Career Break & Women in Technology - The Big Issue!

I've been asked a question from one of my Blog readers which I could not ignore. The question represents a bigger issue about the social responsibility of organizations and people, in general. Actually, this is not something that affects only women but also the families; you, me and the society . What exactly are we doing about it and is that enough?
Read more »

To SAP with Love: Focus on University Alliance than SAP Certifications

Please SAP, Focus on improving the University & Corporate Alliance Program. You will get your chance to certify them later. Think about Future.

Like any other checks, SAP Certifications can be useful but it is not a necessary or sufficient measure to judge the ability of an SAP Consultant. Anyone serious about solving the issue should focus on the root cause of the problem. My advice to someone who thinks SAP Certification, by itself, is the magic solution to the problem of failed SAP projects. With due respect, now please get back to earth. And welcome home, just in case. Read more »

The 8th Habit of a Programmer !

Oh don't go on the title of this post. I am just trying to read this book called 'The 8th Habit' but my daughter won't approve. It seems only one person, who is allowed to read a book in my house, is my 2 years old daughter. Never mind.

There was an interesting post by Jeff Atwood, Don't Reinvent The Wheel, Unless You Plan on Learning More About Wheels. I won't go that far to expect programmers will rewrite the libraries and use it in live projects. But sometime a programmer should think about how the wheel was invented, at first place.

Interestingly, one of my favourite questions, which I ask during technical interviews and mainly to the junior developers:

Assume a particular programming language statement/Function does not exist as yet. Now explain how would you go about building a logic to replace the original statement / Function.

e.g. What if SAP has not provided a SORT statement for the internal tables? or
You need to print the amount in words and let's assume there is no function [ SPELL_AMOUNT ] available in SAP.

I don’t expect them to explain exactly the way it should be, neither do I know it by myself. But their approach to answer this question does help in identifying the real programmers.
 
How does a candidate react to these type of questions, is also very revealing. The programmers, who really like programming - logic, analysis etc. - they are pleasantly surprised. And those who are wrongly in this profession, will have a completely different reaction. They try to argue to prove it's an unnecessary question. They don't get the motive behind these questions. 
 
If spelling the amount seems to be too difficult then try with a coffee corner question. I like reading threads in the coffee corner at SDN and there was a funny question by Amit Khare.
 

WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL ?

Try it without looking at the answers.

1) Pick your favorite number between 1-9
2) Then Multiply by 3
3) Add 3, then again Multiply by 3
4) You'll get a 2 or 3 digit number.... right?
5) Add the digits together.
Example: if your number is 34, 3+4 so that your number is 7

Now with that number see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below :

1. Mother Teresa
2. Nelson Mandela
3. Your mother
4. Your father
5. Bill Gates
6. Gandhi
7. Brad Pitt
8. Hitler
9. Amit Khare
10. Barack Obama

Well it does not take much of the available common sense to realize that you'll always get Amit Khare as your role model, in case you decided to calculate.

However, if you are a programmer, you may immediately get the urge to solve the logic (or maths) behind the equation, even if it's trivial.

Let's say the number that you choose ( between 1 to 9 ) is X.
Then the calculated number will be : 3(3X+3) =  9X+9 = (10X -X) + 9 = 10X + (9-X)
Basically, the idea is to arrange this in the form of (10*X + Y ) to represent any two digit number.
e.g. 24 =10*2 + 4

So the final number is 10X + (9-X) and that means the first digit of the number is X and 2nd digit has value (9-X). So the addition of the digits = X + (9-X) = 9.
Basically, you will always get 9 for this calculation, irrespective of your chosen number.

Well that does not require much of your logical skills.. so what about this? Write a program, which will generate these kind of questions, in favor of any of the selected role models :) . Have fun !!

Saving a few lines of ABAP Code

Well whatever you could save now a days :)
Not that it's going to earn much interest from the Banks.

