Which technology to choose?

Hi, Guys!

I have to tell you that I' m getting completely nuts these days with my job - maybe you can help me back to get my feet back on the ground.

As part of a very large portal project, we' re working on ESS/MSS implmentation - no, let' s forget about the terms ESS/MSS and better speak about customer processes which are derived from standard, but don' t have really anything to do with it any more.

We' re facing so many specific customer requirements that we have totally left the SAPs standard and are have now more or less to develop the whole thing from the scratch - making SAP the most expensive compiler worldwide.

As we' re working in Portal environment and simply delivering applications to be integrated, there are lots of technologies to choose from - WDA/WDJ, CAF Core/Visual Composer, GP/Workflow, Adobe Forms via NWDS/SFP, Creation of navigation structures via Homepage Framework or completely within Portal Content Studio.

So, the reason why I marked this thread as question and not as sigh of dispair is: Where is the ultimative guide telling me which implementation technology to use under which circumstance? Which technology is the most mature, which the most future-proof?

Don' t tell me the good old "There' s different cutlery for different dishes. Use knife, spoon, fork where it fits!" By now, there are so many different aspects to consider with each implementation technology decision - SOA-compliance, SAP-support, configuration/enhancement possibilites, Portal/Backend integration - that a simple development consultant like me is completely overstrained. I mean: Of what use e.g. is the best SOA-technique like CAF if all backend logic is found in reports like in SAP HR? How do we then integrate these applications? With ITS?

So, again: Where is the universal answer to all this?

Regards,

Thomas