Universe Design Tool Interview Questions

List of Most Frequently asked SAP BO Interview Questions And Answers to Help You Prepare For The Upcoming Interview:

Based on my experience I have created a hand-picked SAP BO Interview Question Answers. I have touched all the main key points of SAP business objects. By going through these articles you will not only learn the SAP BO interview questions but also learn the core concepts of SAP business objects.

Best SAP BO Interview Questions And Answers

Let's start.

Q #1) What is SAP Business Objects?

Answer: SAP Business Objects is a business intelligence tool that provides the combination of analysis, reporting and querying intended to find instant answers to the business-related questions and help management improve their decision-making process.

Q #2) Throw some light on your experience in SAP BO with respect to your project work.

Answer: I worked for a US-based health-care distributor who delivers pharmaceuticals to various retails and institutional providers across North America. Depending on the sales made, the company offers different kinds of rebates to its customers.

Broadly speaking, the aim of our project was to build a rebate calculation application for the company through which we can calculate rebates accurately and present real-time state of the system to the business so that losses incurred on inaccurate rebate calculation are minimized and decision making can be improved by viewing more realistic reports.

This was an agile project & I was involved in the development team of the scrum.

My tasks were bringing data into the SAP HANA system from various sources and develop data models over this data. Then, over the calculation views created in SAP HANA, I used to build universes in IDT depicting different scenarios needed for reporting.

And finally, I used to build reports in SAP Business Objects utilizing these universes. These reports were the end product of our project. The top management used to consume these reports for better decision-making.

For building these reports, I used Webi rich client – SAP Business Objects 4.0.

Q #3) How the tools under SAP Business objects are categorized?

Answer: We have the SAP BO platform on the top. We have different tools under the SAP BO platform. Below is the categorization:

• SAP BO BI 4.0 – This is for business objects reporting.
• SAP BO DS 4.0 – It is an EIM tool for SAP. Under this, we have:
  • Data migration projects
  • ETL (for data warehousing projects)
• SAP BO PB: This is for business planning and legal consolidation. It is an EPM tool for SAP.

Q #4) What are the bunch of tools available under the Business Objects 4.0 platform?

Answer: We have the following type of tools under SAP BO BI 4.0:

• Administrator tools
• Business User tools – Business user tools are the ones intended for a business user (Example –HR manager or a financial manager of any organization) which helps them to view and manage business reports to aid them in a decision-making process.
• Data manager tools – They are used to design a semantic layer between the designer tool and its source of data.
• Designer tools – It provides the facility to design a query based on your reporting requirement.

The below image shows a glimpse of the above categorization:

Important Note: Webi is both a business user tool as well as a design tool.

Q #5) What is the BI launchpad?

Alternative Question: A business user wants to view a Webi report. How will he achieve this?

Answer: This can be achieved through the BI launch pad.

BI launch pad is an SAP BO BI 4.0 business user tool used for broadcasting the reports. It provides an interface to the SAP BO business intelligence platform repository that enables us to navigate to view & manage our business intelligence documents. It is a web-based application/portal from where we can access the reports and organize the reports as per our needs.

The images below show exactly how the BI launch pad looks like:

Q #6) What URL do you use for opening the BI launchpad?

Answer: Below URL is used:

HTTP://localhost:8080/BOE/BI­

Q #7) How do you access Webi?

Answer: We open Webi through BI launch pad as shown in the image below:

Under 'My applications', we have several applications enlisted. You can click on the red & blue webi icon as shown in the above figure and start using the app.

Q #8) What is a client tool? / Why webi is referred to as a client tool?

Answer: Webi is referred to as a client tool because it can connect to the business object's main server (CMS). When we launch the tool, we have the option to connect to a business object server. It asks for the 'system name' which is nothing but the BO server.

Every tool under SAP BO is capable of connecting to the business object repository. That is why these tools are referred to as client tools.

Q #9) Explain the categorization of SAP Business object client tools.