Just in case you are tired of reading numerous thoughts on the global credit crunch, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, sustainability and would like to enjoy the quantum of technical solace then you are in luck. Thomas Jung & other enterprise geeks have started a new Blog Enterprise Geeks . Also, if you are not very particular about reading SAP / ABAP horrors only :) then Coding Horror is another good read.

And if you want some plain geeky fun then grab a coffee and hold it tight ... Coffee Corner at SDN :) ..there you go.....

Actually, I just wanted to wish you all a very happy new year. So I am wishing now ( It's never too late ).

And if you are still reading....
Off the top of your head, do you remember a few ways to save some coding effort through better use of ABAP statements?  To add a few from my side :

I've found that some developers still use function 'FORMAT_MESSAGE' or a table T100 to get the message text  [ e.g. After a function call or BDC CALL TRANSACTIONS ]. This function 'FORMAT_MESSAGE' is also used in stanadard SAP programs [ may be in old ones ].

I think a better way is to use '...INTO text' variant of message statement rather than calling functions or actually writing 60 lines of code to select the data from table T100 and then replace the & with variables.

DATA lv_message_text TYPE string.
CALL FUNCTION ... EXCEPTIONS error_message = 4.
IF sy-subrc <> 0.
MESSAGE ID sy-msgid TYPE sy-msgty NUMBER sy-msgno
INTO lv_message_text
WITH sy-msgv1 sy-msgv2 sy-msgv3 sy-msgv4.
ENDIF.
* Now use lv_message_text to prepare your error report
Write : lv_message_text.

Another important point : Do you know what is the effect of having an exception error_message in the function call? Like 'When_Others', this is not a defined exception in the function interface. However, it can be specified for any function call.

Some of the standard function modules throw error messages without the raising clause and that means you can't capture/handle these messages from your calling program...unless you copy that standard function and make it civilized or else use this exception error_messages while calling the function.

If the error_message addition is specified after EXCEPTIONS, then you should be able to capture error messages in the calling program, even if the function module does not have the RAISING addition for those messages.

I guess, it's always safer to call standard functions with the error_message exception. I wonder why SAP does not add this in the pattern for function call.... like WHEN_OTHERS.

Add your tips/views in the comment section. But I wish you a very happy new year anyway :)

Geeks are more predictable than others!

However I was expecting it to be a bit earlier when I wrote Web2.0 simulation wave at SDN and that was almost a year back.

Geeks are predictable because they follow a technology trend more passionately than others. And at times they do create some useful stuff in the process.

Though great things happen when Geeks become unpredictable and come up with something very new to the world. But it can be difficult to handle such a disruption every now and then. And it's probably good that they tend to be predictable after every major disruption.

Not sure who said this first but there you go :

It's not just about who did it first but also that who did better.

So following a trend or even copying/adapting is not a bad idea provided you can do better than the original or carve a niche for yourself.

Geeks from SAP Community are getting together to adapt a twitter like functionality in an Enterprise environment and it's called Enterprise Social Messaging Experiment (ESME).

It was started by a conversation on Plurk. Read this post by Abesh and follow the links to get the story. Other deserving links are ESME - Social Enterprise Messaging Experiment by Yojibee. Dennis Howlett also blogged about his side of story on SDN.

Seems like this enterprise microblogging application will not only support human conversations but also the interactions between humans and system objects (Business Objects/Applications/Data). Read the Requirements document.

Requirement 1 is :

ERP notifications - Extensible notification system for events in backend systems. Think new sales order for customer x. Auto-generated enterprise tweets to Plurk-style cliques, defined by UME roles & groups (see #7). Could also include workflow notifications a la UWL.

I had something similar to say when I wrote this funny stuff ERP2.0 - The Blog of a SAP Purchase Order .

My suggestion will be to first concentrate on developing the UI and messaging architecture for human interactions. Enterprise services should be developed for communication with backend system.

