Test case Senarios

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.
Examples like shipping point determination is not determined...possible reasons could be shipping
point not assigned in org structure, shipping point determination not maintained (shipping cond +
loading group + plant) etc

Real Time Experience:

1. Billing Document not released to Accounting.
The error was due to material master not maintained appropriately. The scenario was analysed &
the result was if Profit Centre is maintained, but MRP type is not maintained, it does nor releases
Billing document to accounting in some cases. It is strange, but yes, its true. There were around 85 -
90 invoice & ideally the solution would be cancelling Invoice, Reversing PGI, Cancelling the delivery
& cancelling order & redo every thing again after rectifying Material master. This was happening for
2 material Master newly created. But we selected alternative route i.e in Debug mode, we forced the
profit center in billing document & then it released to accounting.
2. Sales Order incomplte for Material Availability Date, Actual Delivery date & so on..............
This was another classic case where this was odd. I verified & was clear that incompletion log has
no problem & these are not included in incompletion log. This again was an master data issue. The
reason was Availablity Check was not maintained in Material Master & I had spend 3 days analysing
configuration, before checking material master data. It was a learning that I should have checked the
master data also, as however expert an user may be, even he is human & can make error.
3. Common error in an new implementation project with users new to SAP is Billing is not
happening.
The highest possiblity is PGI not done or Billing document already created, but overlooked by user in
hurry. The best solutiuon is to train the end user to check the document flow, before bringing it as a
issue.
4. Modification in Pricing Procedure Calculation or addition of new condition type

Hi Friend,
There are many tickets you get on a support project. I am giving you a few examples:
1. Billing Document not released to accounting / Accounts determination:
To resolve the error, you can analyze account determination in the billing document. Process:
Goto T.Code: VF02 & Enter Invoice number
Next (On the top most strip) goto Environment
Next (Select Environment) go to Account determination
Next (In Account Determination) select Revenue Account Determination (first option)
This will list all the condition types in the Billing document & analyze each condition & check for
which G/L accounts is not determined.
1. VKOA not maintained for required combination
Solution: Maintain the combination in VKOA.
2. Account Assignment of Customer / material not maintained in Customer / Material Master (If
maintained in combination in VKOA).
Solution:
Option 1 (Standard solution):
step 1: Cancel Billing Document --> Reverse PGI --> cancel Delivery --> Cancel Sales Order
step 2: Maintain Customer master / Material Master correctly.
step 3: Recreate sales Order --> Delivery --> PGI --> Invoicing.
Option 2:
Force the Account Assignment Group of Customer / Material through Debug in change mode of
Billing document, which will release Billing Document to Accounting.
3. Account Key not maintained in Pricing Procedure:
Impact: This may create accounting document, but if condition type, which are to be posted to
account, but do not have account key maintained in pricing procedure, it will not be post the relevant
condition type to G/L account.
4. Billing Document not being released to accounting --
In Material Master, there is some link between Profit Centre & MRP Type. If one of it is not
maintained, erratically few documents get stuck while releasing Billing Document to accounting. Few
of course get posted.
Solution1: Cancel Billing Document --> Reverse PGI --> Cancel Delivery --> Block the sales Order &
Create new sales Cycle all over again after rectifying Material master.
Solution 2: (Temporary Solution) In Debug mode in Billing, force the Profit Center in Billing
Document with the help of Abaper. But ensure Material master is rectified.
From FI Side, you require to check that all the G/L account has been maintained through T.Code:
FS00. G/L account being Master data has to be created in each client to upload through LSMW /
SCATT / BDC.
In Billing Document in change mode (in the first screen where we enter Billing Document number),
on the top most left hand corner, take a dropdown on Billing Document & select Release to
accounting. Here you can get the under mentioned possible message:
1. G/L account not found
2. Cost Element not maintained for G/L account.
In both the above cases, FI consultant requires to take corrective action.

