Logic to Develop a Z Report

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

I was reading up on a old business requirement, where the consultant tried to achieve business need via SQVI. However after exchange of ideas, due to the complexity involved, it was agreed that SQVI is not the way. What should be the input / logic from Functional Consultant to ABAPer to create such a report.  I have some knowledge on VBAK / VBAP : LIKP/LIPS : VBRK/VBRP and  VBFA. The scenario, that was discussed was this :

Business wanted to know :

No of sales order created in a week

No of deliveries created on those orders correspondingly

No of deliveries that were subsequently billed.

It will be great to have customer no

Thanks

Anbu

Here is the link for the old post:

http://benxbrain.com/en/VBAK-SQVI-thread-1-3297338.htm

[Former Member]

Hi Anbu

The input from the functional consultant is normally a document called a Functional Specification. This document is an important control for any development work.

It should specify the full logic of how to achieve the requirement such as the tables, fields, joins, and internal logic you require, any lookups of additional information (eg: customer name). In the case of reports it will describe the output - ALV, or dashboard, or download and which fields and columns you require to be visible. In the case of a report it will also specify the selection screen criteria, layout, default values, mandatory fields etc.

Where possible it will include Function Modules or other technical objects that you know can be used, although this is often a combined exercise with a developer as they will often have ideas on how to achieve the requirement in better ways than writing new code.

The Func Spec will also include items such as frequency, authorisation impacts (new tcode and who gets it), how to handle exceptions that may arise, and a fairly comprehensive set of both positive and negative Test Cases so the developer can unit test the development.

Often the developer will then add a Technical Spec section to the Functional Spec, completing the document with what was actually built - report/program name, tcode, program class, and any relevant technical documentation.

For your requirement, table VBFA is probably the start point as it contains the doc flow from SO to Del to Billing, with Creation Date as a column. It is at item level, so you'd need the developer to roll up the data to document level. Very simple to include customer number, via the sales order. Do be careful with selections, as this table can get very large, affecting runtime.

Regards

[Former Member]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the reply. I understand VBFA table with Subs. Doc category (J - Delivery and M- Invoice) would be the way to go.  While preparing Functional Spec, how we will be go about telling this logic to ABAPer?

Will it be something like this?

Using the Selection Criteria to get the Sales Orders and the Customer name from VBAK.

Apply the selection in VBFA and look for entries with subsequent document category as J.

Then use the above result and look for Subsequent document category "M" in VBFA

I am a newbie and don't have experience in giving FS.

Thanks

[Former Member]

Hi Anbu

You're on the right track exactly. Can describe what you need in words as you have. Maybe consider a diagram too to show the flow of data you need. Provide as much relevant info as possible, using real SAP field names to avoid any confusion - eg: VBELN, VBTYP, ERDAT etc.

Often the level of detail depends on the relationship you have with the developer. If they are offshore and/or on contract, then you need to be very precise as many will simply deliver exactly what you ask for, even if it is syntactically or logically incorrect. If you can sit with the developer, and explain the data flow with examples, then you will get a better result. Actually in this example, providing a live example would be a great start point - sales order A created in week 1 became deliveries B and C, each becoming invoices D and E. Build up the example in Excel, and the developer can refer to this, and build to match.

There are possibly FS's posted on the net you can use as examples. I'd send you one, but as a contract consultant the ones I have are not my IP to give away.

Cheers