Clarification on acquiring XI - Technology Consultant skills

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

I need your valuable suggestions on the following:

1) Whether a Development Consultant can acquire the skillls of Technology Consultant?

2) If a person is having both the skill sets, what will be his role? I been told that it is something like a "Techno-Functional" and some people told me tht the person can consider as "XI-Architect".

3) I personally feel, both are hand-in-hand and it is advisable to have atleast a basic knowledge on the both.

4) What is the Actual role of Technology Consultant?

5) I am into XI for the last 2yrs(Developement) and have done installation and configuring XI on my personal system and I am thru with it. What else I should learn / concentrate to acquire Technology Consultant skills?

Your valuable suggestions are highly appreciated.

Warm Regards

Asha

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

If someone invests the money to train through SAP, and has the time to put this into practice into a real life scenario/Projects, they can achieve want they want.

I have a functional background (4 years), and then moved onto BASIS and did the XI installations and configuration before doing the XI bootcamp course and then developing on xi for a couple of years. All in all i have completed 13 courses at SAP (thanks to a generous company!).

If you have the will to learn, and can put this into practice on differing Projects, you can achieve what you want.

I agree that XI developers should have both the Techncial/Functional backgrounds - and I feel that this is more important than ABAP and Java.

When you say: <i>I am into XI for the last 2yrs(Developement) and have done installation and configuring XI on my personal system and I am thru with it. What else I should learn / concentrate to acquire Technology Consultant skills?</i>

How many projects/installations have you worked on?

[bhavesh_kantilal · Accepted solution]

Barry,

13 Courses? U r lucky.. very lucky!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Barry,

I can't agree with you regarding this sentence:

<i>I agree that XI developers should have both the Techncial/Functional backgrounds - and I feel that this is more important than ABAP and Java.</i>

in my opinion for XI developer ABAP knowledge <b>is a must</b>. Because it's not only developing objects inside SAP XI system.

Regards,

Wojciech

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I've managed a couple of years without it.

We will have to agree to disagree.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

> Barry,

> 13 Courses? U r lucky.. very lucky!

Covered modules from S&D, SRM, report painter/writer, sap query, workflow, Basis and XI.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I trully can't agree with you because we are discussing XI developer role and it would be extremely boring to do the mapping in graphical tool and configur in integration directory without touching abap on r/3. In case of complicated scenarios it's not possible.

cheers,

wg

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

> I trully can't agree with you because we are

> discussing XI developer role and it would be

> extremely boring to do the mapping in graphical tool

> and configur in integration directory without

> touching abap on r/3. In case of complicated

> scenarios it's not possible.

>

> cheers,

> wg

Someone should rename the thread from Technology Consultant then

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

hi,

I meant that you wrote about xi developer.

"I agree that <b>XI developers</b> should have both the Techncial/Functional backgrounds - and I feel that this is more important than ABAP and Java."

In my opinion for administrators (technical consultants) yoga and meditation are more useful than functional knowledge ;).

wg

[henrique_pinto · Accepted solution]

wg,

I think you are mixing up different things a little bit.

Developing the external interfaces should not be part of the XI consultant role.

I mean, is it your role to develop the external web services you may consume?

Or create the data bases you'll select/insert from/into?

And hence, it should not be your role to develop ABAP interfaces in SAP side.

ABAP proxies make it really easy to do that, but in the cases of RFCs, for example, it is the role of the ERP ABAP consultants to develop these.

Again, many times the consulting companies don't want to pay for another person and desire that the xi consultant also have abap skills. But desire and must are different...

IMHO, yours and Barry's different points of view regarding XI is the difference between a BPx and a developer. One sees the business processes on a higher level and provide the ways for it to work. The developer has direct requirements and doesn't bother with the macro overview. None are wrong, both are specific to different roles...

Whether an XI consultant should be an BPx or a developer, I'd say both.

But again, neither functional nor programming skills are <b>must</b> per se to XI consultants, but both are <b>desirable</b>. Strongly, I'd add.

Regards,

Henrique.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Guys,

Thank you Henrique for your valuable feedback. I have to admit that I messed up a little bit. Also I agree with you regarding developing of external interfaces in legacy systems. But sometimes, it depends on the scenario, someone has to define the structure of them and provide some definition.

In my opinion we cannot say something about one role called "XI consultant". I'll try to explain it in more systematic way. I'm splitting the responsibilities in XI world on 4 different roles, sometimes they overlap.

1) <b>XI configurator</b>

She or he is responsible for configuration in integration directory on production XI system.

2) <b>XI administrator or technical consultant</b>

Such person should be familiar with application server architecture (ABAP + JAVA stack) but also have a knowledge about XI administration, tuning and installation.

SAP courses: <i>TBIT5*</i>

3) <b>XI developer</b>

Such developer should have:

- a wide knowledge about IT standards (xml, xsd, webservices and so on)

- some basic JAVA programming skills, maybe it's not a must but very often it speeds up a development process

- at least medium ABAP skills. I'll still stand pat on it because as you wrote the reality is demanding such hybrid of XI and ABAP programmer. With that XI developer is able to make a wiser decisions and in case of separation of the roles between ABAP and XI he or she can advice something to ABAP site. If I recruited a person on I would find it as a <b>must</b> ;).

