SAP WRICEF Objects | Functional Specification Documents (FSD) | Vikram Fotani

Summary

Vikram Fotani provides an insightful tutorial on SAP WRICEF Objects and the role of Functional Specification Documents (FSD) in customizing SAP systems. He explains how these objects encompass workflows, reports, interfaces, conversions, enhancements, and forms, which are custom developments beyond SAP's standard functionalities. The session covers the necessity of understanding client-specific requirements and translating them into FSDs, which guide ABAP consultants in tailoring SAP systems to business needs. Key aspects of a functional consultant's role, including requirement gathering, documentation, development coordination, and user training, are emphasized to ensure optimal SAP system customization.

Highlights

• Vikram Fotani explains the significance of WRICEF objects in tailoring SAP functionalities. 📊
• Functional Specification Documents are crucial for capturing detailed client requirements. 📝
• Functional consultants bridge the gap between business needs and technical execution. 🔧
• Initial SAP project roles involve learning and documenting client requirements under senior consultant guidance. 📚
• Detailed functional specifications guide ABAP consultants in customizing SAP systems. 🌐

Key Takeaways

• WRICEF stands for Workflows, Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Enhancements, and Forms, crucial for SAP customization! 💡
• Functional Specification Documents (FSDs) are pivotal for translating client needs into technical specifications. 📄
• Functional consultants play a key role in requirement gathering, creating FSDs, and coordinating with development teams. 🤝
• Custom developments help businesses tailor SAP systems to their unique business processes. 🏢
• Initial years in SAP projects involve shadowing senior consultants and learning the ropes of custom object development. 🧑‍💻

Overview

Vikram Fotani delves into SAP WRICEF objects, discussing the need for additional functionalities beyond SAP's standard offerings. These custom developments include workflows, reports, interfaces, conversions, enhancements, and forms, collectively known as WRICEF. They're crucial for meeting specific business needs when the standard system falls short.

The video breaks down the role of Functional Specification Documents (FSDs) in this process. Functional consultants are responsible for understanding client requirements and translating them into detailed FSDs, ensuring ABAP consultants have clear guidelines for system customization. Fotani emphasizes the importance of clear communication and documentation.

