7/11/2021
SAP Project system
Basic PS terminologies
Haitham A'ayd
HAITHAM M.A’YAD
CONTENTS
SAP Project System – A ready Reference ......................................................................................... 2
Some important terms: ...................................................................................................................... 3
SAP PROJECT SYSTEM – A READY REFERENCE
SAP Project System PS is part of the EPPM SAP Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management
EPPM consists:
1. SAP PPM
Portfolio Management, Project Management (cProjects)
2. SAP CPM (Commercial Project Management)
3. SAP PS (Project System)
So for now let us Know more abort PS functionalities:
Being a beginner in SAP PS is a challenge. As a techie, when I started in PS Module, I found a lot of
scattered information but there is no article or blog with consolidated information even on basic
terminologies of SAP PS. This blog is my attempt to provide an insight of basic techno-functional
aspects and terminologies of SAP PS to a novice.
In my first blog, you will find the important terms of the PS module. I have tried to explain them with
the help of an example
The Project System (PS) module of SAP is specifically designed to provide comprehensive and fully
integrated project management functionality for SAP customers. A Project is a complex undertaking,
bringing with it huge data of different type.
At the beginning of each project, whether it involves developing a new product, make-to-order
engineering or internal organization, you need to define and set up the structures necessary to
manage your project and incorporate them into your existing organizations and processes. Before
you can run a project in its entirety, you must first describe the project goals precisely and create a
structure for the project activities to be carried out. A clear project structure provides a basis for
successful project planning, monitoring and control.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES IN PROJECT SYSTEM:
”
You create and manage your project structure in SAP R/3 Project System, by means of work
breakdown structures and networks. The WBS describes individual phases and functions of a project.
Network contains the individual project tasks and the dependencies between them in the form of
activities and relationships
SOME IMPORTANT TERMS:
PROJECT DEFINITION
Project Definition is general description of the project that you want to manage. It is a framework laid
down for all the objects created within a project. It contains organizational data that is binding for the
entire project.
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS)
WBS is a hierarchical model of the tasks to be performed in the project. It provides overview of the
project and forms basis for the project organization and coordination. It shows work, time and money
spent on the project. You can use it to plan dates & costs and allocate budget. The Work Breakdown
Structure can be displayed according to:



Phase
Function
Object
Individual tasks required to carry out the project is called WBS elements.
NETWORK
The network describes project processing. Thus, the Network contains instructions on how to carry
out activities in a specific way, in a specific order and in a specific time period.Main elements of
network are activities and relationships. It forms the basis for planning, analyzing and monitoring
time schedules, costs, & resources.
ACTIVITIES
Activities are used to plan project staffing, capacity, material, PRTs, and service requirements. When
activities are assigned to WBS elements, detailed view of costs, dates, and capacities at WBS
element could be obtained. It is a task in a network, which has a defined start and finish. An activity
can be broken down into activity elements. Three categories of activities in the Project System:·



Internal Activities
External Activities
General Cost Activities
ACTIVITY ELEMENT
Activity element is an activity, which is subordinate to another activity. Activity elements contain the
same information as activities. Three categories of activity elements in the Project System:



Work elements
External Elements
General Cost Elements
ACTIVITY TYPE
It is a physical measure of activity output of a cost center .e.g. hours, number of units produced,
machine times, production times.
MILESTONES
Milestones are the events in the project to which particular importance is attached or which trigger
predefined functions. In general, they indicate transition between different departments or phases.
Milestones are assigned to activities and WBS elements: In PS milestones are used to:



Trigger predefined functions in network activities.
Carry out earned value analysis.
Determine dates in billing plan for sales orders.
RELATIONSHIPS
You use relationships to depict chronological and technical dependencies between activities. The
relationship determines the nature of the link between the individual activities. :




FS Relationship: An activity does not start until the preceding activity is completed.
SS Relationship: An activity cannot start unless another activity has started.
FF Relationship: An activity cannot be completed until another activity has been completed.
SF Relationship: An activity cannot be completed until another succeeding activity has stared.
CONFIRMATIONS
It is a part of network control. It documents the state of processing for the network activities and
activity elements. There are two types of confirmations Partial & Final. Confirmations are used to
record:




