Best Practices: Code quality for ABAP development

Overview

In this blog, I would like to share a set of best practices for tools, roles and environment for code quality checks for SAP ABAP development.

Tools

Code quality for ABAP development is based on 5 standard SAP components. The combination of those 5 tools is the foundation of all your quality checks in your ABAP environment.

SAP’s Code Inspector (SCI)

SCI performs static code checks integrated into ABAP Development Tools.

ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC)

ATC runs static checks for ABAP programs.
It re-uses the SAP’s Code Inspector (SCI) custom Code Inspector checks and variants defined by each development projects.

SCMon

This functionality is available in any ABAP based system based on the core functionality of SAP Coverage Analyser.
It is used to log all called and executed ABAP units (procedures) like programs , function modules, classes, methods and subroutines
It contains the root information from which the ABAP unit was originally called.

CCLM (Custom Code Life-cycle Management) scenario in SAP Solution Manager

This is the central point of access for all functions to manage the lifecycle of custom developments from creation to deletion.
CCLM provides an overview of all the custom developments in your ABAP systems to identify changes and manage developments more effectively.

Focused Insights for Dashboards/Reports visualisation

Monitor code’s quality for each of your application with trend and history. (how the code quality increases/decreases over the time).
Benchmark application code usage and code quality across different projects / groups.
Visualise the results in Focused Insights (Trend, History, Table Renderers).

Roles

4 roles should be considered to ensure high quality code for ABAP developments.

Development Environment

The following picture provides an overview of a typical development architecture based on SAP Solution Manager and a central ATC Hub system.

Technical Articles