You are on page 1of 18

What Are Functional Specification in SAP?

To speak at macro level that is at project manager or at senior levels. The Functional
Spec (Specification) which is a comprehensive document is created after the (SRS)
Software Requirements Document. It provides more details on selected items originally
described in the Software Requirements Template. Else where organizations combine
these two documents into a single document.

The Functional Specification describes the features of the desired functionality.. It


describes the product's features as seen by the stake holders, and contains the technical
information and the data needed for the design and developement.

The Functional Specification defines what the functionality will be of a particulat area
that is to be precise a transaction in SAP terminology.

The Functional Specification document to create a detailed design document that explains
in detail how the software will be designed and developed.

The functional specification translates the Software Requirements template into a


technical description which

a) Ensures that the product feature requirements are correctly understood before moving
into the next step, that is detchnical developement process.

b) Clearly and unambiguously provides all the information necessary for the technical
consultants to develop the objects.

At the consultant level the functional spects are preapred by functinal consultants on any
functionality for the purpose of getting the same functinality designed by the technical
pepole as most of the times the functionalities according to the requirements of the clients
are not available on ready made basis.

Let me throw some light on documentation which is prepared before and in a project:

1) Templates
2) Heat Analysis -
3) Fit Gap or Gap Analysis
4) Business Process Design
5) Business Process Model
6) Business Change & Impact
7) Configuration Design, which is just 5 % of Total SAP- have different names -
8) Future Impact & Change Assessement
9) Functional Design (Module Wise)
10) Risk Assessement
11) Process Metrics and Many More-- Which has impact on Business and its work flow

1
Note * This documents are prepared in Vanilla SAP Standards -- Things differ from one
implementation to another, and it always depends on the type of business which is opting
for SAP.

Role of a my SAP Functional Consultant


What are the differences between a functional and business consultant?

The difference between Functional consultant and Business consultant are as follows:
1) A functional consultant is able to configure the system unlike business consultant.
2) Functional consultant knows more about business process unlike Business consultant.
3) A business consultant will bring business process knowledge and provide it to
functional consultant who in turn used this knowledge to configure the system.
4) Functional consultant has more configuration knowledge then Business
consultant.

The responsibilities of a support consultant are:

- Primarily responsible for Handling tickets and application support to the end-users
- When an issue comes diagnose, analyze and solve the issue
- Responsible for any enhancements
- Writing functional specs and interacting with Abapers to develop any user exits
- Training the end users and preparing end user training material *--

For those who wished to know the role of a functional consultant. Below is one view:

A functional consultant evaluates the demands in talking with the customer's


representatives, transforms the essence into an abstract and algorithmic business model.
Hence, he identifies the use cases and transforms them into logical and technical views.

Then the main task starts: customizing the respective business area and making sure the
system reacts in the manner according to the constraints of the requested use case.

The consultant documents the settings and prepares proper guidelines that allow other
consultants to do further changes or repairs with due efforts.

The consultant takes care that proper training is given to the users and that the system is
usable, performing appropriately and the business flow is complete and correct.

During go live he assists the technical staff by testing the behavior of the system.

After go live he guarantees that the procedures remain usable and consistent in real live
situation and proposes enhancements.

2
The main duty of a consultant is to transfer external know-how to the client. It is not
manpower that counts but intelligence, understanding of processes, a feeling for defects
and general a common sense.

Role of a Functional Consultant in an End To End Implementation

When you talk about the role of a Functional consultant in an end to end implementation,
I think it won't be possible for me or anybody to define everything but I will try to
summarize it:

1. Functional consultant is expected to generate knowledge about the current business


process, design current business flows, study current business processes and its
complication, in all we can say getting through with current business setup. Flow
diagrams and DFD are prepared, most of the time in Vision format; all this forms the part
of AS IS document.

2. Everything configured has to be documented as per their categories in the form of


predefined templates; these have to be then approved by the team leads or who ever the
consultant is reporting to.

3. Mapping and GAP analysis is done for each module, I have seen people defining
integration after mapping, gap analysis and configuration is done, but as per my
experience in implementation, it is a simultaneous process.

