All objects forming a functional unit, such as programs, ABAP Dictionary objects, and message classes, are grouped together in a package. The development classes are used to structure the Repository and assign the objects to the various SAP components. The assignment to a package also allows you to control the recording and transport of object changes by the CTS. (See the section Request Types and Task Types.)

The assignment of an object to a package is recorded in the Object Directory.

When development work starts, you must first create a package to which the new objects are assigned. When you create a new object in the ABAP Workbench, the SAP System asks which package you want the object to belong to.

The package also helps you when you navigate through the objects in the Object Navigator of the ABAP Workbench (Transaction SE80).

To improve clarity when objects are displayed in this way, SAP advises you not to let the number of objects in a package increase too much, but to distribute the objects to new packages according to appropriate criteria as a project progresses.

The packages are themselves objects in the ABAP Workbench. Changes to existing and newly created packages are, apart from a few exceptions (see also Naming Conventions for Packages), recorded by the Transport Organizer and can be transported into other SAP Systems. When the package is an object in the ABAP Workbench, it is always assigned to itself.