An introduction to SAP Performance

This SAP article will guide you all about “SAP Performance”.

Here, we will cover the following :-

1. Definition


2. Why performance matters


3. What influences performance


4. How can we achieve good performance


5. Performance issue classification

Definition

When we think of performance of application or system, the first thing which comes to our mind is time � the time which a business transaction or system take to complete business work. Time is money. So there is no doubt that time is a critical measure or characteristics of performance. If a business transaction cannot finish in business expected time, the performance is not good for sure. Would it be true that performance is good if a business transaction can always finish in time? Is time the only measurement or characteristics of performance?

My answer to both questions would be �NO�.

A transaction can finish in expected time does not necessary mean the performance is good. An individual transaction can complete it works in time but at expense of system resources or other programs performance. It can use more CPU, memory, network etc resources than what it is really need for the job. By doing so, it could take resources away which otherwise is available for other functions and create extra demand on resources which might need more investment. By taking away resources, it can impact other transactions which are running at the same time. In a SAP system, there are many resources � you can use different resource combination to get the same work done. I see it often that cutting down resource usage can reduce time which a transaction takes. It is not a surprise � resource usage is always associated with time. Resource usage is transparent to business users. It is a technical concern which would ultimately impact business.

Performance is also concerning about �citizenship� in its� operating environment. Many business functions and processes share the same operating environment. Running one function or process should not impact following �colleagues� in the operating environment. A transaction which has a good performance should leave footprint in the system as less as possible w/o impacting its� follow transactions in the system.

So performance of a business process or transaction or function should have following characteristics in my review:

� Time – Its� abilities to meet or beat quantified business performance requirement in a �normal� system status.

� Resources – Its� abilities to use system or application resources as much as it needs, as when as it is necessary and in a balanced way.

� Citizenship – Its� abilities to be transparent to other existing/future processes/functions in the operating environment.

Now, it is obvious that good performance in my position is that a program can meet quantified business performance requirement, use as much resource as it needs, user resource as when as it is necessary and have no impact to others functions in the SAP operating environment which it is run.

Have a good understanding of performance is the basis for performance analysis and performance measurement. Having SAP project management and business stake holders to have a good understanding on performance is the key to get needed support.

Why performance matters

Good performance helps to maintain company reputation which is valueless. Imagining what damage would be done to a company if the company cannot produce financial report in time due to system performance.

Good performance makes everything predictable, this helps business to do planning and coordination. Order management process owner can know how long it takes to get order loaded and how long it takes to send order to warehouse for picking, when everything can be ready for shipping etc.

Good performance normally means more work can be done in the same time. So employee can become more efficient and this can increase their job satisfaction.

Good performance can also help to lower solution TCO. It allows more to be done using existing resources. It helps to avoid un-necessary hardware upgrading. It lowers operation support/maintenance cost. It helps to give employee positive job experience and job satisfaction.

Good performance also can help to improve customer�s satisfaction and help to retain customers. Customers might go to different supplier if you cannot ship their orders in a timely fashion.

What influences performance

I review performance as a product of system which has many components. In my view, a given SAP performance system has following key components

o System � SAP System here is referring to IT infrastructure and configuration of IT infrastructure where application and program is operating in. This includes but not limits to server, network, storage etc. It is obvious that we would not have good performance if related IT infrastructure is not enough or it is not appropriate. Some components of IT infrastructure like network are shared within with other applications. When we talk performance, we need to remember status of IT infrastructure is important to performance as well.

• Application :- This is referred to SAP application package and its� architecture which is delivered by SAP company.


• SAP configuration :- This includes SAP system resource allocation, database configuration and SAP basis configuration etc.


• Business solution :- This includes solution architecture, all development/program or configuration made in SAP for a business solution and the deployment of the business solution.


• User – I am mainly referring to end business user who would executes/owns a SAP business transaction in the system. Business user is ultimate driver for the system, application and programs. It is based on their input that a system is built and measured. I am not referring to the IT professional who design, build, deliver and maintain such system, application and programs.

Performance issues can root from each component of a SAP performance system in general. But Most of performance issues are attributed to business solutions. Based on my experience, I rank them in following order based on frequency where performance issue happens.

1. Business solution :- Majority of performance issue is related to local development. In my experience, 70% of performance issue is related to business solution.


2. SAP configuration :- SAP configuration can cause a performance like no enough memory, no enough work-process etc.


3. Users :- Users can cause performance issue in the way on how a transaction is executed. Performance of a transaction can varies based on user input to the program.


4. SAP Application :- I have seen it again and again that performance issue can originated from standard SAP solution due to special scenario of your processes such as high volume etc.


5. System :- System can creates performance issue � especially when network is busy, file-system is out of space, or there is an IO hotspot etc.

What we can do to have good performance

Good performance of a SAP application is a result of total application performance control in SAP development/project or/and proactive SAP performance management in operation.

In SAP development/project, we need to have an end-to-end performance control approach – which build different performance control activities into each phase of SAP project/development supported by performance tools and performance processes. There are different ways to check and verify performance at different stage of the project. Different ways complement each other and work together to ensure that project solution has a good performance. It focuses performance issue prevention, earlier detection and earlier resolution. This helps solution to meet performance objective and help project to deliver on schedule.

Proactive performance management in operation is to proactively monitor health of system and application, find trends of resources usage and detect potential performance threat earlier using existing SAP performance tools/transactions.

Performance issue classification

There are different ways to classify performance issues. I would cover some of them which I think important.

Performance issue can be divided into run-time issue or non-runtime issue. Runtime issue means that user has to wait longer than normal to get system�s response. Non-runtime issue is referring to the situation like program abortion on resource contention like lack of memory, out of disc space etc.

Base on impact scope, performance issue can be classified into:

1. System level – System level performance issue would impact every function and every user in the SAP system.


2. Instance level – A system can have more than one instance. Instance level issue would impact every function and every user in that instance.


3. Site-level – Site level performance issue would impact every users on one particular site and office.


4. Business function area level – Function level issue is refer to performance issue


5. Process/transaction level – This is the most common performance issue reported by user. This issue is normally on individual


6. User level – only single user is reporting performance issue – like performance issue at presentation level or local pc level.

Based on technical nature, performance issue can be classified into:

1. Program/code issue :- Performance issue is rooted from the program itself including design and code.


2. Local system resource issue :- Performance issue is rooted from shortage of system resources like CPU, Memory and Disc-space. Memory includes SAP memory and database memory.


3. Local system issue :- Performance issue is rooted from system/database status like system and database bug etc


4. Remote system/client issue :- Performance issue is rooted from external system/client like remote system/client is not available or too busy.


5. Network issue :- Performance issue is rooted from network issue � like sudden increased network traffic etc. SAP server and non-SAP server are working as normal.

Understanding scope of performance issue is important to assess priority of the issue and possible cause of the issue.

Further, we need to clarify a performance issue: whether it is one time issue or it is a consistent issue. The former might be a treated an incident, normally have quick solution can be related to random system status or wrong operation of user, improper input etc. The latter is a problem which might be rooted from design, program code or consistent business pattern change etc and need more effort to address this.

Now, you must have got clear idea about “SAP Performance”.

 

An introduction to SAP Performance