4. Before starting configuring future business processes in SAP, the DFD/ERD are
prepared, this documentation is called TO BE, which can be also said as the result of
mapping and gap analysis.

5. Sometimes Functional consultants are also expected to prepare test scripts for testing
the configured scenarios.

6. End user manual and user training is also expected from F.Consultants.

The project normally starts off with a Kick off meeting in which the team size, team
members, reporting system, responsibilities, duties, methodology, dates and schedules,
working hours which have been predicided are formally defined.

ASAP, it won't be possible for me to explain it here, but all I can tell you about it is that it
is SAP standard implementation methodology, which SAP prescribes but is not
mandatory for any company to follow, such as IBM follow some blue Methodology,
some companies follow typical SDLC steps, ASAP stands for Accerlated SAP, you can
find all the steps on SAP site, through Google, reading it from there won't give you a
great knowledge about ASAP but will obviously get you to know the definitions of
various term.

3
An Introduction to SAP
SAP was founded in 1972 in Walldorf, Germany. It stands for Systems, Applications and
Products in Data Processing. Over the years, it has grown and evolved to become the
world premier provider of client/server business solutions for which it is so well known
today. The SAP R/3 enterprise application suite for open client/server systems has
established new standards for providing business information management solutions.

SAP product is considered excellent but not perfect. The main problems with software
product is that it can never be perfect.

The main advantage of using SAP as your company ERP system is that SAP have a very
high level of integration among its individual applications which guarantee consistency
of data throughout the system and the company itself.

In a standard SAP project system, it is divided into three environments, Development,


Quality Assurance and Production.

The development system is where most of the implementation work takes place. The
quality assurance system is where all the final testing is conducted before moving the
transports to the production environment. The production system is where all the daily
business activities occur. It is also the client that all the end users use to perform their
daily job functions.

To all company, the production system should only contain transport that has passed all
the tests.

SAP is a table drive customization software. It allows businesses to make rapid changes
in their business requirements with a common set of programs. User-exits are provided
for business to add in additional source code. Tools such as screen variants are provided
to let you set fields attributes whether to hide, display and make them mandatory fields.

This is what makes ERP system and SAP in particular so flexible. The table driven
customization are driving the program functionality instead of those old fashioned hard-
coded programs. Therefore, new and changed business requirements can be quickly
implemented and tested in the system.

Many other business application software have seen this table driven customization
advantage and are now changing their application software based on this table
customizing concept.

In order to minimize your upgrading costs, the standard programs and tables should
not be changed as far as possible. The main purpose of using standard business
application software like SAP is to reduced the amount of time and money spend on
developing and testing all the programs. Therefore, most companies will try to utilized
the available tools provided by SAP.

4
What is Client? What is the difference between Customization and
Configuration?

The difference between customizing and configuration is:


- CONFIGURATION: we will configure the system to meet the needs of your business
by using the existing data.
- CUSTOMIZING: we will customize or adapt the system to your business requirements,
which is the process of mapping SAP to your business process.
- CLIENT: A client is a unique one in organizational structure, can have one or more
company codes. Each company code is its own legal entity in finance.

Configuration vs. Customization


When considering enterprise software of any type, it is important to understand the
difference between configuration and customization. The crux of the difference is
complexity. Configuration uses the inherent flexibility of the enterprise software to add
fields, change field names, modify drop-down lists, or add buttons. Configurations are
made using powerful built-in tool sets. Customization involves code changes to create
functionality that is not available through configuration. Customization can be costly and
can complicate future upgrades to the software because the code changes may not easily
migrate to the new version. Wherever possible, governments should avoid customization
by using configuration to meet their goals. Governments also should understand their
vendor's particular terminology with regard to this issue since words like "modifications"
or "extensions" often mean different things to different vendors.

What is SAP R3?


We know that SAP R/3 is software, it particular it is client-server software. This means
that the groups/layers
that make up an R/3 System are designed to run simultaneously across several separate
computer systems.

When you install Microsoft Excel on your PC, each component of Excel (printing
components, graphing components, word processing components, and etc.) is stored,
managed, and processed via the hardware of your PC. When a company installs SAP’s
software each component (or "layer” in R/3’s case) is stored, managed, and processed via
the hardware of separate and specialized computer systems. Each of the various layers is
capable of calling upon the specialty of any of the other installed layers in order to
complete a given task.

