#75: SAP Extensions, EA Skills, Agentic BS
In this issue:
SAP Extension-palooza
Buckle up, buckaroos, we’re going to talk about all the hot news that came out from SAP press room in January.
First, SAP Executive Board just got a side-by-side extension: “extended Executive Board”. It has a bunch of execs, including Chief AI bro Dr. Philipp Herzig who also got the coveted CTO role. The pundits and influencers were out in force speculating what this meant (“tech company without a CIO/CTO on the executive board?!”). From the peanut gallery, it looks like someone got played in the Game of Corporate Thrones: sent to sit at the kids table and has to do two jobs now. But what do I know.
SAP also took this opportunity to come out with a strategy “AI-first, suite-first”, which just does not compute in my simple developer’s mind. Get a dictionary, folks.
Second, remember how SAP previously said there would be no more extensions to 2027 end of mainstream maintenance deadline for SAP ECC? Well, in the ultimate “some animals are more equal” twist, there is now an asterisk. If you also sign up for RISE with SAP, you get a special offer that offers an extension till 2033. As this article correctly points out, this is not at all across the board extension, so 2027 still stays. Don’t get excited.
Last but not least, SAP posted the financial results for Q4 of 2024 and stock price continues to go brr, so all is peachy. JP
THE AI TAKEOVER IS RIGHT ON SCHEDULE
Dr. Philipp Herzig has risen to the CTO position at SAP. Huge congratulations to him, especially considering his fairly meteoric rise. Only 10 years ago he was a software developer. Not to hit the brag juice too hard, but 10 years ago I was a software developer and now I'm…a grown-ass man who publicly labels himself a boring nerd.
As Jelena insightfully pointed out in our recent blockbuster Nerdletter Talk, SAP's current board structure leaves the CTO at the kids' table. There's a Supervisory Board, an Executive Board (where the CEO sits), and a new Extended Board. As of now, there's a "TBA" spot on the Extended Board - so get your applications in now. I hear you'll get a boost if you use Joule to spice up your resume.
What I note most about this appointment is that Dr. Herzig rises up from the position of Chief AI Officer. It screams "AI is the top, numero uno thing technology-wise at SAP". Skynet failed to get into the top board, but its climb is just as meteoric as Herzig's. PM
ABAP Packages
Writing about the apm project before, I mentioned that it’s not about the ABAP packages you’re probably thinking of. And this story is exactly about those packages.
Many developers don’t give ABAP packages much thought beyond “just enter some name when prompted.” When I started in the SAP world 20 years ago, in the BC400 class the trainer told us that someone would create a package, so we shouldn’t worry our pretty little heads about it. It wasn’t unusual for all the custom ABAP objects to be dropped into a single mega package aptly named ZDEV or, in more fancy orgs, ZMM or ZSD or ZSOME_PROJECT_NAME. And that’s the most attention ABAP packages would get. I was well into my second decade of SAP experience when I realized the packages had more to offer.
Packages can have longer, descriptive names. They can also have sub-packages. Just like we use folders to organize files, we can use package structure to organize development objects.
You can easily put the whole package into a transport (or use abapGit) to share the code in multiple objects. Take a look at how packages and subpackages are used in open-source projects, such as ABAP2XLSX.
Want to isolate some legacy code? Move it to a designated package! It’s easy to exclude a package in ATC and other code checks.
Need to make super-duper sure no one reuses the objects they shouldn’t? Revolutionary concept of package interfaces has been around for over a decade!
All of this is completely free and available in a system near you right now. JP
EA Ur-Skills
Friend of the Nerds Timo Elliott recently pontificated on The Required Enterprise Architect Skills of the Future. The opening salvo fits my thought on this role: Enterprise Architects "play a critical role in designing, maintaining, and evolving the organization's technology landscape". (Also a shout to the upcoming Next Generation SAP Enterprise Architect Learning Forum, Feb 24-27.)
The meat of Timo's piece is a readout of skills he finds necessary for those occupying this role. I strongly vibe with several of them: organizational guidance, connection of disparate systems, and technical architecture knowledge have been key pieces of the best EAs I've personally known.
I want to offer two further things that you should consider when either finding or becoming an enterprise architect yourself.
I hate to be this guy, but a key ingredient is time and experience. But don't fret, young whippersnappers - time and experience are not strictly defined and measurable. Many folks live the same year of experience 10 times, and others can pack 10 years' worth of experience into one calendar year. It's not a precise science, but you have to get in your reps.
Another is implicit in the aggregate: crafting a vision. It's like an ur-skill that feeds all the others. Craft a strong vision for the future of your organization, and the future of your role. This flows down into all the other skills.
It seems like "Architect" of some flavor has become more common in job titles lately. But if it's your ambition, these skills are the building blocks. PM
Technology Appreciation Club
I wanted to write a story about optimism in technology after first seeing Techno Optimist Manifesto headline. But then I’ve actually read it. Oh dear, what an absurd document that turned out to be… (Here is a great tear-down and another one.)
For me, technology optimism is not about “AI will save us all”. It’s about appreciation of opportunities that technology opens.
Two years ago, I picked up some family memorabilia from my parents. Among other things, there were the old telegrams from distant relatives with congratulations on the major life events, such as the wedding and birth of first child (me). Since not everyone even had a phone, it was the only way to deliver an important message quickly.
Yesterday, I sent a picture of my cat to my old school friend who lives 7 time zones away and got a heart emoji in response. The distant relatives are in my contacts and just an email away, even though we all live in different countries now.
One might point out that barrage of [mostly bad] worldwide news and being constantly online is not healthy. And it’s a valid concern. But regardless of what venture capitalist may manifest, technology is nothing without people. And we still have the power to support the technology we want and let the rest fade into oblivion. I hope you join me in the Good Technology Appreciation Club. JP
BS, But Not Forever
I saw an announcement of more agentic AI stuff, this time from ServiceNow. I don't even feel like listing out details, because if you unfocus your eyes you can just pretend this is a press release from any of one hundred billion enterprise software companies. Here's a little caution, with an AI Kool-Aid chaser at the end.
Agents, as they are right now, should not be viewed as people-replacers. In their current best form, they are task-replacers. To best take advantage of them, you need to deeply understand how to measure and manage the things the agents will perform.
Take every agent claim with a huge grain of salt. Do NOT just watch demo videos - insist on trials and stress-testing agents. Know what you expect and need, and insist on that. A good rule of thumb would be to look at the lofty promises and expect only 60%-70% of them to work on your first trip.
Now for the Kool-Aid: I am probably going to eat these words in very short order. If you are paying attention to the crazy advances (and the speed of those advances), you'll see that AI of various flavors continues to quickly climb the charts of any measures we dream up. I have little doubt that what is BS for agents now (specifically, any hype that you can fire-and-forget them at complex tasks) will graduate to non-BS soon. PM
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