TLA

API – Application Programming Interface
BPM – Business Process Management
CAF – Composite Application Framework
CEM – Customer Engagement Manager
CRM – Customer Relationship Management
EAI – Enterprise Application Integration
EDI – Electronic Data Interchange
ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning
ESA – Enterprise Services Architecture
ESS – Employee Self-Service
HCM – Human Capital Management
IDE – Integrated Development Environment
ISV – Independent Software Vendor
JDI – Java Development Infrastructure
JSP – Java Server Pages
JVM – Java Virtual Machine
KPI – Key Performance Indicators
MDM – Master Data Management
MSS – Manager Self Service
PDK – Portal Development Kit
PIP – Partner Implementation Package
PLM – Product Lifecycle Management
RFC – Remote Function Call
ROI – Return On Investment
SCM – Supply Chain management
SRM – Supplier Relationship Management
TCO – Total Cost of Ownership
TLA – Three Letter Acronyms
UML – Unified Modeling Language
WAS – Web Application Server
WML – Wireless Markup Language
XML – extensible Markup Language

That is correct - I have seen the term "TLA" used in an SAP publication as an acronym for "Three Letter Acronyms". Obviously there are more three letter acronyms but this list contains the most common ones found in the SAP world. The two and four letter acronyms have also been omitted.

Short Post

1967: Plastics
2006: Web Services

mySAP ERP for Dummies ESA Edition Book Review

I am not a fan of "Dummies" books. As a general rule they try to hard to be funny and not hard enough at communicating worthwhile information. This book by Andreas Vogel and Ian Kimball was better than I expected.

The first section of the book talks about ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP has been around for a long time. SAP's implementation of ERP now includes ESA - Enterprise Services Architecture. ERP and the impact of ESA are given an overview that is not too technical.
The second section of the book covers NetWeaver. It uses some of the standard charts (like page 121) that are found in every SAP NetWeaver presentation. Here is the definition from the book: "SAP NetWeaver is a set of capabilities that are provided by many different SAP products constructed to work with each other to make people, information, and business processes work together across technologies and organizations, all based on services." Every time I hear NetWeaver described I get a vision of Dan Akroyd on Saturday Night Live portraying Julia Child and proclaiming "It's a floor wax and it's a dessert topping". There is also a chapter on Composites and how they fit in to the NetWeaver scheme of things.
The third section talks about future releases of SAP and building an ERP Roadmap
The last section of the book discusses how to make people more productive. I learned a new acronym - KPI - Key Performance Indicator. This chapter is mostly "future" stuff. The book does contain a good glossary of all the current SAP buzzwords.

If you are pretty familiar with IT concepts but unfamiliar with SAP this book would offer a good starting point. If you have significant experience with SAP there is much to be gained from this book but one needs to turn off their cynicism before reading it. This book is about half way between Ray Kurzweil's extremely optimistic "The Singularity Is Near" and Frederick Brooks' very realistic "The Mythical Man Month".

I will be reviewing NetWeaver for Dummies in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know if you need to read both books or if you can get all you need from one of them.

TechEd 2005 Final - Was It Worth It?

Before I answer the big question - Was TechEd worth the time and money? - let me comment on some of the logistics. It was held at the new convention center in Boston. Busses were used to go back and forth from the conference to the hotel since the adjoining Westin Hotel has not been finished and the Seaport Hotel had no rooms available. It was a minor inconvenience. I am sure this will only get better at future events in Boston. On Tuesday, SAP provided the most impressive "mass produced" lunch I have ever eaten. It was steak and shrimp. Dinner was provided on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Since the whole convention center was used exclusively for this event it was easy to navigate to the different functions. Overall I would give SAP high marks for their ability to handle the logistics of TechEd.
Was it worth the time and money? The short answer for me is yes. I have not attended any SAP sponsored function in two years. As a programmer it is important to know what the future holds for SAP technology. Even though I read some of the emails and occasionally browse the SDN website, I find it difficult to learn new material strictly through reading. Listening to presentations, attending hands-on sessions and talking to other technical people enhances my learning process. Since I have not attended an ASUG conference or SAPPHIRE or any other training recently I cannot give an accurate comparison of these events. The bottom line is I need to do everything I can do to keep my skills current. TechEd 2005 was worth my time and money.

TechEd 2005 Actionable Info

Whenever I attend a technical conference I come away with more books to read.
The following books are on my reading list:

mySAP ERP ESA Edition for Dummies by Andreas Vogel
NetWeaver for Dummies by Dan Woods
SAP Exchange Infrastructure by Jens Stumpe and Joachim Orb

I am not usually a fan of “Dummies” books but I have read most of the first book and it is pretty good. I had lunch with Dan Woods at TechEd and he naturally recommended his book. I read one of his other books so I’ll give his NetWeaver book a shot. I think it would be helpful if the writers of SAP materials would read Frederick Brooks’ Mythical Man-Month.