Later these services can use the SAP Business object/Workflow event's existing subscribe/publish model for system generated notifications/alerts.

There are several type of events that gets triggered in a SAP system:

• Due to a change in the status of a Business Object/System [ e.g. SAP Business
  Objects/ABAP Objects (workflow) events ]. Also these events can be configured/coded to get published when a certain condition/status is reached. Like when a Business Objects ( e.g. Puchase Order ) is created/changed an event PO.Create can be triggered. Relevant workflows / Functions/ Methods can subscribe to these events.
  
  Basically, ESME Services can listen to a particular event by subscribing to the event of an Object. Actually, this is the way current workflow system works. However workflow tasks have added functionality. Workflow is not just a messaging / alert mechanism but it also helps in completing a process when a series of people / applications are involved.
• or just as an external/internal notification [ e.g. Job events to start a job or ABAP Object events to trigger a method ].
• There are other more system/application specific [ e.g. Report events ] but not
  very relevant here.
  

I will keep an eye on ESME but unlike earlier attempts of SAP community to replicate Blog/Wiki applications, this one seems have a better case for replication.

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.

BPX & Geek Gap: Buzzwords from SAP Community

Interesting !!

Dan Woods is trying to compose a BPX Book with the help of SAP Community and then having another thought here. See Mark's comment on Intelligent Design Vs. Evolution approach. I wrote about it sometime back Perfection by Design and not Evolution. Is it Practical?

It seems Blogger's bug is catching me which forces you to reference your own old posts, even if it is as much related as Yahoo & Microsoft :)

But why is it 'Interesting'? Have you ever read any book which tries to answer 'Who is an ABAP Developer?' or 'About Java Programmer's Role' or even 'Who is a SAP Consultant' ? I doubt.
[ I hope I won't get a few amazon-links in the comments, telling these books do exist and I should buy one]

The BPX Book is to answer the question - 'Who is a BPX [ Business Process Expert ]?' and not about what is BPM [ Business Process Management ]? One reason for writing a Book about BPX is probably because clarification of the role seems to be equally/more important than the BPM technology available at the moment.

So who exactly is BPX apart from being the coolest super(wo)man of IT's new era. Is S/he real?
I am not trying to answer it, you better read and write ( if you want to ) the BPX Book.

I guess analysts at Gartner are better placed to draw the hype cycle of these SAP Community Buzzwords. However, I think 'Peak of Inflated Expectations' is still not reached for 'BPX'. So 'Trough of Disillusionment' is far away.

I can only write about some of my thoughts on BPX & Geek Gap [ That too might well have been contaminated by me reading a few related blogs / the Book ]:

eSOA & BPX?
May be IT is getting serious about shifting the power to the Business users. And eSOA is another step in the direction of shifting the software power to the Business side. The idea is that developers / consultants/ software makers will only provide the building blocks, in the form of services [ eSOA components ] along with the modelling/mashup tools. Optimists believe that someday these tools will be so
powerful and simple enough that business users will be able to model their complex business scenarios, all by themselves, and the (da-vinci-)code will be generated automatically. Till that time BPX is a stop gap arrangement.
Only issue – that gap could be rather huge.

Also check SAP's announcement at SAPPHIRE® 2008 SAP Ushers In New Era for Business Process Management . Luckily, you don't need a telescope to see this Galaxy.

Geek Gap & BPX
Suddenly you may find that all the problems & failures of IT projects are being attributed to this ‘Geek gap’. To an extent that you might wonder if it is actually a black hole. Till now, bad project management was responsible for most of the failed projects but now it’s Geek gap. For example, see SAP Network Blog: Geek Gap Kills the Handheld Census by the authors of a book called The Geek Gap.

In my opinion, failures due to incompetent requirement determination by Business users or a poor solution provided by unskilled developer/consultant, should not be considered as Geek Gap. It covers only the problems encountered due to difference in the mindset of business users and technology consultants.

