SAP MDG & SAP Information Steward: A perfect combination for Data Quality Remediation (DQR) scenarios.

Hi folks,

In the past weeks I was working on building a demo for a DQR scenario. In this blog I would like to share some background information and the storyline of the demo including a ScreenCam of the DQR demo. To give you a heads up please see the following screenshot:

In addition to the information is this blog you will find (hopefully) more interesting stuff in below sections like a click-thru-demo.

Scenario Introduction:

DQR stands for Data Quality Remediation which means that generally in this context that business users can execute reports on master data in their transactional system and the records identified with data quality issues can be sent to a MDG to get corrected in a governed process. The next time the business user executes the same report, the corrected records will not show up in the failed records list.

The following image explains this process:

For more information please go the SAP Help page (https://help.sap.com/erp_mdg_addon61/helpdata/en/bc/2fcb33050f4442b6cc37aaaa13ebd5/content.htm?frameset=/en/e6/9f283a0d064a5fa091a0ca3d6a167c/frameset.htm)

Key Benefits:

• Full end to end process support for data quality remediation on master data
• Integrates SAP Information Steward with SAP MDG in one User Interface
• Available for all main standard domains: Materials, Customers and Vendors

Whats new?

As you might know, the DQR scenario was already available in an earlier version but with the newest framework of SAP MDG6.1 it has been optimized in various areas. The following list gives you an overview of the most important improvements (from my perspective):

• Minimal coding required for setup (Web Dynpro UI in Standard)
• Enhanced EPCF Eventing between SAP Information Steward and MDG, SAP Information Steward sends now important information to SAP MDG via client side eventing like:
  • kddName: Key Data Domain,  e.g.: “Material” 
  • kddqName: Data Quality Dimension,  e.g.: “Completeness”
  • projectName: Project name in SAP Information Steward, e.g. “Enterprise Project”
  • ruleName: e.g. “ZB_G13_MATNR_MaterialGroupExists”
  • failedDataColumns:  e.g.: “Material Group”
  • tableName: e.g. “ZB_G13_MATNR_BasicData1
• Secure connection with SAP SOA-Manager integration for segregation of duty in administration
• Configurable Web Dynpro UI: e.g. you can configure the columns to be displayed in the section
• Passing of important SAP Information Steward info’s into SAP MDG Change Request: For instance the triggered SAP MDG Change Requests includes automatically information about the failed rule and fieldname in the Change Request Notes. This helps the user in SAP MDG to correct the right field(s).

Storyline of the Demo

The demo which I attached as a ScreenCam below has the following actors:

1. Claire Thomas: Claire is a business user, using master data in transactional matters. She knows all the details of the master data (e.g. material). She also is aware that all the materials should have a “old material number” although this business rule is not setup in the system as a system-business rule (e.g. Validation in SAP MDG). To identify material records with issues, Claire logs into the SAP NWBC and navigates to the integrated dashboard. In the dashboard she drills down to the corresponding business rule and finally she sees all the “objects with errors”. She selects one material in the list and sends the records for remediation. In this context it means that the system generates automatically a SAP MDG Change request. The number of the new SAP MDG Change request is displayed to Claire on the screen.
2. Diana Dellwo: Diana is from the central master data team. She is responsible to correct master data records on global level. The field “old material number” is a field on global level and hence she is responsible to correct the record. Because of that she logs into SAP NWBC and navigates to her task list (My Change Requests à To be processed by me ). In the list she sees the newly created Change Request from the last step. She opens the Change Request and enters the correct “old material number”. The automatically filled “Notes-information” helps her to correct the right information.   Finally she sends the Change Request task to the approver.
3. Mike Scott: Mike is as well in the central master data team. He is responsible for the approval of master data. He navigates as well to his task list and opens the newly received change request. He reviews the changes and approves the record.
   System activity: The system now replicates the data to the connected systems. Afterwards, SAP Information Steward is doing its regular profiling job and calculates the dashboards.
4. Claire Thomas: Claire again logs into the system and uses again the drill down functionality of the SAP Information Steward dashboard. She recognizes that the material (remediated in this demo) is not anymore in the list.

Storyboard

Click-thru-demo

You can go through the demo here:

http://demo.tdc.sap.com/speeddemo/9d0e6063076c7a35/

More information:

• Available as SAP Rapid Deployment solution: For more information on the RDS please visit  http://service.sap.com/rds-mdgca
• SAP help: http://help.sap.com/mdg61
• Live Demo: The demo is available on www.sapdemocloud.com. Please contact a SAP sales responsible in case you are interested
• ScreenCam: You can watch the screencam of the demo mentioned in this blog here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15z0e6_2013-10-mdg-dqr-demo-with-sap-imformation-steward3_news

Best Regards

Steffen

PS: I would like to thank the following people helping me building the demo: Suryanarayana Mangipudi and Lars Rueter. In addition thanks a lot to Melissa Rinaldi for reviewing and organizational support.