This paper covers: - Approaches for testing BW solution - Architecture Case Study - Flow Chart Project Architecture, Testing

ng Manoeuvre BW/BI Solution - Connectivity SAP applications - BW Testing Manoeuvre - Customized Reconciliation, a Value-add to Business & Customer - Challenges Faced

INTRODUCTION
Client is a major British Financial Institution and deals majorly in Wholesale, Retail Banking, Investment Banking, Asset Management, Wealth Management etc. It has presence across the globe (UK, US, Europe, Asia, Middle East) to service the needs of Customers & Clients. Client was looking a single-sourced tightly integrated solution to provide faster, better & efficient Consolidated and Group Reporting Capabilities in order to reduce high number of legacy system and other non-redundant systems. The focus was for getting Statutory and Management reporting for reconciliation of different product & services offered which was very time consuming job earlier. Document highlights the optimised testing manoeuvre involved while testing a SAP BW solution for better, faster and error free solution. Testing process has been formulated keeping in mind the specific Operability, functionality and behaviour pertaining to BW system.

OVERVIEW
SAP BW is a comprehensive business Intelligence product centred on a data warehouse. SAP BW also includes preconfigured data extractors, Analysis and Reporting tools .i.e. Analyser, Query Designer, Report Designer. Through BW testing we are validating Objects, Rules, Connectivity, flow of data within BW and various connected Systems \ Applications. Data is pulled from ECC; cleansed and aggregated data is stored in SAP BW system and pushed to SAP FIM. FIM transforms the data in BOFC acceptable format and sends it in form of Packages. Consolidations are performed in BOFC and data is uploaded to SAP BW system via Extended Analytics tool. Finally the data is sent to SAP BO for reporting after it is segregated in BW according to categories of report.

BW TESTING APPROACH

SAP BW system needs to be tested in-&-out for better and smoother performance. Data Quality and Integrity in BW system should be tested. Handshaking/Connectivity mechanism with the external system should be tested. Transfer & Quality of data should be tested while moving in-&-out of BW

ARCHITECHURE

FLOW CHART

CONNECTIVITY

1)

BW FIM Connectivity

Above figure shows the connectivity and movement of data from BW to FIM. Data is being pushed from Active table of DSO to Source Table of FIM through DB Link.

2)

BOFC BW Connectivity

Above figure shows the connectivity and movement of data from BOFC to BW via Extended Analytics. Data is being pushed from BOFC Database (Table) to Real-Time Info-cube in BW through Web-services.

BW TESTING ACTIVITIES
Availability of BW system Availability of ECC System for data extraction Check the availability of Data using extract checker Authorization of roles in BW Connectivity of source system with BW Availability of BW objects (info object, Cube, DSO etc.) Validate the definition of BW objects as per the requirement (Active, type, description, settings etc.) Validate the Business rules applied on objects (Routine, transformation, ABAP program) Availability of relevant data in BW objects (LSA Architecture) Validate process chains and its steps Check Scheduling options of different jobs/process chains Check associated tables and availability of Data in Data target Validate the BEx Queries Check the formatting, look and feel of the Query Ensure the data quality Validate the BEx Queries Check the Formatting, Look and Feel of reports Aggregation of data at query/Cube level Deployment of EA Cube in SAP BW system Availability of data in EA Cube (Real-Time Cube)

FLOW CHART TESTING OF BW SOLUTION

RECONCILIATION
Why Reconciliation is required? One of the major reasons of information loss/error is loading failures or errors during loading. Below errors can lead to inconsistent data e.g. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Inconsistent or non-coherent data from source Non-integrating data among different sources Unclean/ non-profiled data Un-handled exceptions or Constraint violations Logical issues/ Inherent flaws in program Technical failures like loss of connectivity, loss over network, space issue etc. Failure due to any of the above issues can result into potential information loss leading to unreliable data quality for business process decision making.

Methods Used For Reconciliation 1. 2. 3. 4. Manual reconciliation using different tables Using SQL statements BOBJ Reporting BEx Queries

Reconciliation between Systems

Reconciliation between BW and various systems used in Customer Reporting Solution 1. 2. 3. 4. Between ECC and SAP BW Within layers of SAP BW (LSA) SAP BOFC and SAP BW SAP BW and SAP BOBJ

Reconciliation between ECC & BW

Reconciliation between ECC & BW using below methods 1. Using T-Code RSA3

2. 3. 4.

Using Tables Record count in Acquisition layer Manual checking of records details

Reconciliation within BW Layers

Reconciliation within layers of BW using below methods 1. 2. 3. Reconciliation by SAP BW tables via SQL developer Reconciliation by SAP BO WEBI Reports using MS Access Manual Reconciliation within layers by checking the record count and aggregation of data

Reconciliation between BOFC & BW

Reconciliation between SAP BOFC and SAP BW using below methods 1. Reconciliation by SAP BO WEBI Reports using MS Access

2. 3.

BFC Report Manual Comparison

Reconciliation BW & BOBJ

Reconciliation between BW & BO using below methods 1. 2. Reconciliation by SAP BO WEBI Reports with BEx output Manual Reconciliation by checking the record count and aggregation of data

CHALLENGES
Architecture is more complex due to involvement of multiple applications (new), which makes testing even more complex. Some of the major challenges are: 1. 2. 3. Integration of BW with different systems Newer applications makes testing more challenging and it requires more attention & skills Data reconciliation possesses a major challenge

4. 5.

Extensive customization using ABAP Availability & Dependencies on other systems/applications for data