Answer: SAP BO client tools are divided into two parts:

• Business object desktop tools: These are also called as window-based tools. They can be launched from the windows environment. Let's say, we have an IDT (Information Design Tool), UDT (Universe Design Tool), live office, etc. We cannot launch them from the web/ BI launch pad. For Example, if you need to launch UDT, you will open it through windows like this:

• Business object web client tools: These are the tools that can be launched from the BI launch pad. They are browser-based tools. For Example, Business objects explorer, analysis edition for OLAP, etc.

Important Note: Webi is a web-based as well as a window-based tool.

Q #10) Why webi is called as a business user tool as well as a designer tool at the same time?

Answer: The reason behind this is that a business user can log into web intelligence and view reports and if they want to create simple reports on an ad-hoc basis then that is also possible.

Webi is a very simple tool to use. A business user can open a report from the BO repository and can also generate the report by just selecting the universe, run a query on top of it and get their final report as a result.

Q #11) From where do we design the queries needed for reports?

Answer: We design the queries from the query panel. We don't need to write complex queries here. We just have to drag & drop the column and functions and the queries are generated accordingly in the background. Below is an image showing how a query panel looks like:

Q #12) What is the result of a query?

Answer: The result of the query is the final report. A report is a business representation of the data.

Q #13) One of the major stakeholder's need is to visualize data for better decision making. Which SAP BO tool would you choose in this case?

Answer: We would choose SAP BO Dashboards in this scenario.

Q #14) The business user's need is to get ad-hoc questions answered and interact with information. Which SAP BO tool would you choose in this case?

Answer: We can go with webi in this scenario.

Q #15) If a business needs highly formatted reports, which tool would you choose?

Answer: We would go with 'SAP crystal reports for enterprise' in this case as it gives very powerful formatting options.

Q #16) What are the different types of connections available?

Answer: There are three different kinds of connections available:

• Personal connection
• Shared connection
• Secured connection

Personal connection is the one that can be used by you only i.e. this connection is available to only the user who creates it. No other user has access to use this connection. We have a PDAC.LSI file where the connection details are kept in case of a personal connection.

Next, comes is the shared connection where all the users can access the connection. We have a shared server in this case and the connection details are kept in SDAC.LSI file.

The limitation of the shared connection is that we can't establish rights & permissions over the objects. Also, we cannot export the universe to a central repository in case we are using a shared connection.

The last type of connection available is secured connection which can be shared between the users and we can also set rights & permissions in CMS (Central Management Server). in this case.

Additionally, we can export the universe to a central repository in case we are using a secured connection. Secure connections are saved in the repository.

Q #17) Which of the connection did you use in your project and why?

Answer: In my project, we were using the secured connection as we were working in a team and also the reports had to be shared between the cross-functional team.

We had to create BO reports over the IDT universe and publish these reports. When it comes to a live project, the secured connection is the best kind of connection to use because here we can limit access to different users. Also, a secured connection can be accessed from different servers.

The main reason for using a secured connection is that since it is saved in a repository, so if your requirement is to publish the reports over repository, you will have to use a secured connection.

Q #18) Explain your idea of a Universe in BO and its relevance with the assignments you have worked upon.

Answer: A universe is a logical layer between the backend and the front end of the reporting. It is a metadata layer that isolates the technical complexities of the source system from the business user/report developer.

In the universe, the required attributes and measures are picked up from the backend and arranged in a way we want to use them further for reporting. In my project, we used to create the IDT universe on top of calculation views developed in HANA. These IDT universes were further utilized to create BO reports.

Q #19) With what extension the universes get created in IDT?

Answer: In IDT, the universes get created with the ".unx" extension. It is stored in the form of a file.

Q #20) How the universes created in IDT are made available in BO?

Answer: Once the universe is created, we publish the universe using a secured connection and then import the universe in BO to make a report on top of it.

Q #21) What made you choose webi over other reporting tools?

Answer: The reason for opting webi was its user-friendly interface, the better way of presentations, ad-hoc analysis and advanced reporting capabilities. These features lack in other reporting tools like crystal reports, BeX analyzers, and WAD.

