Business Function Impact Analysis

This workflow analyzes one or more Business Function objects on the Analysis system and identifies an optimal (most-at-risk) set of used executables which when tested will exercise each of the objects. Used executables are obtained from the available performance history data on the specified system.

Optionally, the most-at-risk objects may be compared on the Analysis system and a Comparison system. The workflow produces a Dashboard report and an associated Excel report.

The Business Function Impact Analysis workflow calls:

  • The Get Business Function Objects workflow to retrieve the business function objects to analyze.

  • The Get Used Objects workflow to retrieve a set of used executables.

  • The Analyze Impact workflow to find a set of Most-at-Risk executables.

  • The Summarize Results workflow to prepare the Dashboard and Excel reports.

Before You Begin

Before running the Business Function Impact Analysis workflow, please note the following:

The Business Function Impact Analysis workflow requires that SAP’s Where Used indexes are up to date on the Analysis system. For further details, see the Step 1 (As-Is) - Checking the Integrity of the Where Used Indexes help topic.

The Create Object Links Cache workflow from the Prerequisites templates folder should be run for the Analysis system to create a cache of object links. See the workflow’s associated help file for details.

The Business Critical Objects External Data Source should be populated with a set of business critical objects that are always included in the set of Most-at-Risk objects. The External Data source is populated from a .CSV file with TYPE and NAME columns. Use the External Data Source’s ‘Replace Data File’ option to upload your own .CSV file.

Creating RFC Destinations

Before you begin, you will need to create RFC Destinations for the Analysis and Performance History systems. You will also need to make sure that performance history data has been obtained for the Performance History system’s RFC Destination. This can be done in an number of ways; see the Retrieving Performance History Data help topic for details.

Preparing the Workflow

To prepare the Business Function Impact Analysis workflow, drag its workflow template from the Templates folder into your own workspace, then modify the workflow as follows:

To specify the system to analyze:

  1. Select the Analysis System parameter and choose ‘Edit RFC Destination’ from its context menu to display the RFC Destination dialog.

  2. Select the RFC Destination for the system to analyze, then click ‘Save’.

To specify the Performance History system, from which to extract usage data for executables:

  1. Select the Performance History System parameter and choose ‘Edit RFC Destination’ from its context menu to display the RFC Destination dialog.

  2. Select the RFC Destination for the system to analyze, then click ‘Save’.

To specify the Business Function objects to analyze:

  1. Select the Business Function Selections parameter and choose ‘Edit Select List’ from its context menu to display the Select List Editor dialog.

  2. Create selection criteria for the BFUNCTION table field, specifying which business function names to include or exclude. See the Select List Parameters help topic for details. Note that an ‘exclude’ specification may only be added if an ‘include’ specification has been created for the same table field.

To compare the most-at-risk executables on the Analysis and Comparison systems:

  1. Select the Comparison System parameter and choose ‘Edit RFC Destination’ from its context menu to display the RFC Destination dialog.

  2. Set the Compare Changing Objects? parameter to true.

Save the workflow using the ‘Save’ toolbar button.

Running the Workflow

To run the Business Function Impact Analysis workflow, click the ‘Run’ toolbar button, choose ‘Run Now’ from the diagram’s context menu, or press F5. The currently running workflow action is marked with an animated display. When the workflow execution has completed, select the Report URL dataset and choose ‘View Details’ from the context menu to access the generated report.

Dashboard Report

The Business Function Impact Analysis workflow generates a Dashboard report, which includes the following charts:

  • The Used, Impacted & Most-at-Risk column chart provides a summary of the number of custom and standard used, impacted and most-at-risk objects.

  • The Most-at-risk Test Hits & Gaps pie chart is not used.

  • The Impactful Objects by Type bar chart summarizes the changing objects that impact a used object.

  • The Most-at-risk by App Area column chart summarizes the most-at-risk objects by Application Area.

Additional Resources

The Additional Resources section of the Dashboard report includes links to the following reports:

Smart Impact Analysis Details

This Excel report includes the following spreadsheets:

Dashboard

The dashboard spreadsheet includes the following charts:

  • The Used, Impacted & Most-at-risk column chart provides a summary of the number of custom and standard used, impacted and most-at-risk objects. Click a link in the chart’s table to display the associated data. The % Saving values for Impacted and Most-at-risk objects are calculated as follows:

% Saving (Impacted) = (Total Used - Total Impacted) / Total Used * 100

% Saving (Most-at-risk) = (Total Used - Total Most-at-risk) / Total Used * 100

  • The Used, Impacted & Most-at-Risk column chart provides a summary of the number of custom and standard used, impacted and most-at-risk objects.

