MDGbeginner
Data Models
This topic explains SAP Master Data Governance data models: how governance-relevant entities, attributes, relationships and change request structures are defined and configured to support central governance of business partners, materials, financial data and custom domains across SAP MDG on S/4HANA on-premise, private cloud and public cloud deployments.
Overview
This topic explains SAP Master Data Governance data models: how governance-relevant entities, attributes, relationships and change request structures are defined and configured to support central governance of business partners, materials, financial data and custom domains across SAP MDG on S/4HANA on-premise, private cloud and public cloud deployments.
Lessons in this topic
- SAP Data Models Tutorial (Part 1)An introduction to the concept of an SAP MDG data model, explaining why it is the backbone of governance for business partner, material, supplier, customer, and custom domains.
- Understanding the SAP MDG Data Model Concept (Part 2)An introduction to what a data model means in SAP MDG, why it exists separately from the underlying business object, and how it enables governed creation and change of master data.
- Configuring and Extending Entity Types, Attributes, and Relationships (Part 3)A practical walkthrough of how consultants extend or configure MDG data models by adding entity types, attributes, and relationships, and how these choices ripple into UI, rules, and replication.
- Extending and Customizing MDG Data Models with Custom Entities and Relationships (Part 4)Learn how consultants extend standard MDG data models by adding custom entity types, attributes, and relationships to support governance requirements that go beyond delivered master data domains, and how these extensions ripple through UI, workflow, and replication layers.
- Configuring and Extending MDG Data Models for Governed Entities (Part 5)A practical look at how consultants configure and extend MDG data models, including entity type structuring, field grouping, UI mapping considerations, and the impact of extension decisions on downstream governance processes.
- Extending and Enhancing MDG Data Models Without Breaking Standard Behavior (Part 6)Learn how to safely extend an existing MDG data model (entity types, attributes, relationships) to meet business requirements while preserving upgrade compatibility and standard change request/workflow behavior.
- Advanced MDG Data Model Design and Extension (Part 7)Extend MDG data models without destabilizing governance by understanding entity type, cardinality, reuse, staging and downstream replication impact.
Interview questions covered
- What are the core concepts of Data Models, and how would you explain them clearly in an SAP interview?
- How would you apply Data Models in a real SAP project? Walk through the design or implementation approach.
- A production issue is reported in Data Models. What would you check first, and how would you troubleshoot it systematically?
- What are the most important design decisions, trade-offs, and best practices in Data Models?
- Suppose you inherit an existing Data Models solution. How would you review it before making a change?
- A senior architect is reviewing Data Models. The project situation is: A custom supplier attribute was added independently in several MDG entities, causing inconsistent values and complicated replication. What design changes, validation evidence and production controls would you require before approving the solution?
- Using this SAP project situation — A newly onboarded MDG functional consultant is asked to explain to a business stakeholder why adding a new custom field to the Supplier governance change request UI requires more than just adding a field to a screen — explain What Is an MDG Data Model and Why It Matters. What should happen, which concepts or process steps matter, and what common mistake would you avoid?
- A project encounters this situation while working on Extending and Customizing MDG Data Models with Custom Entities and Relationships: A chemical manufacturer governing supplier master data needed to add a hazardous-materials certification code and link each supplier to a custom compliance-document reference entity. Walk through how you would analyze the requirement or issue, what you would validate, and how you would test the solution before release.
- A project encounters this situation while working on Configuring and Extending Entity Types, Attributes, and Relationships: A project team is asked to add a supplier risk classification field that must trigger an additional approval step in the change request workflow when set to 'HIGH', and must also be visible in the receiving ERP system after activation. Walk through how you would analyze the requirement or issue, what you would validate, and how you would test the solution before release.
- A project encounters this situation while working on Extending and Enhancing MDG Data Models Without Breaking Standard Behavior: A pharmaceutical distributor governing material master data through MDG needed to add a 'cold chain handling required' indicator and a related 'storage temperature range' sub-object with its own approval step, because logistics compliance required separate sign-off from a regulatory affairs role. Walk through how you would analyze the requirement or issue, what you would validate, and how you would test the solution before release.
- Using this SAP project situation — A consultant new to MDG is asked to explain to a business stakeholder why a change to a customer's address does not appear immediately in the ERP system after being saved in the MDG UI — explain Understanding the SAP MDG Data Model Concept. What should happen, which concepts or process steps matter, and what common mistake would you avoid?
- A project encounters this situation while working on Configuring and Extending MDG Data Models for Governed Entities: A project team needs to add a custom classification attribute to the governed Material entity so that a regional compliance flag can be captured, validated, and later replicated to a downstream logistics system. Walk through how you would analyze the requirement or issue, what you would validate, and how you would test the solution before release.