In this issue:
Software Is Changing (Again)
You know you’ve been working in enterprise software for too long when you hear “Software 3.0” and are like, “Hol’ up, there was Software 2.0?!”
Regardless of the version, we’ve got to admit that the way we create software is indeed changing. This fantastic video from Andrej Karpathy walks viewers through this change without the “AI took our jerbs” hysteria or marketing nonsense.
Andrej acknowledged the “jagged intelligence” of AI tools and talked about “partial autonomy apps.” This seems to be the consensus of cool minds: don’t expect to just “vibe code” the whole functional thing.
I found it interesting that Andrej equated LLMs to an OS and talked about graphical UIs and tools that make working with LLMs feel less like a chat. I’m old enough to remember when Norton Commander was an awesome tool that spared us from typing MS-DOS commands. Opening Visual Studio for the first time was breathtaking in contrast to plain text editors I had to use before. And it feels very weird to me that, most recently, development seems to be moving in the opposite direction - back to the terminal. Guys, we’ve already been there…
As I was ready to publish this, Fireship released a video OpenAI Just Made Your Entire Tech Stack Obsolete about even more AI features for developers. My favorite comment: “Prompting is finally solving the problem of clicking on stuff.” JP
Devtoberfestivus Clean Core Transforming
Devtoberfest has been going on for a few years now, and for SAP nerds it’s a great chance to learn about all the latest technologies and development practices coming out of SAP. I highly commend the team that puts on Devtoberfest - it’s really an insane amount of knowledge that leaks out into the community every year.
I’ve been paying attention to AI and clean core a lot, and the Devtoberfest content supply has matched my interests nicely. Let me highlight two videos worth your time if you’re into those things.
Clean Core Extensibility Strategy powered by ABAP Cloud and Generative AI - a great overview of the changes in the last few months to the guidance, and kudos to Fabian Fellhauer for bringing great energy to the presentation.
Boost Your Developer Satisfaction with SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI Capabilities - This one’s about AI but I just wanted to leave one money quote from Jasmin Gruschke: “For those of you who have already had the opportunity of building an ABAP RAP application, you might know how much effort that actually is.” Yep.
Special call out for Custom Code Development and transformation for Clean Core in SAP S/4HANA - You will see a slide go by in many of these videos, where the last box touts a “Transform” capability, with an interesting “ECC -> S/4HANA -> Clean Core and ABAP Cloud” claim. Watch to the end of this one, at about 57:00 in, for more details on the AI code proposals piece of this. You might see more than you thought, but less than you’d hope. PM
Snazzy ABAP Tools
New tool on the SAP developer block has a snazzy name: ACE (ABAP Code Explorer). Created by Yurii Sychov from Ukraine, it combines the power of ABAP with the goodness of Mermaid visualization. If Mermaid sounds familiar, it’s because we were way ahead of time and wrote about it in 2022 (this level of time-aheadedness is available exclusively to our Platinum Plus tier subscribers).
More from The Department of Snazzy Names: ABAP Florilegium (yes, it’s the word) is a nicely organized and curated collection of ABAP tools and repositories. I’ve noticed an almost alarming number of JSON tools and some interesting sounding projects that I’ve not heard of before. Check it out! JP
Maybe It Really Is Shiny
A news item shot through my feed about DualEntry, the “AI-native ERP”, getting a $90 million funding round with some big name investors.
When I first saw it, I clicked right through to the product site, and I had that little complainer voice in my head speak up, saying “this is another one of those things where they slap ‘AI’ on the front page and rake in VC cash”. I didn’t see how AI was actually involved. BUT - if you go to the main site and you’re wondering what the AI is supposed to be doing here, do better than me and just…scroll more. Go down past the “all-in-one accounting suite powered by AI models” header. You’ll get more AI details right after that.
They make actual claims about AI things doing real business stuff. I’m not a financial professional so I am unqualified to say how useful any of the features are, but they sound very business-y.
There’s often a hype-to-feature mismatch in these companies. Either they crow all about the tech but leave you wondering what the heck it is they do, or they make a passing mention of the tech and jump straight to the Important Business Features. DualEntry, at least for me, strikes a nice balance. PM
Micromanagement Sucks
Management practices usually belong in places like Harvard Business Review. But micromanagement is so uniquely bad it’s been featured in both The Lego Movie and the National Library of Medicine. A pop-culture reference and a clinical condition? That’s quite an achievement.
I’ve dealt with my share of micromanagers. Pinging “Did you get my email?” exactly five seconds after sending said email, asking to be copied on every single communication, soul-draining status checking meetings - you name it.
Some articles compare the effects of micromanagement to PTSD and workplace bullying. It’s also one of the top reasons for employee resignations. Yet it continues to permeate the corporate fabric. What gives?
For a manager, it’s easier to think of themselves as diligent and detail-oriented than to face their own anxiety and insecurity. The first step in dealing with a problem is acknowledging it. But micromanagers rarely see any problem with what they do. For them, everyone else is the problem. Lazy, tricksy hobbitses, can’t trust them with our precious!
There really should be hotlines for micromanagement victims, just like for any other corporate abuse. It’s not always an option to go over a micromanager’s head to seek help from higher-ups (tread carefully if you take that route). But the worker’s strength is in numbers. If your team is micromanaged, it’s easier to resist and make noise as a group. Micromanagement Resistance, assemble! JP
Enterprise UX Slap In The Face
In September, Acumatica put out a pretty big release. They tout three main areas of new things they want you to buy: “Modern User Experience”, “AI-First Approach”, and “Industry Depth and Breadth”. There are probably reasons to pull out your corporate purchasing card and open the money firehose to Acumatica, sure.
What catches my eye is something ringing true from the SAP ecosystem as well: ERP UX just freaking sucks no matter what you do. Look at the screenshot from the announcement. In the middle is the little slider that shows you one experience versus the other. I just…honestly, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that it isn’t all that different.
Acumatica’s AI-first approach, SAP Joule, and whatever else the other players are offering are great starts, but there is a loooooong way to go before ERP UX actually feels different in a good way. PM
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On the terminal comeback, are we just redicovering vi again? Solid take, very insightful.