#68: Devtoberfest, Code 4 humans, Dumb CEOs, SAPUI5 Excel
In this issue:
SAP Devtoberfest Has Everything
In 1987, Guns N' Roses were the opening act for The Cult’s "Electric" tour. Who the heck is The Cult, you ask? Exactly.
SAP Devtoberfest is quickly becoming the Guns N' Roses to the main TechEd act on their weird 2024 “world tour” and we’re witnessing history being made, folks. The event is still in progress but here are my highlights so far.
Forms rarely get much love at these events, even though developers deal with them a lot. Plainly named SAP Forms by Adobe didn’t disappoint, make sure to tune in for some updates on what’s going to be supported going forward.
As you know from a previous story, I was looking forward to Understand the clean core extensibility options for Cloud ERP session. It’s an OK session, don’t get me wrong. But after fast-forwarding through a good half of it I feel there ought to be the separate sessions for “I’ve been living under the rock for 5 years” and “I just want to see what’s new and improved” audiences.
The developers looking to skill up on ABAP RAP will find fewer slides and more code in the Clean Core Extensibility with ABAP Cloud in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. Hope that the presenters will share the respective code, as many others requested. I’d love to dig deeper into some parts that were walked over and I bet many people would suggest some code quality improvements, cough.
The best session of the event is hiding under the boring name Data Modeling with the latest features of ABAP Core Data Services. I hope this presentation style catches on because it’s effective, fun, and closest to how developers learn from each other in real life. Plus, there are updates from the CDS world that you don’t want to miss. Very nicely done!
To follow the past and future sessions, use this calendar or YouTube playlist. The calendar format is better organized by track (=subject/theme), it’s what I mainly use. JP
79% Of CEOs Are Dumb
If you haven’t been asked to come back into the office more often, it seems like it’s coming soon. A KPMG survey found that 79% of CEOs "envision the working environment for corporate employees whose roles were traditionally based in-office to be back in the physical workplace in the next three years". Further, 86% "will reward employees who make an effort to come into the office with favorable assignments, raises or promotions".
Help me out here, Thomas the Tank Engine!
For employees who also happen to be humans, this sucks.
I accept that some people prefer to be in the office, physically present with colleagues. Most days I prefer that! But when the pandemic shifted people remote, many of us discovered something: we can still get s**t done. And we can do it while having more time to spend with families, friends, pets, and hobbies! If your flavor of knowledge work is largely creating things or communicating, you’re just as productive at home as you are having slogged your way through a bunch of traffic and parking shenanigans.
This also slows progress in workplace gender equity. Liz Elting writes “A lack of flexibility is already pushing mothers out of their jobs, and 72% of women say they’ll have to leave their job if their employer eliminates its flexible hybrid policy.” You’d be stupid to shut the door to women in your workforce. (Especially women like these.)
The best enterprise nerds are enterprise humans, and humans need more flexibility than rigid in-office jobs. PM
Code for humans
“It’s hard to write code for humans,” says Erik Bernhardsson in his recent article. And no, this isn’t yet another soapbox speech about Clean Code; it’s about helping other humans understand and use your software.
At first, this might seem irrelevant to SAP developers because we don’t typically write developer tools, which the article is focused on. We’re too busy trying to fit a round “customer requirements” peg into a square SAP hole. But think about it: every global class you write could end up being someone else’s developer tool. Why not make it simpler for a fellow human to use?
In addition to some great advice for developers, I found myself nodding at the observations about learning from examples rather than focusing on “core principles.” (The Devtoberfest session on CDS views mentioned above is a perfect example.) Overall, excellent reading material for your next coffee break. JP
Everything Eventually Becomes Excel
Oliver Graeff points out the latest updated SAPUI5 roadmap. (Yes, reading the roadmap is better than sitting through a roadmap presentation. But why do I have to sign in to see it?) SAPUI5 has been a huge success for SAP technology. For most people, for most of SAP history, it completely stinks to have to actually use SAP software. Wouldn’t you rather just use Excel?
The two coolest things (I think) in the UI5 roadmap are playing right into that spreadsheet wish list.
The latest “export to spreadsheet” is moving to OpenUI5. I think OpenUI5 adoption in the outside world is somewhat low, but if you want to change that - bring the features the people want!
Granular control of row actions in the responsive table. Possibly one of the most-used UI5 controls out there gets more fine-tuned control. Tweak every row of data exactly the way you need! (Just like how you can in a spreadsheet.)
Developers have to balance between "just do whatever the heck you want with the business data going into this app" and "NO, you MUST only edit information in this PARTICULAR way through a PRECISE mechanism". But giving them more powers to do so enables a more artful, expressive tightrope walk. PM
Some Developers Are Welcome?
Remember when SAP TechEd was once rebranded as “d-code”? Or “all developers are welcome” banner? With the SAP BTP free tier announcement in 2021, it felt like even “the little guys” could truly be part of the partner ecosystem. Like we are on the verge of individual contributors developing the equivalent of Angry Birds for SAP app store and rolling in money.
But as in Animal Farm, turns out there is some nuance. Earlier this year, SAP quietly discontinued SAP BTP pay-as-you-go option for individuals. The news spread on social media (exhibit A) but I’ve been unable to find any official announcements. It’s also not clear what exactly prompted this.
Another pinch to “the little guys” was delivered by a change in the certification process. This one came with the official announcement, which is explained in a nutshell in this LI post. Previously, if your SAP certification was about to expire, you could pass a short assessment to extend it. Now it is still an option BUT only if you cough up some moola for SAP Learning Hub subscription.
These things just make me think “really!?!” Imagine how big of an SAP fan one must be to pay for SAP BTP as an individual. And don’t you want more people to learn about your solutions and be certified? Is it really so necessary to squeeze these individuals? I’ll say as a shareholder: boo, SAP, boo. JP
Magic Undone
Just go read this beautiful post by Preston Thorpe: “Magic isn’t real”. For me, it simultaneously resonates with past experiences and motivates future exploratory endeavors.
Think about learning your favorite thing in depth. You gather knowledge and settle into a comfortable place at your skill level, where you feel like you’ve got your little fiefdom under control. But you can’t help noticing that people who do the same thing accomplish what you wouldn’t dare to dream. Those people must have X-Men superpowers, because how in the world could they do that?
Then you get a chance to just ask how (or in my case, read the code), and the scales fall from your eyes. What seemed magic is made mundane. It’s not that you’re dumb - you just didn’t have the proper context. Preston makes this point about software development, but it should be obvious that it’s applicable everywhere. PM
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Meet Jelena and Paul in person at ASUG Tech Connect conference (also official SAP TechEd “stop” in the US) on November, 12-14 in the sunny West Palm Beach, FL!
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My last full time employment was BASIS support with a Third Party support organisation; there were some head office functions in the US that were more naturally suited to some form of office work, but developers and supported staff have / had always worked from home.
I live in one state in Australia, my immediate boss in another. His first boss worked in Seattle, and her replacement worked in Argentina. Their boss worked in Texas, and his boss (the owner / majority shareholder) lived in Las Vegas.
In other words, if workers can do without the physical presence of managers, perhaps they don’t need so many managers after all, at least in the way they currently operate.
The eagerness of CEOs and other senior managers to wish away Work From Home suggests that, at some level, they realise this...