All Repository objects in the SAP System are classified according to development classes. All objects forming a functional unit, such as programs, ABAP Dictionary objects, and message classes, are grouped together in a development class. The development classes are used to structure the Repository and assign the objects to the various SAP components. The assignment to a development class 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 development class is recorded in the Object Directory.

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

The development class 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 development class increase too much, but to distribute the objects to new development classes according to appropriate criteria as a project progresses.

The development classes are themselves objects in the ABAP Workbench. Changes to existing and newly created development classes are, apart from a few exceptions (see the section Naming Conventions for Development Classes), recorded by the Transport Organizer and can be transported into other SAP Systems. The development class of a development class is always itself.