Fotani also outlines the career path for functional consultants within SAP projects, starting from shadowing senior consultants to eventually leading WRICEF object development. He emphasizes continuous learning and coordination between business needs and technical teams to ensure successful SAP implementations.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction to RICES and Role of Functional Consultant The chapter titled 'Introduction to RICES and Role of Functional Consultant' explains that RICES refers to the functionalities not provided by SAP's standard system. These are additional features or functions a customer might request during a project. The term ' RICES objects' is used to describe these custom-developed functionalities.
• 01:30 - 05:30: Definition and Components of RICEF The chapter 'Definition and Components of RICEF' involves understanding the role of a consultant in identifying RICEF objects. RICEF stands for Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Enhancements, and Forms, which are additional functionalities developed beyond the standard features to meet specific customer requirements. The manager or project lead will assign this task, emphasizing the need to identify these custom solutions. During a discussion, the presenter also noted disruptive background noise and decided to mute participants temporarily to maintain focus, assuring them they would have the opportunity to speak after the presentation.
• 05:30 - 08:30: Workflows The chapter titled 'Workflows' introduces the concept of SAP RISE safe objects. These safe objects are methodologies used in SAP to ensure smooth operations and development within the system. 'Workflows' is part of the acronym W-R-I-C-E-F, where 'W' stands for workflows, 'R' stands for reports, 'I' stands for interfaces, 'C' stands for conversions, 'E' stands for enhancements, and 'F' stands for forms. The chapter seems to focus on the workflows aspect, likely discussing how they are structured, managed, and integrated within the SAP system.
• 08:30 - 11:30: Reports and Interfaces The chapter titled 'Reports and Interfaces' discusses the constraints and procedures for developing custom objects, referred to as 'isif objects', in an application. The focus is on how these are created in the context of a workbench and highlights that typically, development is restricted to one of six predefined categories. The chapter portrays a scenario where the standard functionalities are not satisfactory, prompting a request for the web team to undertake custom development within these outlined constraints.
• 11:30 - 14:30: Conversions and Enhancements The chapter focuses on the back-end processes in SAP, specifically discussing the programming language used, which is ABAP. It highlights how ABAP consultants are responsible for creating new elements, modifying existing functionalities, and developing new procedures, all of which require changing or writing new code in ABAP. Workflows, described as custom processes, are also a key topic, indicating their role in customizing and managing various processes within SAP.
• 14:30 - 17:30: Forms in SAP The chapter provides an overview of the use of forms within the SAP system, which are designed to automate or streamline business processes. It uses the example of organizational hierarchies in a company to illustrate workflows and hierarchies, progressing from employee to manager, senior manager, vice president, and CEO.
• 17:30 - 24:30: Functional Consultant's Role and Documenting Requirements The chapter focuses on the role of a Functional Consultant with an emphasis on documenting requirements. It begins with an example within the Financial (FI) domain, explaining the Maker-Checker concept. In this workflow, one person creates an accounting document and parks it without posting. The manager then verifies this parked document, and if correct, converts it into a posted document, illustrating a typical FI workflow.
• 24:30 - 33:00: Sample Functional Specification Document The workflow in this system begins when a maker creates and parks an accounting document, triggering a notification for the manager via email or SMS. The manager reviews the document's correctness and decides to approve or reject it. This process is also applicable from a logistics perspective.
• 33:00 - 35:00: Coordination and Testing The chapter 'Coordination and Testing' discusses credit management from an SD (Sales and Distribution) perspective. It explains the process when a sales order is created for medium risk customers. The system performs a credit check, and if credit is unavailable, it places a credit block on the customer. As a result, the delivery of materials to the customer is halted until the responsible manager addresses the issue.
• 35:00 - 37:00: Conclusion and User Training The chapter discusses using workflow automation to manage credit checks in a sales order process. When a sales order is blocked due to a credit check, the system can be configured to automatically notify the credit manager, who then decides whether to release or reject the credit check. This is an example of utilizing workflow to streamline processes.

