Working Process of SAP
certification
Before you (Mr. or Ms. SAP Professional) go
rushing off to get certified by SAP, it's a good idea to consider the wide
range of options available, and determine if certification is even useful.
What certification levels are available today?
Will being certified help you get your first SAP
job?
Will it serve as a tiebreaker when you are
applying for a position and face intense competition in a declining economy?
Has anyone ever done an objective study of
whether SAP certified consultants perform better on the job versus
non-certified consultants?
Do SAP clients care about certification?
Employers and recruiters will also benefit from
this article—you’ll find some of your previous assumptions about the SAP
certification process either challenged or reinforced.
We’ll cover all these questions and more—but
first, a little background on the SAP certification program.
Who can be certified and at what levels?
The certification program is available for SAP
employees, partner employees, independent consultants, and client employees.
Already SAP is ahead of Oracle—Oracle’s certification programs for E-Business
Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel are only available to Oracle
employees and partner employees.
About three years ago, after discussions with
both clients and partners, SAP announced three levels of certification --
Associate, Professional, and Master. Currently the associate level and
professional level exams are available. The master level is still in
development.
The SAP website defines these levels as follows:
Associate: “This certification covers the
fundamental knowledge requirements for an SAP consultant, ensuring the
successful acquisition of broad SAP solution knowledge and skills.”
Professional: “This advanced certification requires
proven project experience, business process knowledge, and a more detailed
understanding of SAP solutions.”
Master: “This certification, under development,
involves demonstrating an expert-level understanding of a specific area of SAP
software and the ability to drive innovation and solution optimization through
in-depth knowledge and vision. Certification at this level requires broad
project experience, comprehensive SAP product knowledge, and the ability to
create a future IT vision within complex project environments.”
The Associate level exams test book knowledge. In
most cases, this level does not require SAP implementation experience in order
to pass the exams. Questions on the Professional level exams are designed to
test the SAP experience of the test taker. The requirements for the Master
level involve more than taking exams. As the SAP website mentions, the process
of obtaining Master level certification is still being defined.
SAP takes care to point out that you don’t need
to pass the Associate level exam before sitting for the Professional level
exam. So you get to select which level you think you are qualified for and take
that exam.
SAP Public Certification Information
We'll begin at www.SAP.com/usa/services/education/certification/index.epx.
The path is Home>Services>SAP Education>Certification Program. (The
link and the path may vary for different SAP country sites.)
Here, you’ll find definitions of each
certification level, with links to certification training, exam locations and
schedules, and policies and procedures.
Let’s start with the “Find a certification” box
in the top right corner of this page. I’m a former Sales Order and Pricing
consultant, so let’s see what I can find. Under “select solution” I selected
“SAP ERP”. Under focus area, I selected “Applications”. Under role, I selected
“Application Consultant”.
After I then clicked “Find”, I see a page with
links to 32 different certifications, ranging across all the ERP applications,
at both the Associate and Professional level. I selected this link: SAP
Certified Application Associate - Sales Order Management with SAP ERP 6.0.
Lots of good information is presented, such as
links to the exam description, related certifications such as the Professional
certificate for Sales Order Management, etc.
Fortunately, I’m guided visually to a colored box
that has the certification that I am interested in. I click on the
Certification Tests link on the right side of the page, and I see a list of
competencies, weightings, topics on the exam and related classes I can take to
prepare: http://www.sap.com/services/education/certification/certificationtest.epx?context=%5b%5bC_TSCM62_60%7cG%5d%5d%7c
I then drilled down on one of the list of topics
covered by the exam to check out the details. I picked “Availability check” and
clicked through to this page: http://www.sap.com/services/education/certification/globaltabbedcourse.epx?context=%5b%5b%7cTSCM60%7c%7c%7c%7c%7c%5d%5d%7c
Unfortunately, what I’m presented with is a
course description for one of the standard Order Fulfillment classes. I’d
rather see details about what specifically is covered on the exam under the
topic of Availability check.
At this point, I need a break to regroup. I walk
away with the feeling that SAP might be trying to sell me training classes to
prep for the exam. Oh well, at least I’ve got the core list of topics that will
be on the exam. (By the way, SAP told me that the intent of the certification
pages on the website is not to sell training, but rather to provide information
on the content of the exams.)
Some of the exam pages are more detailed than the
one mentioned above. For example, the page for the Professional level exam
seems to have more detail than the Associate level page: http://www.sap.com/services/education/certification/certificationtest.epx?context=%5b%5bC_TSCM62_05%7cG%5d%5d%7c
Certification Training
Just like SAP software, the SAP website has
several ways to accomplish the same thing.