The work center where the activity was carried out.
The person who carried out this activity.
The yield and scrap produced in an activity.
The actual values for the duration and dates.
SETTLEMENT
As a rule, projects are used to collect and monitor costs, but are not usually the final cost object. For
this reason, the costs in atypical project will be settled at the end of the period. To this end, you store
settlement rules in the activity / WBS element requiring settlement. They contain information on
settlement receivers, cost apportionment and control data. Settlement receivers could be cost
centers, G/L accounts. Etc.
BUDGET
The budget is the approved cost structure for an action or project in a particular period. Budgeting
differs from cost plan in that it is binding. In the approval phase, you prescribe your project funds in
the form of budget. It is possible to allocate overall and annual budget in parallel.
WORK CENTERS
Work center represents the resources responsible for executing an activity. In a work center, you
can enter the available capacity and an operating time. You can arrange the work centers in a
hierarchy for capacity evaluation purposes. Internal activities are assigned to work centers
(resources) to be completed. A work center is a physical unit within a company where an activity is
performed.
PROFIT CENTER
It is subdivision of business organization, which is set up for internal management control purposes.
Profit centers divide business up on a management basis. The basic aim of profit center accounting
is to present areas of the business as entities operating independently in the market.
Lots of jargons ….let me site an instance of the construction project of a building.
Let say there is a construction company that is going to construct a Multi-Stores building.
The first thing that needs to be created in the system is Project Definition. The entire activity plan
for this project will come under this project definition. Overall budget needs to be estimated,
assigned and be approved for the project. Project timeline needs to be decided. Project could be
then subdivided into separate parts, which are actually WBS elements let us say in this, e.g. we
have four main WBS elements:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Land Acquisition
Procurement
Construction
General
To every above WBS, budget and time line need to estimated.
Now to take an example we will drill down two WBS elements namely Land Acquisition and
Construction.
– Land Acquisition could be sub divided into activities as in




Generation of request document for the land.
Soil testing
Approval for construction
Preparation of purchase order of the land
Above four activities should be done in sequence. As in second activity will start only after request
document for the land is completed and so on. Hence, these activities have FS
Relationship between them.
Now take WBS element Construction.
It could be sub divided in to floor wise tasks. Let say, we have four story building and each floor has
four flats. Therefore, under WBS element ‘Construction’ we may create separate sub WBS
element for each floor. Each sub WBS element of floor may be divided further into last level of
WBS elements one for each flat on the floor. This way we will have hierarchy of the WBS
elements. Finally last level of WBS elements i.e. WBS elements of the flats will have activities like
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Plumbing
Electrical work
Flooring
Painting
Furniture
These activities form the Network.
Let say Plumbing and Electricity work are the external activities as they are given to an outside
contractor. While the other activities are done by company labor, so they are internal activities.
Plumbing and Electrical work could be started simultaneously. While flooring needs be done once,
the plumbing and Electrical work is complete.
Hence, they have FS relationship and so on…. Now if we talk about milestones:
1.
2.
3.
4.
First milestone could be purchasing the land
Second could construct the base of the building.
Third could be construct the floors
Fourth could be completion of plumbing and electrical work for all the flats. And so on….
As I have said that Work center represents the resources responsible for executing an activity For
the above activities, work centers could be the company labor required for the construction, labor
provided by the external service center for plumbing and Electricity work. While Profit Centers could
be the finally constructed flats.
NO
Project
Elements
Examples
1
Project Def
Constructing the Building
2
WBS
3
Activities
(Under 3rd WBS)
4
Relationship
5
Milestones
6
Network

Generation of request document for the
land
 Soil testing
 Approval for construction
 Preparation of purchase order of the land
 Plumbing( external Activities)
 Electricity work( external Activities)
 Flooring (internal activities)
 Painting (internal activities)
 Furniture
Flooring needs be done after the plumbing and
Electricity work. Hence they have FS relationship

First milestone could be purchasing the
land
 Second could construct the base of the
building
 hired could be construct the floors
 Fourth could be completion of plumbing
and electricity work for all the flats
Plumbing and Electricity installation are to be one
contractor each. Therefore, there exist a network
within on the activities of it under different WBSs.
Now let me go to some technicalities of the same.
If somebody asks me to develop report in PS module what basic information, do I need?
Mainly I need to find out three things:



