#44: AppHaus, UiPath, Frappe, Requirement Changes
Hi there,
You might notice an unusually low volume of SAP related stories in this issue. And no, it’s not a “slow news day in SAP Land” or “OMG, Jelena and Paul are losing it” situation. It’s more of a sign of SAP space expanding into other dimensions and appetite for knowledge that comes with it. Please enjoy these 6 stories with our deep thoughts on enterprise and beyond!
-Jelena and Paul
UiPath Way
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has been mon chéri of The Buzzword Fan Club for quite a while. But lately the software vendors have been ditching the term in favor of flashier Intelligent Automation (“now with 25% more AI” ™). Even Rob Enslin, UiPath co-CEO and former SAP executive, spoke to diginomica recently on how RPA is “too narrow”.
UiPath is one of the biggest enterprise automation players. I’ve been casually following them for years but only last week had a chance to test-drive their free stuff. And let me tell ya’ folks, it’s impressive.
I signed up for a very detailed Udemy course (compliments of my employer) but UiPath also offers many free courses in their Academy, including this SAP specific one. Technically, you don’t even need any course at all, just install Community edition of UiPath Studio and go. This is the first nice thing: the time it takes to go “from 0 to 60” is very short. No signing up for any platforms, no account management, no waiting for emails and such.
Yes, what these free tools do is RPA. But after just the first two exercises I was already thinking about several ways I could use this to automate some mundane tasks or to scrape some content from the inhospitable websites. This is the second nice thing: when you see how technology works and create something yourself, ideas start flowing.
Third, some activities in the course that we were guided to “just do” I found already simplified or eliminated in the most recent software version. This means that developers not only listen to feedback but also act on it and strive to make UX better.
RPA might not be cool anymore but free UiPath software was so easy to install and use that it’d be a shame not to try it. And it can already improve our lives while we wait for the next big AI thing. After all, as Jon Reed astutely noted, solve a real problem for a customer “and they won't care if it's AI, or RPA, or some other acronym not yet (ab)used.” JP
Nerd Achievement Unlocked: Sleep
Back in May, I wrote about the secret nerd power of sleep and my recent diagnosis with sleep apnea. Long story short: falling asleep at my desk, losing brainpower, and a general feeling of tiredness all day long. At that time, I hadn't yet been able to get the treatment I wanted - but I told you I'd let you know when I did.
Gentle readers, I've received and used that treatment for about 2 months and I have to say: the ship has completely turned around. The problem was entirely sleep apnea. My mental engine is firing on all cylinders again, I have no accidental naps at the ol' workstation, and my feeling of ever-present tiredness is simply…gone.
The solution is CPAP: continuous positive airway pressure. A device by my bed puts positive pressure on the air flowing into my nose, which overcomes the obstructive sleep apnea reducing airflow to my lungs. I look like a complete dork cyborg when I put the mask on, but I don't care. I've got my life back.
This is a plea to anyone with the symptoms I laid out before: get checked. Your spouse or loved ones might report that you snore a lot, or that they notice you stop breathing occasionally while you sleep. I never quite understood how important good sleep was until I got it back. PM
AppHausMembers.insert("DalRae Solutions")
DalRae Solutions has joined the global SAP AppHaus Network with the DalRae Solutions AppHaus Brisbane. I've met Chris Rae, founder and Chief Architect, at a couple of Sapphire events and I've gotta say he's one of the deeply engaged members of the SAP Mentor community. He is really connected to his customers, and it shows.
The SAP AppHaus Network comprises 21 physical locations around the world where SAP, its customers, and partners come together to create via SAP's Human-Centered Approach to Innovation. Boring Nerd Jelena currently (and this Boring Nerd formerly) works at Mindset Consulting, which has an SAP partner AppHaus location in Minnesota, USA. With three locations, Australia is the per-capita AppHaus world champion - I should have ChatGPT write me a joke about how kangaroos and koalas must really need enterprise app help.
Here's why AppHauses (AppHausen? AppenHausen? AppschlagenHauswirtschaft? My high school German is rusty) work. In enterprise software solution-ing, not enough attention is paid to the human experience of using software. Anybody who has used the traditional big ERP players' software solutions knows this deeply, in their bones. The AppHaus, when paired with design thinking and real users with real solution-builders, creates a special magic.
