ‘Context’ tab and right clicking on the ‘Context’ node and selecting ‘Create’ -> ‘Node’. Then create the attribute with the properties below.

Go to the ‘Methods’ tab and go into the method we was worked on earlier, ONACTIONSHOW_TEXT. Place the cursor after the ‘if’ statement that was put in, approximately line 33. Use the code wizard to set the new context we made. Then cut and pasted the DATA declarations just created and move them up to the top of the code. Then edit the ‘if’ statement to look like this:

Return to the ‘Layout’ tab, select the TextView and set the ‘Visible’ property to the new attribute. Activate the Web Dynpro Component and test the application.

Let’s look at how this process works.  Let’s say we have created an invoice document in SAP.  In this case, the Sold-to, Ship-to, and Bill-to partners are all SAP customer number 15.  If we want to create an INVOIC02 IDOC on which the external customer numbers are populated for all three of these partners we would have to set up three EDPAR entries as displayed on the below screen shot.  The Customer field will contain the SAP partner number (Sold-to, Ship-to, Bill-to).  The Ext. Function field will contain the Partner Function (SP = Sold-to, SH = Ship-to, BP = Bill-to).  The External Partner field will contain the external partner number that the customer is expecting on the EDI file.  And the Int. no. field will contain the SAP partner number (Same as the Customer field).

After we have set up the Partner Profile (WE20) for the INVOIC for this customer we can produce the output through transaction VF02 to create the IDOC.  The INVOIC02 IDOC will display the Sold-to and the Bill-to partners at the Header level in the E1EDKA1 segments, but because we could have multiple Ship-tos on an invoice the Ship-to partner(s) are located at the Item level in the E1EDPA1 segments.  In both segments, the external partner numbers will be populated in the LIFNR element.  The segments for the three partners are displayed below:

As you have probably noticed, the Partner Functions on the IDOCs do not match the Partner Functions in the EDPAR table.  Those would translate as follows: SP in EDPAR = AG in the IDOC, SH = WE, BP = RE.  As you can see the LIFNR field is populated with the values in the External Partner field of the EDPAR table.  These values can now be used in the EDI mapping tool to send the value to the customer.

This is a useful tool as new partners can be added easily using the VOE4 table by a customer service representative.  It also keeps the cross reference within SAP so that the EDI group does not have to build their own functionality to convert the partner numbers and maintain it as new customers are added or locations are changed.

This table can be used for other partner types and other outbound IDOCs.  You would need to check the function module that processes the output to see if it uses the EDPAR table and for which partners.  Another internal SAP table that is used for partner cross reference is the PUMA table.  This is used when creating DELVRY and SHPMNT IDOCs whose function modules do not use the EDPAR utility.  The use of the PUMA table will be discussed in a separate blog.

In continuing my series of lessons learned with SAP Retail I would like to cover the topic of Client Resources and Planning. Again, in general many of these lesson I have learned could be applied to any project and I can easily draw parallels from other SAP industry solution implementations that I have led in the past. I will do my best to highlight where I think there are specific retail differences.

There Are Never Enough Client Resources

This is the case on almost any large-scale project, not just SAP projects. It impacts smaller organizations and it impacts retail businesses more because they tend to run leaner IT organizations. So you might be saying to yourself, “big deal; what project not funded by the government doesn’t have enough resources?” This one point however might be the most important one I make in this series.

Think about it. In a new SAP Retail implementation you are going to completely replace the core of your IT business systems. This typically impacts all aspects of your business; Finance, Store Operations, Merchandising, and Warehousing. It typically reaches outside your organization and impacts your Business Partners as well. So how do you fix resource problems? As a leader, and I am specifically talking to the CEO (or your organization’s equivalent) here, because he/she is the only one that can make things happen on the resource front. CEO’s, you need to engage the entire business in this process in a meaningful and organized way from the project’s inception and kick-off all the way to go-live and post go-live support.

I know from experience that this kind of ideal C-suite-to-IT alignment does not always occur. My uncle was the president of a division of Honeywell that implemented SAP. I can remember talking with him about his project and being a little frustrated with him. He knew the project was important and impactful but from the language he used I could tell that he did not grasp the significance of the undertaking that an SAP implementation demands and that more overall focus and dedication from the organization as a whole would reduce the time required for the business to successfully adapt to the new system.

Don’t make this mistake in your implementation; engage the best of the best in your organization on the project, and engage the entire organization in meaningful ways throughout the entire project. The more exposure and input people have doing the implementation the easier the transition will be. Always remember, there is no such thing as “cutting corners” in SAP implementations (or any SAP project for that matter). You always end up getting as much from your SAP system as you put into it. Settling for adequate resources at bargain prices will do two things: cut immediate resource overhead costs and produce an adequate SAP system for your business.

Client Management Expectations For Their Internal SAP Resources Are Always Unrealistic

OK, so this is not specific to Retail; it is a recurring theme from all my SAP project exposure.

