'High Quality' Developments

The key to development in SAP is understanding its environment - knowing how to code in ABAP doesn't necessarily mean good quality solutions and efficient performance!  I have seen more than a few examples where batch runs took up many hours of processing unnecessarily, or programs that were simply completely avoided due to the coding approach!  All of this cost money unnecessarily.

What should you strive for?

• Programs & reports that are more user-friendly,

• shorter execution times and

• Less re-work when expanding functionality in a productive system

• decreased maintenance costs

• faster turn-around times on program corrections and

Enhanced Quality code is going to contribute to and keeping your users happy with effective and fast turnaround times - it is not that difficult to achieve!

Once you are live, the less you impact your existing environment while satisfying additional user requirements, the less effort required overall on the part of support.

I view 'better' code, as code that offers the following things:

• Greater expandability - requires fewer lines of code to expand the program's function
  Depending on the approaches you've utilized (e.g. ALV), it is possible to allow a change to report output merely by changing a data dictionary structure - zero code change required!
   

• Faster execution whether processing 1000 records or 600,000
  There are specific coding approaches you can adopt that will generally deliver faster execution and lower network load.
   

• Requires less effort to upgrade
  Code that is stand-alone is obviously easier to upgrade than code that is tied to an interface or userexit.  The interface may be tied to another major system, or a userexit may be impacted by a new SAP change.  Adopting specific coding approaches can greatly reduce the complexity of upgrade and maintenance tasks.
   

• Support fast turnaround of new or changed user requirements
  Effective delivery of solutions is going to encourage business users to adopt a constructive relationship with your SAP Development team, fostering a generally healthier relationship. As long as this relationship is appropriately managed, the business should experience improved effectiveness as time goes by.

The Development Tips & Tricks I've outlined can help in achieving these aims.