SAP WRICEF Objects | Functional Specification Documents (FSD) | Vikram Fotani Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 so Rices means those functionalities which are not already provided by sap in the standard system but when you work on the project the customer may not be happy with the standard functionalities they may ask you some additional functionalities which are not provided by sap itself okay and when you try to build or develop these functionalities those are nothing but the rise of objects okay so when you're working on the sap project of your manager when you are working as a
• 00:30 - 01:00 consultant your manager will give you one of the responsibility to identify the rise of objects which needs to be developed okay so what does it mean it means that your manager or project manager is asking you that apart from the standard functionality what are the different additional functionalities customers are looking for help right so still there is background noise I'll just mute all of you as of now I will allow you to speak once I complete the
• 01:00 - 01:30 topic okay so let's understand what exactly are the rise if objects so sap rise safe objects is a you can see it is a acronymed that stands for workflows w stands for workflows R stands for reports I stands for interfaces conversions enhancements and forms right so these whenever we want to develop something new whenever we are
• 01:30 - 02:00 not happy with the standard functionality and we want our uh a web team to develop something for us it has to be one of these six categories okay so normally we don't develop anything apart from these six objects okay so what are isif objects you can see these are the custom objects created in the about workbench okay so normally whenever we are talking about the custom object see entire recipe thing is developed in app write all the standard functionalities
• 02:00 - 02:30 whatever are available in sap in the background that language the coding language which is used is sap a map now whenever you want to build something new whenever you want to change the existing functionality whenever you want to uh like develop the new functionality again our about Consultants they will be changing the code they will be writing the code in the about what means in order to make it ready okay so what exactly are the workflows so workflows are the custom processes
• 02:30 - 03:00 created to automate or streamline business process within sap system I'll just give you a simple example if you are finding it difficult see workflows means in a company there are different hierarchies right whenever you are working in any company there is a manager on top of him there is a senior manager on top of him is a vice president on top of him as a CEO then CEO so these are the different hierarchies that you got so in the company whenever you if I give
• 03:00 - 03:30 the example of fi okay and then I'll come to another example of logistics So within fi we already understood the maker Checker concept okay so there is a person who will be creating the accounting document without posting it so they will park the accounting document and then his manager will go and verify whether the document which is parked is correct and if correct he will convert the path document to post document so this is one kind of a workflow okay if we activate
• 03:30 - 04:00 the workflow in the system what will happen is as soon as the maker creates an accounting document as soon as the maker Parks an accounting document the manager will get a notification over a email over SMS whatever you want you can ask your web to develop that okay and as a manager he will be able to verify whether the document which is parked is correct or incorrect and based on that they can approve or reject that particular document right same way from the logistics point
• 04:00 - 04:30 of view uh from the SD point of view we discuss credit management so what happens is whenever a sales order is created okay for the medium risk customers when you create a sales order system will perform the credit check and if the credit is not available for the customer then what the system will do system will credit block that particular customer okay it will block the delivery of that particular customer you will not be able to deliver the material to the customer till the time the responsible manager
• 04:30 - 05:00 goes and removes that credit block so this is again can be done through the workflow okay so through workflow what will happen is we can tell our evapor that as soon as the sales order is blocked for delivery okay because of the credit check we want the system to automatically generate a email or any kind of notification which will go to the credit manager and he has to either release the credit check or yes to reject the credit check okay so that is one of the example of workflow from the
• 05:00 - 05:30 SD point of view okay so if there are workflows required see by default there are no workflows for example a maker Checker Park and post document so I have a transaction code access of Fe 50 I can park the document my manager has a authorization of fb50 so he will be posting the document but he will not come via the notification notification will not be raised by default if you want that notification if you want to have the system where as soon as the
• 05:30 - 06:00 document is created it is going as a email or any other kind of notification to the manager and then he is taking the approval or rejection in that case only we need to activate the workflows okay second type of objects are reports again very common there are n number of reports already available in the system but again uh even I'll tell you that even though many reports are available the reports which are required from the
• 06:00 - 06:30 legal point of view the reports which are required from the authorities point of view those reports have a separate layout per country okay so for example in India we want a GST report and there is a proper layout in which we need to generate that report purchase register sales Register Customer aging vendor aging so there are n number of reports which are required by the business in every country right now if you are generating those reports from the standard sap system you may not be happy with the layout you may
• 06:30 - 07:00 not be happy with the columns that report is showing okay and that is the reason customers comes to us and they say no we are we have seen the sap standard report but the report that we want is something more than that okay or it has a different layout or it is a different criteria So based on that requirement we need to go to a web and we need to tell them that the customer is looking for this particular report okay where you will tell them what would be the columns which will be appearing
• 07:00 - 07:30 in the report how the report will pick the data okay that is in the next slide so in the next slide we'll be talking about as a functional consultant what is your role uh when the rice safe objects are developed then you got interfaces okay interfaces means whenever you are connecting your sap system with other outside systems okay you can see interfaces are the custom programs that allows data to be exchanged between the sap system and external systems or applications okay so let's take example very common
