SAP Business Intelligence Interview Questions
1. Define Derived tables?
Answer: They are created in the universe. It is used for complex calculations that can’t be sorted out at the report level. The other useful feature of the derived table is that by using dblink we can use the table from another schema.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Write the advantages of using business objects?
Answer:
There are many advantages of business objects
Easy to use
Dragging and dropping
Graphical interface
Familiar business terms
Powerful reports for a lesser amount of time.
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5. What are user objects?
Answer: User objects are the end–user personal objects that are not shared with other end-users. This is because the user objects are stored locally in a specific user object definition file. If an end-user tries to refresh or edit a query that contains another user’s user object, the user object is automatically removed from the query and report. A user object is stored inside the Universe folder.
6. What are the types of repository domains?
Answer: There are three types of repository domains
Universe domain: It holds all the exported universes and there may be more than one universe domain in the repository.
Document domain: It holds all exported documents, templates, scripts, and lists of values.
Security domain: secured connections are stored in this.
7. What are the different schemas supported by BO Designer?
Answer:
- Star Schema
- Snowflake Schema
- Multistar Schema
- Normalized production Schema
- Data warehouse with aggregates
8. What is the repository?
Answer: The repository is the database in which the information about the users and data is present. It is created and maintained by the general supervisor. It is used to share the resources of business objects.
9. What is a master/detail report?
Answer: Large blocks of data can be split into sections by using a master/detail report. Repeating values can be avoided by using this and also the subtotals can be displayed.
10. Describe the uses of @functions?
Answer: The @prompt function asks the end-user to enter any specific values. The Visual Basics for applications macro’s results will be recovered by using @Script function. An existing statement SELECT statement can be re-used by using the @Select function. For a name or variable, the value assigned to it will be referenced using @Variable. An existing object’s where clause can be re-used by @Where functions.
11. What are the utilities of Derived tables?
Answer: Using SQL queries from the database level, Derived tables are created in the universe. The columns of the derived table will be the columns selected in the query. Derived table can be used in the complex calculations which are difficult to be achieved in the report levels. Using a dblink, tables can be accessed from a different schema, which is another use of derived tables.
12. Write the various kind of data providers?
Answer:
There are various kinds of data providers are:
- OLAP servers
- Queries over universe
- Personal data files
- SAP
- VBA procedures
- Stored procedures
- Free hand-SQL
13. Define User Objects?
Answer: User objects is a universe of classes and objects which is created by the universe designer. Once the objects that consisted of the universe do not match your necessities, then the user can create his objects called User objects.
14. What are the usiness objects?
Answer: Business objects provides a set of tools for building data warehouses very efficiently. Business objects are an integrated query, reporting and analysis solution for business professionals that allow them to access the data in their corporate databases directly from their desktop and present and analyze this information in a business objects document.
15. What are the various data sources available?
Answer: Business objects help you in accessing the data from a variety of sources. You have the possibility of accessing data from RDBMS like Oracle, MS SQL Server, and IBM DB2.
16. What are the kinds of modes associated with designer and business objects?
Answer:
There are especially two different kinds of modes associated with these platforms, they are
Enterprise mode
Workgroup mode
17. What is a personal connection?
Answer: Personal connection can be created only by a single user and it can’t be made used by others. The details regarding such a connection can be usually stored inside PDAC.LSI file.
18. What are the different types of data providers supported by BO?
Answer:
Queries on Universe
Stored procedure
Freehand SQL
Text files or Spreadsheets
VBA Procedures
OLAP servers
SAP
19. Define the kinds of data providers?
Answer:
There are various kinds of data providers available for the business objects and they are:
Stored procedures
Queries over universe
Freehand – SQL
VBA procedures
SAP
OLAP servers
Personal data files
20. What is Channel?
Answer: It is to make the users know up-to-date information. Channel is a website with ‘push’ technology. company
21. What are the limitations of user objects?
Answer: User objects are not common between the end-users. It is kept in a specific user object definition file. Hence if an end-user tries to refresh or edit the query contains another user’s user object, it will be routinely cleaned and removed.
