Business Objects Interview Questions and Answers

Based on my experience I have created a hand-picked SAP BO Interview Question Answers. I have touched all the main key points of SAP business objects. By going through these articles you will not only learn the SAP BO interview questions but also learn the core concepts of SAP business objects.

1. What is SAP Business Objects?

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Business objects can be considered as integrated analysis, reporting and query for the purpose of finding a solution to some business professionals that can be helpful for them to retrieve data from the corporate databases in a direct manner from the desktop. This retrieved information can be presented and analyzed within a document that of business objects. Business objects can be helpful as an OLAP tool to high-level management as a significant part of Decision Support Systems.

2. Explain the pros of using business objects.

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There are many advantages in making use of business objects, and they are

• User friendliness
• Familiar business terms
• Graphical interface
•  Deployment of documents on an enterprise basis by making use of WebI
• Dragging and dropping
• Powerful reports for a lesser amount of time.

3. List out the different products related to Business Objects.

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There are various kinds of products related to business objects, and they are

1. 1. User module
2. 2. Designer
3. 3. Supervisor
4. 4. Auditor
5. 5. Set Analyzer
6. 6. Info View
7. 7. Business Objects – Software Development – Kit
8. 8. Broadcast Agent

4. Define Designer.

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The designer is a module related to Business Objects IS used by the designers for creating and maintaining universes. Universes can be considered as a semantic layer that can isolate the end users from the various issues that are technical and related to the structure of the database. Universe designers have the possibility for distributing the universes to the end users after moving these as a file through the system of files or can be done by exporting the files to the repository.

5. What are the kinds of modes associated with designer and business objects?

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There are especially two different kinds of modes associated with these platforms, they are

1. 1. Enterprise mode
2. 2. Workgroup mode

6. List out the various kinds of methods related to multidimensional analysis that is inside business objects.

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There are two different methods related to multidimensional analysis available inside BO and these methods are

• Slice & Dice
• Drill down

7. List out the kinds of users associated with business objects.

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Different kinds of users associated with the business object are

1. 1. General supervisor
2. 2. Supervisor
3. 3. Graphical Interface
4. 4. Designer
5. 5. Supervisor Designer
6. 6. End User
7. 7. Versatile User

8. What are the various data sources available?

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Business objects help you in accessing the data from a variety of sources. You have the possibility of obtaining data from RDBMS like Oracle, MS SQL server and IBM DB2.

9. Define the kinds of data providers?

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There are various kinds of data providers available for the business objects, and they are

• Stored procedures
• Queries over universe
• Freehand – SQL
• VBA procedures
• SAP
• OLAP servers
• Personal data files

10. Define the drill mode.

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Drill is a kind of analysis mode associated with business objects and helps in breaking down data as well as in viewing data from all the possible angles and the levels of detail for discovering the factor that has caused a good or a bad result.

11. What is a personal connection?

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A personal connection can be created only by a single user, and it can’t be made used by others. The details regarding such a connection can be usually stored inside a PDAC.LSI file.

12. What is Shared connection?

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This is a kind of connection that is usually used by another user via a server which is a shared one. The details regarding the connection can be stored within the SDAC>LSI file which can be found within the installation folder of the business objects.

13. What is a secured connection?

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Secured connection is a kind of connection that can be helpful in overcoming the various limitations associated with the former connections. The rights related to this kind of connection can be set over documents as well as objects. Universes can be brought inside the central repository only by making use of the secured connection. The parameters regarding these connection cares are usually saved inside CMS.

14. Define custom hierarchies?

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The custom hierarchies can be used for defining the universe for facilitating drill down that is customized and can happen between objects from different or same classes considering the user requirements.

15. How can custom Hierarchies be created?

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The custom hierarchies can be created by following the path tools ->hierarchies in BO designer.

16. Define a context in the universe.

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Context can be defined as the particular path of the join between a specific group of joins or the tables for the purpose of a particular query. A particular object that can be found inside the column of a table, belonging to a particular context is supposed to be compatible with all the various kinds of objects belonging to the same context. In the case of objects that are from the various kinds of context, different kinds of SQL can be generated, and the results can be merged inside the micro cube. This is for making sure that there is no incorrect result associated with a loop or any other kind of issue related to the join path.

17. How can Contexts be created?

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Context can be created by making use of features associated with context or by manual procedures. The context is usually created by making use of logical calculation or based on the business requirements. The detect context may not be much useful in this case and so it should be done by making use of the manual procedure.

18. Define a Chasm Trap.

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Chasm trap is a condition that arises when the values inside the fact table get inflated at the time of measuring the values from two different fact tables by considering the dimensions inside the dimension table.

19. How can Chasm Trap be solved?

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Chasm traps should be solved by making use of two different methods.