• 07:30 - 08:00 Integrations that we do uh in India okay just example and it is applicable everywhere so our sap system is normally connected to the GST portals so that the GST reports are created in sap system and uploaded directly at the GST portal just one example another example which we have seen in case of fi that whenever a payment is generated automatic payment program is executed
• 08:00 - 08:30 the last step is printing the document and sending it to the bank portal so what is happening there is an interface between the sap system and the bank portal there is a integration or interface between our sap system and the GST portal there is an interface between or some other system and sap system those kind of things whenever you want to develop so depending upon the customer what are the different systems with which they want to generate the interface we have to identify the
• 08:30 - 09:00 requirement and we have to give it to uh again this is not necessarily a map interfaces although there is a web requirement but normally this interfaces are also connected via pi po module there is any module in sap called as pipu okay process integration and orchestration process orchestration these are the other modules in sap which are responsible for the interfaces again technical okay then C stands for conversions what
• 09:00 - 09:30 are convergence convergence are custom programs used to convert data from one format to another format within sap system okay so if you if you have some raw data and you want to make it meaningful you want to convert the existing data to some other form then you use the conversion programs okay one example can be when you are uploading the customer Master data supplier Master data okay so during the con during the new implementation project you need to perform lot of data
• 09:30 - 10:00 migration so using those conversion programs we can perform the data migration okay we will see what is data migration in the coming slides then you got enhancements e stands for enhancements enhancements are again the custom modifications made to existing sap system functionality to meet specific business requirement so you are changing the functionality itself it is not like generating the new report it is not like generating the new workflow okay so for
• 10:00 - 10:30 example in sap system you are going to transaction code fb60 okay or you are going to transaction code va01 now you might be able to see 100 120 fields in that particular screen now if you want to add new fields in the same screen fb60 itself in the va01 itself you are not generating a new report you are not generating a new workflow it is like changing the existing screen itself or changing the existing functionality itself the way
• 10:30 - 11:00 the system will behave that is called as enhancement Okay so if you want to add new fields in va01 in fp60 if you want to modify the existing Fields you want to delete some of the fields or when you press on save button instead of directly going to the table it will it will go through some other level of approval so that kind of thing is called as enhancement which you are doing within the sap standard screens finally there are forms okay so forms
• 11:00 - 11:30 example if I talk about fi we discussed running okay so what would be the content when the data will be sent from our end to the customer in the form of uh what would be the wordings written in those running forms okay so those forms as we know sap has already provided some standard running forms but we need to create our own logo or we need to upload our own logo in that particular format we need to change the language if required we need to add some Fields if required so that is
• 11:30 - 12:00 nothing but forms even from SD point of view billing output determination so once the billing output is determined we need to send the billing document to the customer okay we need to send the invoice to the customer in short now what would be the content of that invoice in the invoice customer will say I want to see my logo I want to see this this details okay so that is something which by default sap has provided the forms but we don't see any of any of our own logo in those forms and that is the reason customer will always come to you
• 12:00 - 12:30 and they will say we want to have a new form the way how our invoice the way however running later will look like right so those are the forms so these are the six categories in which all your custom developments are decided divided right so w stands for workflows R stands for report I stands for interfaces C stands for convergence e stands for enhancement and app status for forms
• 12:30 - 13:00 okay the development of rise up object is very common activity in sap implementation projects as it allows organizations to tailor the system to their specific business needs okay so this is just for your information it is not like in the first project itself you uh will get a lead role to monitor all the rashif objects see whenever you start working in the project initial few years you will be shadowing the senior Consultants okay so try doing the senior consultant means what there will be senior Consultants
• 13:00 - 13:30 who are actually responsible they will take your help wherever required for example they will ask you to sit in the discussion related to workflow so they are discussing with the customer they are understanding the requirement and then they are saying okay whatever you understood create a document for that right so that kind of create a mom for that particular meeting create a documentation for that right these kind of things you will be involved during the initial phases of the project initial career when you are starting your career
• 13:30 - 14:00 as a beginner okay I think this is again similar so workflow report interface conversion these are examples I already gave the examples in detail we can ignore this but I'll send you this a slide so that you can go through it okay now coming to what is the role of a functional consultant in dry safe objects we understood workflows are developed by app reports are developed by our web app interfaces can be done by a web as well as prpo conversion again about enhancement again a map form again
• 14:00 - 14:30 a map then what is our role as a functional consultant what we will be doing in the receive development so Number One requirement Gathering doesn't understood I understand the functionality of sap a web is not a business person he is not knowing what exactly is AR what exactly is AP what exactly is a sales order what exactly is billing all these things are not known
• 14:30 - 15:00 to our consultant they don't understand the business language they understand the technical language so requirement Gathering whenever a report is required in fi as a fi consultant I need to understand the requirements from the customer right if a something is required in the SD module as SD consultant I'll be responsible for Gathering that particular requirement okay once the requirement is understood what you will do second step is functional specification FS FSD okay so there are n number of names which are
