SAP BW Certification: A Business Information Warehouse Study Guide

The SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) is the data warehousing solution developed by SAP AG for SAP-centric data warehouses. Professionals seeking to become SAP BW application consultants need to pass the SAP BW certification exam in order to prove that they have a fundamental knowledge of this particular area of the SAP system, as well as to demonstrate that they are able to apply this knowledge within a project environment. SAP BW Certification: A Business Information Warehouse Study Guide provides candidates with the training and information they need in order to achieve certification.

SAP BW Certification begins with critical background information on Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP), software packages that integrate the entire flow of information throughout an organization, of which SAP is the market leader. The book then covers how SAP BW relates to SAP as a whole and discusses fundamental SAP BW functions such as data modeling, reporting, and extraction. Features of this Study Guide include:

• An introduction to the BW certification exam
• An overview of the exam's topics, including such features as "On the Exam," "Optimization Tips," "Note," "Restrictions," "Unique to SAP," and "New to SAP"
• Exercises that can be performed with a small test-BW server
• Practice test questions and answers that assess the reader's knowledge of current exam topics
• A complete simulated certification exam

SAP BW practitioners who are preparing for the SAP BW certification exam, or for the SAP BW delta (recertification) exam, will find SAP BW Certification the premier study guide on the market today.

This book targets consultants, who want to cross-check their knowledge, before they take their multiple choice test for the SAP-BW-Certificate. It does contain the orginal Multiple-Choice-Tests for SAP-BW 2.1., and it does contain information on SAP-BBW. It is useful, but you should consider the following shortcomings:

(1) This book is on SAP-BW 2.1, but the most up-to-date release is 3.1. There were many changes since then

(2)If you are just a BW-User, who wants to know, which button to push and which report to start, you should consider other books.This book has got few screenshots and it is definitely not for novices. You can use it, to test knowledge,but it is not comprehensive enough, to teach new knowledge.

(3) If you are a systems administrator or a practitioner, who wants in depths technical information, but who does NOT want a certificate, you should consider other books.
Examples: Kevin McDonalds book on BW or a german publication by Christian Mehrwald (SAP BW Relase 3.0)published by dpunkt-Verlag (Mehrwalds book was written in german and to the best of my knowledge it has not been translated yet, though it is the best book on that topic I know) .

With all due respect towards Mrs Roze, her book is rather thin (260 Pages), does use a large letter type, has got many blank spaces and devotes 20-30% on very general topics (OLTP versus OLAP, Exam preparation etc). The structure of the book is rather erratic. I got along with it, as I have got experience, but a novice might be forced to flip pages forwards and backwards a lot. Moreover, this book does not contain that type of hands-on-advice on administration, that can be found in more advanced books on BW. The scientific content of the chapters varies a lot.
Some are too simple, others discuss very esoteric topics, which you hardly need, except in your exam. Even if you are lucky and pass the test, because you memorize all questions, this is not enough to use BW in you daily work.

(4) I agree with the previous reviewer, that there are mistakes in the multiplechoice-tests, that some answers are definitely wrong, and that some tests ask for information, that one can not find in the corresponding chapter.

SUMMARY: This book is still useful, but only for experienced consultants, who want to get their SAP-BW-Certificate,and moreover it has got some serious flaws.


Concise & easy to read   December 14, 2002
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

If you are new to BW and looking for a brief, but yet detailed overview, this book will help you grasp the bigger picture of BW. The practice tests at the end of chapters makes sure you are really understanding the concepts and terminology. The "Note" and "SAP Restriction" symbols thru the book draws your attention to key points. If "Mastering the SAP Business Information Warehouse" drowns you in detail -- this will be a breath of fresh air! Great resource for training people new to BW and it's concepts.


Helped me pass the exam.   February 5, 2003
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

I have passed the exam with this book without any prior knowledge on sap r/3 or sap bw. However, there were several questions in real exam which could not be answered with the knowledges from this book. Besides, I should complain about the sample questions. There were several wrong answeres (an exctly same question apeared more than twice and they had different answeres).


Good book but does not cover everything   November 6, 2007
Sameer Rao
Since there is no other certification book avaialable in the market, I would say this is the best available book. However, this will not cover all the certification questions. And, it is not in detail. You have to study other books.


Decent exam guideline   December 8, 2002
Jeroen Meijer (Netherlands)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

To prepare for the BW certification test I recommend reading this book. To start working as a BW consultant I recommend reading other books as well. Many subjects are only briefly mentioned, because the author judges they are not important for the exam.