SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products) Interview Questions And Answers

SAP is the name of the company founded in 1972 under the German name (Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing) is the leading ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software package.

► Configuration of the SAP modules
o Transaction SPRO - this is the main tree for all the configuration.
► Function Key
o F1 - Help
o F4 - Possible entries or matchcode for the field you are accessing
o F5 - Selection screen
o F7 - Previous screen
o F8 - Next screen
o F9 - Technical info
o CTRL+X - Cut
o CTRL+C - Copy
o CTRL+V - Paste
► Navigation
o /n Skip to the next record if you are processing one batch input session
o /bend Cancel a batch input foreground process
o /nend Close all R/3 sessions and logoff
o /nxxx x Call the transaction xxxx in the same session
o /o Generate a session list
o /oxxx x Call the transaction xxxx in an additional session
o /i Delete the current session
o /h Turn the debug mode on
o /$tab Reset all buffers (for System Administrators)
o /$syn c Synchronize instances buffers (for System Administrators)

In 4.x, you can have long SAP transaction code up to a maximum of 20 character

SAP, BAAN, JD Edwards, Oracle Financials, Siebel, PeopleSoft. Among all the ERP’s most of the companies implemented or trying to implement SAP because of number of advantages aver other ERP packages.

ERP is a package with the techniques and concepts for the integrated management of business as a whole, for effective use of management resources, to improve the efficiency of an enterprise. Initially, ERP was targeted for manufacturing industry mainly for planning and managing core business like production and financial market. As the growth and merits of ERP package ERP software is designed for basic process of a company from manufacturing to small shops with a target of integrating information across the company.

Business Content is a pre-configured set of role and task-relevant information models based on consistent Metadata in the SAP Business Information Warehouse. Business Content provides selected roles within a company with the information they need to carry out their tasks. These information models essentially contain roles, workbooks, queries, InfoSources, InfoCubes, key figures, characteristics, update rules and extractors for SAP R/3, mySAP.com Business Applications and other selected applications.

There are number of technical reasons numbers of companies are planning to implement SAP. It’s highly configurable, highly secure data handling, min data redundancy, max data consistency, you can capitalize on economics of sales like purchasing, tight integration-cross function.

Certainly. You can run BW without R/3 implementation. You can use pre-defined business content in BW using your non-SAP data. Here you simply need to map the transfer structures associated with BW data sources (InfoCubes, ODS tables) to the inbound data files or use 3rd part tool to connect your flat files and other data sources and load data in BW. Several third party ETL products such as Acta, Infomatica, DataStage and others will have been certified to load data in BW.

International Demonstration and Education System. A sample application provided for faster learning and implementation.

Business Work Flow: Tool for automatic control and execution of cross-application processes. This involves coordinating the persons involved, the work steps required, the data, which needs to be processed (business objects). The main advantage is reduction in throughput times and the costs involved in managing business processes. Transparency and quality are enhanced by its use.

A third generation set of highly integrated software modules that performs common business function based on multinational leading practice. Takes care of any enterprise however diverse in operation, spread over the world. In R/3 system all the three servers like presentation, application server and database server are located at different system.

The application layer of an R/3 System is made up of the application servers and the message server. Application programs in an R/3 System are run on application servers. The application servers communicate with the presentation components, the database, and also with each other, using the message server. All the data are stored in a centralized server. This server is called database server.

Convert the legacy system data to a flat file and convert flat file into internal table. Transfer the flat file into sap system called “sap data transfer”. Call transaction(Write the program explicitly) or create sessions (sessions are created and processed ,if success data will transfer).

ABAP Native SQL allows you to include database-specific SQL statements in an ABAP program. Most ABAP programs containing database-specific SQL statements do not run with different databases. If different databases are involved, use Open SQL. To execute ABAP Native SQL in an ABAP program, use the statement EXEC. Open SQL (Subset of standard SQL statements), allows you to access all database tables available in the R/3 System, regardless of the manufacturer. To avoid conflicts between database tables and to keep ABAP programs independent from the database system used, SAP has generated its own set of SQL statements known as Open SQL.

The sequential files (processed on application server) are called datasets. They are used for file handling in SAP.

Internal table: It is a standard data type object, which exists only during the runtime of the program. Check table: Check table will be at field level checking. Value table: Value table will be at domain level checking ex: scarr table is check table for carried. Transparent table: - Exists with the same structure both in dictionary as well as in database exactly with the same data and fields.

Performance — Heavy reporting along with regular OLTP transactions can produce a lot of load both on the R/3 and the database (cpu, memory, disks, etc). Just take a look at the load put on your system during a month end, quarter end, or year-end — now imagine that occurring even more frequently. Data analysis — BW uses a Data Warehouse and OLAP concepts for storing and analyzing data, where R/3 was designed for transaction processing. With a lot of work you can get the same analysis out of R/3 but most likely would be easier from a BW.

In order to use an ERP system, a business person must understand the business processes and how they work together from one functional area to the other. This knowledge gives the student a much deeper understanding of how a business operates. Using SAP as a tool to learn about ERP systems will require that the people understand the business processes and how they integrate.

OLAP - On line Analytical processing is a reporting tool configured to understand your database schema ,composition facts and dimensions . By simple point-n-clicking, a user can run any number of canned or user-designed reports without having to know anything of SQL or the schema. Because of that prior configuration, the OLAP engine “builds” and executes the appropriate SQL.
Mining is to build the application to specifically look at detailed analysis, often algorithmic; even more often misappropriate called “reporting.

The Star Schema consists of the Dimension Tables and the Fact Table. The Master Data related tables are kept in separate tables, which has reference to the characteristics in the dimension table(s). These separate tables for master data is termed as the Extended Star Schema.

Meta Data: Data that describes the structure of data or MetaObjects is called Metadata. In other words data about data is known as Meta Data. Master Data: Master data is data that remains unchanged over a long period of time. It contains information that is always needed in the same way. Characteristics can bear master data in BW. With master data you are dealing with attributes, texts or hierarchies. Transaction data: Data relating to the day-to-day transactions is the Transaction data.

Interfaces are huge problem, Determine where master data resides, Expensive, very complex, demands highly trained staff, lengthy implementation time.

Bex stands for Business Explorer. Bex enables end user to locate reports, view reports, analyze information and can execute queries.

The queries in workbook can be saved to there respective roles in the Bex browser. Bex has the following components: Bex Browser, Bex analyzer, Bex Map, Bex Web.

Variables are parameters of a query that are set in the parameter query definition and are not filled with values until the queries are inserted into workbooks. There are different types of variables which are used in different application: Characteristics variables, Hierarchies and hierarchy node, Texts, Formulas, Processing types, User entry/Default type, Replacment Path.

AWB stands for Administrator WorkBench. AWB is a tool for controlling, monitoring and maintaining all the processes connected with data staging and processing in the business information whearhousing.

An ODS Object serves to store consolidated and debugged transaction data on a document level (atomic level). It describes a consolidated dataset from one or more InfoSources. This dataset can be analyzed with a BEx Query or InfoSet Query. The data of an ODS Object can be updated with a delta update into InfoCubes and/or other ODS Objects in the same system or across systems. In contrast to multi-dimensional data storage with InfoCubes, the data in ODS Objects is stored in transparent, flat database tables.