At one point (don’t ask me to retrace all my
steps), I clicked through to this page: http://www.sap.com/usa/services/education/certtraining/curriculum.epx?context=%5b%5bSCM5_ORD_SOL_NA%5d%5d%7c
I’m greeted with over 20 days of training at SAP
Academy (for consultants).
Are these classes required to sit for and pass
the Associate level certification exams? No,they are not required. But if one
knew nothing about SAP, then these classes should give you enough knowledge to
pass the exams at the Associate level.
Another training option is the public class
route: http://www.sap.com/usa/services/education/certtraining/curriculum.epx?context=%5b%5bSCM5_ORD2_SOL_NA%5d%5d%7c:
That path results in about the same number of
days of classes, and essentially the same material as the SAP Academy classes.
Certification Guides & Sample Exam Questions
The following link goes to a list of links to
sample questions: http://www.sap.com/services/education/certification/schedule/index.epx
I found ten multiple-choice questions on the
Sales Order sample. They appeared to be good, solid questions--the kind of
questions one would expect to see on a certification exam.
Some of the questions have multiple answers. SAP
recently went to a “dichotomous scoring” technique, which means that partial
credit is no longer given for partially correct answers. So if a question asks
you to identify the two correct possible answers, and you get just one correct,
you get no credit for that answer. Using this scoring method has resulted in
SAP having to lower the passing score on exams—to sometimes as low as 55%.
Since 10 sample questions can’t give you an idea
of the full range of topics covered by a certification exam, you’ll want to
review the competency list provided for each exam.
Profile parameters for Logon
Parameters | Explanation |
login/min_password_lng | Defines the minimum length of the password. Default value: 3; permissible values: 3 – 8 |
login/min_password_digits | Defines the minimum number of digits (0-9) in passwords. Default value: 0; permissible values: 0 – 8 Available as of SAP Web AS 6.10 |
login/min_password_letters | Defines the minimum number of letters (A-Z) in passwords. Default value: 0; permissible values: 0 – 8 Available as of SAP Web AS 6.10 |
login/min_password_specials | Defines the minimum number of special characters in the password Permissible special characters are ()!\"@ $%&/()=?'`*+~#-_.,;:{[]}\\<> Default value: 0; permissible values: 0 – 8 Available as of SAP Web AS 6.10 |
login/min_password_diff | Defines the minimum number of characters that must be different in the new password compared to the old password. Default value: 1; permissible values: 1 – 8 Available as of SAP Web AS 6.10 |
login/password_expiration_time | Defines the validity period of passwords in days. Default value: 0; permissible values: any numerical value |
login/password_change_for_SSO | If the user logs on with Single Sign-On, checks whether the user must change his or her password. Available as of SAP Web AS 6.10, as of SAP Basis 4.6 by Support Package |
login/disable_password_logon | Controls the deactivation of password-based logon Available as of SAP Web AS 6.10, as of SAP Basis 4.6 by Support Package |
login/password_logon_usergroup | Controls the deactivation of password-based logon for user groups Available as of SAP Web AS 6.10, as of SAP Basis 4.6 by Support Package |
User Types in R/3 Security
Characterization of user types
- Dialog user 'A‘ Individual system access (personalized)
- Logon with SAPGUI is possible. The user is therefore interaction-capable with the SAPGUI.
- Expired or initial passwords are checked.
- Users have the option of changing their own passwords.
- Multiple logon is possible but we can restrict by parameter
Ex : End users, Support users etc. - Service user 'S‘ Shared system access (anonymous)
- Logon with SAPGUI is possible. The user is therefore interaction-capable with the SAPGUI.
- The passwords are not subject to the password change requirement, that is, they cannot be initial or expired.
- Only a user administrator can change the password.
- Multiple logon is permitted.
Ex : Fire Fighter Id
System user 'B‘ System-dependent and system-internal operations
- Logon with SAPGUI is not possible. The user is therefore not interaction-capable with the SAPGUI.
- The passwords are not subject to the password change requirement, that is, they cannot be initial or expired.
- Only an administrator user can change the password.
- It is used to communicate within the system.
- Ex : Internal RFC, background processing, external RFC (for example, ALE, workflow, TMS, CUA)
- Communication user 'C‘ :
- Logon with SAPGUI is not possible. The user is therefore not interaction-capable with the SAPGUI.
- It is also one type of background user and communicates between the systems.
- Ex : external RFC , CUA
- —Reference user 'L' Authorization enhancement
- —No dialog logon is possible.
- —Reference users are used for providing extra privileges of a user who is going on vacation or leave to existing users.
Ex : Internet users with identical authorizations
Creation of Customized Auth.Objects(SU21)
when entered Su21 T-Code u will get
under this Auth.object we can maintain our own auth.fields also
For more information visit www.keylabstraining.com
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