• First point: unless you have implemented SAP before you and your resources will automatically underestimate what it is going to take to get the job done.
• Second: don’t expect seasoned IT resources to work an SAP implementation and come out of it completely capable of supporting the system on their own after go live. One out of ten will be able to fly solo after go live,  the rest will need assistance for sometime in the future. (By the way, the ones that fly solo need to be rewarded significantly, if not they will be consultants within 12 months)
• Third: look at what you are asking of your resources. If you have them working on business requirements, functional design, test planning, test script creation, test execution, training, etc., do they really have the capacity to do any of these activities simultaneously while maintaining high-quality output? Engage more of the business and spread out the load. After all, implementing SAP is a business commitment, not an IT department commitment. I will make recommendations in other sections on where you can engage more of the business.

There Is Never Enough Time For Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge Transfer (KT) is an activity that is always held high at the beginning of the project but it is the first part of the plan and budget to get absorbed when things don’t go as planned and it is never replaced. In addition, it is never given proper consideration, planning, and execution like any other phase of the project. Failing in KT can potentially squander all the effort and investment you’ve put into an SAP project; new technology has ZERO value if your business users are not proficient at using the system. You should treat knowledge transfer planning and execution just like testing, with specific goals, topics identified and capacity planned. It should also be spread out thoughtfully across the duration of the project. Expectations / level of KT expected also needs to be clearly communicated to both the consulting team and internal team. You need to have realistic expectations here. At the end of KT, your internal resources (especially if new to SAP) will not be able to do what your consulting team can. Knowledge transfer is often approached using the “fire hose” technique. SPOILER: it does not work.

Fire Hose Technique -  Tasking several of your senior SAP consultants to simultaneously knowledge transfer to the same beginner SAP client resource via a two week brain-dump.

There are very few people that can effectively learn this way. Genuine knowledge transfer can only truly be achieved through doing, not watching or listening. Engagement and participation throughout the entire project lifespan will lead to knowledge transfer organically. The most effective way to execute knowledge transfer is to plan a PPS (Post Production Support) phase that keeps the consulting team engaged – some full time, some part time, and some as needed. This will enable the transferring responsibility and knowledge overtime. It is important to understand you will need to push the internal team here, you want the consulting team as a safety net not a crutch.

Client Resources Can Cause Delays Too

OK, now it’s time for me to call out all my clients from the past. This is more of a universal lesson learned but it especially applies to SAP Retail projects. Consultants and consulting teams are not always responsible for project delays. It is our job as consultants in most cases to take the heat and blame whenever deliverable dates are missed; that is part of our job function and it comes with the territory. What sort of things am I referring to? Information needed by the project team needs to flow quickly, and there is often information and tasks that extend outside of the identified SAP project team. It is important that from the top down those tasks are given priority and accomplished with a sense of urgency from Day 1. Oftentimes, teams have to push ahead making assumptions and then have to backtrack to fix wrong assumptions once they receive the information from the business. Good consulting teams never sit around twiddling their thumbs while waiting to receive all the information needed; they assume leadership and use good judgement to help their client be successful.

It is also important for SAP project leadership to monitor for “Analysis Paralysis”. While some consultants can be susceptible to this it is more often the client resources that come down with this serious condition. “Analysis Paralysis” is the most common reason projects get delayed. If you have unlimited budget then go ahead and try and think of everything. Otherwise you need to quickly review the information you do have, pour on some assumptions, and move forward. You will learn more as you progress through the project and can always go back and refine those critical things that you have missed. Prototyping and pilots give you more opportunity to move forward more quickly with an approach that can be refined as you get smarter.

One last point on client resources delaying projects: do not put procrastinators on your SAP Project team. You need to put your resources that hit the ground running and do their best to stay ahead. The average SAP project costs 16 million dollars. This is a pretty significant capital investment for any company. All it takes is one procrastinator in one area of the project to slow down the efficiency of the entire team.

So I got derailed a bit at the beginning of the week so I am behind schedule on my topic list.  I will do my best to cover planning this evening and post sometime tomorrow to keep on track.

Be on the lookout for my next post, which will Lessons Learned for the Planning phase of an SAP Retail project. The remaining schedule is as follows:

Here is an outline of my future lessons learned post topics:

• Week 3
• Design - If It Is Hard or Complex You Most Likely Are Taking The Wrong Approach

• Week 4
• Execution
• Basis - Size Does Matter
• Configuration - Prototype And Prove Out Approach Before You Commit To Process
• Development - RICEFW Can Not Be Developed In Silo’s

•  Week 5
• Testing - Testing Design Is More Important Than Solution Design
• Go-live Planning & Execution - Have An Implementation Methodology That Tests Your Go-live Plan As You Go
• Go-live - Big Bang Not A Good Idea For  An SAP Retail Implementation (Without A Pilot)

• Week 6
• Post Production Support - Figure This Out Prior To Go-live

To date, I’d have to say that of the business decision makers I meet, only about 30 percent of them know what virtualization is.  Now on the flip side, of the people who are actively down in the trenches managing systems on a day to day basis, nearly 75% of them have either used some method of virtualization or heard of it.  My question is, why is there such a disparity in knowledge of something that can be so beneficial to an organization between these two groups of people?

Well that’s what this post is about, educating decision makers about the numerous business benefits that virtualization solutions provide.