Those components/layers that are requesting services are called “clients”, those
components/layers that are providing services are called “servers”. Thus the term -
“client/server”.

5
Successfully Implementing SAP
Implementing a package can be a traumatic affair for both the customer and the vendor.
Get it wrong and the vendor may get paid late or have to resort to lawyers to get paid and
tarnish their reputation. For the company the new package may not work the way they
expected, be late or cost a more than budgeted for and take management will take their
eye off running their business.

Recently a client asked me what I would consider to be the five most important things
one should consider before embarking on an implementation. This isn't a simple
question, although there are many factors to think about after some consideration for me
the top five are way ahead of the others.

My top five factors to consider would be:

1. Set up a Project Board,


2. Secure the resources,
3. Complete the GAP Analysis,
4. Have detailed Cut Over Plans,
5. Train the users.

Taking each one in turn:

The Project Board


The correct set up and operation of the Project Board in my view is major factor in the
success failure of the project. The Project Board will consist of the stakeholders, key
users and the vendor. The Project Board is part of the governance of the project. The
Project Board will meet regularly to ensure that the project plans are created and being
executed as planned, moves from stage to stage with all the deliverables being signed off
is resourced properly.

The Resources
Three types of resources are absolutely necessary -- end users, change team and
technicians.

Early involvement by the end users is absolutely necessary, as they will be the ones living
with the system for hopefully many years to come. They will want to feel involved in its
implementation. Buy in from the end users of the system is absolutely essential if the
system is to have a long and stable life in any organization.

The Change Team will identify the gaps between the package and the business
requirements, re-engineer some of the businesses process to cope with the package, train
the users to ensure implementations is smooth as possible into the business.

6
The Technical Team will prepare the systems environment for the package, apply any
software fixes from the vendor, implement the software in the best way possible for the
organization set up and tune the software for the particular technical environment.

GAP Analysis
A through gap analysis will identify the gaps between how the business operates ad its
needs against what the package can't do. For each gap there will be one of three
outcomes which must be recorded and actioned, GAP must be closed and customised
software can be developed close the gap, GAP must be closed but software cannot be
written therefore a workaround is required, GAP does not need to be closed.

In simple terms: Gap means small cracks. In SAP world. In information technology, gap
analysis is the study of the differences between two different information systems or
applications (ex; existing system or legacy system with Client and new is SAP), often for
the purpose of determining how to get from one state to a new state. A gap is sometimes
spoken of as "the space between where we are and where we want to be." Gap analysis is
undertaken as a means of bridging that space.
Actual gap analysis is time consuming and it plays vital role in blue print stage.

Cut Over Plans


Detailed plans need to be developed for cutting over from the old system(s) to the new.
Parallel runs of what will happen over the conversion period using test data, convert and
watch for a period after wards to ensure nothing unexpected happens.

Train Users
Well trained users will support and defend the system on site. Unsupportive users will
continually undermine the system and eventually it will be replaced. Therefore the more
effort you put into helping the users master the system early the better.

Explain Cutover Activities/Strategies in SAP FI.

Cutover Activities or Master Data Uploading Strategies Depending upon the when we are
going live. As per that, you have to give the information to your core team. If you goling
live at the middle you have to upload the all P&L Account items and B/S Items. If you
going live at the financial year start, you have to only upload the B/S Items. Activities for
Go live:

1. G/L Master Upload Thru BDC or LSMW (TC-Fs00 and extended one co code to
another company code Fs01)
2. Vendor Master Upload thru BDC or LSMW (Will be Taken Care by MM)
3. Customer Master Upload thru BDC or LSMW (Will be Taken Care by SD)
4. Asset Master Upload (Thru As90)
5. Cost Element Master Upload
6. Cost Center Master Upload
7. Profit Center Master Upload
8. G/L Balances thru F-02

7
10. Vendor Balances thru F-43
11. Customer Balances thru F-22
12. Customer Advances thru f-29
13. Vendor Advances thryu F-48

Before uploading Vendor Balances you have to take care of WHT (TDS) Information.

Difference between the User Exit & Gap analysis.

