Set Theory and Programming (ABAP)

Marilyn Pratt tagged me due to 8 things we don't know about her :). As usual I was embarrassingly late and could not comply. She has got some really interesting real life stories to share. As they say, truth can be stranger than fiction. Of course I am not comparing with Bollywood movies but this one from Zoli can be really close.

I will probably won't be able to write a complete post about myself but for the respect...of elders :) ..

Back in 2005, I was an active member of SDN and then applied to be an expert blogger. Marilyn approved my Blog application :) . Somehow I could not contribute as much as I should have but then that's another story [ there is none really ]. However, I did get something else along with my rights to blog at SDN. My cool black and white photograph...cropped nicely...

Actually, that 'cropped nicely' part was done by SDN however B&W part was by accident. I tried editing my snap in MS photoshop and by default it was saved as B&W.
[ I now know about the issue with Photoshop ].

I developed my personal website, sometime in 2004 and somehow I do like this black and white color scheme . Believe it or not, I've not updated my personal website for ages. Though my subscribers list for the website is a lot bigger compared to my Blog. Just in case you are feeling jealous, it's still very modest and under control. I will blame Dunbar and his number for that :).Dunbar's number is the supposed cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable social relationships.

Before you set high expectations with this post, 'Set Theory and ABAP', let me clarify that I have not done my engineering in computer/software field. I am actually a Mechanical Engineer by qualification. So I still manage to try a few things on my own before googling and realizing that it was invented million years back.

Have you ever felt that some of the mathematical operations, if available in ABAP, can be really useful at times. To start with..what about Set Theory. Will an specific implementation for some of the Set theory operators might just be useful in ABAP Programming?

For Example : Given that internal table ITAB1 has the same structure as ITAB2, if we can use the Set operators like UNION, INTERSECTION etc.

It can be implemented as a Class/methods or Functions or even as ABAP Statements. I can understand that complex use of these statements will result in degradation of performance but it can be useful for specific scenarios.

By complex use I mean something like : ITAB4 = (ITAB1 ∩ ITAB2) - ITAB3

As an example : Let's say you have 3 Internal tables already available through
Function read etc. in your ABAP program.

• ITAB1 [ Employees who performed well consistently for the past 3 years ]
• ITAB2 [ Employees who has been promoted during past 3 years ]

If we have set operators then we can write just a few lines of code to get :

• Employees who performed and promoted = (ITAB1 ∩ ITAB2)


• Employees who performed but did not get promoted = ITAB1 - (ITAB1 ∩ ITAB2)


• Employees who didn't perform but got promoted = ITAB2 - (ITAB1 ∩ ITAB2)

You may find some interesting and related articles on web:

• A visual explanation of SQL Joins
• Programming with Sets
• Euler & Venn diagram
• Collections in Java

P.S. - I wrote a quick program to compare the object list between two huge transport requests. The idea was to find the objects which are not shared by both. In terms of Set terminology it can be called a DisjointUnion - all elements in either set A or set B, but not in both.
As people normally search for these kind of utilities to reach my post. Use standard FMs / APIs to write your own code. See Function Module TRINT_READ_REQUEST.

P.P.S. - Blogger's editor has a problem. It does not accept the URL links with special characters - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number, as it is. And saves it as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar.
Updated : However, you can write in HTML as Dunbar%27s+number and that works.

ERP2.0 - The Blog of a SAP Purchase Order

Nothing serious ..or may be !!

---

Welcome to ERP2.0 : The Blog of a Purchase Order

---

Date 07-Oct-2007 Time 01:10:00 PM

NASDAQ crashed today. Just wondering what would be my net worth in USD ( Foreign Currency ) now. Feeling lucky to have GBP as my local currency :)

Tags : EXCHANGE-RATE

---

Date 06-Oct-2007 Time 12:10:00 AM

I am not feeling good today. Change in conditions. This guy with user-id RMTIWARI robbed me of my value. Now I have a net price of '1000.00 GBP'. Unbelievable, just a few moments back, I was one of the wealthiest Purchase Orders in my company having net worth of '5000.00 GBP'.
I don't want to live any more. Someone please complete my lifecycle.

Tags : RMTIWARI, PRICE CHANGE, CONDITION VALUE

---

Date 05-Oct-2007 Time 01:40:00 PM

Feeling heavier today. Someone added a few items to me with some real heavy stuff.
How would you feel when you are carrying 4 CAR-ENGINEs? Never mind... it also means I am much wealthier than before.

Tags : ITEM, QTY, RMTIWARI

---

Date 04-Oct-2007 Time 01:40:00 PM

Happy Birthday to me. BTW, don't send/attach any documents to me through GOS [ Generic Object Services ]. Just send me a link and it will appear on my blog. ..That's right..

Welcome to ERP2.0. I am a Purchase Order... but even I have a blog . Also, visit my blog and search through Tags or titles.

