This is a common question troubling a number of freshers who are interested to learn SAP. There are quite a number of blogs and information out there. However most of these assume you already have the basic understand of SAP ABAP or are already in the field doing hard core development work. Read this blog if you want to start your SAP career as a Technical Consultant.
SAP is a business software. As businesses grow so do the challenges they face. To solve these challenges, SAP is also constantly evolving. 10 years ago who in SAP would have thought about mobile development, cloud computing and social media marketing etc.
To cater to these newer business challenges SAP is continuously evolving and upgrading itself. This keeps SAP all the more interesting for us technical folks and makes it open for newer breed of developers to join in the growth.
If you want to ace up into the SAP Market you need to learn these newer technologies. However you cannot just start learning the newer concepts if you do not have a firm grasp on core ABAP fundamentals and core ABAP technologies like Reporting programming, BDC, Call Transactions, BAPI, BADI, SAP Debugging and basically all the SAP Workbench Tools etc.
Yes, that’s a lot of learning and I don’t want to scare you away from SAP. In-fact my aim is to make you the best SAP consultant there is. So here is my top 10 technologies that I would recommend every beginner SAP Technical Developer should learn and be confident. In these beginner blogs section, I will be covering each of the items in elaborate details.
- Reporting Programming in ABAP ( including ALV )
- Module Pool Programming
- Debugging ABAP
- Enhancement Framework – User Exits, BADI etc.
- Smart Forms
- Data Conversion – BDC, Call Transaction, LSMW etc.
- Adobe Forms
- Object Oriented ABAP Concepts.
- One Module specific knowledge e.g HCM, FI
- IMG – Node configuration
So should you avoid learning advance concepts like WebDynpro ABAP, FPM, BSP, Workflow, Portal, Security, Webservices, LSMW etc. No absolutely not. If you need to be in the industry you need to learn these advance concepts. However be very confident on the basic concepts and then you can move on to Advance concepts.
When you are interviewed for a job, or even your very first assignments on the job will mostly be on either existing enhancements, or reports or BDCs. Rarely will your team lead ask you to go straight to modify a web-dynpro application.( BSPs area also very much in use, some applications like Employee Interaction Center etc still rely heavily on BSP ).
Now, You will find a lot of material online to learn these technics.
If you start learning SAP, you might find yourself in the following situations.
1. You may be reading about SAP technologies that are either obsolete or are rarely in use in the industry.
2. You may be reading about coding practices which were recommended in the earlier versions like 4.6C etc. but are now deemed obsolete in ECC 6.0 and higher versions.
So please ensure that the content you are reading is relevant and proper for the version of SAP you are working on.
Now that you have got the list of fundamental concepts to hone your skill in SAP, Which concept will you start learning first, let me know in the comments below.
Also if you are already in the SAP industry, let me know what was your first assignment when you joined your very first project in SAP.
I am new to SAP field but have read Some basics of SAP ABAP.
But I am interested in learning from basics to advance section of ABAP. So help me in learning it with real time scenarios.
thanks,
Revanth
Hi Revanth,
A lot of freshers have raised this desire to me and it for this same reason that I have set this blog up.
Currently I am working on a step by step guide to help beginners learn SAP.
Since you have subscribed to the blog, I will email you as soon as I am done.
Stay Tuned!!
When you are done with your step by step guide to help beginners learn SAP, can you also share this with me.
Thank you.
Richard LeRoux
Hi Linkin,
Thanks for your contents. They are really helpful to many of us in this field.
I am planning to start my career as a functional consultant in Production Planning. At background, i have manufacturing domain experience.
Please help me with the links for relevant topics on PP/SCM.
Hi Revantha,
I am 4 years experience java guy , i would like to move SAP and i want learn SAP UI5 and Fiori .
is it mandatory to learn ABAP ?
Nice though Ramu,
SAPUI5 is a javascript Library built by SAP to develop Business like App. You don’t need to have any prior ABAP knowledge to learn and develop using SAPUI5.
So if you want to get into SAP Development without any prior SAP background then SAPUI5 development would be a better way. That way you can learn the Front-end and then move into the Backend with OData Development and carry on with that.
Really helpful info to beginners. Thanks. I am also witing on SAP education. not tutorisls but basic info and updates. Please guide. http://www.sapeduhub.com
Sir, I am working on thermal power plant as a computer operator. But i have got a chance to work in mm module from 4 months. This time i am able to creat material & service, Create vendor, Create document & attachment. Make PR, PO, migo, miro, ml81 etc. But i don’t know very well. Sir, what should i have to do for future purpose. Please guide me.
Hi Linkin,
Straight up front, I have no computer programming experience since learning FORTRAN back in the mid-1980’s. I do have two master degrees in business. What I’m seeing is a lot of colleagues with SAP experience and little finance background making better money than me. Now, before getting too much older, I would like to learn to be an SAP developer/programmer/consultant. Is there anything I should do prior to learning ABAP? (Don’t say get a CAT scan because regardless of what my wife says, I don’t think I’m crazy.)
Hey I’m currently an industrial engineering student who wants to move in the the sap field. I have about three years left to complete my college. I want to know where I should start to learn sap. I want to become a technical and fictional consultant. I tried a class one time but I didn’t understand anything because they expected me to already have knowledge on the subject. Can you please help me understand how I should approach learning SAP. Thank you for your time