I have 6+ years experience implementing SAP; I worked as a lab tech in a factory, got asked whether I’d be willing to represent our lab in the upcoming SAP implementation, said “yes.” Six months later I was invited to join the consultants’ team. Life has been crazy but definitely interesting I’ve implemented QM in 7 rollouts (two projects), PM in a project and done lots of support for PP as well. In that first project, most of the consultants for PP, PM and QM were “internal” and even the “externals” had to learn the modules nose-first, as nobody in the Big Consulting Firm knew how they worked. We didn’t have the time or the inclination to learn how to fiddle with the system, learning how to use it straight was enough (plus it did work for us with very little programming required, only a few forms and a couple of user exits).
I’m currently having problems because of my lack of technical knowledge. If you ask me for a piece of data from the Materials Master, I’ll go to MM03 (Display Material Master) and look it up. Most of the guys in the projecy to which I’m assigned now would go to SE16 (Data Browser) and load table MARC. If that one doesn’t have the piece of data, they load table MARA. And if that one doesn’t have it, then they go to MM03 and start looking tab-by-tab.
I know there’s other folks here with SAP consultant experience. Are there any good technical books you can recommend? I don’t mean to become a programmer, but knowing how to find “which table is this ***** piece of data in” when the transaction you’ve been looking at has it in a structure (why oh why does it do that? please don’t answer), or how to run a program in debug mode (things which my coworkers assume I know even after being told repeatedly I don’t) would be handy.
Yeah, I’m also asking my agent to tell their boss that if they’re going to give me work they need to assign someone to give me technical training. But I figured I better start looking out on my own as well.
Depends. It’s the system that’s never fully implemented if your consultants are like this, of which sadly there’s many, or if you get those other guys who have lots of goodwill but no ability finding their ass with both hands (I’ve known several).
I’ve been in several implementations that were done fully. At least one of them (www.rohmhaas.com) was done On Target, On Schedule and Og-Fug-It-All On Budget even! (Except for a piece of data cleansing which a Supa Dupa Mega Consultant who didn’t know his ass from his head was responsible for; I got to do it during the support period but I’d said I’d leave that finished “by my ovaries” and, by my ovaries, I did - someone remind me again why did some genius waste money on SDMC…)
Already gone to Amazon, bought two that sounded “technical” and one that’s “certification questions for every module”. The only books that have reviews are directed to functional users (either “how to use the XX module” or “how to get through a SAP implementation without orphaning your children”). That’s the part I can already do in my sleep and get it right, for 3 different modules.
Thanks guys although recomendations for books would still be welcome!
I’m working on phrasing “do you also teach your kids how to do stuff with no explanations?” in a non-offensive way. Wish me luck!
In the pop up box click on the button [SAP Applications].
This will display a Component view that you can navigate to find tables.
Likewise, when you are in the SAP system, if you want to know what the table is that you’re accessing, or the specific field, highlight the field that you’re interested in, and use the F1 key to go to technical information (button shows a hammer and wrench). This will show you the table or structure being accessed, and the field name, the program, screen, etc.
Probably you know this stuff, but just in case.
Don’t have any good books to recommend, beyond SAP’s documentation I mostly reference on-line resource I find via Google searches, which is kind of hit and miss. Even within given sites I find good and bad. www.sap-img.com is a good example.
I’ve implemented QM in 7 rollouts (two projects), PM in a project and done lots of support for PP as well. In that first project, most of the consultants for PP, PM and QM were “internal” and even the “externals” had to learn the modules nose-first, as nobody in the Big Consulting Firm knew how they worked. We didn’t have the time or the inclination to learn how to fiddle with the system, learning how to use it straight was enough (plus it did work for us with very little programming required, only a few forms and a couple of user exits).
(Except for a piece of data cleansing which a Supa Dupa Mega Consultant who didn’t know his ass from his head was responsible for; I got to do it during the support period but I’d said I’d leave that finished “by my ovaries” and, by my ovaries, I did - someone remind me again why did some genius waste money on SDMC…)
although recomendations for books would still be welcome!