Both are quiet a different and have a small relation.

User exits are standard gate ways provided by SAP to exit the standard code and we can
write our own code with the help of ABAP workbench. Its not new functionality which
we are trying to build in sap but its slight enhancement within the same code.

Gap analysis is start point of Realization and once blue print is finished we have to find
the realization of sap system for client requirement and there will be certain gaps when
compared to system fit. Those gaps can be closed either by re-engineering of business
process to fit with SAP or we have to use USER exits in case of small deviations or
complete enhancements with the help of ABAP to fit with the SAP system.

What is roll out of SAP Project?

As per dictionary, Rollout means “Inauguration or initial exhibition of a new product”.

As per SAP specific definition, rollout is the strategy for international SAP
implementation. Rollout strategy normally include the following
- Whether to implement SAP simultaneously (also known as big-bang) in all the
countries, or
- Go live in sequence of phased manner
- Or to go for the combination of both (phased manner implementation for some of the
countries and big-bang for others).

Rollout strategy is the most important decision that a client can make during SAP
implementation. Normally, steering committee decides the rollout strategy.

8
Basic Knowledge and System Navigation Question
What SPRO stands for?

SPRO stands for SAP Project Reference Object


.
It is used to configure the setting as per your client requirement by using the standard
setting present in the system. This where you can do all the SAP configuration work. It
is also known as the Configuration Menu.

What is full form IMG and SPRO? How are they different from each other?

IMG : - Implementation Guide.


SPRO: - SAP Project Reference Object.

SPRO------>IMG.

Type in the T-Code SPRO under That got to Main Menu which is IMG.

SPRO is basically used to organize the consultant customizing during the SAP Project
Phrase.

How to close a window?

If we want to stop a transaction in the middle, Right click on the end button (X) on the
top right corner of the window. Then select "stop transaction".
As we don’t have STOP icon as we have in WINDOWS, this will help in the same way.

It’s a very small tip, but will help a lot.

Name two ways to start a transaction.


- Dynamic Menu
- Command Field

Why do you create user-specific parameters?


They supply defaults to R/3 fields. If a field is indicated, the system automatically fills in
default value. Depending on the field definition, the entry can also be replaced with a
value entered by the user. (Concept of PARAMETER ID)

Name the three different kinds of messages in the R/3 system. What is the difference
between them?
A message can have five different types. These message types have the following effects
during list processing:

9
A (=ABEND):
The system displays a message of this message type in a dialog window. After the user
confirms the message using ENTERS, the system terminates the entire transaction (for
example SE38).

E (=Error) or W (=Warning):
The system displays a message of this message type in the status line. After the user
chooses ENTER, the system acts as follows:
While creating the basic list, the system terminates the report.
While creating a secondary list, the system terminates the corresponding processing block
and keeps displaying the previous list level.

I (=Information):
The system displays a message of this message type in a dialog window. After the user
chooses ENTER, the system resumes processing at the current program position.

S (=Success):
The system displays a message of this message type on the output screen in the status line
of the currently created list.

What is a data dictionary or repository?


Central catalog that contains the descriptions of an organization's data and provides
information about the relationships between the data and its use in programs and screens.
The data descriptions in a Data Dictionary is also called metadata, i.e., data that describes
other data.

The ABAP/4 Dictionary stores system-wide data definitions. When you create a new data
definition, the Dictionary tool does all the processing necessary to create the definition.
You can use the Dictionary tool to look up the "definition" of objects in your R/3 System.

What is a match code?


Comparsion key. A match code allows you to locate the key of a particular database
record (e.g. account number) by entering any field value contained in the record. The
system then displays a list of records matching the specifications.

If you want an end user to see a specific menu after logging on the R/3 system, how
could you do that?
User maintenance transactions allow the system administrator to create and maintain user
master records. This includes the generation and assignment of authorizations and
authorization profiles.

10
What is the Purpose of R/3?
The sole purpose of an R/3 system is to provide a suite of tightly integrated, large-scale
business applications.