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22. Write the schema supported by Business Objects Designer?
Answer:
There are five different schemas supported by Business Objects designer
Snowflake schema.
Star schema
Normalized production schema
Multistar schema.
Data warehouse with aggregates.
23. What are the benefits of the linked universe?
Answer: A dynamic link may considerably reduce development and maintenance time. When you modify a component in the kernel universe, the DESIGNER propagates the change to the same component in all the derived universes.
Instead of recreating common components each time you create a new universe, you can centralize such components in a kernel universe, and then include them in all new universes.
Linked universes facilitate specialization. Development can be split between database administrators who set up a basic kernel universe and the more specialized designers who create more functional universes based on their specific field.
24. Define a secure connection?
Answer: It is a kind of connection that overcomes the disadvantages related to the former connection. We can use the universe in the central repository by a secured connection.
25. How many possible ways are there for linking universes?
Answer:
- There are three ways:
- The Master approach.
- The Kernal approach.
- The Component approach.
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. 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.
29. 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.
30. 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 Business objects categories
SAP BO BI 4.0 – This is for business objects reporting.
SAP BODS 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.
31. What are the user profiles in Supervisor?
Answer:
SUPERVISOR offers several standard profiles for the various types of users of Business Objects products.
General Supervisor
Supervisor
Designer
Supervisor-Designer
User
Versatile
32. 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.
33. 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.
34. What is a join?
Answer: Join combines columns and data from two or more tables. Join is the relation that occurs between the two tables that helps to combine into one table. The purpose of a join is to restrict the Cartesian product.
35. What is an add-in?
Answer: Add-ins are programs that add optional commands and features to BusinessObjects. Add-ins are usually created by those responsible in your company for adding customized features to BusinessObjects. All you probably need to do is install and uninstall add-ins that are sent to you.
36. Can a Universe have more than one fact Table?
Answer: Yes. Typically a universe can have more than one fact table and numerous aggregated tables.
37. What is the difference between built-in strategies and external strategies?
Answer: Built-in Strategies: Designer provides a number of default strategies that we can use. These are strategies for extracting joins, detecting cardinalities, and creating default classes and objects. Options for indicating default strategies are located in the Database tab of the Options dialog box.
External Strategies: We can also create our own strategies. Such strategies are referred to as external strategies. With an external strategy, we can specify the exact way that objects and joins are to be extracted from the database structure. The strategy we use, for example, can be a script generated from a CASE Access tool. An external strategy is specific to one RDBMS.
38. Write the different products linked with Business Objects?
Answer:
There are various products related to business objects
- Broadcast Agent
- Info View
- Supervisor
- Auditor
- Designer
- Set Analyzer
- User module
39. Define the term fan trap?
Answer: A one to many joins links to a table that respond with another one to many join links is called fan trap.
40. Define WEBI?
Answer: Web intelligence is a solution that is specialized in supporting decisions related to queries, reports, and analysis.
41. What is intelligent binning?
Answer: A powerful BUSINESS MINOR feature which automatically and intelligently divides numeric values into “bins” based on the range, values and distribution of the data.
42. What all data sources are available?
Answer: BO allows us to review data from various sources. We can use data from RDBMS such as MS SQL Server, Oracle, etc.
43. How many Domains are there in Business Objects? What are they?
Answer:
There are three Domains in Business Objects and they are:
Security
Document
Universe
44. Define Slice in Business Objects?
Answer: Slice works with the master or detail reports and it is used to rename, reset and delete the blocks.
45. Differentiate Dice and Slice?
Answer: Slice: It renames, reset and delete the blocks. It works with the master/detail report.
Dice: It displays the data and removes the data. It turns the crosstabs and tables into charts and vice versa.
46. What are the restrictions over user objects?
Answer: User objects are not shared with other end users. It is stored in a specific user object definition file. So if any end-user tries to refresh or edit the query contains another user’s user object, it will be automatically cleaned and removed.
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