I will let you know how it goes :)

Tags : CREATED, RMTIWARI

---

What if SAP Purchase Orders ( For purely technicals/geeks, ME21N.. ) start having a Blog rather than change-logs ( Change Documents , remember CDHDR, CDPOS)? That would be Cool.

Can we replace change logs and archiving of outputs/prints/emails of SAP Business Objects by utilising a Blogging software? With the ability to search and arrange based on tags, it might just be useful.

Sometime back , I wrote about the simulation/integration of web2.0 stuff with/in SAP, see Web2.0 simulation wave at SDN and it seems to be happening now. See the report from TechEd. Now Nigel James is integrating Wordpress ( Blog-Platform ) with SAP.

I wonder if James Governor & Thomas are also excited about the opportunity to read Purchase Order's Blogs :-)

Next what, A Purchase Order who wants to have a Second Life , may be this time as a Sales Order or at least as a STP : Stock Transfer Order :-)

SAP Helpdesk to User: I know what you did in the last transaction

So the next generation software will improve the user-experience and also change the roles of users and developers. But how? Read the in-depth analysis of 3G Software by Shai Agassi. A part of Shai's post is quoted here:

• In that sense the users are going from Data Entry to Exception handling and co-authoring
• Systems are going from Aggregation to harmonization and more importantly Automation
• As structure is added into information, its ability to route intelligently increases by orders of magnitude, hence the value-add of data moves away from the store and into "right-time routing"
• forcing developers to go from transactional programming to Event centric resolution

I just thought of at least one area of improvement. The scenario is something like as described below:

A SAP user is creating an order on his transformed SAP system and encounters an error. He is now thinking about informing his SAP Helpdesk and about the interrogation process that he has to go through. Just when he has started writing about the details about simulating the error with the screen-shots/input data and actions, he receives a call/email from his SAP Helpdesk.

Don't worry son, I know you are facing a problem and I know exactly what you did in the last transaction. Relax we'll take care of it.

Well that's an exaggeration probably. But is it not an area of improvement for SAP? When my internet explorer crashes ( which is does every now and then ), I at least get that moral support pop-up from Microsoft Windows which begs me to send the information online with a click of button. As if they are going to solve the issue and it will never happen again.

Can we have something like this in SAP? So if a user is facing an error and wants to contact SAP Helpdesk, all he needs to do is to run the transaction with the tracker on and then send the information to SAP Helpdesk. With a click of button. All the related information regarding input required for error simulation, dump, error, authorization failure, user default settings, user-gui settings [ SAPGui ]/IE settings [ for Web-Gui ], navigation-path etc. will be send to the SAP Helpdesk with the in-built mechanism.

For SAPGui transactions, it sounds like sending the BDCDATA table of the recorded transaction through a workflow-task-method, which can be run by the SAP Helpdesk.
Almost similar to eCATT functionality but needs to be embedded within the transaction.

For web-gui transactions, navigation-path, click tracking, form-data....does not it sound like Sitemeter or MyBlogLog?

Also, the information can be recorded in two ways. One is to show the demo of screens, input and navigation sequence. More of a static representation of the flow like the flash-demo we see on websites.

Second one can be a guided procedure to actually run the transaction with the same set of data and navigation sequence.

Some of these click-tracking and navigation information can easily be recorded using the JavaScript in a same way that we do for our blogs and sites.

However, a refined framework will be required to completely build this mechanism. I think with the MVC architecture of BSPs and WebDynpro, it will not be too difficult to build the event driven data-collector for recording the input-data and screen change [ navigation ] etc.

Basically, the idea is that user will click on the "Start Tracking" button at the beginning of the transaction and then...when he encounters the error he gets a moral-support-pop-up.

What do you think?

SAP's Co-Innovation : A Myth or Reality?

'Innovation', the term, is so widely used and abused that Nick Carr must be thinking of writing another book - 'Innovation does not matter' ;-)

So it seems SAP's promise of “Co-Innovation” has attracted wave of new SAP Customers, Partners to SAPPHIRE® ’07. Later, Thomas proved that Co-innovation is a strength not a weakness . Unlike Marketing guys, Thomas did provide real examples of Innovations at SAP.

However, I got technical on the definition of co-innovation and why it should not be called a co-innovation. But Vinnie came up with a better logic. See comments on Thomas' post.

Now, in line with my earlier post Views & iViews, I will list the two view points here;
SAP's Co-innovation is:

A Myth:

• Is it a customer/partner led Innovation or co-innovation? Do you think both convey the same meaning?
• Will customers/partners get the share in the resultant IP. As Vinnie pointed, if they won't then it's not co-innovation.
• In effect, is it lending/borrowing Ideas for further co-execution? Then it's not co-innovation.
• Thomas said "When two or more companies sit down and figure out a way of doing something new, or significantly better, cheaper, faster, then I’d label it co-innovation." Most of the innovation that the System Integrators have delivered, if any, the driver has been the ideas/requirements from the user side or the ideas evolved due to SIs proximity to the users. But I don't think it was tagged as 'Co-innovation' then.
• If it's important to bring people together from different backgrounds, to foster innovation, then why not do it as 'OPEN' [ as in ‘open source’ ]? e.g. why Colgate-Sap joint venture can’t disclose about what exactly they are working on? Who knows, if GM/SDN/BPX will have their viewpoint.