• 15:00 - 15:30 given to this one what do you what do you mean by functional specification functional specification is just the English document in which whatever you understood from the customer you are noting it down in the piece of paper for the document so that just to make sure that whatever you understood has been documented and given to a web team so that they can start developing that particular object okay I think I got the example just give
• 15:30 - 16:00 me a minute sample FSD okay this is just one example of how the sample FS document looks like okay for example this is a report this is a FSD which is created for sales order summary by region so customer is asking you that I want to have a report in which region wise I can see how much sales is done right so just assume that this report
• 16:00 - 16:30 doesn't exist in sap standard system and customer has given you that I want to see this report in this particular way so you understand the requirement you understand what is the report name you will also have an overview of what exactly this report will show so the sales order summary by region report will provide a summary of sales order by region the report will display the total number of sales orders the total sales amount and the average sales amount of each region right input requirements input
• 16:30 - 17:00 requirements means what so whenever you are going to generate any report system will ask you you want to generate this report for which sales order for which sales organization for which customer same way whenever you are generating any financial report you go to fbl1 and you go to fbl file and you go to fbl3n system is asking you which company code which customer whether open items or create items so these are the selection criteria these are the input requirements so which Fields you want the user to enter before he executes the
• 17:00 - 17:30 report that is called as input requirements okay so what is the selection criteria the report will allow the user to select a range of dates and specific sales organization so user can generate this report by sales organization and you can enter the dates I want to see only the report for last month so I will enter the data okay what are the data sources the report will extract the data from sales order header and item tables so some of the basic tables as I told you if you
• 17:30 - 18:00 remember that will help you a lot but again that is something which will come with experience so the data will come from vbak vbap for example from sap fi point of view most of the data is available in EC doc a or bkpf okay if it is a customer Master related table we understood kne1 knb1 knvv so ultimately whenever you are generating the report the data has to come from some of the tables so that you will specify in your functional specification
• 18:00 - 18:30 output requirements how the output will be displayed of the report the report will display the following fields in the tabular format so it will First Column will be region second column will be total number of sales orders third column will be total sales amount and fourth column will be average sales amount what about the Sorting how the system will sort the data the report will be sorting the data by region in ascending order so this is just an example of how you can create a detailed functional specification
• 18:30 - 19:00 okay data transformation how the system will calculate the sales amount the report will calculate the total sales amount by summing the net value of all the sales orders okay average sales amount how the average will be calculated Again by calculating the average of all the total sales amounts any validation okay so again it is not necessary that every time you will enter the validation so validation means when the user is selecting the sales organization system should validate whether such sales
• 19:00 - 19:30 organization exists or not when you are entering the date availability the system should verify whether these dates are valid or not okay and finally output format I already shown you user training so how are you going to planning how are you planning to give the training to the end user so the report will be made available to the end user via custom menu in sap system what do you mean by custom menu custom menu is nothing but custom transaction so we all have standard transactions
• 19:30 - 20:00 va01 fp60 fb70 whenever you are creating any custom report which is not there already in the sap system the transaction code should start with Y or is it y or Z right that is called as a custom transaction training material will be provided to the end user yes once the report is available it is not like you will just give this report to the end user you will create a proper user manual or to enter in the selection criteria how to execute that report that would be again our responsibility as a functional
• 20:00 - 20:30 consultant and signing off sign off means you will submit this document to the business okay they will verify that whatever you are written in this document is matching their business requirements before the report is developed and then they will do the sign off which means they agree that whatever you have written in the functional specification is correct and my about team can start working on this report development of this report right so as a functional consultant our
• 20:30 - 21:00 responsibility is to understand the requirement properly and then whatever requirement we understood we need to write a functional specification document and give it to a web after it is signed off by the business then you have coordination with development team so once you are given the FSD it may happen that some of the things are not very clear in FSD your development team uh whenever they are doing the development they may come across some additional questions or during the
• 21:00 - 21:30 meantime when the development team is working on the report development the business came and they have changed some requirement so in that in this particular case you have to be uh tightly working with the development team so you require a lot of coordination between the development team right once the development is completed you will do the testing okay you will not immediately give it to the business it is not like the report is developed and now you start testing it business will only test once you feel
• 21:30 - 22:00 that the report is developed is correct the report developed is showing the correct uh amounts the report developed is showing the correct data the report developed is ready to be given to the business okay so you will perform the testing and finally as I told you you will do the user training so you will create some documents training material or maybe you will be conducting the online organization to help them understand how this report will be executed