 

Virtualization History Lesson

Virtualization as noun, refers to technologies designed to provide a layer of abstraction between computer hardware systems and the software running on them. By providing a logical view of computing resources, rather than a physical view, virtualization solutions make it possible to do a couple of very useful things: They can allow you, essentially, to trick your operating systems into thinking that a group of servers is a single pool of computing resources. And they can allow you to run multiple operating system installations simultaneously on a single machine, thereby greatly increasing the utilization of any one piece of hardware.

Virtualization has it’s origins in partitioning, which divides a single physical server into multiple logical servers. Once the physical server is divided, each logical server can run an operating system and applications independently. In the 90s, virtualization was used primarily to re-create end-user environments on a single piece of mainframe hardware. If you were an IT administrator and you wanted to roll out new software, but you wanted see how it would work on a Windows NT or a Linux machine, you used virtualization technologies to create the various user environments.

But with the advent of the x86 architecture and inexpensive PCs, virtualization faded and seemed to be little more than a fad of the mainframe era. It’s fair to credit the recent rebirth of virtualization on the x86 architecture to the founders of the current market leader, VMware. However VMware couldn’t have done it alone, and I often credit Moore’s Law in helping computing power reach a point where virtualization was once again a viable solution in the enterprise.

That’s great, but how exactly can virtualization help me and my business?

Let’s take a look at a few different benefits that a business will realize by pursuing virtualization solutions for their next project.

Reduce datacenter costs by reducing your physical infrastructure footprint: This is probably the point most CIO’s and decision makers are aware of, fewer servers and related IT hardware means reduced real estate and reduced power and cooling requirements.  Getting ready to perform an upgrade? Current hardware infrastructure coming up for refresh?  These are ideal times to deploy a virtualized infrastructure with VMware and SAP.

Get more out of your existing resources: With VMware, you can begin to take advantage of advancements in computing technology by ensuring we’re using what you paid for!  On average, we see single application servers utilization hover around 15% – 20% of it’s potential capacity.  You purchased the hardware, you should be taking full advantage of it! With virtualization, your IT department pools common infrastructure resources and can finally break away from the age-old “one application to one server” model with server consolidation.

Increase availability of hardware and applications for improved business continuity: For those who have ever gone through the trouble of creating a 100+ page run-sheet of requirements for a disaster recovery solution, this is for you.  In addition to simplifying the execution of a disaster recovery event, by utilizing VMware as your virtualization solution,  you now have the ability to do audits on your disaster recovery plan in production without the concern of service downtime!

Gain operational flexibility: Going beyond the cost savings justification, with SAP running on VMware, you now have the ability to dynamically scale your application’s performance needs in real time to meet increased demand.  Have an upcoming “fire-sale” on that new wiz-bang thing everyone’s talking about? Now you can respond to market changes with dynamic resource management, faster server provisioning and improved desktop and application deployment.

Help your IT staff help you: VMware’s virtualization monitoring and management tools allow your IT staff to realize increased productivity when managing your virtual infrastructure by utilizing VMware’s robust set of utilities.  IT administrators can provision new resources in minutes instead of hours, freeing them to focus on more important tasks related to your SAP infrastructure.  Snapshots, Disaster Recovery, general system maintenance, are all handled through common management utilities that any resource can learn with ease.

I want it all! Where do I get started?

The first step of any virtualization project begins with a readiness assessment.  DataXstream will examine the current state of your infrastructure, determine where your business is growing, and accurately provide you with a design which focuses not only on cost savings, but also positions your company to be more flexible for future planned activities such as upgrades, increased demand, etc.  By taking advantage of server virtualization you can easily improve the efficiency of your SAP infrastructure as well as seeing immediate cost benefits by lowering your cost of ownership, and increasing the productivity of your IT staff.  All while positioning yourself to be more elastic in order to meet the ever changing landscape of business, there has never been a better time to explore the benefits of virtualization.

Stay tuned because in a later post, I’ll be examining the Technical Benefits of SAP virtualization, and why if you’re not exploring virtualization you’re already “behind the curve”.

Discovering Direct Modifications of SAP Standard Objects – One Example

As I discussed in a previous post on this topic, direct modification of SAP standard objects within the SAP namespace carries a high risk in an upgrade project.  It would be very valuable to be able to identify some details about these objects, so that further analysis could be performed to determine their disposition in the upgrade.

Modification of standard SAP objects typically requires that a modification registration key be obtained for that object from the SAP SSCR facility.   The SSCR facility (SAP Software Change Registration) is a procedure which registers all manual changes to SAP sources and SAP Dictionary Objects.  With a valid and authorized OSS ID for an SAP system, you can go to the SAP Support Portal on the web and view the SAP objects that were registered for modification by that OSS ID.  If there are multiple OSS IDs for any SAP system, make sure that you check all of them to capture all objects registered by all of the authorized OSS IDs for an SAP system.  Press the “Objects Registered by Me” button to view a list of the registered objects.

Another place that you can look for this information is directly within SAP.  Table ADIRACCESS stores the registration keys which were obtained from SAP, and which were entered by the developer when the object was to be modified for the very first time.  This entry shown below from table ADIRACCESS shows that function group SCPRPS was registered with SAP for modification.

