Having spent over a decade training people on ABAP, I have come across scores of student who have asked me if it is necessary for a functional consultant be know ABAP. Student who are basically from different Functional domain register for my training sessions to pick up ABAP programming. I should say that almost 40% of all my online ABAP training students are functional consultants. So, the big question remains "Should Functional Consultants need to know ABAP?"
Before we can get into this question, I want to talk about an incident I have gone through a few weeks back. One late evening while driving back home from Ameerpet, my bike stopped suddenly in the middle of the road. Initially I thought the fuel was over, and I tried the typical stunts we do here in India. Soon I realised the problem was not lack of fuel, but something else. Though I have been driving the bike for almost 15 years, I have never ever thought of understanding how it functions. All I have known is to start drive and stop...... :) My mechanic Pasha would take care of maintaining the bike. It was at that point in time late in the night with no help around, pushing my bike for almost 6 km to reach home, the single constant thought that went around in my mind was, If only I could open up and check for the issue. If only I could open up and fix the issue.
Well as a functional consultant you don't have to be an expert in writing complex ABAP code, but the ability to debug the code, to understand the flow of the code developed, to figure out if the developer has converted the functional requirement correctly can go a long way in making the life of the functional consultant easy, and also help reduce the number of iterations development go through during the developments.
But the question that get's poped up now is ....... can I a IT guy, repair a motor-bike. Well, it will be impossible for me to be good mechanic like Pasha, but I can atleast learn the basic of the bike mechanics, so that if there are any minor problems I can fix the same easily. I learnt it the hard way, when I took the bike to Pasha for repair. It was soon figured out that the issue for my bike for not starting was a very minor problem with the spark plug. Had I been able to fix the same, I might not have had to go through the agony of pushing the bike long distances.
The idea is pretty much the same, basic technical skill help enrich the experience of a functional consultant working in the ERP system. Basic knowledge of ABAP help identify the root cause of the issues correctly and thus help in better solutions and reduce the turn-a-round time effectively.
So, my friends, functional consultants out there having doubts about the need for learning ABAP, my sincere suggestion is to take the step forward, overcome your basic fear of programming and plunge into ABAP. I very sure it will surely enrich your experience and understanding of the SAP system forever.
Before we can get into this question, I want to talk about an incident I have gone through a few weeks back. One late evening while driving back home from Ameerpet, my bike stopped suddenly in the middle of the road. Initially I thought the fuel was over, and I tried the typical stunts we do here in India. Soon I realised the problem was not lack of fuel, but something else. Though I have been driving the bike for almost 15 years, I have never ever thought of understanding how it functions. All I have known is to start drive and stop...... :) My mechanic Pasha would take care of maintaining the bike. It was at that point in time late in the night with no help around, pushing my bike for almost 6 km to reach home, the single constant thought that went around in my mind was, If only I could open up and check for the issue. If only I could open up and fix the issue.
Well as a functional consultant you don't have to be an expert in writing complex ABAP code, but the ability to debug the code, to understand the flow of the code developed, to figure out if the developer has converted the functional requirement correctly can go a long way in making the life of the functional consultant easy, and also help reduce the number of iterations development go through during the developments.
But the question that get's poped up now is ....... can I a IT guy, repair a motor-bike. Well, it will be impossible for me to be good mechanic like Pasha, but I can atleast learn the basic of the bike mechanics, so that if there are any minor problems I can fix the same easily. I learnt it the hard way, when I took the bike to Pasha for repair. It was soon figured out that the issue for my bike for not starting was a very minor problem with the spark plug. Had I been able to fix the same, I might not have had to go through the agony of pushing the bike long distances.
The idea is pretty much the same, basic technical skill help enrich the experience of a functional consultant working in the ERP system. Basic knowledge of ABAP help identify the root cause of the issues correctly and thus help in better solutions and reduce the turn-a-round time effectively.
So, my friends, functional consultants out there having doubts about the need for learning ABAP, my sincere suggestion is to take the step forward, overcome your basic fear of programming and plunge into ABAP. I very sure it will surely enrich your experience and understanding of the SAP system forever.
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