1. 1. In the case of SQL parameters in the universe, the option generates numerous queries for each and every measure that needs to be chosen. This helps in generating a SQL statement for every measure and gives the correct results.
2. 2. Another approach is to include two joints in different contexts, where the problem will get solved by generating two synchronized queries.

20. What are the utilities of Derived tables?

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Using SQL queries from the database level, Derived tables are created in the universe. The columns of the derived table will be the columns selected in the query. Derived tables can be used in the complex calculations which are difficult to be achieved in the report levels. Using a dblink, tables can be accessed from a different schema, is another use of derived tables.

21. Define User Objects.

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User objects are a universe of classes and objects which is created by the universe. Once the objects consisting of the universe do not match your necessities, then the user can create his own objects called User objects.

22. List out the @functions.

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The @functions are:

1. 1. @Aggregate_Aware
2. 2. @Script
3. 3. @Select
4. 4. @Variable
5. 5. @where
6. 6. @Prompt

23. What is the use of @functions?

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The @prompt function asks the end user to enter any specific values. The Visual Basics for applications macro’s results will be recovered by using @Script function. An existing statements SELECT statement can be re-used by using @Select function. For a name or variable, the value assigned to it will be referenced using @Variable. An existing object’s where clause can be re-used by @Where functions.

24. How many Domains are there in Business Objects? What are they?

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There are three Domains in Business Objects and they are:

1. 1. Security
2. 2. Document
3. 3. Universe

25. How to access one derived table from another?

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Using @Derived_table function, we can access one derived table from another.

The syntax is:

26. Define Slice in Business Objects.

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Slice works with the master or detail reports and it is used to rename, reset and delete the blocks.

27. Differentiate Dice and Slice.

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• Slice: It renames, reset and deletes the blocks. It works with the master/detail report.
• Dice: It displays the data and removes the data.  It turns the crosstabs and tables into charts and vice versa.

28. What is a master/detail report?

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Large blocks of data can be split into sections by using master/detail report. Repeating values can be avoided by using this and also the subtotals can be displayed.

29. Define a class.

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The class can be defined as a collection of objects in a universe. Subclasses can be derived from classes and using these classes and the subclasses, we can create a hierarchy.

30. How many approaches are there for linking universes?

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There are three approaches available for linking the universes and they are:

1. 1. The Kernel approach.
2. 2. The Master approach.
3. 3. The Component approach.

31. What is data mining?

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Data mining is the process through which you can extract the required details from the database, which can be used for making conclusions.

32. List out the available Drill modes.

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Drill mode helps to analyze data from different angles and different states of details. The available Drill modes are;

•    Drill up.
•    Drill down.
•    Drill by.
•    Drill through.

33. Define aggregate_awarness.

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When we have the same fact tables in different grains, we use the aggregate_awarness function to define one object for measures in fact tables.

The syntax is

34. Define the term fan trap?

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A one to many join, links to a table which respond with another one to many join links is called fan trap.

35. Define Data provider.

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The query or the data source is called as the data provider.

36. When we use a context?

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Context is created when the dimension objects are present in one or both fact tables.

37. What is the standard mode?

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Only the users within the group can be accessed in this mode.

38. List out the schemas supported by Business Objects Designer.

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There are five different schemas supported by Business Objects designer and they are:

1. 1. star schema.
2. 2. Snowflake Schema
3. 3. Multistar Schema
4. 4. Normalized production schema.
5. 5. Data warehouse with aggregates.

39. What is a Channel?

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Channel is a website with ‘push’ technology. It is to make the users know up-to-date information. Each and every Business Objects channel will be associated with a broadcast agent, who can have several channels.

40. What are the restrictions over user objects?

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User objects are not shared with other end users. It is stored in a specific user object definition file. So if any end-user tries to refresh or edit the query containing another user’s user object, it will be automatically cleaned and removed.

41. List out the tasks of the universe designer.

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The tasks consist of,

• Designing the universe.
• Creating the universe.
• Maintaining the universe.
• Distributing the universe

42. List out the main components of the designer interface.

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The main components it consists of are:

1. 1. The structure pane.
2. 2. The table browser. 
3. 3. The universe pane.

43. What do you mean by report bursting?

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To maintain the version documents according to the user profiles, we use report bursting.

44. Define WEBI.

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Web intelligence is a solution that is specialized in supporting decisions related to queries, reports, and analysis.

45. Abbreviation of DSS is?

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Decision Support Systems.

46. Define strategies.

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To automatically extract structural information from a database or from a flat file we use a script known as strategy.

47. Define the universe.

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It is a set of objects and classes. These objects and classes will be intended for an application or a group of users.

48. Define secured mode.

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Secured mode restricts the access of specific users over specific commands.

49. What is Drill by?

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Using drill by we can move to another hierarchy and analyze the other data, which belongs to another hierarchy.

50. What is a list of values?

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It is a file which contains the data values associated with an object.