Registering an object for modification does not mean that the object was actually modified.
What additional evidence can we discover that would show that the object was, in fact, modified?   And, since a function group contains many objects, can we determine exactly which object or objects were modified?

With a little bit of forensic analysis, we can discover the specific object within the function group that was modified, the user name of the programmer who last modified the object, date of the last modification, and the line-by-line source code differences.

If you are familiar with the structure of function groups, you already know that they may contain many function modules, and that the source code for each function module resides within its own include file.  At the moment, we know that the function group name is SCPRPS, but we do not have the list of function modules within that function group.

To obtain that list, we can use the SAP function module FUNCTION_SELECT_TFDIR.
The result list is shown here:

So which, if any, of these has been modified?  To determine this, we need to find all of the rows in table TRDIR where the NAME field is equal to the PNAME entries listed above.

Here is an excerpt from SAP table TRDIR for SAP object names that begin with the characters LSCPRPSU:

Note that for all of these objects, which are not in the customer namespace, the Author Username field (TRDIR_CNAM) is ‘SAP’.  Also note that for most of the entries listed here, the Last Changed By user name field (TRDIR_UNAM) is also ‘SAP’, except for one row, where the Last Changed By username field is not ‘SAP’.  From this row, we can see that include file LSCPRPSU36 was last modified by user DXSDEV on 10/19/2009.

If we look back at the result list of FUNCTION_SELECT_TFDIR and find the row where the field PNAME is equal to LSCPRPSU36, we can see that the name of the modified function module is SCPR_PRSET_CT_IMPORT_INDUSTRY.

Exactly What Changes Were Implemented?

By going to the Version Management Utility for this function module, we can see what the various versions of the code contained.  The Version Management Utility will also show us the transport request numbers, date and time, and username for each version of the code.  The Version Management Utility also has a code comparison tool which will highlight the line-by-line differences between versions of the source code.

Here is an excerpt from the side-by-side source code comparison utility which shows the modified version on the left side and the original version on the right side.  Fortunately, in this instance, the programmer left excellent notes indicating that a correction instruction from an OSS note was being applied.

What Are the Discovery Possibilities?

The manual example described above showed how to discover and analyze customizations that had been applied to a single SAP standard object.  But what if the customizations number in the hundreds or even thousands?  What about all of the customizations that were built entirely within the customer namespace?

It is possible to discover hundreds or even thousands of customizations regardless of which namespace they were developed in.  The key is automation, understanding that this information already resides within SAP waiting to be discovered, and more importantly, understanding the meaning of the discovered information.  I have already developed an ABAP discovery program which will mine, analyze, and report data about the following customized objects:

More Discovery – Usage Statistics and Where-Used

Customization Usage Statistics

The goal of customization usage statistics analysis is to discover the usage frequency of customized objects.  The usage discovery may show usage anywhere from several times daily by key users, to none when analyzed over a long time period.   Since most companies really do not want to incur the cost and the risk of moving an unneeded customization into the upgrade system, objects which show no usage over long periods of usage history become targets.  Care must be used here, as some transactions are exercised only quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.  I always recommend letting the business process owner make the final decision to eliminate any customization object in the upgrade.

SAP keeps track of usage statistics, and this data is available for you to analyze.  You will need to check what facility is available for your particular SAP system, as the transaction codes and programs differ among various versions of SAP.   The amount of data stored within SAP is configurable, and is usually set to a small date range.  Some companies that want to analyze the statistics over longer time periods actually download and store the statistics data in their own external databases.

Customization Where-Used

Like usage statistics, the goal of customization where-used analysis is to discover customized objects that are orphan or not being used.  What about that custom data type that is not used in any table or structure?  What about that function module that shows an empty list when you click the where-used icon in the function builder?

To properly perform a where-used analysis, it is important to understand all of the various possible uses for an ABAP object.  For example, here is the selection screen of possible uses that is presented by the ABAP Dictionary when you click the where-used icon to determine the where-used list for a data table:

And what about that custom function module, which I alluded to earlier, which shows a completely empty where-used list?  Perhaps it is a remote-enabled function module that was installed by, and is currently being called by an external third-party package.   Or, perhaps it is linked to an SAP EDI inbound or outbound process code.  It is really important to be able to properly interpret the data being presented and to not draw any hasty conclusions.

ABAP Programs Where-Used Analysis Example

In the ABAP workbench, SAP provides a where-used facility, which reports the various areas where a single selected object is used.  For a discovery project, you may want to automate this facility to analyze groups of ABAP objects (e.g. all custom ABAP programs, all custom tables, etc.).

Here is an ABAP programs where-used analysis example to help illustrate how a where-used analysis might be utilized.

Your automated where-used analysis program to analyze custom ABAP programs reports fifteen custom programs which show no usage in any of the following areas:

A quick analysis shows that all of these fifteen programs are simple reports.  Since users typically execute their reports via transaction codes, you wonder how these fifteen programs could ever possibly be executed without transaction codes.

You further analyze the SAP job scheduler data as far back as possible and find that only ten of these ABAP programs were ever scheduled in a batch job.  Some of these were scheduled very recently, and some have not been scheduled for a long time (another thread of evidence that we will need to pursue).  This leaves five ABAP programs with no apparent means of being executed.