Q #22) Have you ever encountered the scenario of a chasm trap? If yes, what is the way to resolve it as per your suggestion?

Answer: Yes, I did encounter the scenario of a chasm trap in one of my assignments.

In a universe based upon a dimensional schema, we could have a dimension table joined with 2 fact tables so that both of them are one-to-many joins (F >- D -< F).

In such a situation, if we have a tendency to drag a measure from each of the fact tables in conjunction with attributes from the dimension table, the value of the measures within the fact tables is inflated.

This condition is understood as a chasm trap. The chasm trap shows you misleading figures in the report which can impact management decision making. Thus, the condition of a chasm trap should be avoided/resolved.

To resolve chasm trap: Go to Universe Parameters -> SQL -> Multiple paths -> check the options – 'multiple SQL statements for each context' and 'multiple SQL statements for each measure'. And uncheck the option – 'allow selection of multiple contexts'.

Q #23) What do you mean by a fan trap and how would it be resolved?

Answer: In a universe structure, we might have three tables joined in such a manner that the first table contains a one to many join with the second table which successively contains a one to many join with the third table (A -< B -< C). ]

In such a state of affairs, if a measure is contained within the second table and it's dragged in conjunction with any dimension from the third table, the value of the measure is going to be inflated. Such a condition is thought of as a fan trap.

A fan trap is resolved by making an alias of the second table and shaping contexts so that, the conventional table is joined solely with the first table, whereas the alias is joined with both the first and the third table. We'd take the second table's measured solely from the conventional table and alternative dimensions of the second table from the alias table.

Q #24) What are the methods available in SAP BO to do the multidimensional analysis?

Answer: The methods are:

• Slice and Dice method
• Drill down method

Q #25) If you want to find immediate answers to business questions, which tool you would go with?

Answer: We will go with business objects explorer in this case. It acts like a business object's search engine. We can search for anything through a keyword search box in the explorer and all the information spaces appear in the result where that particular keyword exists.

Q #26) In BO 3.1, we had a 'dashboard builder'. What is the nomenclature for the same in BO BI 4.0?

Answer: It is called 'BI workspaces' in BO BI 4.0 platform.

Q #27) Do you have any idea about the Live Office?

Answer: There are many users who are comfortable using only Microsoft office products. They need business reports in Microsoft office products like Microsoft Excel and all. For those users, we have SAP BO Live office tools.

Q #28) We have a lot of tools available under the business objects platform. Will, a company has to purchase the entire suite or does the SAP provides a way for organizations to buy only the tools which are needed?

Answer: No, it is not necessary for a company to buy all the tools that come under the SAP BO platform. The SAP provides the customization packages under which the company can buy only the tools which are needed.

Q #29) What can be different data sources for BO reports?

Answer: The different data sources are SAP BW, OLAP, application database, customer database, Text file, XML file and Web service.

Q #30) What is the difference between UDT and IDT?

Answer: The universes which are designed in UDT are UNV universes whereas the universes which are designed in IDT are UNX universes. In UDT we don't have multi-resource universes enabled whereas in IDT we have this option. IDT is enhanced and more organized as compared to UDT.

Q #31) Does crystal reports can be built on top of UDT?

Answer: No, the tools like crystal report for Enterprises, Dashboards, BO explorer does not support the UNV universe (designed by UDT). It supports only the UNX universe (designed by IDT). Web Intelligence is the only tool that supports both the universes – UNV and UNX.

Reccommended reading =>> SAP Hybris Interview Questions

Conclusion

Before you step into the SAP BO interview, you should have a very clear understanding of the SAP BO platform, the categories of tools it offers and how these tools are interrelated. You should be able to explain the end to end process of reporting.

You should also have an idea of the pros and cons of different SAP BO tools, the kind of requirements they serve and which tool to use for what purpose. Questions from the Universe and webi will always be there in the list. So, these two topics should also be well-prepared.

Recommended Reading=> Best SAP Testing Tools

All the best!

Universe Design Tool Interview Questions

Source: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/sap-bo-interview-question-answers/

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