In this issue:
Not a week goes by without a LinkedIn “influencer” posting some malarkey as “tips and tricks” for ABAPers. One day, BINARY SEARCH rears its ugly head; another, it’s a “cool hack” with EXPORT/IMPORT. At this point the US Department of State should issue a travel advisory for LinkedIn: don’t go there, or even SEAL Team 6 won’t save your sorry ass.
But if these are bad tips, where are the good ones? The reality is that there isn’t canonical Gospel of ABAP Development that every developer must follow 100% or be burned at the stake. And that’s a good thing, because programming is as much art as it is science. There is general advice I can offer, though, proven by decades of practical application.
Many statements are supported by facts and can be proven with simple tests. For example, if you hear that a HASHED internal table works great when the records have a unique key, you don’t have to just take anyone’s word for it: try it, compare it to other options, and see the results.
Even on LinkedIn, there are “influencers,” and then there are true mentors and experts. There are many reputable people well-known in the ABAP community for their work, which you can also verify online. (Watch our Nerdletter Talk for a specific example.) I’d take what those people say more seriously than posts from “follow me for more” buffoons.
You can find programming guidelines in… wait for it… ABAP documentation! However, I prefer sources that are open for discussion, such as Clean ABAP. For example, ABAP Help would tell you not to use the CHECK command to exit a method, but Clean ABAP states - correctly, IMHO - that there isn’t a consensus on this. And it has good examples and practical recommendations.
Bottom line: just don’t blindly believe every “ABAP tip” you see online. It’s a dangerous world out there, Frodo. JP
We've written about AI affecting jobs before. The tone was almost pre-emptive: it wasn't that AI was so incredible that companies had no choice, it was that some future-thinking companies announced layoffs because their AI forecast projected less need for meatbags. Some of the stories even had a chest-thumping feel, like those making the decision not to hire because of AI were extra bold, fearless leaders.
I often wondered what it might look like if/when AI actually started to affect jobs. It turns out we might have our first answer: a Stanford study examining millions of payroll records found "a 13% relative decline in employment for early-career workers in the most AI-exposed jobs since the widespread adoption of generative-AI tools". Another data point that caught my attention: since 2022, unemployment for recent college graduates is higher than overall unemployment.
For recent college graduates things look bad. For recent grads in AI-affected fields, they look worse. I highly recommend reading the linked study in detail to draw your own conclusions, as there's more there. My heart goes out to young folks. PM
The relationship between customers and consultants (aka SIs) is an eternal theme in the SAP world, just like love and money in cinematography. Recent “shots fired” on LinkedIn from the customer side: “SI partner takes shortcuts” and is not “delivering clean core.” Okay… Have you tried working with a different partner? Maybe just don’t give more work to the consultants who don’t do a good job?
Speaking as someone familiar with both sides, the reality is that customers are always the ones responsible for and most invested in their own systems. Even the greatest consultants (and there are many super knowledgeable and genuinely caring people) are just that: hired guns. Mercenaries. At its core, the relationship is transactional. That’s why control and leadership must remain in the customer’s court. Be clear about your expectations and put tools in place to encourage compliance.
One positive trend is the recent uptick in demand for Development Lead and Solution Architect roles on U.S. shores. It’s a great idea to employ an experienced leader to steer the assorted consultants. For some reason these people are supposed to be in the office though (to have calls with… teams in other countries?), which greatly limits the candidate pools.
And we all know that in “cheap, good, fast - pick any two,” “cheap” always gets drafted first. If your partner selection has the vibes of that old SNL skit (“but Svetlana is $10 cheaper!”), remember that you get what you pay for. JP
The official online SAP community has taken a bit of a beating in recent years. (Jelena added to the beating in the Post-apocalyptic Tour of SAP Community - you should check it out.) I think my experience with the pre-apocalyptic times was less intense than many, and even I can see that the pizzazz quotient is lower.
This is the reason I'd like to plug the "Coffee Corner Discussions" area of the community. Once in a blue moon you get a gem like Marian Zeis' Garden Update. I could not care less about gardening, but I love finding some soul.
In Once More, with Feeling, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, Buffy sings this line that has always stuck with me: "Don't give me songs…Give me something to sing about!" I've always interpreted it to mean that passion and authenticity lead to better things than rote, by-the-numbers performances. In SAP community-land, you can drown in by-the-numbers marketing blogs…but every now and then a life preserver shows up in the form of a gardening blog, and you realize that a tech community is improved by more human stuff. Even in incredibly boring enterprise software, quirky human things give you something to sing about. Find someplace to post your garden pictures where they don't usually go. PM
Thomas Reiss from SAP just wrapped-up massive 7-part blog on SAP Community with tons of info about the latest and greatest in the SAP UX space. Part 1 has links to all the other parts for convenient bookmarking and consumption.
While I still cringe at “Joule is the new UX” spiel (and there is a lot about that in the blog), it’s great to see these expansive and curated reference posts on SAP Community. Highlights that caught my attention: new Design System website, enhancements for Fiori Elements, and upcoming changes for SAP Fiori UI. JP
In S/4HANA, the Key User Extensibility approach is convenient compared to earlier ways of doing extensibility. But that convenience still doesn't cover the need to dig in and monkey around with technical things. Shout out to VijayCR from the SAP Community blogs for showing how the Extensibility Assistant can help.
Some reflections:
It would be great if more people shared the kinds of prompts they use with this assistant. People need EXAMPLES EXAMPLES EXAMPLES!
Examples are important because, in this case, the user prompting the assistant seems to have some detailed knowledge of what they want. They know the fields, the RAP BO technical name, and give a very brief, explicit instruction. The "Key User" persona probably fits this well.
You can see from the screenshots in the post that there is a very small character limit. From the chunks I see it looks like around 250 characters. That tells me this is a simple, focused assistant with constrained capabilities. Some users might expect to give a lot of context to the bot if they're seasoned ChatGPTers.
In the case of the BAdI (Custom Logic) assistant, the user is only getting help finding the right BAdI to implement. Not in actually writing the code.
Writing the code itself is where the huge bang for the buck is. I think SAP is on the right track in improving usability with AI-assisted KUE - but I think AI has gotten to a state where it could do more for customers here. PM
For bonus material, watch the no-holds-barred Nerdletter Talk video on our burgeoning YouTube channel. Like and subscribe, y’all!
Have you ever wondered about the SAP “PI/PO” alphabet soup? Read Jelena’s article about Brief History of Renaming in SAP Integration. Pulitzer Prize committee should take notice!
Are you interested in sponsoring the Nerdletter and featuring your amazing product? Have a story to share or feedback to give? Get in touch!
This newsletter is always free and proudly written by humans and for humans. Show your support to help keep us going!
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.