Developer Key and its requirement (DEVACCESS table)

What is Developer Key?

The developer key is a combination of your installation number, license key (that we get from marketplace http://service.sap.com/licensekey) and the user name. We need this for each person that will make changes (Dictionary or programs) in the system.

Why Developer Key is required?

SAP developers require two things before they can actually do development work in SAP - right authorizations and a developer access key. As with everything else in SAP, when a developer tries to execute a transaction, he will need the required authorizations in her profiles. In addition, he needs to be assigned a developer access key. The authorizations can be checked in the user master records while the developer access key can be checked using table DEVACCESS. Table DEVACCESS will show the user ID and the developer key assigned to the user ID. You should only expect to see name of developers in this table.

What happens when the entry for a developer is deleted in the DEVACCESS table but the developer continues to use the same user ID?

The developer can still use the old developer access key.
The reason: Developer access key is nothing but an algorithm based on system number and SID and some other system values (SAP does not reveal the information). The developer access key is validated by SAP using a Kernel level C system program ''CHECK_DEVELOPER_KEY'. So, even if the developer access key has been deleted for a user ID in the DEVACCESS table, he can still use the same developer access key.

Which Table is the Developer Key Stored In?

If we would like to look up at your developer key and save it and have it available for the next system refresh.
The table name is DEVACCESS and can be viewed with SE16 and SE11.
For new ABAP developer, we will be prompt for the developer if we are trying to create a program using the standard SAP naming convention.
Customer own created program should all start with a "Y" or "Z".