Whenever ABAP/4 developments need to be created, two questions pop up: Can it be done ? and What would it cost ?... Before these topics can be addressed, it's very important to define a basis for planning.
Usually, it CAN be done. And the costs would directly relate to the amount of time the developer would need to design and build it. Here's some guidelines to planning, the way I would plan today.
Basis for the plannings
The plannings from this chapter are for a developer to build his/her development. Definitions:
- Working hour
- A developers time he/she consumes on the development. At an 80% productivity, with at least 1 year of experience. Only 20% of the work involved in the development may be new to the developer.
- (Preliminary) specification
- Document that describes the functionality of the development initially. The specification is the first step to a development, it should be set up by a functional consultant and it should outline the requested developement in general. Working on specifications is not part of these plannings. Preliminary specifications are normally only done for feasibility studies (making sure the overall package is not becoming too big).
- Functional design
- The official specification (following the preliminary specification), this document outlines the development in such an extend that both functional consultant and technical consultant know what to get / do. The time a technical consultant needs to work on the functional design is part of the planning.
- Technical design
- The technical design is the document a technical consultant creates for his/her technical documentation. The way the development was set up, special additions, the overall setup, any information that could be used whenever the development needs to be changed or upgraded to a new release.
- Functional documentation and user documentation
- Both functional documentation and user documentation should be set up by functional consultants, and thus have no part in this planning.
- Simple developments
- The developments that concern a well specified, stand-alone solution without new or unknown factors. The developer has done the simple development, or a development like it, several times. Simple developments could be: reports with less than (or equal to) 3 selection fields, a well specified interface that is triggered manually, a conversion reshape program to create a sequential input file for SAP's conversion books, or even a DYNPRO transaction with 1 or 3 screens.
- Normal developments
- A normal development is of average complexity and concerns a well specified solution, that could mean: minor changes to SAP, an interactive report, a small DYNPRO transaction (up to 5 screens), any report with more than 3 selection fields, a conversion book, an interface, or SAPscript layout sets. The developer must have done a development like this at least once before, 20% may be new to him/her.
- Complex developments
- A complex development rises above the normal developments because of size, new development topics or great impact to SAP. DYNPRO transactions larger than 5 screens, developments that call more than 3 SAP transactions, new SAPscript layout sets, major changes to standard SAP, involvement of deep selections with more than 5 "masters" and special triggering for interfaces. 15% may be new to the developer.