Have you ever been to a Fancy Five Start restaurant which requires their patrons (fancy word for customers)
- Have confirmed reservations before they arrive.
- Need to wear formal dining attire so no jeans pant and turtle necks allowed.
In such restaurants if you look at their menu you will be surprised to see so many unfamiliar words to describe seemingly familiar foods.
Recently I had been to one such French restaurant with my friend. When it was my time to order food, because of my very nature I ended up asking a lot of questions about the ingredients in the items listed on the menu.
I could clearly see the waiter taking my order was growing very agitated and frustrated with my questions.
I however managed to place my order and while we continued to wait for our food to arrive I secretly continued to imagine how the food I had ordered would turn out. How it would look, smell and taste.…Oh Yum Yum.. I was so hungry.
But guess what, when the food arrived, it was hardly like what I had originally imagined it to be. In-fact it was so much opposite of what I had imagined that I was not even able to finish half of the serving.
I am sure you might have had the same experience at least once in your lifetime.
Now, you might think what has this incident got to do with knowing Technical SAP? So here is where the incident brings home the true picture of a better Functional Consultant.
While I was dreaming about how my food would look like, my dinner friend was clearly at ease with what he had ordered. He knew exactly what he was ordering and when the food arrived was able to appreciate and enjoy his food better. No surprises what so ever. He even complimented the waiter on the fine job.
Now if you are a functional consultant, which patron would you want to be:
The one who knows what he/she requests that the ABAP developer build.
OR
The one who just writes the functional spec with the least amount of technical knowledge of what is being documented into it.
Clearly, working with the second functional consultant will be a treat for the technical guy because they are interacting with a functional person who speaks their language. There will be an increased sense of authority and respect from the developer as he would not have to explain each and every aspect of the development and the technical complexities involved in the development.
Notice in the above example my dinner buddy did not need to have the knowledge of the entire process of French cooking. But just by knowing the basic aspects and being familiar with the key terminology helped him interact better, enjoy the whole process and get exactly what he wanted.
Similarly you, my dear Functional Consultant, already possess the core aspect of your role, which is the business know-how of your particular module. Added to this the additional sauce of technicality will bring out the best from your solutions.
Now, if you are a functional consultant, please let me know your opinion on this in the comments below.
Also I am going to dedicate couple of next blogs on the this particular topic.
Please let me know any technical aspects that you would like me to explore further.
Thank you for Reading,
—
Linkin Pereira