a case study on data modeling for sap applications

Copyright © 2015 Boeing. All rights reserved.

Information Technology | Information Technology

Engineering, Operations & Technology

Information Technology

Data Modeling for SAPCase: Boeing Material Services

Lorin Yeaton

Senior Information Architect

Author, 7/10/2014, Filename.ppt | 1



The Company

The Boeing Company

▪ Celebrating 100 years in 2016

▪ 2014 Revenue: 90.76 Billion

▪ A Top US Exporter

▪ Merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997

▪ Commercial Airplanes-

▪ Models in Production 737, 747, 767, 777, 787

▪ Defense & Space- Notable Products:

– Delta IV, Airforce One, International Space Station, B1B Lancer, A-10 Thunderbolt ,F15, F18, Satellites, Launch Services

▪ See www.boeing.com

http://www.boeing.com/



The Presenter

Lorin Yeaton

▪ BS Construction Management

▪ MBA-Management Information Systems

▪ DAMA CDMP, Mastery Level▪ Data Management Core and Data Warehousing

▪ 7 Years Construction Management

▪ 29+ Years at Boeing▪ Program Planning

▪ Systems Analysis & Modeling

▪ Data Management

– Data Architect- specialization in Product Data Management



The Organization

Commercial Aviation Services, Material Management

Spare Parts Sales

Supporting 20K+ MD and Boeing airplanes



The Program

Replace 1990 IMS/COBOL SPARES system

▪ And dozens of surrounding, “bolted on” systems

Significant Regulatory Requirement (FAA)

▪ Support Type Design- Life of airplane + 50 years

▪ Parts must be certified- form 8130

Implement SAP

▪ First BCA SAP Implementation Experience

▪ Hired a System Integrator, but

Responsible for Data Conversion and Integration

▪ Integrations Number in Low Hundreds



The Data Model Challenge

EA Requirement: Produce Logical Data Model

• Why? Understand the target for

• Conversion & Integration

• Data Governance

• Existence in a System of Systems

No Business Exposure to Data Models

▪ And Not That Much on IT Team

SAP OOB 95,000 tables

▪ How to identify relevant subset

▪ Rich Metadata Set exists in SAP, but

▪ Normal Reverse Engineering Tools Do Not Work

▪ Metadata tied up in application layer

Thankfully, Supportive Management

▪ Purchased SAFYR- extracts data from application- benefits



The Process

Tools

▪ ER/Studio + SAFYR + Web publishing

Inputs

▪ Our SAP implementation (late dev, early test)

▪ Conversion/integration mapping – intent to use

Process

▪ Decide on Scoping strategy-

▪ Have to have some way to reduce the 95K tables down to the ones you care about.

▪ Using SAFYR you can select business areas, specific t-codes, application functions.

▪ We scoped mostly C&I mapping because we wanted to limit attributes too

▪ Install SAFYR

▪ Extract MD from SAP

▪ Scope (ss, func area, sys)

▪ Export MD to modeling tool (ER Studio)

▪ Decide on partitioning

▪ Subject Area (Workstream, e.g. OTC, PTP, HR)

– Facet (Information Object) (SAP calls them data entities)

– Entity/Table

– Attribute/Column

SAFYR DEMO



Subject Area Model

Subject = Workstream, e.g.

▪ PDM (Product Data Management)

▪ OTC (Order to Cash)

▪ PTP (Procure to Pay)

▪ WM (Warehouse Management)

Facets = Information Objects within workstream, e.g.

▪ Material Master (a PDM Object)

▪ Customer Master (an OTC object)

▪ Purchase Order (a PTP Object)

▪ Storage Bin (a WM object)



Workstream ModelEntity Relationship Diagram

Presentation Choices:

Hybrid logical-physical models

▪ Business and technical constructs extracted from SAP via SAFYR

▪ Imported into modeling tool

▪ Laid out manually- optimized for audience

▪ Note: The closer you stay to physical, the more automated is the process

One model per Workstream (subject)

Boundary boxes within subject are information objects

▪ These are “real” objects within the application, e.g. they are archivable objects

Within each information object, the normalized(ish) things that make up the information object

▪ Logical entity (usually also a table)

▪ Relationships between entities (usually also foreign keys)

▪ Attributes within each entity (usually also columns)



Example ERD

Procure to Pay Workstream

▪ Next Page

▪ Big Picture with unreadable details

▪ Keep Calm. (Provided for context)

▪ Then, a (nearly) Readable Subset

▪ Purchase Order



Published to Web Page

Our Data Model Web Page

http://onesap-test.web.boeing.com/dataArchitecture.html



Possible Futures

Governing

▪ Change Management

▪ Data Governance

Leading

▪ System Integrators weave into their processes

Trailing

▪ The way it is now

Enterprise

▪ Multiple SAP implementations- one model (or 3)

Safyr summary

• Increase value from packaged applications

• Alleviate data complexity

• Exploit metadata in IM projects

Want to learn more?

• Visit www.silwoodtechnology.com

• Exploratory call

• Ask us for demonstration

• Request evaluation software

Roland BullivantSales and Marketing Director

[email protected]@rolandatsilwood

www.silwoodtechnology.com

Nick PorterTechnical Director

[email protected]

EMBARCADERO TECHNOLOGIESEMBARCADERO TECHNOLOGIES

ER/Studio® for Enterprise

Data Architecture

Ron HuizengaSenior Product Manager – ER/[email protected]

EMBARCADERO TECHNOLOGIES

Keeping pace with the rapid growth of data, change and compliance

Evolving Database

EcosystemsVolume, Velocity,

Variety

Agile Development

CyclesMaximizing IT

InfrastructureComplianceLimited

Resources

Data Professionals Need the Right Tools

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ER/Studio Enterprise Team Edition

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• Accurate forward & reverse engineering

• Easy comparison and reconciliation of model changes

• Model version control with the central repository

• Full data design perspectives with logical & physical models

• Collaboration on models and metadata with Team Server

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Embarcadero Database Tools Portfolio

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Thank you for your interest!

• Learn more about the ER/Studio product family: http://www.embarcadero.com/data-modeling

• Trial Downloads: http://www.embarcadero.com/downloads

• To arrange a demo, please contact: [email protected]

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http://www.embarcadero.com/data-modeling

http://www.embarcadero.com/downloads

mailto:[email protected]


Safyr

ERX

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a case study on data modeling for sap applications

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