1. what is the impact of leaving customer pricing procedure & customer statistic group blank in
customer master --> sales area data --> sales tab:
If Customer Pricing Procedure is left blank, Pricing will not be determined.
If customer statistic group is left blank, then data will not flow to standard reports.
2. Who maintains reconciliation account in customer master?
Ideally, reconciliation account is maintained by FI person, but if SD person is authorized & has the
knowledge of which reconciliation account to be maintained, then even SD person can maintain the
same.
3. Terms of payment appear in Company Code Data & sales Area Data. What is the impact of each?
why is it not populated automatically, once it is maintained at either field?
Terms of payment from company code data is for reporting purpose & it is from sales area data that
it flows to sales order.
It is a standard feature of SAP that it is not populated automatically if maintained at either of the field,
but it is a must in sales area data & can be skipped in company code data.
4. Unable to select Sales Area for Customer Master Creation?
Most Probably either sales area is not defined or customization not done for common Sales Org &
Common Distribution Channel. To maintain this configuration: SPRO --> Sales & Distribution -->
Master Data --> Define Common Distribution Channels / Define Common Divisions

I would like to add on a few points to this by giving you a few real-time examples of SD tickets raised
by users.
1.To set up a Intercompany flow between a existing plant and new Sales Org.
2.To do a Master data upload i.e Customer Master Changes,Price Master.
3.Form Issues:Forms not printing to the right input/output tray due to missing table entries.Certain
text not printing in the form.This may be due to user errors or due to technical issues.
4.Invoice has been created but the account postings has not happened.
5.Altogether a new requirement for development of a new SD Report for eg:Open Sales order
Report specific for Consignment etc.
6.Wrong calculation in the Invoice.Might be due to user errors.
7.Update termination during updation of certain SD documents.Requires probing into the procedure
in which the user has done the changes.
Challenges faced during implementations
1. Collecting information from client , understanding and mapping the business process.....and
even you can tell day to day reaching a deliverable as challenging task(as there is no thumb
rule of everything should be repetitive process)in business process .....like that also you can
justify with your answer..or while doing BDC's (in master data uploading time as its
more sensitive area )which impacts more on business
2. The first major issue you are likely to face is in deciding what the company will want SAP to
do at first Go-Live and what they anticipate they will want it to do in the future. It is usually
much easier to build things into SAP at the beginning, even if they will not be used
immediately, than it is to change them later after postings are being made in a live system.
To resolve this you need to make a full analysis of the current and predicted future needs of
the organisation.

Your next issue is that SAP will probably work, and require users to work, in a different way
to how things were done in the past. The way to resolve this is: 1) Minimise the differences
where you can and where it will not detract from the advantages of changing to SAP. 2)
Keep the users informed throughout the process. 3) Provide good quality SAP training before
the system goes live. 4) Provide high quality support after Go-live until the users are
competent with the new system.

During implementation you will almost certainly face the issue of how to bring data from the
systems that an organisation is currently using into SAP. How difficult this is depends on how
old the current systems are and how compatible they are with SAP. Sometimes you can
import the data directly using tools built into SAP, sometimes you will need consultants to
configure specific solutions and sometimes it is simply easier and more cost effective to
spend the time transferring data manually.

There are many other technical and business issues you might face but those are common
ones early in the implementation

Questions on implementation

Blue Print: Assume the client is already having sound legacy system in place.
Also assume that all the processes in FICO are neatly documented with visios.
Now study those process flows and prepare a list of sub processes.
Now prepare the fits/gaps/ assessment.
If the process fits into SAP it would be a fit. If an enhancement / modification is required, it goes into
the red column.
Record all the discussions with the core users against each process and sub process.
Also list down the dependencies for each process / analyse the integration aspects.
Also plan how you would convert the legacy data into SAP.
The whole document should have illustrations / scenarios and ultimately signed off. This at any cost
should not be changed unless, there is a total turnaround in the process requirements.
With the finalised blue print, you could start the activities in the implementation.
Now regarding the interview questions:
- Starts with your resume. How you have projected yourself. Have you shown real time experience
or faked up projects. In any case, it is very easy to make out whether you have experience in
implementation or support environment. You could never fool the interviewer.
Initially the interviewer would try to make an assessment on your genuinity.
- When did the implementation start?
- When did it GOLIVE?
- Were you involved in the end to end implementation or was it a partial role?
-If you are supporting the client, who implemented SAP?
- What tool do you use to track the support activities?
- How many tickets have you handled so far?
- Name some critical issues which you resolved and without which the production or business got
affected?
- What is the system landscape ?
-Have you developed any reports / enhancements / technical / functional designs?
- Are you aware of interfaces / ALE / IDOCs ?
- Are you aware of SLAs
- Rate yourself on a rank of 1 to 10 in FI and CO
- How often have you interacted with client during implementation / support?
- What process designs have been prepared by you?
- How do you react when you get a critical issue or cross modular issues?
And so on and on
Hope this helps