A Reality:

• Co-innovation is a reality. But about joint IP and OPEN as in 'Open Source', please don't complicate it as yet, it's just the beginning.
• It's an initiative taken by a Product company and the progress is being made.
• Has to be done because it's needed.
• Results will tell that SAP's co-innovation is indeed a reality.
• Because SAP is learning from others like IBM.
• Forget everything, it's because people at SAP like Thomas are honest with their approach and I quote :

"Developments such as the BI accelerator and enterprise search appliance with Intel, Cisco and GRC, and the Duet appliance with HP and Microsoft are also a step in the right direction. Enterprise services too, are evidence of a deeper customer centric co-innovation mindset. SDN itself is a big leap forward to openness and conversation, but there is much more to do.
I don’t think the SAP can afford to be smug about SDN. It is just the beginning. It would be a shame to say we have SDN, therefore we get this community- co-innovation thing. We need to continue to focus on how to expand, enrich and deepen the conversation, not how we market the fact that we are having a conversation. "

Time will tell..

Views + iViews = Complex Views

Don't worry, the iViews that I am going to discuss here does not correspond to any SAP BSP/Portal iViews. In fact this is something very different and about my thoughts, perceptions, views and imaginary views.

Off late, I've developed a very interesting tendency of questioning my own (real) views about a particular concept or topic and then challenge it with an imaginary view. This imaginary view can either be contradictory or just a bit different in nature but it's not the real view or perception that I used to have [ most of the time my real views are in-line with the general perception].

Further, if I put both these views together then the resultant thought/view becomes a lot more complex.

Remember that in mathematics, a complex
number is a number of the form X + iY
where X and Y are real numbers, and i is the imaginary unit.

After this process, though the final thought/view becomes a lot more complex and vague but it's also very interesting and satisfying than the original perception that I had.

For example, earlier I thought about the timing aspect of any change.
- While my real view is very much in line with the normal perception that says good changes/innovations should be implemented well ahead of the time so that you can have the leader's advantage. I came up with an iView.

- Another iView that I am thinking about for sometime now is the hype around the buzz-word 'Innovation'. Of course Innovation can't be bad but then what could be an iView for this perception/view ( or even a fact )?

Is 'Innovation' perfectly good? Is there a chance that Innovation might not be considered good ( or as good as something else ) in a particular scenario [ e.g. in a specific kind of situation and timing where it's not as effective or may be it’s actually not desired].

Why 'Accenture' changed it's tagline from 'Innovation delivered' to 'High Performance delivered', a few years back? Is 'Innovation' less important than 'High Performance' for the IT consulting companies/Customers? Is it more relevant to a 'Technology/Product' company like SAP/Oracle?

Can I categorize Innovation? e.g.

1. The innovation which is very relevant to the real issues being faced by the world at present.
2. The ones that are technically satisfying and important but are not relevant as yet. It does not solve any real life issue now but there is a potential. However no one knows what to do with it.
   

Should ‘Innovation of the first kind’ be given more focus and be implemented immediately. And those of the 2nd kind should be encouraged, discussed and preserved for later implementation [when we know what should be done with this ].
If not then will the hype around the 2nd kind of innovation distract the focus from the 1st kind?
In fact, sometime a few normal / ‘common sense’/ ‘as usual’ approaches are hyped as ‘Innovation’ and that can further harm the ‘Innovation of 1st kind’.

What is your view or rather iView?

I noticed that I am not very structured with my thoughts. I know
I should be very clear and structured and this is what we have been told.
But does it make sense to waste a lot of time in getting it correct,
the very first time. Whenever, I think I will write about a particular topic,
only after structuring my thoughts, in most of the cases it remains
un-written. So I will rather… just do it.....I’ll update it later, if
required.

Shai Agassi's 3-Axis of Innovation

Just for Fun, nothing serious here:-)
Read the Blog Post from Shai Agassi The Missing Sapphire Presentation

Oracle Vs. SAP : Who's being Innovative?

Innovation was the key to their success. However, now a days, the key Innovation could have been one of these [ in a lighter vein ]:

1. Sue your competitor to ruin their reputation.

2. Steal copyrighted materials so that you can support your competitor's obsolete products.

3. SAP did it to Oracle. Now it's Oracle's turn. So if you are a third party service provider, better start supporting obsolete versions of SAP. Oracle will buy you soon.

4. Join hands with your competitor [ in ERP Products ] and play a game of lawsuits so that no other customer will ever dare switching to a third party maintenance provider.

5. No technical/business innovation can match these non-technical/non-business innovations.

'Sad day for Enterprise Software'? Not at all.. It's just innovation !!