As further evidence, you perform a cross-check against the usage statistics report and find that two of these five ABAP programs show no usage.

Armed with this analysis, you are now ready to meet with the business process owners to discuss the disposition of the objects on your short list.

A salient point here is that you will need to gather your evidence from several different analysis sources to help paint the most accurate picture about the possible disposition of customized objects.

Summary

Throughout all three parts of this post, I have stressed that customizations, while necessary, add risk and cost to an upgrade project.  And customizations that are not necessary or built poorly without the constraints of best-practice controls can add high levels of risk and cost.  Here are some general guidelines to follow:

Many companies and their auditors consider a well-controlled and secure ERP system to be a fundamental component that is vital to the success of the business.   They recognize that an out-of-control ERP system can easily paralyze a company for extended periods of time.  With this in mind, implement and enforce best-practice controls and standards to make sure that future customizations are reviewed, approved, built, tested, documented, and implemented properly.  This may already be an internal or external audit requirement, so check with your inside and outside auditors to make sure that your controls meet the auditing requirements.

Periodically review, audit, and amend your best-practice controls to make sure that they are still effective in supporting the needs of the business; and that both internal staff and external consultants are in compliance of these controls.

Know your customizations.  Know where they are, why they are, and what they do.  Whenever feasible, it is most efficient to eliminate ABAP object customizations, especially any that were performed within the SAP namespace, and any that are not really needed because they can be implemented within standard SAP.

The degree of risk and cost depends on the specific type of customization that was performed.  Establish a formal review board to own the customization approval process.  Understand that approving a customization also means approving the risk and the cost burdens.  Some companies consider this to be so significant, that they include a high-level business executive as a default member of the review board.

Set and enforce a policy making ABAP object customization the last resort, only after all other options have been thoroughly researched and exhausted.  Here are some examples:

1. Research forums, blogs, become active in user groups, etc. to see how other companies might also be implementing the business function that you require.
2. Find and use customer and user exits instead of directly modifying objects in the SAP namespace.
3. Determine, for example, how to implement and maintain that complex pricing procedure using the pricing condition tables instead of writing custom code and building custom tables.

Share Your Experience.

Once again, I look forward to hearing from our readers to reply to this post with their own experience with customizations, best-practice standard and policies, and success stories illustrating how your company transitioned to best-practice controls.

[Editor's Note] This blog is third of a multi-part series:

1. Part 1
2. Part 2
3. Part 3

In this post, we will look at some of the customization areas which add risk and the cost to an upgrade project.

1. Direct Modifications to SAP Standard Objects

Direct modifications to SAP standard objects bear the highest risk.  During the upgrade, these modifications will be lose–either because they will be overwritten by their respective upgraded SAP standard objects; or because these objects no longer exist and are not used by standard SAP in the upgrade system.

Typically, there are two reasons for performing direct modifications to SAP standard objects:

1. The application of authorized individual OSS corrections to fix problems.
2. Direct customer modification to provide business process enhancements.

1.1. Application of Individual OSS Corrections and Support Packs

Individual OSS corrections are patches supplied by SAP to fix recognized problems with SAP objects.  Sometimes, individual OSS correction instructions are included and delivered within a specific level of support packs.   That means that applying support packs to the specified level will apply the desired correction, and manual intervention is not needed.  Sometimes OSS correction instructions are not yet included in any specific level of support packs, and these will need to be applied either manually or with the SAP Note Assistant.

It is important to carefully analyze the validity range of an OSS note to determine both how it was applied in the legacy system, and how it is to be applied in the upgrade system.  This analysis will help determine how far to patch the upgrade system to make sure that the desired corrections are included in the upgrade system.   Any needed correction that exists at a patch level beyond the highest patch level in the upgrade system will need to be addressed  manually or with the SAP Note Assistant.

The decision of which support pack levels should be applied to the upgrade system must be made carefully.  One approach is to apply the highest level of support packs that are available.    The rationale for applying the latest available support packs is to insure that the most recent problem fixes are applied to the upgrade system.  This is a two-edged sword, as the most recent  support packs may also introduce other problems into the upgrade system.

1.2. Direct Customer Modification of SAP Standard Objects to Provide Business Process Enhancements

Direct modifications of SAP standard objects to provide enhancements are most costly and bear the highest level of risk.  While direct modifications of SAP standard objects may have been technically expedient at the time of implementing the enhancement, they will always require additional work effort and analysis at upgrade time to determine:

1. Whether or not the functionality provided by the enhancement is still required by the business.
2. Whether or not the functionality provided by the enhancement is already included in the upgrade system as standard SAP.  You will need the help of functional subject matter experts here.
3. Whether or not the modified SAP object still exists in the upgrade system.
4. How to move these required enhancements into the customer namespace, using the SAP preferred enhancement procedures.  Moving these types of enhancements to the customer namespace also moves them from the very costly and highest risk category to a lower cost and lower risk category.

2. Custom Interfaces

Custom interfaces are loaded with opportunity for high upgrade risk.  Take, for example, the SAP standard IDOC Basic Type, which was copied as the baseline for an enhanced customized basic type containing additional custom segments and fields.  In the upgrade system, a new version of this SAP standard IDOC Basic Type may now contain additional segments and fields.