Master tables and their relationship with each other.
Standard transactions in PS module and
BAPIs used to deal with PS data.
Let us start with the master table
PS Master Tables and their relationship:
Object
Master Table
Project Definition
PROJ
WBS element
PRPS
Network
AFKO ,AUFK
Activity
AFVV , AFVC
Activity Element
AFVV , AFVC
Activity Type
CEPC
Milestone
MLST
Budget
BPGE , BPJA
Following diagram depicts the linkage between various master tables in PS module.
Frequently used PS Transactions
Object
Project
Definition
WSB Element
Network
Transaction
Description
CJ06
Create Project Definition
CJ07
Change Project Definition
CJ08
Display Project Definition
CJ20N
Project Builder
CJ01
Create Work Breakdown
Structure
CJ02
Change Work Breakdown
Structure
CJ03
Display Work Breakdown
Structure
CJ11
Create WBS Element
CJ12
Change WBS Element
Cj13
Delete WBS Element
CN21
Create Network
CN22
Change Network
CN23
Display Network
CN24
Overall Network Scheduling
CN24N
Overall Network Scheduling
CJ20N
Project Builder
Activity
CJ20n
Project Builder
Milestone
CN53N
Overview: Milestones
CJ20N
Project Builder
CN49
Overview: Relationships
CN49N
Overview: Relationships
CNS49
Overview: Relationships
CN25
Confirm Completions in
Network
CN27
Collective confirmation
CN28
Display Network
Confirmations
Relationship
Confirmations
Settlement
Budget
CN29
Cancel Network Confirmation
CN2X
Confirm Completions in
Network
CJ02
Create Settlement Rule
CJ88
Settle Projects and
Networks
CJ8A
Act.-setlmt: Proj. retirmt.
from IM
CJ8G
Actual Settlement:
Projects/Networks
CJ30
Change Project Original
Budget
CJ31
Display Project Original
Budget
CJ35
Budget Return from Project
CJ36
Budget Supplement to
Project
CJ37
Budget Supplement in
Project
CJ38
Budget Return in Project
CJ3A
Change Budget Document
CJ3B
Display Budget Document
BAPIs used in PS Transactions
Project Definition:
BAPI to extract details of Project Definition:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_PROJECTDEF_EXISTENCECHECK
To check whether a project
definition exists
BAPI_BUS2001_GETDATA
To get detailed information about
a project definition. To do this,
you must transfer the external ID
of the project definition in the
parameter I_PROJECT_DEFINITION. If
required, you can also specify in
which language the languagedependent fields, such as time
units, system status, and so on,
are to be returned. If you do not
specify a language, the system
language is used
BAPI_PROJECT_GETINFO
To read detailed information about
project definitions and the WBS
elements of projects from the
system.
BAPI_PROJECTDEF_GETDETAIL
To read detail information about
the project definition
BAPI_BUS2001_GET_STATUS
To get both the active system
statuses and the user statuses for
a project definition
BAPI_PROJECTDEF_GETLIST
Provides a list of project
definitions
BAPI_GET_PROJECT_STATISTICS
Display project statistics
BAPI to create/update Project Definition data:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_BUS2001_CREATE
Create a project definition
BAPI_PROJECTDEF_CREATE
Create a project definition
BAPI_BUS2001_CHANGE
Change Project Definition
BAPI_PROJECTDEF_UPDATE
Change Project Definition
BAPI_BUS2001_DELETE
Delete Project Definition
BAPI_BUS2001_SET_STATUS
one system status and one user
status can be revoked each time,
and one system status and one
user status can be set each time
for a project definition
WBS – Work Breakdown Structure:
BAPI to extract details of WBS element:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_BUS2054_GETDATA
To get detailed information about
WBS elements.
BAPI_BUS2054_GET_GUID_FROM_KEY
Read the GUID (Global Unique
Identifier) using the
external object key.
BAPI_BUS2054_GET_STATUS
To read the active system
statuses and user statuses for
a list of PSP elements
BAPI_BUS2054_GET_KEY_FROM_GUID
Read the externalobject key (WBS
Key)
using the GUID (Global Unique
Identifier).
BAPI create/update WBS element data:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_BUS2054_CREATE_MULTI
Create
WBS Element
BAPI_BUS2054_CHANGE_MULTI
Change
WBS Element
BAPI_BUS2054_DELETE_MULTI
Delete WBS Element
Network:
BAPI to extract details of Network:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_NETWORK_EXISTENCECHECK
Check whether network exists
BAPI_NETWORK_GETDETAIL
Read detailed information about a
network including all objects from
the system.
BAPI_NETWORK_GETINFO
Read detailed information about a
network including all objects from
the system
BAPI_NETWORK_GETLIST
