Learn, increase knowledge...by participating in forum(s)

[former_member182378]

How to learn, to increase one’s knowledge by participating in forums?

Please share your ways, by which you are maximizing your learning.

I participate in Sales and Distribution forum and want to increase my learning, to make my learning “more permanent”. But how?

Thank you!

[former_member182098 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Please select your module (like FICO / SD / MM / BI etc.)

Please go through the posts posted by the users. Then it will give you an idea what kind of real problems users are facing. You may please start with answering easy questions, at one stage will be giving guidance to senior consultants.

Nothing is Permanent May be funny but true. If you do not practice for 6 months, everything will become white paper. Therefore, on a daily basis we need to read and practice, which is must for SAP consulting profession. Therefore, please go through help.sap,com, service.sap.com. You will find lot of materials, please try to read as much as you can. In free time if you have system, please do practice. At one point you will become the best professional. If you continue the same way, you will become the master.

All the best.

Best Regards,

Ravi

PS: China Wall / Taj Mahal is not building in one day.

[former_member182378 · Accepted solution]

Ravi,

How does knowledge increase by participating in forums (in particular)?

Are you "searching" for challenging questions / posts?

Are you reading theory, or practicing in test system in order to post replies? Do participating in the forum motivate you to read or practice etc.?

My question is what would be the ways (to involve in, to make a habit of) so that participating in these type of forums helps in learning and growth of knowledge?

PS: I participate in SD forum.

[former_member182098 · Accepted solution]

Are you "searching" for challenging questions / posts?

When I started giving replies to the forum posts, literally, I used to reply for very post, I never bothered whether it is challenging or unchallenging. I had to answer every question. That was my aim. But, unfortunately, the quality of the posts are degrading, stopped giving answers to those type of questions and become more selective. At the same time, questions are also increased with high complexity / unknown technology areas like EHP5 etc., which I do not know hence, I could not answer them.

Are you reading theory, or practicing in test system in order to post replies?

Frankly, answers are on my finger tips. I never read theory or do practice in order to answer a post.

Yes, at times (very rarely) had to refer some text (like from help.sap.com) or refer some screen or transaction code (then I will go and see the system). Otherwise, a direct no for me. But, it may not be the case with all the consultants. Everybody will have their own capability. Initial days, when you are replying you need to refer the text / system a lot. The more you are replying, the less number of times you will refer the text / system.

Do participating in the forum motivate you to read or practice etc.?

Not really, for me this is just a hobby. Reading is my hobby and doing practice on the system is my job. So I really do not need to depend on forums to do this. This is my day in and day out activity, without which I cannot live. without that. Even if there is no SCN does exists, I still continue with my reading activity and practising on the jobs (my job insists this). In no way, SCN or Forum motivates to do my reading / practice. But, it may not be the case with others. They may have to read / practice in order to reply to the threads of the forum.

My question is what would be the ways (to involve in, to make a habit of) so that participating in these type of forums helps in learning and growth of knowledge?

Please daily spend at least (yes!!! at least) 10 hours in SCN. This is very much possible even if you are working in a hectic project. If possible, please increase it by another 3 to 4 hours. I used to wake up at early morning 3 a.m. to give the reply to the threads. How is a questions I cannot answer? If you religiously participate in the forums with 10 to 12 hours a day, you will see the difference in your knowledge levels after an year.

All the best.

Regards,

Ravi

[Lakshmipathi · Accepted solution]

How does knowledge increase by participating in forums (in particular)?

Try to answer the queries posted in the forum.  If you find some query as difficult, keep watching others how they respond and analyze in what way, that is going to help for the query posted.  Most importantly, you can try the scenario in your system so that you will become more comfortable when similar issue is posted and you can guide the member in the right direction.  I learned a lot only through this practice

Are you "searching" for challenging questions / posts?

At the initial stage of learning, you try to give suggestions to all queries posted but try to avoid giving suggestions to basic queries where some members ask for 'entire documentation'.  

Do participating in the forum motivate you to read or practice etc.?

Definitely and in my case, it is 100% true

what would be the ways (to involve in, to make a habit 

I wont recommend you to spend 10 - 12 hours as Ravi has indicated but honestly, try to spend atleast 5 hours daily to give suggestions in SCN.  Parallelly, also try to learn all the SD process meticulously but the way in which you contribute to SD forums is commendable.  So you have already crossed the beginner stage and you are into an expert stage now.    In this stage, the most important point what you need to consider while giving suggestions in SCN is that ensure

• members don't deviate the forums rules
• before posting any query, the member have made some efforts to search in finding the solution and
• most importantly, never ever respond to those who ask for 'entire documentation'.

By doing so, you are minimizing the Moderators work to a great extent

G. Lakshmipathi

[NathanGenez]

I'm not so sure that participating in forums is necessarily the best way to acquire SAP knowledge. 

If you want to learn how an application works, you've got to dig in and start working directly with it.  I sense that a lot of people are looking for shortcuts.  They want materials, training guides, configuration guides, official documentation, answers to their questions... forget all of that and just work with the module of your choosing.  You'll probably learn more in one hour doing FI/SD/PLM/whatever than reading about how to do it in another medium.

-nathan