Likewise, the associated standard processing module for that standard basic type, which was copied as the baseline for an enhanced processing module to handle the custom segments and fields of the enhanced custom basic type, may also have changed in the upgrade to accommodate the new standard IDOC version.

So, in the upgrade system, especially if you need to implement the new upgrade IDOC version, it may be necessary to start with the new standard basic type and standard processing module, and reapply the customizations.

3. ABAP Code Objects

Of all customized objects discovered in most SAP systems, ABAP Code objects are the most numerous.  These objects include classes, methods, function modules, report programs, dialog programs, and include files which support the all of the other ABAP object types.

At greatest risk are the SAP standard ABAP code objects which were modified directly in the SAP namespace; and those that were copied into the customer namespace and subsequently modified. This is because the standard SAP code objects may have changed in the upgrade.    These changes can range anywhere from simple error corrections to complete process and code redesigns.  In these instances, each modified object must be compared to its counterpart in the upgrade system to determine its existence, and the nature and extent of what might have changed.   If the customization is still needed in the upgrade system, and to stay current with the enhanced standard code, it is probably best to start with the upgrade standard code and reapply the customizations.

ABAP code objects that were developed entirely in the customer namespace (not copied from standard SAP code) are usually low on the risk ladder.  Problems occur when data selected by these objects has moved elsewhere or behaves differently in the upgrade system, when ABAP constructs used are now obsolete in the upgrade system, or when standard called functions are changed in the upgrade system.

Ultimately, the business must decide why SAP standard code was directly modified, why SAP standard code was copied into the customer namespace and modified, why custom code was developed entirely within the customer namespace, whether or not any of these modifications are needed, and how they might be implemented differently in the upgrade system.  This evaluation presents another opportunity to remove some rocks from the customization rock bag.

4. Automated Standard SAP Transactions

Custom ABAP programs which automate standard SAP transactions bear an above-average risk.  This is because the behavior of some SAP transactions may have changed in the upgrade.  These changes can be manifest in the functional performance of the transaction, the technical location and existence of data fields on screens, screen field properties, IMG configuration specific to the transaction, the transaction code associated with the transaction, or even the existence of the transaction or an equivalent in the upgrade system.  The nature and the extent of the changes to the transaction in the upgrade system will determine the amount of effort needed to automate it.

Also, if an “old” SAP transaction has been replaced by a “new” upgraded equivalent, it is usually wise to make the change to the new transaction at upgrade time.  At some point in the future, the “old” version of the transaction will become obsolete and no longer useable or supported.

5. Data Dictionary Customizations

Many customizing projects within SAP require the storage and manipulation of data that is not included in the standard SAP dictionary.   One way in which these requirements can be addressed is by building complete custom transparent tables and data structures.  Another way is by adding append structures and append fields to existing standard SAP tables.  With either approach, it is always an excellent idea to evaluate the need to move these customizations into the upgrade; and another opportunity to lighten the customizing bag of rocks.

6. Customer and User Exits

Customer and user exits are provided by SAP as the SAP-approved mechanism for enhancing standard functionality.  Enhancements performed within these boundaries are guaranteed by SAP to bear low technical risk in an upgrade situation.  While SAP guarantees that the custom code will arrive technically intact in the upgrade system, functional analysis must still be performed to determine the continued need for the enhancement in the upgrade system.

Any enhancement implemented in a customer or user exit that is either functionally covered or determined to be unnecessary in the standard upgrade system should be retired.  This is consistent with the goal of lightening the load in the bag of rocks.  Since a customer or user exits may implement several different enhancements, take extra care to make sure that only the right code or other objects are retired.

7. The Environmental Effects – Operating System Change

OK, changing the operating system during an upgrade project is not customization of SAP objects.  But it does add risk and cost to the project.

Why?

If the upgrade operating system changes from UNIX to Windows or vice versa, then any ABAP program or interface which reads or writes a data file to an operating system folder must be changed.  The changes needed to these ABAP programs are very narrow in scope,  and reflect the manner in which the operating system specifies its file paths.  Additional BASIS work, such as determining the proper file system authorizations, may also be needed.

Using the SAP logical file name facility can help enormously by removing the need to make changes to hard-coded file names and path names in many different ABAP programs.

Share Your Experience

At the top of this post, I stated that I would discuss some of the customization areas which add risk and cost to an upgrade project.  I look forward to hearing from our readers to reply to this post with their own experience with customizations, how they were handled, and how this affected an upgrade project.

In my next post on this topic, I will reveal some of the techniques I use to “discover” customizations, even in the absence of documentation.

[Editor's Note] This blog is the second of a multi-part series:

1. Part 1
2. Part 2
3. Part 3

Service Desk functionality is delivered as part of SOLMAN for use as a ticketing system.  One of the features of it is that it can be used as a ticketing system for both SAP and non-SAP systems as well as in conjunction with other ticketing systems that may be in place already.  In this blog post I’ll briefly touch on some of the scenarios I have encountered and show that there are several ways to deploy Service Desk.

