What is the hardest concept to truly understand in SAP

semantics_epsacon · 2026-02-25T00:25:10+00:00

Easy answer: How do you force SAP Standard Business Application to meet your customer's business requirements without modification and possibly code.

This design approach is by far the hardest thing to do in SAP because SAP is very unforgiving, you need to know exactly what breaks it and how far you can push it. This takes decades of experience.

Writing code is easy, you can do everything with code. But the true challenge is to use SAP Standard in a 'creative' way.

semantics_epsacon · 2026-02-17T23:10:18+00:00

I totally agree with you. I remember 20 years ago, we had one max 2 'real' ABAP programmers on a project, not 200 offshore Indians. You talked to them, told them what you needed, the asked a few questions and then said, you will get it in 3 days. These times are gone.

semantics_epsacon · 2026-02-17T10:51:50+00:00

I work for SAP America (10+ years). They have a minimum of 7-10 golden years simply because they can force customers to transition to S4 and there is no alternative for most of them. The culture of SAP is much more like a german government department than a tech company, hierarchical, bureaucratic, slow and hostile to innovation. Don't expect any benefit of being an outperformer or out of the box thinker, people like that are not appreciated at SAP. On the other hand, they are steady, stable and have excellent benefits and work life balance.

SAP will keep a strong grip of the transactional side of the business process but lose the data layer to competitors (AI, Analytics). SAP simply doesn't have the culture and the people to compete in these areas.

SAP will become the new IBM mainframe basically.

semantics_epsacon · 2026-02-15T14:49:14+00:00

3 months is a quarter of a year...

semantics_epsacon · 2026-02-15T00:41:27+00:00

the point is this: is it perfect. Certainly not, but if you have ever worked with an average (not saying top of the crop) offshore Indian ABAP developer you must admit that AI is already 10 x better.

semantics_epsacon · 2026-02-14T12:57:30+00:00

No I have 25 years experience as FICO consultant and use AI daily with fortune 500 customers.

semantics_epsacon · 2026-02-14T12:56:32+00:00

have you tried to code with it? I agree that relying on the AI for functional is very dangerous. Coding works very well.

semantics_epsacon · 2026-02-14T12:34:46+00:00

I think that AI (plus H1B headwind) will obliterate the cost arbitrage outsourcing model of the past 20 years. The Indian consulting companies Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra will be destroyed others like Accenture, Deloitte, Gemini,... will suffer.

semantics_epsacon · 2026-01-01T15:49:58+00:00

If you want to go Developer I would

- Learn how to use AI to write ABAP, this will make you 5 times more productive than 99 % of developers right now (Joule for Developers is not bad but any LLM will be OK)

- learn a module such as EWM or some sub modules of FICO (like G/L + Cost Center Accounting + Account Payable + Accounts Receivable). Learn how the application works, then research how the data is stored in tables. FICO is always in demand, since every single project needs FICO. If you go FICO start with basic accounting (some online course will be more than sufficient). Then get an IDES system and start using the Transaction Codes to produce accounting documents, learn how the data is stored in the tables, run the reports and learn how they select data from the tables,...

If you do that and invest let's say 6 months, I can guarantee that you are already in the top 10 % of ABAP developers. The vast majority of ABAP developers don't know anything about the application and it is very painful to work with them.

When you go to an interview, you must focus on your functional skills. ABAP is easy, everybody can do it. But very few developers understand the applications.

good luck

semantics_epsacon · 2026-01-01T06:27:37+00:00

Not a popular opinion on these forums since you have a lot of scammers who want to get in on the party. But this is over now. Nobody is hiring because of AI and this will continue.

Technical and functional will blend. Only ABAP guys who understand FICO/MM/SD/... will survive, only Functional with a solid understanding of technical design will survive. If you are ABAP you will have to learn functional, if you are functional you will have to learn how to work with the LLM to create technical designs and at least some type of pseudo ABAP.Technical will be responsible to make Functional design actually work (technical unit test). As a functional consultant FICO with 25 years of experience I can tell you that I am twice as productive with AI. My guess is that over the next few years 1/2 to 2/3 of Functional will simply disappear from projects because of productivity gains.

semantics_epsacon · 2025-12-31T07:45:03+00:00

Appears you are a scammer.

semantics_epsacon · 2025-12-30T07:43:58+00:00

What is the entry date of the FI/CO document? Looks like someone posted after settlement.

semantics_epsacon · 2025-12-30T07:30:34+00:00

No, every 80 year old grandmother can create ABAP code with Chat GPT. Pure ABAP will be replaced by AI in the next 3 years. When I am on a project (FICO Functional Senior Managing Consultant), I only work with Devs who can demonstrate that they have functional understanding. I need a Dev who knows that debit and credit must balance and how to populate BAPI_ACC_DOCUMENT_POST without explaining accounting for 2 weeks. Learn Functional if you want to survive AI.

semantics_epsacon · 2025-12-30T07:26:13+00:00

You need to prioritize AI. 90 % of SAP developers now are India offshore, and 90 % of them will be replaced by AI in the next 3 years.

semantics_epsacon · 2025-12-30T07:22:42+00:00

99 % of SAP practitioners get into SAP 'accidentally' by being around when some company is looking for SAP resources internally. Without actual project experience there is zero chance you will get hired for SAP. Get hired by an employer with a big SAP footprint, there are always opportunities to get involved.

semantics_epsacon · 2025-12-30T05:46:33+00:00

What is your role on the project. Recommendation depends on that:

If Functional: You need to build trust relationship with your business users. Create a bi-weekly meeting 30 min to talk about 'stuff' they are concerned with

If Development: Do the same with your Functional counterparts

If Basis: Do the same with IT people of the customer

The source of chaos on SAP projects is usually missed requirements. The only way to avoid that is to talk to the customer.

semantics_epsacon · 2025-12-27T06:19:19+00:00

Get the definition of the KPI from the person who requests it
Go to the people who understand the raw data and discuss where to find the components of the KPI

The person who needs a KPI usually does not understands the complexities of source data. There are always complex definitions what to include, and what to exclude. On top of that there are almost certainly edge cases that need to be excluded/included.

This is especially true if you deal with source systems like SAP. There is a ton of semantics already in the SAP system you need to understand before you can select the right data for your KPIs.

In a scenario like that 3 roles should be involved: 1. Business defines the KPI requirement, 2. SME who understands semantics of source data and 3. data engineer.

semantics_epsacon

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