The standard sets of applications delivered with each R/3 system are the following:

 PP (Production Planning)
 MM (Materials Management)
 SD (Sales and Distribution)
 FI (Financial Accounting)
 CO (Controlling)
 AM (Fixed Assets Management)
 PS (Project System)
 WF (Workflow)
 IS (Industry Solutions)
 HR (Human Resources)
 PM (Plant Maintenance)
 QM (Quality Management)
 CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

These applications are called the functional areas, or application areas, or at times the
functional modules of R/3. All of these terms are synonymous with each other.

Traditionally, businesses assemble a suite of data processing applications by evaluating


individual products and buying these separate products from multiple software vendors.
Interfaces are then needed between them. For example, the materials management system
will need links to the sales and distribution and to the financial systems, and the
workflow system will need a feed from the HR system. A significant amount of IS time
and money is spent in the implementation and maintenance of these interfaces.

R/3 comes prepackaged with the core business applications needed by most large
corporations. These applications coexist in one homogenous environment. They are
designed from the ground up to run using a single database and one (very large) set of
tables. Current production database sizes range from 12 gigabytes to near 3 terabytes.
Around 8,000 database tables are shipped with the standard delivery R/3 product.

11
SAP Tickets - What Is That?
Handling tickets is called Issue Tracking system. The errors or bugs forwarded by the end
user to the support team are prioritized under three seviority High, Medium and Low.
Each and every seviority as got its time limits before that we have to fix the error.

The main job of the supporting consultant is to provide assistance on line to the customer
or the organization where SAP is already implemented for which the person should be
very strong in the subject and the process which are implemented in SAP at the client
side to understand, to analyse, to actuate and to give the right solution in right time. This
is the job of the support consultant.

The issues or the tickets (problems) which are arised are taken care of on priority basis by
the support team consultants.

The work process in support projects are given below for your reference.

1. The customer or the end user logs a call through any tool or by mail (RADIX).

2. Each one of the support team is a part of support group.

3. Whenever a customer logs a call he /she have to mention to which work group (by
name).

4. Once the calls came to the work group the support consultant or the team needs to
send an IR (Initial Response) to the user depending upon the priority of the calls. (Top,
High, Med, Low, None)

5. Then the error is fixed, debugged by the support consultant or the team. Then after
testing properly by generating TR (Transport Request through the basis admin)

6. Then it is informed to the end user/customer/super user about the changes which have
moved to the production server by CTS process.

These are the process. In summary, what I understand is that if any configuration or
customization is required to solve the issue, then the consultant have to work on DEV
Client, then the end user will test it in the QA client and after approval the BASIS
consultant has to transport it to the PRODUCTION client.

An example:
Tickets in SD can be considered as the problems which the end user or the employee in
the company faces while working on R/3. Tickets usually occur during the
implementation or after the implementation of the project. There can be numerous
problems which can occur in the production support and a person who is working in the
support has to resolve those tickets in the limited duration, every ticket has the particular
deadline alert so your responsibility is to finish it before that deadline.

12
To begin with, we should give "TICKET" to you for not knowing it.

Here is an e.g. of a ticket raise:


End user is not able to
1. Create Sales order for a customer from a new plant, since shipping point
determination is not happened. (Without shipping point the document becomes
INCOMPLETE and he will not be able to proceed further like DELIVERY, BILLING).

He raises a ticket and the priority is set in one of the below:


1. Low 2. Medium 3. High.

Now you need to solve this ticket. You would analyze the problem and identify that the
SP configuration has to be done for the new plant.

You would request a transport for DEV CLIENT to BASIS. You do the change and
Request one more Transport to BASIS for QA client. The End user will test the same by
creating a sales order for the new plant and approve it.

Finally, you request a transport to move the changes to PRODUCTION. Once the change
is deployed in production the TICKET is closed. What I have given is a small example.
You would get some real issues with severity HIGH in your day-day support.

What is SAP Landscape?


Landscape is like a server system or like a layout of the servers or some may even call it
the architecture of the server’s viz. SAP is divided into three different landscapes DEV,
QAS and PROD.

- DEV would have multiple clients for ex: 190- Sandbox, 100- Golden, 180- Unit Test.
- QAS may again have multiple clients for ex: 300- Integration Test, 700 to 710 Training.
- PROD may have something like a 200 Production.