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Every SAP Consultant may not be fortunate enough to get opportunity in different types of projects like
Implementation (Green Field & Brown Field), Support, Maintenance, Upgrade and Business Consultancy
etc. SAP Consultant who has started their career as fresher and eagerly looking for an experience in an
implementation project would really wonder how will be an implementation project. For that matter,
everybody in our life has wondered to be part of an end to end implementation project. There are so
many questions in the mind of SAP Consultants to know about different things within the projects,
understand the business processes and deliverables etc. In my entire life, I have come across number of
prospective SAP Consultants who are always eager to learn things out of the projects. Everybody used to
ask different questions what will be there in an implementation, what kind of calls you receive in a
support projects, how the support calls are being handled etc.

Following are the questions posted to me by @Chirag_Shah (so many Chirags Confused) which
provoked me to write this blog. Therefore, half of the credit must go to him. There were times when
people are desperate to know the things, but nobody around there to suggest and guide. It was really
difficult life as not sure where to start, how to read and what to practice etc. However, the things are
changed at a faster and the knowledge has been assimilated rapidly across the globe with the invention
of the internet. Now with the invention of social networks, the information has become a revolution.
People are sharing on a daily basis through Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc. Now, fortunately, SDN also
joined in the same league with its new look and other extended. In this current world, sharing
knowledge is a privilege for number of people.
Probably, some of the following questions would help the Consultants and their understanding.

What is end to end implementation?

In a nutshell, mapping and transforming the business process into SAP and reaping the future benefits.
There are number of stages required in an end to end implementation. In the past implementation used
to take longer times, however, with number of methodologies the times are being drastically reduced.
Most of the consulting partners may also use the same objects / programs with other clients, rather
than reinventing the wheel. SAP has its own Accelerated SAP (ASAP) Methodology, the other consulting
partners or consulting companies may have their own methodologies. Broadly, this end to end
implementation consists of the following phases:

 Project Preparation
 Business Blueprint
 Realization
 Final Preparation
 Go Live and Support
 Run (newly added by SAP)

Please refer http://service.sap.com/asap for further details.

How to start and what is the correct and inclusive path?

Like none of the two people are same in this world (except Bollywood movies ), similarly, no two
projects are same. Therefore, you cannot correlate the same things with other projects. Every project is
a fresh start and the requirements may be different at the other client. Therefore, there is no standard /
correct / inclusive path you must go in order to complete the project. “Project” does means that it is mix
of number of uncertain activities, turning all these uncertainties into deliverables is the real challenge in
the project. “Project” always runs in three boundaries, “Time”, “Cost” and “Scope” by maintaining the
acceptable levels of “quality”. As soon as you are at a new implementation site, try to meet as many
numbers of users as possible and discuss with them. You will realize number of issues; it is always the
duty of the consultant to quickly understand their business processes. None of the business processes
could be same.

What are the points that need to be taken care?

 Proper planning of projects

 Be meticulous at the time of collecting the business requirements (this is key phase)
 Proficient in understanding RICEF requirements (Reports, Interfaces, Conversions,
Enhancements and Forms)
 Ensure that the all the items promised in the business blueprint are configured / developed
 Proper Testing has been done (Unit / Integration / UAT / Regression if in scope)
 Train the key users and educate the business users
 Maintain Proper documentations
 Ensure you have proper cut-over strategy is in place
 Master and Transaction Datas are loaded in DEV (Test Client), QA and Pre-production before
loading into Production System, this would give you a chance to refine or rectify data loading
errors.
 Ensure you have completed manual configuration if any (like FTXP tax codes, number ranges,
reset asset reconciliation accounts etc.)
 Daily have meetings after go live and ensure you have documented all the user issues
meticulously. Ensure proper accountability to resolve these calls. Discuss the progress on a daily
basis.
 Proper Segregation of Duties Matrix is in place (SOD) follow Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) Compliance if
your client is US related
 Ensure that the roles / authorizations are being developed according to SOD.

