RICEFW's in SAP

projects and role of functional consultant

Hi,
Most of the functional consultants during their SAP projects execution, work on RICEFW's. This
document explains what are RICEFW's in SAP projects and the role of Functional Consultants in
executing them with some real time examples.

What are RICEFW's :

RICEFW means Reports (R), Interface (I), Conversion (C), Enhancements (E), Forms (F) and
Workflow (W).

we will see what are they and what role Functional Consultants perform in them with real time
examples...

Reports: A SAP report is an executable program that reads data from the database and generates
output based on the filter criteria selected by the end user. It is like display of data based on some
selection. Execution of a SAP report almost never leads to an update of the database.

The various categories of reports are --

1. Standard SAP reports -- ex. COOIS,MD04 etc.

2. Custom reports - developed by your organization
3. Ad hoc queries

When the standard SAP reports do not meet the client or business requirement we have to
develop custom reports with the help of ABAP team. For this we need to understand what is the
selection screen, what output they want like what data they want to display on the screen once
the report is executed...

Selection screen: It is the provision to enter the selection criteria.. here is the selection screen for
a report for MRP results validation to check whether sufficient procurement elements generated
or not after the MRP run to meet the current requirements.
Once after the report is executed output will be like below...

For this we need to give the functional specification to the ABAP team with the details like what
is the selection screen, what is the output format and what are the tables and fields from which
data needs to fetched..based on this they develop the custom report...

Some times we can generate own reports with out taking the help of ABAP by generating the
queries by combining various tables and generating reports...

Interfaces : In some organizations some of the business processes like Planning , Quality
Management functions are executed or maintained in external systems (Non SAP systems). For
example for Planning they use third party systems like M2, ADS and for Quality they use
LIMS..We need to send the data from SAP to those Non SAP systems and receive the data from
them back to SAP system..normally IDocs are used for this data transfers..
Ex: In the planning function entire planning is done in non SAP systems like M2 or ADS then
the planning results are transferred to SAP R/3 system in the form of Planned Independent
requirements (PIR's) through IDocs. In the Quality functions Inspection lot details from R/3 are
transferred to LIMS where user enters the results now these results come and updated in SAP
R/3 system in results recording for the corresponding inspection lot...

Functional consultant need to give the details what data needs to be transferred or what data to be
received, what are fields etc to the ABAP team...

Conversion: A Conversion means data that is converted from one format to another format and
from one system to another.
So when you first implement SAP, you are actually replacing some of your legacy systems, but
you are not completely trashing the data. You still need some of that data from the systems that
are being replaced. So you pull the data out of your legacy systems and put them on some files.
You then want to load that data into your new SAP system.That is when you write some
programs which will read that data and load it into SAP.
So during go live, you want to transfer the Production orders from from your legacy system to
SAP. Now a Production order in your legacy system may not have the same fields as a
Production Order in SAP. So you convert the data.
Ex: BDC, LSMW
Functional consultant needs to co-ordinate between business team and ABAP team for this..he
has to prepare upload file format for this, based on the tool or program developed by the ABAP
team then they have to collect the data from business team which is filled in to the files then later
on upload the data in to SAP system...a typical BOM upload files looks as below....

a typical master recipe upload file looks as below.

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Enhancements: Enhancements are the means by which we add our own/ modify existing
functionality to SAP's standard business applications. Some requirements from the client cannot
be met with Standard SAP. That time we need to go for enhancements. Normally enhancements
are done through user exits, customer exits, BADI's and enhancement frameworks....
one example we can take here is during production order execution if do not complete goods
issue for a production order still system allow to do goods receipt for that particular production
order..now business asks to restrict this or they want control for this. Now we need to give the
logic to the ABAP team to put control for this so that goods receipt of the order is only allowed
after the completion of goods issue of that production order..ABAP team finally implement these
enhancements based on the logic provided by the functional consultant...

Forms: Forms are nothing but printouts taken from SAP. like Process order print, Inspection lot
Certificate of analysis (COA). Standard SAP comes with pre configured layout and design of the
forms. but these standard forms will not meet customer requirements. during this time we need to
develop custom forms in coordination with ABAP team...
Typical custom form of process order is like below...

One more form of material issue slip printed during goods issue
For this we need to give the functional specification to the ABAP team with the details like what
is the form layout, what data needs to be printed, from which tables and fields data needs to be
fetched for printing the data...based on this ABAP team develop the custom forms...

Workflow: Workflow, as the name suggests, means of flow of work, may be from one person to
another person..It is in fact a sequence of connected activities resulting in exchange of
information...
examples like when the production order is released mail to be triggered to production manager
or when UD is reject for particular inspection lot then mail has to be triggered to quality
manager....For this functional consultant coordinate with ABAP team and will provide the details
like what data has to be sent, under which condition this workflow to be triggered....

Thanks
Kumar

The Basics - What's RICEF?

What is RICEF? Many a times asked in interviews! Unfortunately a lot of people fail to answer a simple
question, even though working on it for years.

You usually come accross the word RICEF when searching for SAP ABAP Developer jobs.
RICEF isn't a standard SAP acronym. It's not defined by SAP like we have ABAP, ALV, etc. It's a comon
term used to describe five areas of technical developments in SAP.
RICEF stands for Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Enhancements, Forms.

R- Reports
R stands for Report developments. All the technical objects/developments that deal with programing
of SAP Reports. It includes different types of reports; Simple reports where you output using WRITE
statements, Simple ALV reports, ALV Grid, ALV Grid with advanced functionality,etc.

I - Interfaces
I stands for Interface developments. Interfaces are ALE/IDOCs development. Involves not just ABAP
programming for IDOCs but also IDOC customization.

C - Conversion
C stands for conversion objects. Conversion refers to BDC programing. Data upload from legacy system
in flat files format to SAP system is done via Conversion Objects. This involves uploading data through
BDC, LSMW, BAPI, etc.

E - Enhancements
Enhancements are User Exits, Customer Exits, BADI's etc. ABAP code that has to be written in order to
enhance SAP system functionality.

F - Forms
Forms include SAP Smartforms, SAP Scripts. Technical development that deals with fetching necessary
data from SAP system and displaying in terms of forms for printout are classified as under Forms.

Common questions :-
1. As an ABAPer, why do I care what RICEF means? What does it have to do with me?
Well it's really simple. It's just that one must know the category of the technical development he is
working upon.
2. What's the use of RICEF?
SAP Project managers usually refer technical development in terms of RICEF objects.
Project technical team leads usually distinguish the objects based on this categorization and assign
them to team on basis of experience. Reports being a first choice for beginners and Enhancements
being the favourite choice for experts.