Advantages and Disadvantages of ABAP Programming Language

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Advantages and Disadvantages of ABAP Programming Language

Every company wants to constantly improve itself in the cutthroat business world to stay ahead of its rivals. Along with the improvements in business operations, most have started thinking of developing business applications. ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) is a popular high-level programming language created by SAP to make that happen.

Many businesses have benefited from ABAP-based applications in software development, financial accounting, data analysis, human resource management, and asset management. So the language’s and its developers’ importance has increased over the years. You can learn about its advantages and disadvantages in detail in this article. 

Use Cases of SAP ABAP

Before reading about the benefits and drawbacks of Advanced Business Application Programming, you should learn about its uses or what it is used for. The following are some of them listed for your information:

  • The SAP ABAP language allows companies to build business processes for their organisations quickly and easily by building custom applications that integrate with SAP systems. 
  • Also, it streamlines operations, automates processes, and helps companies become more efficient. 
  • This way, companies can improve their competitiveness, save time, and meet customer needs more effectively.
  • Custom programs can be created using the system for various business tasks, including inventory management, customer relationship management, and financial accounting. 
  • It is also employed in developing user interfaces, web applications, and software integration with other systems. 
  • The banking, insurance, retail, telecommunications, and manufacturing sectors are just a few industries that use it.

How Does It Benefit?

As mentioned earlier, SAP ABAP has gained popularity since its release and has become an ideal choice for many developers to develop complex business applications. It employs various modularization methods for such complex applications to provide developers with ease and practicality. Organisations of all sizes can use it to help them run ERP applications and provide scalable lifecycle management.

Utilising SAP  has several advantages, but its main advantage is its seamless integration with other SAP systems and applications. Additionally, it enables developers to create and deploy applications quickly, cutting costs and time. Report development features, generating printable forms, screen development, and customising screens according to customer requirements are some of the features that it supports.

Drawbacks of the Language for SAP Users

Even though Advanced Business Application Programming is simple to use for programmers, it can be difficult for SAP users who need more technical aptitude. Many businesses need help to recognise and adequately maintain Advanced Business Application Programming and its customization within their SAP systems due to the programming language’s complexity, cost, time consumption, and scarcity of top-tier professionals. You can check out the difficulties they faced in the following section. It includes:

  • Speed-to-Market and Time Consumption
  • High Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
  • Slower Upgrades 
  • Unnecessary or Dead ABAP Code
  • Not Easy to Use

1. Speed-to-Market and Time Consumption

Advanced Business Application Programming is a time-consuming process that requires specialised skills. So naturally, it will affect the speed at which the product is marketed. It is a turn-off for many business stakeholders, as Advanced Business Application Programming customisations are delivered late. They cannot be blamed because sometimes it may be too late for business users, depending on their requirements. 

2. High Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

For SAP users, Advanced Business Application Programming is a central system essential to every business organisation. This system is well known for its complexity, and it takes specialised professionals to complete the development projects. Furthermore, ABAP-savvy professionals are in great demand but are hard to come by and command exorbitant fees. It could significantly affect your enterprise software’s total cost of ownership (TCO).

3. Slower Upgrades

In Advanced Business Application Programming, the upgrades take place very slowly. The customers demand a lot of customisations in their SAP environment. So the time and effort required are more every time a patch, service pack, or enhancement pack needs to be applied to the SAP ERP. 

4. Unnecessary or Dead ABAP Code

When systems are upgraded, such as from R/3 to ECC to S/4HANA, a significant amount of unnecessary code that needs to be removed is transferred from one system to the next. It only increases the technical debt, which raises the overall cost of keeping the SAP system up and running. 

5. Not Easy to Use

Programmers will have no trouble understanding the Advanced Business Application Programming language. Although it has quite complex features, it is not a great tool for non-programmers to use. It is made in a way that appeals to more knowledgeable users who have experience with programming. It requires coding expertise because it has a different syntax than other high-level programming languages. 

So, this article would have helped you understand the advantages and disadvantages of the ABAP programming language. Today, all cutting-edge businesses conduct their business using ERP software. SAP systems are therefore unavoidable. Learning Advanced Business Application Programming will therefore enable you to comprehend the system’s fundamental technicalities. It will support the creation of numerous new enterprise applications. It will be simpler to update the existing ones. 

Batch input processing, inter-system communication, sequential dataset processing, and module pool programming are a few of the practical features offered by ABAP. For this reason, a lot of businesses now give their employees SAP Advanced Business Application Programming training. With Advanced Business Application Programming expertise, they can create business applications to advance their companies. 

Interesting Links: 

What is ABAP programming language?

More information about ABAP

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