What all important documentations are required?

There could be number of documents that are being prepared during the implementation or a life of the
project. Some of the important documents are as follows:

 Project Charter – High Level document describes statement of scope, outline project objectives,
identify main stake holders and define authority of project manager.
 Project Plan – as per PMBOK, “a formal, approved document used to guide to execute both
project execution and project control”.
 Business Process Documents (BPDs) – This document sets out the guidelines for documenting
business process, which is collection activities that produce outcome.
 AS-IS Templates – Usually prepared by the business team, documenting the present business
scenarios (pre-SAP)
 Business Blueprint – A kind of legal document that binds both business as well as consulting
company to deliver the commitments, usually includes GAP analysis.
  Business Process Master List (BPML) – List of high level business processes of the client, usually
used to monitor the progress.
 Gaps Issue Register – This entails the GAPs that can be fulfilled and its impact on the project.
 Configuration Document – Configuration documents relating to various business processes,
shows how it is being mapped in SAP.
 Functional Specifications – Mostly written in a business language how a new requirement has to
be achieved.
 Technical Specifications – This contains the minute technical details of the functional
specification, prepared by developers with the help of fuctional consultants.
 Unit Test Documents – This document is proof of the testing of the transaction done in Testing
Client of the Development Server
 Integration Test Documents – This document is the proof of the Integration Tests done in the
system (could include screen shots)
 Test Plan – Test Plan is a high level documents emphasizing how the test activities are to be
completed detailing scope, approach, resources and schedule etc.
 Test Scripts – Detailed step by step document which are used for the purpose of testing, these
are very helpful to the testers in order to test the transactions.
 User Acceptance Test Documents – These documents are proof of the tests that are being
conducted by the users.
 Testing Issues Log (accountability required) / Defect Log – This is a log contains the brief
description of the defect, accountable person, close date etc.
 Transaction User Guides (TUGs) / End User Documents – These are end user documents which
are being used by the business users for future reference.
 User Training Presentations – These are power point presentations that are prepared for the
purpose of train the businessusers.
 Risk Register – Risk register is important document, this include anticipated risk, probability,
impact, counter-measures and risk owner etc.
 Go-live metrics – This document summarises the end user experience, end user satisfaction
levels etc.
 Post Go-live Issues Log (accountability required) – This is a log of every day issues, accountable
person and its status, until the project is handed over to Support Team.

The above mentioned list is not exhaustive, but the minimum required for a project.

What are the roles of various SAP consultants, Program Manager & Project manager?

There are number of people involved from Consulting firm’s side:

Program Manager – Having authority to go or no go etc. kind of decisions, could be budget holder for
consultant budgets, any high level escalations may goes to him / her

Project Manager – Responsible for day to day and overall management of the project, very key person
in administrative decisions / arranging the resources / tracking the project.
Functional Leads – Mostly responsible for drafting business blueprints / leading workshops / arranging
sign offs / training the key users / monitoring and mentoring various consultants / coordinating with
technical team like ABAPers etc.
Junior Functional Consultants – Configuration / Preparing configuration documents / user guides /
training normal business users / helping the users in testing etc.
Technical Leads – Monitoring overall development / Mentoring junior technical consultants /
coordinating with Functional Team Leads
Junior Technical Consultants – Coding / Testing / Reporting to Technical Leads
Basis Consultants – System Build / All system related activities / Resolving any system issues / Ensure
that the availability of system access
Project Management Office (PMO) – Looking after all administrative needs of the project

How do SAP best practice can be useful in it?

