#39 Sapphire, ASUG, Clean Core, Data
Hi there,
Lots of SAP stuff in this action-packed issue, so make sure to read all the way to the end where you’ll find other tidbits of interest! Don’t forget to give us a holler in the comments if you agree - or disagree - with our spicy hot takes.
-Jelena and Paul
One Man’s Sapphire
I was lucky to attend Sapphire 2023 in Orlando. Thanks to SAP Mentors leaders for helping with tickets, and to my company Bowdark for allowing me space, time, and accommodations to stay and meet up with people and learn. My reflections below.
Attendance really picked up from last year, which makes complete sense. There was definitely the pre-COVID normal amount of physical buzz, energy, and camaraderie.
You can't swing a dead LLaMA without hitting generative AI intersecting with SAP product announcements.
For SAP products, it seems to me the strongest places where generative AI can play are those places where SAP hitches its wagon to tech pioneers. The best example on offer at Sapphire was announcing continued work with Microsoft, integrating SuccessFactors with Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Copilot in Viva Learning. Recruiting solutions that use OpenAI APIs to generate better job descriptions are welcome.
A multitude more stories about sustainability. Since SAP isn't directly performing the heavy industry/manufacturing/shipping, its products in the hands of customers who do perform the environmentally impactful activities is where SAP can make a difference. Green ledger, human rights, sustainability, and other areas are welcome actions.
Integration Suite is a cornerstone of BTP. Reimagination announced.
A random tangential aside, pointed out to me upon reflection by fellow conference-goers. You vendors out there, who speak at Sapphire and related events: it is virtually certain that your material is too detailed and in-depth for most listeners to grab on and follow. The biggest crowds and most interested watchers come from the sessions that are clear, simple, and direct. Here's a good rule of thumb: if you think your material is clear enough, it's really, really not. Revise, rinse, and repeat. PM
ABAP Cleaners
“Clean Core” is the talk of SAP town these days. In the SAP Community blog post controversially titled “Keep the core clean” Statement Considered Harmful, Wout de Jong looks back at the history behind Clean Core claims and offers a more nuanced look into what’s the deal with it. And in another blog post inspired by it, Julian Phillips draws analogies with TV show OC Cleaners and looks into some practical solutions.
This subject deserves a longer conversation but here are my top hot takes.
As Wout points out, “clean core” is not a new concept. Modifying the SAP standard was never a good idea. But it looks like recently SAP [marketing] is trying to cram much more into the Clean Core pitch, including cloud readiness and somehow also data. I think “keep the Clean Core message clean” would help to avoid any confusion.
I like Julian’s analogy with the actual cleaning. Not creating a mess in the first place and “clean as you go” work best for your house and your code. And for an epic spring cleaning it’s a good idea to bring in professional help.
Some comments on the subject suggest that “dirty core” is the result of developers making bad choices. Well, developers have always been at the end of the decision chain and we’re sometimes literally forced to make changes happen by any means. There are many accomplices to the “dirty core” crime: SAP, business users, functional consultants, etc. And Clean Core preaching should be directed at everyone, not just developers. JP
ASUG Steps Up To The Plate, Or Other Sports Analogy
Upon hearing of SAP's plans for their annual fall technical conference, TechEd, to have physical reality in Bangalore and nowhere else, nerdly passions around the world were stirred. EMEA-based developers signed on to a petition asking for SAP to host an event in that region. Americas-based developers apparently cried silently into their pillows, as I can't find any similar petitions for an Americas event - but several angry voices shouted from the desolate wasteland of Twitter.
(This is not to critique SAP ecosystem folks in Bangalore! If you're going to reduce your number of in-person locations and choose your location by impact, Bangalore has got to be the right choice. Hell, India probably has multiple metropolitan areas in the top 10 SAP-nerd-population-wise to choose from.)
Sharp eyes at ASUG must've been watching. Word landed last week that ASUG plans to hold a US-based SAP technical event called ASUG Tech Connect. "An immersive and hands-on learning experience focused on SAP BTP, led by ASUG and SAP Experts", Tech Connect is planned to follow the virtual TechEd experience with an in-person experience in North America - but exact dates and location(s) are not yet announced. If you’re in the Americas, make sure to sign up for updates.
A thousand times yes for this. SAP events need an outside perspective (even if "outside" is still an organization largely dependent on SAP for its existence!), and I think that the SAP community in North America desperately needs to have some life force shocked into it. ASUG was right to jump on the gap left in NA. Other regional SUGs should consider similar events. PM
Data, Data, Data
The video Data lake, data mesh, data what?! dissects 30+ years of data processing and analytics history in just 13 minutes with German precision and directness.
It all started with the “data warehouse” concept (see SAP Business Warehouse aka BW, later renamed as Business Intelligence and then back to BW). Warehousing of anything requires clear structure and sorting stuff first. Of course, no one really wants to do that, so the idea of “data lake” came along. It was a great dream that somehow data could be dumped into a “lake” and magically turn into something useful. In reality, many lakes just turned into data swamps instead.
The most recent we-hope-can-sort-data-mess technology is data mesh (see also my previous story on this subject). Will data mesh mean data salvation? Only time will tell. One thing still holds true though: there is no magic, when it comes to data. Meaningful results still require upfront efforts, the question is just where, who, and how. JP
Boring, But In A Good Way
Completing an Incredible Boring Trifecta begun by The Boring Company and Boring Enterprise Nerds, Boring Report offers an app experience that "uses AI language models to remove sensationalism from the news while preserving essential information." Essentially, you get a newsfeed that's filled with information that's been sort of…dulled of the sharp edges designed to get your dander up.
If you've ever read this newsletter, you know I'm a huge nerd for LLMs…and that I also can't get my head on straight for what they might mean for the world. But this sharp, focused, positive use of the technology points my thoughts toward hope. I'm a scrolling newsfeed addict like all the rest of the world, but when I go through news items presented in Boring Report, I honestly feel a sense of calm wash over me. It's like reading the pages of my old hometown paper 30 years ago.
Congratulations to Vasishta Kalinadhabhotla and Akshith Ramadugu on this fine piece of work. I'm tempted to try to crank out a pithy one-liner for the end of this item. Instead, I'm inspired by Boring Report to just lay out a fact: if you try it, you might feel better about consuming news. PM
Of Tribes and Heroes
If your project suddenly comes to a halt when a single person leaves for a vacation, you are probably dealing with the tribal knowledge problem and “hero syndrome” caused by it.
Brian Chambers (Enterprise Architect over at the fast food chain Chick-Fil-A) offers solid advice in his Fighting Tribal Knowledge article. I especially liked his suggestion to use self-documenting code (duh!) and the concept of Minimum Viable Documentation (MVD). It is sometimes presumed that the antidote to tribal knowledge is massive amounts of documentation. But documentation comes with the same maintenance cost as software, which is rarely considered.
And I think many IT professionals will relate to this:
When was the last time someone was publicly honored for stepping in and restoring a critical production system in the middle of a holiday weekend while taking a short break from snorkeling with sea turtles in the Galapagos Islands while they were on vacation with their family? Be careful what you celebrate: if you reward tribal knowledge and hero culture, that’s what you’ll get.
Just recently, I had to take an emergency leave at work. But leaving an active project in the hands of other developers was not on my list of worries. Why? Because all the information has always been available to everyone throughout the project. Every developer was enabled to be a hero. Everyone will be better off if we stop encouraging knowledge hoarding and self-induced heroism. JP
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