ABAP_to_the_Future

9
BRFplus
The flowchart is shown to th e business experts so that they can easily visualize
the proposed flow to make sure it’s corr ect. Usually, the an alyst also turns the
requirement into a spreadsheet, because these days many bus iness experts live
and die by spreadsheets. The result will look something like Figure 9.4.
Figure 9.4 Monster Rules Spreadsheet
The business analyst shows both the flowchart and the spreadsheet to the expert
to be sure the requirements have been captured accurately. Then, it’s time to
work out how to put these rules into SAP.
9.1.2 Rules in Customizing Tables
When SAP was invented, what set it apart from the pack (aside from it being an
integrated system, which was itself a radi cal idea) was that it was software that
could in theory be used by any industry in any country, because you could customize
it to your requirements. As you know, this is achieved by having many
thousands of customizing tables sitting inthe IMG, each one of which can be used
as is or—more likely—with company-specif ic entries added to describe the way
any given organization does things (e.g.,route determination based on order type
and material type). Even better, you can add your Z customizing tables into the
actual IMG, so you see all customizing tables (standard and customer) for one
area, like sales and distribution, in a single place.
You could attempt to replicate the monste r logic in a customizing table, which
you would design based on the spreadsheet created earlier. A possible design is
shown in Figure 9.5, with five key columns and a results column. All at once, you
can start to see possible problems.
The problem with SAP customizing tables is that they are designed such that you
really need a value for all of the keys to do a proper database read. If you want to
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