- some knowledge about XI administration and tuning. Very often in case of errors client demands an reaction from someone who delivered the solution and than such person must be able to point where is the problem (e.g. some wrong configuration of production integration engine)

SAP courses: <i>TBIT4* and BIT4*</i>

4) <b>XI architect, maybe it should be named PI architect</b>

I'm defining it more as a process integration specialist in whole SAP area. Such person should have a few years of experience in an integration technologies but not only in XI. Actually it should be a mixture of role 2 and 3. He or she should act on a higher abstraction level and be able to delegate different integration tasks to different groups.

Such architect must be able to define best practice documents and procedures for whole organization.

Here also a functional background (such as Barry's) might be very helpful. Knowledge about other integration systems would be an advantage and fallowing all new on the market.

SAP courses: <i>real project experience and BIT* </i>

best regards,

wojciech

[henrique_pinto · Accepted solution]

Hey wg,

you say:

> If I recruited a person on I would find it as a

> <b>must</b> ;).

but again, it's not like it's your opinion against mine or your opinion agains Barry's.

It's your opinion against what is done in the real world.

Of course, as you've said, many companies require that. But several others don't. And many XI consultants don't have it.

Following your separation, my experience shows that many companies are more fond of having a person with 134 skills then having 3+ABAP. That's just how it goes...

Regards,

Henrique.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

This is a good debate. I guess as XI is still very much in its infancy and growing exponentially, it is opening doors for people with different backgrounds. People I work with are still trying to find out where they fit into this. Some Basis say it is XI work, some XI say Basis. I say give it here, I'll do it!

I admit to not being an ABAPer (but can read ABAP) or a Java developer (but can write UDFs), but should this restrict me?

I have done a fair bit of workflow which is useful in BPMs, I have a very good understanding of the functional side and it's integration between modules. I write functional and technical specifications and pass them to the Coders to prepare but only for ABAP proxies.

I like the reusable approach of using standard functions - bapis and Idocs therefore making interfaces scalable and I'd like to think almost future proof. I can write HMTL and WSDL, and have database experience.

I only have about seven years SAP experience and can't pretend to know it all. I am a fast, keen learner who likes to expand his mind and embrace new technology.

Most of the technical people I work with have related Degrees... 15 years ago when I left high school, I qualified as a Chef... Don't hold that against me! We all have different backgrounds.

p.s. WG... one day, I hope to be an XI/Solution Architect! That is where I want to be, and if I can pick up other skills on the way, then I can only develop as a person.

[Former Member]

Very interesting debate... thanks to all contributors..

Warm Regards

Asha

[Former Member]

1. it would be very easy for u to learn it.As u have expertise on development.

2.XI- Architect is waht we call

3. yes..i agree with u.

4.installation ,Basis work, Firewall issues, connectivity problems,activating services..etc.even SLD is taken care

5. Installation is a easy part where a step by step will help u.But in actual its in depth as i said u above.

Ex: we were having some connectivity problems with SLD and we take care of it with the help of Xi technology person.

Raghavesh

[Former Member]

Hi asha

plz read the following pdf which mite be useful

http://searchsap.techtarget.com/searchSAP/downloads/Bernard-HittingtheStridewithSAPXI-SAPtips.pdf

cheers

kish

reward if found useful

[Former Member]

> Hi Experts,

>

> I need your valuable suggestions on the following:

>

> 1) Whether a Development Consultant can acquire the

> skillls of Technology Consultant?

>

it is very helpfull

> 2) If a person is having both the skill sets, what

> will be his role? I been told that it is something

> like a "Techno-Functional" and some people told me

> tht the person can consider as "XI-Architect".

>

in my opinion neither techno-functional or XI architect. It can only help to become a xi architect.

> 3) I personally feel, both are hand-in-hand and it is

> advisable to have atleast a basic knowledge on the

> both.

>

You are right it helps a lot.

> 4) What is the Actual role of Technology Consultant?

>

Installing, configuring and tunning of SAP XI systems.

> 5) I am into XI for the last 2yrs(Developement) and

> have done installation and configuring XI on my

> personal system and I am thru with it. What else I

> should learn / concentrate to acquire Technology

> Consultant skills?

>

maybe go through TAW courses and pass technology certificate

> Your valuable suggestions are highly appreciated.

>

> Warm Regards

> Asha

[Former Member]

Thanks for the valuable information dude,

I am also looking for similar kind of information.

>>maybe go through TAW courses and pass technology certificate

can u plz tel me, what are these TAW courses?

I have searched the marketplace for the course codes, it has been specified as TBIT-50 & TBIT-51... i am confused.

Best Regards

PS: Guys, would like to know more on this... plz respond by posting ur valuable opinions

Message was edited by:

Vijaya Lakshmi MV

[Former Member]

sorry i was mistaken. Yes you are right that's TBIT5*