For example: A Business user asks for 'Time Display' along side the customer data display of the Interaction Software. The intention being - it will help in greeting their customers [ Good Morning , evening etc. ]. Developer thought it's easy and provided the system time alongside the customer data. Next day, customers in different time zones are amused, if not angry.

That's Geek Gap. BPX is a promise to bridge that Geek Gap.

If the developer would have even slight inclination to understand the business needs, S/he would understand that the time should be displayed as per customer's time zone. At the same time, if users understand that developers may not have the background knowledge then they will take extra care in communicating the requirement.

However, if the business user never really thought about the need of displaying time alongside customer-data and still expects that the specified software will be able to serve the 'Greeting' need then it's a failure to determine the requirement and can't be termed as Geek Gap.

I thought of a few more points but only the headings at the moment:

Difference between (Techno)Functional Consultant & BPX

[ BPX's ability to understand the Business process of an organization (Industry Vertical) while Functional Consultants is more into Horizontals ( across industry ) like Finance , Purchasing etc. ]

Web2.0 ( collaboration ) and BPX

[ I don't see this skill as specific to the BPX role. In the long run everyone will need this. However, BPX can be the initiator for the change ]

BPX - All-rounder or Split Personality [ Sometimes Netweaver is accused of the split personality disorder due to Java & ABAP stacks. But that's technology. People can't assume the personality disorder so easily. They have to be an all-rounder unless they had the disorder even before]

I will probably write a Part II , if required.

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 :-)

When will CharITy begin at home?

I really don't know what should I write about. After posting a comment on SDN,I was thinking about why IT companies do not act as a role model for the implementation of technology before asking others to do the same. Not sure if I am correct but as I mentioned in my comment:

I think unlike ERP, GRC solution will be required for all the companies and IT companies will be no exception.

Generally, we develop enterprise suits and industry specific solutions for other industries but never felt this need for the IT industry. Irony is that while other industries use powerful solutions like SAP for most of their business processes, IT uses MS Excel, Outlook and some project management software to handle their own processes/projects [other than HR & FI ( to an extent ) ].

Anyway, I am sure someone from Enterprise Software Bloggers' will discuss this, if it is really an issue.

However, there is another and more down to earth topic. After getting many queries from SAP aspirants about their career, I am finding it hard to avoid/answer them. Do you think there is an issue of their inclusion into SAP ecosphere? Lately, I could not reply to most of their queries because it's so very difficult to provide a customized answer, each time. Will someone please come up with a SAP like solution [that requires little customisation ;-)] for their career queries and guide them?

I found this forum on SDN, which seems to be related but the issue is that Career issues should only be answered by experienced and competent people. After all it's a question of someone's career, not the same as messing up a BADI implementation.

As an example, I found someone suggested an SD consultant to change his career and become an ABAP programmer. Just because that guy is working on a service project & involved with testing in SAP SD area.

I found an interesting debate on the same forum, What innovation is needed to meet the needs of the future workforce?.

I would suggest, please include the SAP aspirants as part of the SAP ecosphere and provide them proper guidance. I think a SAP Career Forum at SDN should be started and answers should be reviewed by experienced and established SAP Career Gurus.

In case you are interested in the queries that are being asked, let me know.

Web2.0 simulation wave at SDN

Geeks at SDN have started bringing most of the web2.0 innovations on SAP platform. After a few widgets and then a BSP Wiki, what do you think will be the next wave at SDN?

My bet is that it will be a open source blogger like platform, a forum, a twitter simulation or another dig, written in ABAP/BSP/WebDynpro. Geeks are geeks :) . I think the new trend on SDN will be to copy each and every idea of web2.0 and develop it through ABAP/SAP tools.

Not a bad idea provided we can find some use of it in the enterprise scenario. Otherwise, I will prefer an open source project executed with the collaboration of Business Process Experts and Geeks to develop something which can find real use in Industry.