These names and numbers are the implementer's discreet on how they want it or they
have been using in their previous implementations or how is the client's business
scenario.

Now whatever you do in the Sandbox doesn't affect the other servers or clients.
Whenever you think you are satisfied with your configuration and you think you can use
it moving forward, you RE-DO it in the golden client (remember, this is a very neat and
clean client and you cannot use it for rough usage). As you re-do everything that you had
thought was important and usable, you get a transport request pop up upon saving every
time. You save it under a transport request and give your description to it. Thus the
configuration is transported to the Unit Test client (180 in this example).

13
You don't run any transaction or even use the SAP Easy Access screen on the 100
(golden) client. This is a configuration only client. Now upon a successful tranport by the
Basis guy, you have all the configuration in the Testing client, just as it is in the Golden
client. The configuration remains in sync between these two clients.

But in the Testing client you can not even access SPRO (Display IMG) screen. It's a
transaction only client where you perform the unit test. Upon a satisfactory unit test, you
move the good configuration to the next SERVER (DEV). The incorrect or unsatisfactory
configuration is corrected in Golden (may again as well be practised in the sandbox prior
to Golden) and accordingly transported back to 180 (Unit Test) until the unit test affected
by that particular config is satisfactory.

The Golden client remains the 'database' (if you wanna call it that) or you may rather call
it the 'ultimate' reference client for all the good, complete and final configuration that is
being used in the implementation.

In summary:
Landscape : is the arrangement for the servers

IDES : is purely for education purpose and is NOT INCLUDED in the landscape.

DEVELOPMENT ---> QUALITY ----> PRODUCTION

DEVELOPMENT : is where the the consultants do the customization as per the


company's requirement.

QUALITY : is where the core team members and other members test the customization.

PRODUCTION : is where the live data of the company is recorded.

A request will flow from Dev->Qual->Prod and not backwards.

1. Sandbox server: In the initial stages of any implementation project, You are given a
sandbox server where you do all the configuration/customization as per the companies
business process.

2. Development Server: - Once the BBP gets signed off, the configuration is done is
development server and saved in workbench requests, to be transported to Production
server.

3. Production Server: This is the last/ most refined client where the user will work after
project GO LIVE. Any changes/ new develpoment is done is development client and the
request is transported to production.

These three are landscape of any Company. They organised their office in these three
way. Developer develop their program in Development server and then transport it to test

14
server. In testing server tester check/test the program and then transport it to Production
Server. Later it will deploy to client from production server.

Presentaion Server- Where SAP GUI have.


Application Server - Where SAP Installed.
Database Server - Where Database installed.

What is the meaning of "R" in R/3 systems?

R/3 stands for real-time three tier architecture. This is the kind of architectures SAP R/3
system has.

R/3 means three layers are installed in Different system/server and they are connected
with each other.

1) Presentation
2) Application
3) Database

Role of SAP Consultant In Testing


1. What is the role of SD Consultant in Testing while implementing the project?
2. What is Unit testing and Integration Testing?

Testing : the core team members along with endusers will test whether the postings done
in SAP is resulting as per the requirements of the organisation. They will test whether the
output documents such as purchase order, invoice document are printed in the required
format and showing the correct data.

Unit testing is refer to the module which are going to implement. SD, MM, FICO etc.
there will be test script based on that testing will be performed.

Integration testing will be cross the modules. MM-SD-FICO for example. Integration
testing is also called SIT ( System integration testing)

Testing mathologies and types: there are 6 types of testings:


1. Unit Testing
2. System Testing
3. System Integration security Testing
4. Performance Testing
5. User Acceptance testing
6. Regression Testing

Unit testing is done in bit and pieces. Like e.g. in SD standard order cycle; we do have 1-
create order, then 2-delivery, then 3-transfer order, then 4-PGI and then 5-Invoice. So we

15
will be testing 1,2,3,4 and 5 seperately alone one by one using test cases and test data. We
will not be looking and checking/testing any integration between order and delivery;
delivery and TO; TO and PGI and then invoice.

Whrereas System testing you will be testing the full cycle with it's integration, and you
will be testing using test cases which give a full cyclic test from order to invoice.

Security testing you will be testing different roles and functionalities and will check and
signoff.