SAP Best Practices are much useful when the Clients intend to go with Vanilla type of standard
configuration. In such cases, these best practices would much useful. The consultants are much happy as
most of the things are standard and only requires minimal changes to the standard functionality of SAP.
Using SAP Best Practices would drastically reduce the cost of project and ensure adequate quality. The
other advantage is that it will give the benefit of the SAP Best Practices, which are being used by number
of clients across the industry. This gives the confidence to the Client that numbers of other organizations
are successfully implemented by using this.

What are building blocks and how to make best use of it?

Whether you call it Best Practices / Building Blocks they are more or less the same. This gives a good
opportunity particularly for functional consultants in order to practice in the demo / sandbox system.
There more number of times that you are going to practice the more confidence you will be getting. You
also must concentrate not only on the configuration but also on practising the business process steps.
This would help you to understand what is being expected from the users.
The following links could be useful
http://help.sap.com/saap/sap_bp/baio_frame/BL_ERP606_EN_IN.html
http://help.sap.com/bp_bl604/BL_DE/html/Content_Library_BL_EN_DE.htm
http://help.sap.com/bp_bblibrary/470/BBlibrary_start.htm
http://help.sap.com/bp-baseline/
http://help.sap.com/saap/sap_bp/BBLibrary/General/How_to_download.pdf
Found following thread with summarization of various Finance materials / documentations
http://scn.sap.com/thread/349500

Not sure if all the links in the above thread are working or not.

What is testing process and what is the correct time to switch on to production server?

There could be different types of testing activities are expected. In general, you will find the following
types of testing:
Unit Testing – This is done by the Consultants mostly in DEV (Testing) Client to check whether the
transaction Codes are working properly or not
Integration Testing – This test is conducted with most realistic data with number sequence of number of
modules
Interface Testing – Testing of various interfaces at different points of your projects. You should be clear
when you need to test what interface.
User Acceptance Testing – One or more users would test the and sign off whether the transaction codes
are working proper or not. This would also include a scenario type testing.
SAP Stress / Load / Performance Testing – This mainly to test whether the system response time is
acceptable / performance is as expected.
SAP Security / Authorizations Testing – This is to ensure that the end users are only able to execute the
transactions that are intended as per SOD.
SAP Cut Over /Dry Run Testing – This is just to simulate number of single time events such as extraction
of data from your legacy systems, validating the data, data conversions etc.
Regression Testing – This is to test whether changes to configurations has made changes to functionality
intended for.
There could be other different types of testing activities, but mostly, you would observe the above.
Production server is the final hurdle. There is nothing like switch on to production. As soon as the
objects are being tested and signed off they will be moved into Production. Therefore, Production will
come along with you through out the project.
What is the Process for proper Sign off?
There is no standard procedure for sign off. It is mostly the understanding between the business and the
consulting firm. However, mostly important documents such as business process documents / business
blueprints / configuration documents / functional specifications / technical specifications etc. are to be
signed parties from both the end (business as well as consulting). They will be binding on both the
parties and you can treat them as a kind of legal documents. Tomorrow if there is any deviation, then
they can refer to these sign off documents. Consulting Company should be able to deliver what they
have committed on these documents and the business should stick to what they have expected.
Therefore, these are very important documents for ascertaining the accountability. Usually the sign off
documents includes, project manager (business side) business heads, key users from business side;
delivery managers, lead functional and technical consultant from consulting side.
What is the difference between Implementation project & Support project?
Implementation Project is mostly transforming the whole business process and mapping into SAP. As
explained earlier, it could have number of phases. In most of the cases, the support activity could goes
to the same implementation partner or could be other implementation partner depending on the
business constraints. Support Projects are mostly for longer duration may be 3 to 5 to 7 years usually.
These are being driven by various Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between Client and the Supporting
Organization. There may be different types of tolls used like Remedy, Console etc. Remedy is a tool
which is used in order to keep track of issues / logs etc. whereas Console could be a password
mechanism tool, where you are supporting more than a single client, in such cases, remembering the
password is not possible. Furthermore, there could be number of people supporting the same client at
different shifts / time intervals, in such cases, this Console would help them.