Using Service Desk is beneficial because it can automatically capture a wealth of information about what a user was doing when a problem occurred if the ticket is created directly from SAP.  Also, Service Desk can communicate directly with the SAP mother ship to log issues and manage OSS notes, which obviously reduces the risk of transcription errors.  And Service Desk can be extended to include functional components from non-SAP systems which in turn leads to the possibility of one-stop-shopping for ticket management.

Here are some SAP Service Desk scenarios I’ve come across.

1. New SAP Installation

If you are a new SAP installation and have no ticketing in place Service Desk is a great place to start.  As mentioned the functionality available allows end users to create tickets directly from SAP and have workflow set up to manage ownership and eventual resolution.  Alternatively, a URL can be made available to allow trouble tickets to be logged via the SAP Service Desk web front end.

In this case end users and technical support personnel learn a new tool as part of their go-live experience.

2. Migrating Non-SAP System Support to SAP Service Desk

Rather than SAP being your sole IT application it is much more likely that you have an existing portfolio of systems and an associated ticketing tool and procedures for ticket management, escalation and resolution.  A conservative approach when bringing up Service Desk is to use it initially only for SAP related tickets and deploy a limited set of functionality.  This allows you to go through the growing pains and adjustments as you learn how to best make Service Desk work for you.

In the longer term migrating ticketing for non-SAP systems to Service Desk brings it all into one system.  Using the Service Desk capability to create custom components and to build an organization structure that fully supports your users and systems facilitates consolidated reporting and the ability to monitor Service Level Agreements (SLA).

This approach works best if you have a fairly simple environment where the level of disruption is limited when decommissioning an existing ticketing.  The impact on people, process and technology is carefully managed and the working environment has some tolerance for the time if and when things aren’t quite as expected at first.

3. SAP Service Desk Integration with an Existing Ticketing System

In situations where there is a well established ticketing system, it is unlikely that that system will be easily displaced by SAP Service Desk—and it may not make sense to do so.  In this situation you can choose to not use Service Desk and forgo the system capabilities and instead use the existing ticketing tool to manage SAP issues.  This gives up a lot of delivered SAP Service Desk capability.

Alternatively you can integrate the existing ticketing system and Service Desk and reap the benefits of both worlds.  In this case you need to decide which system is the primary ticketing system and which is the secondary.  DataXstream has worked with CA (formerly known as Computer Associates) to integrate the CA Service Desk offering with SAP Service Desk and now CA delivers a packaged solution for this integration.

3.1 SAP Service Desk is the Ticket Initiator

In the scenario where the SAP Service Desk (SAP SD) is primary tickets are initiated in SAP SD and categorized either as SAP related or as non-SAP related.

SAP related tickets are managed to resolution in SAP SD, including any communication with the SAP mother ship, and the secondary ticketing system, e.g. CASD, receives only informational updates on ticket progress, if required.  The complete ticket lifecycle is managed and closed in SAP SD.

Non-SAP related tickets are transferred to the secondary ticketing system, e.g. CASD, where they are worked to their resolution.  In this case ticket status changes and informational updates all occur in CASD and these updates are relayed to SAP SD.

In either case SAP SD and CASD can have a full picture of the ticket status throughout its lifecycle, the main difference being which system “owns” the ticket and has responsibility for working it and closing it out.

Overall the established ticketing system continues its original function and ticket resolution process, the key change being where a ticket is initially created.

3.2 SAP Service Desk is NOT the Ticket Initiator

In the scenario where SAP SD is the secondary ticketing system SAP-related incidents originate in the primary ticketing system, e.g. CASD, and are relayed to SAP SD.  Now the SAP related incidents are worked in SAP SD where ticket information can be supplemented with all the SAP unique information that would be useful for analysis and investigation.  Similar to the earlier scenario any significant status or informational updates in SAP SD are relayed to CASD and the ticket is ultimately closed out in SAP SD.

Any non-SAP related tickets are not sent from CASD, for example, to SAP SD.

Summary: A Natural Progression: from Island to Integration

SAP Service Desk can be deployed in a variety of ways in an organization: it can be a standalone ticketing and support system; it can be fully integrated with existing support applications.  The role played and the pace of adoption is very flexible and is driven by an organization’s ability to manage the change and adopt new tools and procedures.

The general progression I have seen it to bring up SAP Service Desk as a standalone tool and then after a settling in period one of two things happens:

• Existing ticketing tools and functionality are migrated into Service Desk
• SAP Service Desk is integrated with another ticket management tool

In either case the outcome usually allows SAP related tickets to be created directly from SAP in order to capture as much detail as possible at the time of the incident.

A Short Selective Retrospective on Key Constituencies

All project events and project success stem from testing and testing well.  I’ve written about various types of testing before and how that can lead to some confusion because of issues with definitions.  Here I want to discuss some areas where testing really can make or break a project and ideas for how to minimize the chances of things turning out badly.

SAP Testing with Project Team Members

Unsung heroes abound on SAP projects and your client’s key business analysts can be fabulous participants or sacks of rocks you have to carry everywhere for no apparent benefit.  Always choose the former or trade up if you discover you got the latter. Engaged business analysts are great when they bring business knowledge, a willingness to learn SAP, insight to the hot-button, day-to-day issues and the understanding that the consulting team may know a lot, but not necessarily everything.  Partnership between consultants and business analysts can be very fruitful at teasing out mainstream, what happens 90% of the time, business scenarios and building coherent test cases.