Produces a list of networks with
descriptions. Returns a container
of network numbers
BAPI_BUS2002_GETDATA
Returns Detail Data for Network
Header.
BAPI_BUS2002_GET_GUID_FROM_KEY
Read GUIDS Using the Network Keys
BAPI_BUS2002_GET_KEY_FROM_GUID
Read Network Key Using the GUIDs
BAPI_BUS2002_GET_STATUS
Get network Status
BAPI create/update Network data:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_NETWORK_MAINTAIN
To edit network headers, activities
and relationships
BAPI_BUS2002_CREATE
Create Network Header. Only one
network can be created each time
this BAPI is called.
BAPI_BUS2002_CHANGE
Change Network Header. Only one
network header can be changed each
time this BAPI is called.
BAPI_BUS2002_DELETE
Delete Network Header. Only one
network can be processed each time
the BAPI is called.
BAPI_BUS2002_SET_STATUS
Set/Reset Network Status. At the
same time, you can revoke one
system status and one user status,
or set one system status and one
user status in a list of activities
for the network.
Activity:
BAPI to extract details of Activity:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_BUS2002_ACT_GETDATA
Detail Data for Activities
BAPI_BUS2002_GET_ACTGUID_4_KEY
Read the GUIDs Using the Network
Activity Key. Read the GUID
(Global Unique Identifier) using
the external object key.
BAPI_BUS2002_GET_ACTKEY_4_GUID
Read the Network Activity Key
Using the GUIDs. Read the external
object key using the GUID (Global
Unique Identifier).
BAPI_BUS2002_GET_STATUS
Read active system statuses and
user statuses for a network header
(NUMBER) as well as its activities
BAPI create/update Activity data:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_BUS2002_ACT_CHANGE_MULTI
Change one or more activities.
Activities of one network only can
be changed each time this BAPI is
called.
BAPI_BUS2002_ACT_CREATE_MULTI
Create one or more activities.
Activities of one network only can
be changed each time this BAPI is
called.
BAPI_BUS2002_ACT_DELETE_MULTI
Delete one or more activities.
Activities of one network only can
be changed each time this BAPI is
called.
Activity Element:
BAPI to extract details of Activity Element:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_BUS2002_ACTELEM_GETDATA
Get detailed information about
activity elements.
BAPI_BUS2002_GET_ELEGUID_4_KEY
Read the GUIDs Using the Activity
Element IDs
BAPI create/update Activity Element data:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_BUS2002_ACTELEM_CHANGE_M
Change one or more activity
elements. Each time this BAPI is
called, only the activity elements
for one network can be changed
BAPI_BUS2002_ACTELEM_CREATE_M
Create one or more activity
elements. Each time this BAPI is
called, only the activity elements
for one network can be changed
BAPI_BUS2002_ACTELEM_DELETE_M
Delete one or more activity
elements. Each time this BAPI is
called, only the activity elements
for one network can be changed
Activity Type:
BAPI to extract details of Activity Type:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_ACTIVITYTYPE_GETDETAIL
Detailed information on a selected
activity type on Key Date.
BAPI_ACTIVITYTYPE_GETLIST
List of Activity Types Using
Selection Criteria
BAPI_ACTIVITYTYPE_GETPRICES
Determines, for a given day,
activity prices for cost
center/activity type combinations.
BAPI create/update Activity Type data:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_ACTTYPE_CHANGEMULTIPLE
Change One or More Activity Types
BAPI_ACTTYPE_CREATEMULTIPLE
Create One or More Activity Types
Confirmation:
BAPI to extract details of Confirmations
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_NETWORK_CONF_GETDETAIL
Using this method you can make the
detail data of a confirmation for
a network available for the
transferred object. You can also
make goods movement posted
together with the confirmation
available.
BAPI_NETWORK_CONF_GETLIST
All confirmations are determined
for the specified network activity
or activity element. The
transferred capacity category and
split are interpreted as
additional constraints
BAPI_NETWORK_CONF_GETPROP
To make default data available for
confirming network activities
BAPI create/update Confirmation data:
BAPI Name
BAPI Description
BAPI_NETWORK_CONF_ADD
To enter confirmations for network
activities/ activity elements and
splits.
BAPI_NETWORK_CONF_CANCEL
To cancel a network confirmation
that has already been booked.
(Reference: The book: Functions in Detail: R/3 System – Project Management in Engineering &
Construction)