Clean Core Concepts: Consider In-App extensibility before you create that Z object!
✋ Wait up before you create your Z space object!
As a SAP developer working on SAP S/4HANA on premise it's very easy to slip into old habits and skip some of the new system features that SAP offers which improves quality life over the long term ownership and maintenance of the product.
Before running transaction codes like se80 to create custom objects in the system make sure you take the time to understand In-App extensibility as an alternative and how it could benefit your implementation in the long run.
❓What is In-App Extensibility?
In-App Extensibility allows businesses to easily and cost-effectively customize their S/4HANA system, without having to make changes to the core code.
Basically you use Fiori applications to customize your S/4HANA instance!
Think of In-App extensibility like a no-code/low-code approach to extensions with scenarios such as:
- Custom tables
- Adding fields
- Writing custom logic
🤔 Why would I use In-App over traditional methods like se80?
There's a whole bunch of benefits to in-app over the old school way of enhancing S/4HANA objects.
Simplicity and Supportability: Using In-app extensibility to add new functionality or modify existing functionality within the S/4HANA system means you're not making changes to the ABAP core code. Intead you're using SAP's provided Fiori apps to configure the system and these changes are supported for SAP during future upgrades.
Cost-effective and Reduced Risk: In-app extensibility allows customers to add new functionality or modify existing functionality without the need for custom development in the ABAP layer, which sometimes can be costly and time-consuming. Custom development or customization also adds complexity, increase the risk of errors, and ongoing maintainance. In-app extensibility allows customers to add new functionality or modify existing functionality in a controlled and predictable way that eliminates some of thes issues.
💡 Can I see some real life examples?
SAP have some really awesome tutorials and hands on learning that I highly recommend. SAP is a brilliant resource to quickly get up to speed here:
The fastest way to get acquainted with what's possible is to gets hands on with concept by actually doing a few examples of Custom Business Objects and Custom CDS Views. In the following weeks I will expand on some of these topics a bit further.
♟️What else should I consider?
Keeping the core clean is not easy, therefore it's important to champion this concept across your organization. It's recommended once you understand the concepts how to implement it across your program.
Consider building out a vision and strategy with this high level approach:
- Lay out a clear vision of what you want to achieve
- How will you achieve that vision of a clean architecture
- Guidelines around how to approach checking standard objects first
- Coach and align your team
- Check designs for use of unreleased objects
🙋🏻♂️ I might need additional help!
If your organization needs a helping hand on implementing Power BI architecture with SAP, please feel free to reach out to me at ben@ben-kwong.com