But as I said geeks are geek.... How can we build a Blogger platform for SAP?
If we can build so many solutions for the industry what's the big deal about developing a Blogger platform. In fact, it should be easy as we are the users of this platform and already aware of the functionalities required. Don't need a functional specification either.

Ok so it's not a big deal. So what about this one....how can we build a workable blogger platform by utilising existing SAP functionalities for document management.

For example, how can you build a blogger platform [ at least something like SDN weblog platform ] by utilizing DMS [ document management service ] and BSPs etc. The restriction is that you should not be designing and creating a database of your own rather use SAP standard functionality & tables.

So basically the steps can somewhat be [ don't have DMS in miniSAP so can't check] :

• Configure a new document type for a Blog [ in SPRO --> Cross Applications --> DMS ]
  The content server can be the database or file server.


• Create a new Class for Blog in classification [ Xn CL01 ]. Attach a few characteristics to store the tags [ topics ] related with a post.


• Now develop a BSP application and embed a rich text editor [ HTML/JavaScript ] into it for editing post [ doc ]. You can use document BAPIs to create or change a post [ BAPI_DOCUMENT_CREATE2 & BAPI_DOCUMENT_CHANGE2 ] .


• List the posts & get post data using BAPI_DOCUMENT_GETLIST, BAPI_DOCUMENT_* etc or use the document table DRAW. Keep the tags of post as classification characters tics . Use BAPI_OBJCL_CREATE, BAPI_CLASS_GET_CLASSIFICATIONS etc.
  

Ok forget it :)

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..

While BPX Bridge is in the making...

....Let's make the two ends meet for the time being.

That seems to be a good idea. See David's post SDN and BPX on a Joint Mission.

BPX [ Business Process Expert ] is possibly the bridge which will eventually connect the geeks with users [ someone suggested Geeks say 'User' when they actually mean 'Dumb' ] or if you don't like to personify then technology with business.

However, it has never been easy. As they say, East is East & West is West..and even if they decide to meet, technically it will just be a point or may be a thin line.

If you check SDN (Geek) Blogs, you'll find a few bright ideas presented but very rarely these ideas are supported with a proper business case. I think if Geeks can just start thinking a bit in this line or take help from the Business Process Practitioners to present a business case/motivation for their technical ideas then it should make a lot of difference. If they have a good idea it must be able to make at least some difference in the way things are done.

To motivate Geeks, if anyone who is writing a technical blog but has made at least one convincing example under the heading 'The Business Case' , then it should be tagged as both SDN as well BPX and rewarded accordingly.

Similarly, if a Business Process Practitioner can come with a requirement to improve a business process/scenario, he should take assistance from Geeks in finding a technical approach for the same.

Also, some kind of open challenge can be started by detailing one business process and then challenging Geeks and Business Process Practitioners to improve/implement.

I must have read the example below ( or similar ) on one of the Enterprise Blogs.

e.g. Recruitment Team needs a basic background check for the candidates.
Integrate with web and add a 'Get/Match Details' feature in recruitment module.

Input provided : Name, Email, Qualification details, skill area, ex-company name etc.
The info will be used to check if :

• The university does award the mentioned degree.
• His record/points on SDN.
• A reference-required mail to SDN Moderator ;-)
  ......

SAP has BPX, Really?

Marlyn was obviously upset when Dennis recognized that 'SAP has SDN' but denied the existence of an equivalent Business Process Community.

I could not resist the temptation to get involved. Later, there was some interesting discussion on the steps required to make a successful Business Process Community.

All said and done, Business Process Community on S(D)N has been progressing well. Considering it's not as easy to built a successfull Business Process Community over the web, compared to any Developer's Network.

After a lot of discussion, I finally tried to make some coffee here.

Geeks were discussing another interesting topic ( Is ABAP Sexy? ) so I asked another doubt( and is it male or female? ) .

After a long time, I felt the urge to get involved on S(D)N.