ERP Integration 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A company migrating from a legacy ERP to SAP S/4HANA must map old general ledger account codes to new ones. What is this process called?
- Data normalization
- Schema migration
- Field mapping / data mapping (Correct answer)
- Master data governance
Correct answer: Field mapping / data mapping
Field mapping (data mapping) defines the transformation rules that translate source fields to target fields during ERP data migration or integration.
Question 2: What is the main purpose of a 'canonical data model' in ERP integration architecture?
- Serve as the production database for all ERP modules
- Provide a common, neutral data format that all connected systems transform to and from (Correct answer)
- Encrypt sensitive fields before transmission
- Define user access roles across systems
Correct answer: Provide a common, neutral data format that all connected systems transform to and from
A canonical data model creates a neutral format so each system only needs one transformation (to/from canonical) instead of N×N direct mappings.
Question 3: Which ERP integration scenario is most likely to use an SFTP-based batch file transfer?
- Real-time point-of-sale transaction posting
- Nightly payroll file exchange with a bank or payroll bureau (Correct answer)
- Live inventory lookup from a mobile warehouse app
- Instant purchase order approval notifications
Correct answer: Nightly payroll file exchange with a bank or payroll bureau
Banks and payroll bureaus commonly use scheduled SFTP file drops because they process transactions in batch overnight rather than in real time.
Question 4: When two ERP systems need to share master data (e.g., vendor records), what governance discipline ensures consistency across platforms?
- Business process reengineering
- Master data management (MDM) (Correct answer)
- Change management
- Enterprise architecture review
Correct answer: Master data management (MDM)
Master data management (MDM) establishes policies, processes, and tools to keep shared reference data synchronized and accurate across all systems.
Question 5: In an ERP integration, a 'dead letter queue' is used to handle what situation?
- Store archived records past their retention date
- Hold messages that could not be processed successfully after maximum retries (Correct answer)
- Purge test data from production queues
- Buffer peak-volume transactions during high load
Correct answer: Hold messages that could not be processed successfully after maximum retries
A dead letter queue captures failed messages so they can be inspected and reprocessed without being lost, preventing silent data gaps.
Question 6: An ERP integration team notices that customer records updated in the CRM are overwriting newer changes made directly in the ERP. What integration design principle was violated?
- Least privilege
- System of record (authoritative source) definition (Correct answer)
- Message ordering guarantee
- Encryption in transit
Correct answer: System of record (authoritative source) definition
Each data entity must have exactly one designated system of record; allowing both systems to write back the same field without conflict resolution causes overwrites.
Question 7: What does API versioning (e.g., /api/v1/ vs. /api/v2/) protect against in long-running ERP integrations?
- Unauthorized access from external systems
- Breaking changes that would disrupt existing integrations when the API is updated (Correct answer)
- Excessive query volume from connected systems
- Data loss during transmission
Correct answer: Breaking changes that would disrupt existing integrations when the API is updated
API versioning lets the ERP team evolve the interface without immediately breaking all existing consumers, who can migrate to the new version on their own schedule.
ERP Integration 3
A company migrating from a legacy ERP to SAP S/4HANA must map old general ledger account codes to new ones.
What is this process called?