RICEFW’s in SAP projects and role of

functional consultant
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 does 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.

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….

RICEFW Example
Technical Specification - Data Conversion/Interface
RICEFW Name
Date Created :

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Document Information
Business Area

GAP/CR ID

Type of development

FS Definition Form ID

SAP R/3 Version

Global / Local

Approval

Approved by Name Role Signature Date

Process Team
Lead
Development
Team Lead

Document History

Version Author Reason for change Date

1.0

Related Documents

<Page 2 of 11>
 Table of Contents

1 GENERAL INFORMATION .................................................................................................................. 4

2. DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE .......................................................................................................... 5
3. NOTES .................................................................................................................................................. 5
4. ASSUMPTIONS .................................................................................................................................... 5
5. ISSUES ................................................................................................................................................. 5
6. SELECTION CRITERIA ........................................................................................................................ 6
7. DATA CONVERSION & INTERFACE DEFINITION............................................................................. 6
8. FILE LAYOUT ....................................................................................................................................... 7
9. DATA MAPPING MATRIX .................................................................................................................... 7
10 ALE CONFIGURATION ........................................................................................................................ 7
11 CUSTOM DATA DICTIONARY OBJECTS (IF ANY) ........................................................................... 8
12 ERROR HANDLING ........................................................................................................................... 10
13 PERFORMANCE CONSIDERATIONS............................................................................................... 10
14 AUTHORIZATION DETAILS .............................................................................................................. 10
15 DEPENDENCY ................................................................................................................................... 10
16 RELEVANT FUNCTION MODULES ....................................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
17 PSEUDO CODE .................................................................................................................................. 10
18 UNIT TEST PLAN ............................................................................................................................... 11

<Page 3 of 11>
1 General Information

WRICEF ID
Description
Transaction(s) (if applicable)
Package
Message Class (if applicable)
Develop. Class
Module
Data Conversion/Interface
User/User Group
Execution Mode
Run Frequency Language

Transport Information

Change Object Identifier Object Type

Request # Task # (Program ID, Layout Set ID, etc) (Program,
Transaction, Layout
Set)

<Page 4 of 11>
2. Description and Purpose

3. Notes
NA

4. Assumptions
1

5. Issues
NA

<Page 5 of 11>
Issue Date Raised to/Resolved By Issue Description Issue Resolution
# Raised

6. Selection Criteria

Name Table Field/ Select-option Comments (Range, Single/Multiple Default Value

Check box/ (S) or Selection, Patterns, Mandatory, etc.)
Radio button Parameter (P)
P

7. Data Conversion & Interface Definition

NA

File Name Inbound / File Type Location Description Logical File Comments
Outbound (ASCII, File Name Delimiter
I/O EBCDIC,
Excel file,
etc.)

System Diagram:

<Page 6 of 11>
8. File Layout

9. Data Mapping Matrix

9.1 For BDC/Call Transaction

NA

9.2 For ALE/IDOC/BAPI/Direct Input

NA

9.3 For LSMW

10 ALE Configuration
NA
Source System & Client or Logical System
name

Partner Profile
Target System & Client or Logical System
Name
Message Type
Basic IDoc Type
IDoc Extension
Business Object / Methods
Process Code / Function Module

IDoc Type Structure

<Page 7 of 11>
 SAP IDoc Type:
IDoc Extension:
Parent Segment:
New Child Segment:
IDoc Field

Field Data Format/Length Comments

Name Element/Type

Assignment of FM to Logical message and IDoc type

Function Module FctTyp BasicTyp Log mess type
Obj type Directn Extension MsgCode MsgFunct

Characteristics of inbound function modules

Function Module Input type Dialog allowed

Inbound process codes

Process Code Process Code description

Link type and serialisation type of message type

Message type Serialisation object type Object type link

Workflow event linkages to be activated

Object type Event Receiver type

11 Custom Data Dictionary Objects (if any)

NA
Table Name
Type [ ] Transparent Table [ ] Structure
Short text
Size category
Table maintenance
allowed
Data class
Buffering
Table maintenance
generation
<Page 8 of 11>
Authorization Group
Function Group
Event Name(s)
Field Data Domain Type Length Check Key Foreign Description
Name Element Table- Field Key
Field

Comments

<Page 9 of 11>
12 Error Handling

12.1 Error and process log

1 Reconciliation Report

2 Severe Error Conditions

3 Post execution notification details

4 Restart/Recovery

• Error Messages: NA
Error HOW ERROR MESSAGE SHOULD Error Messages Corrective action
BE REPORTED

10. Performance Considerations

11. Authorization Details

12. Dependency

13. Pseudo Code

<Page 10 of 11>
 14. Unit Test Plan
Normal Functionality -

Exception - special logic or exceptions (e.g., do not process Government Markets customers, only process pre-packs)
NA

Test Step Step Description Test Data Expected Result Actual Result Executed By/Date Remarks
Condition

Error Handling - functionality in case of errors (e.g., Vendor not found, Record already exists)
NA

Test Step Step Description Test Data Expected Result Actual Result Executed By/Date Remarks
Condition

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