  • The Most-at-risk Test Hits & Gaps pie chart is not used.

  • The Impactful Objects by Type bar chart summarizes the changing objects that impact a used object.

  • The Most-at-risk by Application Area column chart summarizes the most-at-risk objects by Application Area.

Help

This spreadsheet provides help for each of the spreadsheet reports.

Used, Impacted & Most-at-risk

This spreadsheet lists each of the used, impacted and most-at-risk objects. It also displays the total usage, top user and top usage details for each of the most-at-risk executables. The most-at-risk objects include any new custom programs, transactions and BSP applications from the transports, and any new standard objects of these types that are contained in custom transports.

Most-at-risk Details

This spreadsheet lists the most-at-risk executables and screens, these are recommended for testing. If the Compare Changing Objects? parameter in the workflow is set to true, click a hyperlink in the CHILD_NAME column to display comparison details for the selected executable on the Analysis and Target systems. When the CHILD_TYPE field stores the type TABL, the CHILD_NAME field is a hyperlink to the Table Key Table Contents for all the table keys of the associated SAP table.

The spreadsheet displays the total usage, top user and top usage details for each of the most-at-risk executables, and descriptions for any impacting screens or tables. It also includes the following details for each of the impacting objects listed in the CHILD_TYPE and CHILD_NAME columns.

Column Description
DATE The source object’s last modification date. This column is populated for the following object types: BSP Applications (WAPA) Classes (CLAS), Domains (DOMA), Data Elements (DTEL), Function Groups (FUGR), Functions (FUNC), Includes (INCL), Programs (PROG), Screens (DYNP), Structures (STRC) and Tables (TABL).
CHANGES The number of transports on the analysis in which the source object is included. This column is populated for the following object types: Classes (CLAS), Domains (DOMA), Data Elements (DTEL), Function Groups (FUGR), Functions (FUNC), Includes (INCL), Programs (PROG), Screens (DYNP), Structures (STRC), Tables (TABL) and Transactions (TCOD).
FANIN The source object’s Fan-In value. The fan-in value of an object is the number of other objects that are referencing it. Multiple references from the same object are counted as one access. This column is populated for the following object types: Classes (CLAS), Domains (DOMA), Data Elements (DTEL), Functions (FUNC), Includes (INCL), Programs (PROG), Structures (STRC), Tables (TABL) and Transactions (TCOD).
FANOUT The child object’s Fan-out value. The Fan-out value of an object is the number of other objects that are referenced in it. Multiple references to the same object are counted as one access. This column is populated for the following object types: Classes (CLAS), Domains (DOMA), Data Elements (DTEL), Function Groups (FUGR), Functions (FUNC), Includes (INCL), Programs (PROG), Structures (STRC), Tables (TABL) and Transactions (TCOD).

Extra

This spreadsheet lists any testable changing objects, and testable objects found in the input transports, excluding any objects that are in the most-at-risk set. These objects are candidates for testing regardless of whether they are used or recommended.

Testable objects include Programs (PROG), Transactions (TCOD) and BSP Applications (WAPA). The Extra spreadsheet includes objects from custom transports, and custom object from SAP transports. Standard objects found in SAP transports are not included.

Test Hits & Gaps

This spreadsheet is not used.

Test Hit Details

This spreadsheet is not used.

Test Data

If the Compare Changing Objects? parameter is set to true, this spreadsheet lists the changing SAP tables and includes links to Object Differences reports showing data changes. Input table key (TABK) objects appear in the Test Data worksheet as tables (TABL). Each table name is a hyperlink to the compared table key table contents for each of the changed tables.

System Info

This spreadsheet lists the SAP system details for the Analysis, Performance History and Comparison systems.

STATUS Column

  • The Used, Impacted & Most-at-risk, spreadsheet include a column named STATUS. This column is set to:

  • ‘Most-at-risk’ if the executable is most-at-risk. Most-at-risk executables are recommended for testing.

  • ‘Impacted’ if the executable is impacted by the changing objects but covered by a most-at-risk executable.

  • ‘Used’ if the executable is used, but not impacted by the changing objects.

BUSINESS_CRITICAL Column

The Used, Impacted & Most-at-risk, Most-at-risk Details, Impacted Standard, Impacted Custom, Most-at-risk Standard and Most-at-risk Custom spreadsheets include a column named BUSINESS_CRITICAL. This column is set to ‘Y’ for Business Critical executables, and to <blank> for objects that are not identified as Business Critical.

Analysis Input Data

This Excel report contains a copy of the input parameters used to produce the App’s Dashboard report. The value of each input parameter is stored in a separate worksheet, which is named after the parameter whose value it contains.