ABAP Programming

The most important thing I need to do as ABAP programmer is to change my thinking. Every program should be thought of in terms of “How do I write this code in a way that it can be called from an external system”? One example is error handling. BAPIs have a standard methodology using a return table (BAPIRETURN) to store error messages. Every program should use this methodology. Another technique is to employ the usage of function modules and BAPIs instead of subroutines. As an old COBOL programmer I tend to think in terms of subroutines.

TechEd 2005 Other Stuff

SAP Exchange Infrastructure Adapter Framework

I attended a hands-on session on XI. In the session we took a scenario from beginning to end. The scenario was to put a stock quote on a screen. There are two ways to invoke XI – from the outside in or the inside out. SAP strongly suggests using the inside out approach. What this means is that you can use ABAP to invoke XI (outside in) or you can use XI to invoke ABAP (inside out).
The following website contains web based information that can be retrieved via the XI infrastructure:

http://xmethods.org/
(I also placed this on the sidebar – Publicly Available Web Services)
Another new acronym to remember – WSDL – Web Service Description Language


I attended a presentation by a vendor on a tool to integrate Goggle maps. The demo used a scenario where a retailer was trying to determine the logistics of running a sales promotion. The program put bar charts on the map in the warehouse locations for available inventory. It then showed mileage and routes for retail outlets that carry the product. This was all imposed on a google map.

I attended a presentation on Visual Composer. This is the (fill in the largest number you can think of) attempt to create a tool so you will no longer need programmers. I think this will be a great programming tool. One of the examples presented showed a BAPI being selected and placed on a screen through cut and paste.

I attended a hands-on session on Bullet-Proof Software – Writing Robust and Correct Code in ABAP. I was very disappointed in this session. The session was on error handling which is certainly a worthwhile topic but not what I was expecting. Using their analogy – I believe to bullet-proof software you need to learn how to stay out of the wrong neighborhoods – not put on more Kevlar. In the XI / NetWeaver world I understand the need for robust error handling – I just wished they would have said that was the topic of the session and I would have chosen a different session.

TechEd 2005 (continued)

New Features in ABAP
Horst Keller gave a two hour session on new features in ABAP. Some of the highlights are:
New Editor
- Syntax checker – usage of colors
- Keyword complete (similar to MS Word)
- Part of Debugger

Debugger
- two sessions – program and debugger
- scripting available
- insert code on the fly

Enhancement Framework
- replaces customer exits
- enhancement spots / enhancement points
- switch framework – allow selecting and deselecting of enhancements
- uses SE80

Regular Expressions
- text manipulation tool to replace string commands
- based on UNIX standards
- ideal for XML / HTML

The most significant is probably Regular Expression. I had never heard the term before but it is a standard UNIX tool. When Horst demonstrated it my first thought was I could use the current ABAP string commands to do the same tasks and the ABAP commands would be easier to use and easier to maintain. After further reflection I can see the need for them. As time goes on XI and NetWeaver will require ABAP to parse HTML and XML strings. In order to do this a powerful text manipulation tool will be needed. Rather than inventing their own SAP has chosen to incorporate a UNIX standard for manipulating text. If you do a search on Amazon you will find that there are books available on Regular Expressions.

TechEd 2005 Boston

This is my first post on TechEd Boston - there will be more.
As always Shai Aggasi started the event laying out the roadmap of SAP in his Keynote Address. The two purposes of attending the keynote for an ABAPer such as myself is to get a quick study on industry standard buzzwords and get a roadmap of where SAP is heading.
The two big buzzwords are – SOA – Service Oriented Architecture and ESA – Enterprise Services Architecture. Shai’s usage of terminology is important. He uses industry standard terminology that needs to be understood to get the “big picture”. An ABAP programmer needs to know not only how systems all fit together but also what the technical buzzwords are behind those connections. Let me give one example. Shai probably spent less than one minute talking about disruptive processes. The “disruptive” nomenclature can be attributed to Harvard professor Clayton Christiensen’s books “The Innovator’s Dilemma” and “The Innovator’s Solution”. If you keep up on all of the latest business books you will find terms like Silos, Consolidation, Composition and Repositories are prevalent. These are all words that Shai used in his presentation.
Shai's new name for IT is ST - Strategic Technology. When I started out it was DP - Data Processing. Then in the late 80s it became IS - Information Systems. Then by the late 90s it was IT - Information Technology. Technical jargon aside - the basic vision is for everyone to be able to talk to everyone everywhere using a common architecture - SAP NetWeaver. Stay tuned for more posts.