These key project team members can provide a sanity check when you try to bring prior experiences and findings from other clients to the project.  A crazy design you built on the last project may not be relevant here and your BA can save you from any tendency to over engineer a solution.  Conversely, your BA might be the one who sets you down the path to an unusual design.  Either way, it has to be tested and between you and the BA the bases should be covered.

I’ve found that the BA’s on a project are usually there for one of two reasons: either a motivated high performer with knowledge and credibility; or someone found the SAP project was a place to dump a personnel problem.  Fortunately, the latter is rare these days as more and more people turn into high performers out of necessity.  Consequently, your BA is going to know key areas of process and functionality that must work for the project to be a success and he/she drives you to deliver.  Never be afraid to let a BA talk about the business, what it needs to be able to do and what needs to be tested.

However, the BA probably isn’t going to be using the system as an end user on a day-to-day basis and can only get you so far with the completeness of testing.  This is where you need to branch out from the immediate project team and into the realm of the end user.

SAP Testing with End Users

In an ideal world, the systems we build would be foolproof, but there are some smart fools out there and they don’t always behave the way we want them to.  As you probably know, SAP is not the most intuitive system to navigate and use (would an overhaul of the GUI make system adoption quicker and easier?) and people don’t always do what they are told.  I know you are shocked to hear this!

If I had a lot more time on my hands I’d love to watch people using systems and seeing all the various ways people try to do things.  It’s a fairly dopey example, but I’m one of those mouse-and-menu people when I use MS Office.  The ALT, CTL, and SHIFT keys are a tiny part of my repertoire because I learned how to use these products a certain way, but I know some people who do almost everything with keyboard shortcuts.  I can scarcely follow how they do things, although I can see what they are doing.  The fun is seeing different ways to achieve the same end.  SAP is a bit like this in that there are different ways to approach a task: using menu paths; transaction codes; single session; multiple sessions; favorites list entries; and different entry points to get to data.  Unless you have really nailed down tightly how to execute tasks users will eventually find all possible ways, but more importantly, without nailing it down users will find ways to do it wrong and not realize it.  This is a potential disaster in the making.

Despite the best intentions of project team members (business analysts, consultants, trainers, supervisors) end users will use the system in ways you did not anticipate.  After all, the way you use the system works brilliantly, so no one would think to do it any differently, would they?  Except, they do use it differently.

Including a round or two of real end user testing on the QAS system is probably going to be quite revealing.  Ideally, after a dry run conversion and before going live you want to let loose on the system and do some serious day-in-the-life and periodic processing.  And you want to back off on your desire to hand hold.  This way you can see how a user actually uses the system, the steps they take when they get into trouble, and what they try to do as corrective actions.  The intuitive and natural screen flow you came up with?  Perhaps its not as intuitive as you thought.

Here’s the point: carving out time in a project to involve end users in testing is invaluable.  Initially they will stick to the script but after a short time they will extemporize and that is when you find out if you built a robust system that guides people down the desired path or a mess that allows mistakes and the attendant downstream problems.

It is better to take the time before you go live to ensure you don’t get downstream problems than to discover the chaos in production.

SAP Testing to Make Executives Happy

A final group of people with a vested interest in SAP project success is the executives.  These are rarely the folks who execute transactions on a daily basis; at best they might run a financial statement or a flash report of some description.  Nonetheless, these people along with departmental heads need to feel confident that the system works in an abstract way: a little like the way you know the engine in your car is working although you don’t really understand how all the various components fit and work together.  You’re pretty upset when the car won’t start, or the heater blows hot and cold intermittently, or you can’t tell if you have an almost empty gas tank.  Similarly executives get upset if they can’t get information that is important to them or they are unable to complete key tasks: for example, flash reports that don’t run or give “funny” numbers, not being able to close an accounting period.

These executives can be especially challenging to a project because they have so many things to worry about that they may only truly pay attention to an SAP project during times of crisis or around go-live.  At earlier times in the project life cycle they may have deferred to the PMO and existing management structure, but at crunch time things change.  Consequently, a conscious effort to find out from them what they need in order to feel comfortable with the system is critical: discovering what they need their organizations to do is critical.  Once you know what they want you can build it into project test plans and activities and show success.

This is one constituency that might be late coming to the party but you can’t ignore them or chastise them for tardiness – they are probably paying the bill!

Key Ingredients for SAP Success: Testing, Testing & (You Guessed It) Testing

It is stating the obvious (a core competence of mine) to say that an SAP project is a complicated endeavor.  I’d say there are no easy projects, only less difficult ones and testing is one of the most difficult areas to do well.

There are groups who judge testing success in different ways and with varying degrees of thoroughness.  A corner cut here and there might be acceptable, but too many cut corners and it all unravels.  By identifying key constituencies, identifying their needs, building test plans and strategies to address those needs, and executing against them greatly increases your chances of overall success.  And, if you do it right, you ensure their involvement and make them accountable for the results.