Performance testing is refered to as how much time / second will take to perform some
actions, like e.g. PGI. If BPP defination says 5 seconds for PGI then it should be 5 and
not 6 second. Usually it is done using software.

Regression testing is reffered to a test which verfies that some new configuration doesnot
adversly impact existing functionality. This will be done on each phase of testing.

User Acceptance Testing: Refers to Customer testing. The UAT will be performed
through the execution of predefined business scenarios, which combine various business
processes. The user test model is comprised of a sub-set of system integration test cases.

We use different software during testing. Most commonly use are

Test Director: which is used to record requirement, preparing test plan and then
recording the progress. We will be incorporating defects that are coming during these
testings using different test cases.

Mercury Load Runner: is used for performance testing. This is an automatic tool.

What does the following terms means :


- Technical Unit Testing
- Functional Unit Testing
- IntegrationTesting
- Volume Testing
- Parallel Testing?

Technical Unit Testing= Test of some technical development such as a user exit, custom
program, or interface. the test usually consists of a test data set that is processed
according to the new program. A successful test only proves the developed code works
and that it performed the process as as designed.

Functional Unit Testing= Test of configuration, system settings or a custom development


(it may follow the technical unit testing) These usually use actual data or data that is
masked but essentially the same as a real data set. A successful test shows that the
development or configuration works as designed and the data is accurate as a result.

16
IntegrationTesting= Testing a process, development or configuration within the context of
any other functions that the process, development or functionality will touch or integrate .
The test should examine all data involved across all modules and any data indirectly
affected. A successful test indicates that the processes work as designed and integrate
with other functions without causing any problems in any integrated areas.

Volume Testing= testing a full data set that is either actual or masked to insure that the
entire volume does cause system problems such as network transmission problems,
system resources issues, or any systemic problem, A successful test indicates that the
processes will not slow or crash the system due to a full data set being utilized.

Parallel Testing= Testing the new system or processes with a complete data set while
running the same processes in the legacy system. A successful test will show identical
results when both the legacy system and new system results are compared.

I would also note that when a new implementation is being done you will want to conduct
at least one cut over test from the old system to the new and you should probably do
several.

What kind of testings that are carried out in testing server?

1. Individual Testing ( Individually which we've created)


2. Regressive Testing ( Entire Process)
3. Integration Testing ( Along with other integrated modules)

The 3 types of testing is as follows:-

1. Unit testing (where an individual process relevant to a SD or MM etc is tested)

2. Integration testing (where a process is tested that cuts across all areas of SAP).

3. Stress testing (where lots of transactions are run to see if the system can handle the
data)

17
SAP FI Functional Consultant Responsibilities
What is the meaning of SAP FICO Functional and SAP FICO Technical?

SAP FICO Functional means functional knowledge, by which one can proceed in terms
of functional process with FICO area as well as FICO configuration knowledge.

Whereas SAP FICO Technical consultant may be an ABAPER, who have short of
knowledge of FICO configuration and functional knowledge as well and can proceed for
technical jobs e.g. reports development, client requirement, system modification etc.

To become a Pure Hard Core FI functional consultant

Q: Can via T.Code FBL1N by selecting vendor with plant reference in selection
using search help field group.

Plant is not a field for finance or in sap it is FI module - this is for PP and MM module, In
case required, please define that as FI object for FI reports - like BA and so on.
Configure the plant as a BA and in all FI places you can capture BA in line items of
vendors.

Spent little time on going through various standard reports of SAP which are very rich in
itself - for each report it has options of all fields of master data , all fields of FI document
means around in my opinion around 400+ options to select. Hence we should first get an
idea of fields in masters and documents and how they are updated.

To become a good consultant.... Every report of SAP standard is a gem - but we


always look for FAST FOOD without understanding the quality of how standard is the
solutions.

Spent time in understanding - there are lot of chapters available for reading .
Suggestions ... Understand the Finance function first upto closing of books and
management reportings done in a practical way. Go to sap img screen - you will find all
options are there... If you go reverse way , sitting inside the car and asking - anyone can
help me in understanding what is the wheel in front of driver used and how to use it??

All the best - take it in the right spirit for a successful future .

18

You might also like