Giving solution users a chance to truly influence the shape of a solution gives ownership and gravitas in what is produced. I'm proud of everything I did in an AppHaus. PM
Constant Requirement Changes Drive Us Crazy
“Tell me what you want, what you really, really want” – the Spice Girls knew what’s up. The users with their ever-changing requirements are the bane of developer existence.
The way out is, surprisingly, not the new procedure of signing specifications in blood but the exact opposite: continuous collaboration. This video explains it perfectly:
“The truth is that we don’t know the answers and neither do our users […]. The truth is that software development is a process of discovery. A job is not to write code to some prescription defined by omniscient other people. Our job is to discover the truth and explore what works and doesn’t alongside others who have different parts of the jigsaw puzzle.”
It’s certainly not how we’ve traditionally done it in the SAP world. As a popular meme would say, “one does not simply write ABAP”. There is change management, steering committee, stakeholders and gatekeepers. And so far we have seen this “code to specification” process deliver… the results that no one really wants.
The product-minded approach described above will take some adjustments on all sides. Compromise. Better communication. Flexible software that doesn’t break at slightest change. Understanding that critical feedback does not mean failure.
One might say hey, this sounds suspiciously similar to Agile Manifesto. Well, maybe those folks were onto something, after all. JP
Simpsons Did It: SAP Edition
In an episode of cult animated series South Park, fourth-grader Butters is desperately trying to come up with some clever mischief idea only to find that each of them has already been used in The Simpsons series. I thought of that episode when reading a recent SAP Community blog post about visualizations in ABAP.
In one of my first SAP rollouts around 2006, we had an invoice image scanning program that recognized the text and captured scanned invoice information. We had an interface with the phone system that matched SAP customer ID to the caller ID of the incoming call and opened customer information on screen for the customer service reps.
When an SAP executive pulled out his cell phone at a conference keynote around 2015, I’m not sure whom he was trying to impress with “Look ma, I click the button to approve purchase requisition”. We had that available for years on Blackberry devices.
Workflow existed in SAP since time immemorial. EDI interfaces date back to the 1970s. Implementation details may differ these days and everything somehow needs to have AI. But the ideas and the core functionality – they are not really new.
In that South Park episode, the boys eventually conclude that The Simpsons has been running for so long that they have done pretty much everything and worrying about that is pointless. I have a slightly different conclusion: there is already technology around us. Lots of it. When we keep looking over the horizon, it’s easy to miss what is already here. Use it, now. JP
Frappe Is Not Crappe
When last I wrote of ERPNext I said I should explore Frappe, the framework powering it. I've done some poking around, and I've got things to say!
I poked around with both Frappe and ERPNext itself. This is because those tools have AMAZING, easily accessible trial versions that you can test in a little cloud instance all your own.
Frappe shows its batteries-included nature, because even just the framework itself has a nice web-based administration UI. Ready to let you create apps and integrations right away.
For both the framework and the ERP, the UI is really nice. Clear, simple design. Responsive right out of the box. A great flow to adding and changing things around.
ERPNext's demo toolkit has a step in the signup flow that gives you the option to generate demo data for exploration. HELL YES! That is a great feature, and makes it much easier for me to evaluate the thing.
Frappe is based on Python and JavaScript. Coming from my ERP world that is mostly SAP, it's incredibly refreshing to find highly common skillsets of use in the app building process. I love ABAP - but if you want languages that have millions of people creating tools and frameworks…ABAP ain't it.
Frappe's application framework ships with a realtime socket.io API, a background jobs tool, a document API whose lens is focused on the shape of records, and a database API that lets you go lower into the weeds and execute arbitrary SQL. (Yeah, yeah, I know…be cautious. But that's true of every framework.) You can also get RESTful APIs for the documents stored in Frappe.
I'm impressed at the possibilities in the Frappe framework, and I think it'd be a great toolset to expand/explore alternative functionality in ERPNext itself. In both cases, the developers have done an amazing job making most of the experience easy and enjoyable.
I have just one frowny face item: my experience getting Frappe up and running locally was…less than optimal. There are improvements that could be made to the installation process and managing the development environment on a low, command-line-tools level. Every major software project should have something like flutter doctor
. It makes Flutter nearly a self-healing tool, definitely more developer-environmentally-friendly than most. PM
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