SAP Development Tech Radar

Published by Tobias Hofmann on

4 min read

The SAP Development Tech Radar is available online. The source code is available at its GitHub repository. The information used for to place each technology on the radar is in the folder definitions.

Purpose

The SAP Development Tech Radar (SDTR) lists the usage recommendation for SAP development relevant technologies (mostly) from SAP. The README provides more information on how to read and interpret the SDTR.

The SDTR achieves its goal when SAP developers are using it to question their current available tech stack. If there is no plan to get to the possibility to use the tools in ADOPT or USE, this should raise serious doubts about the customers SAP strategy.

Usage

The target of the SDTR is to show easily what should be used for SAP development. It is, however, not a product evaluation or recommendation, nor does it rate the quality of the tech stack available to SAP developers at customers. It rather shows if actions should be taken to replace a technology or to not use it for new projects. It is not stating what to use for a project.

The SDTR takes inspiration from thoughtworks tech radar (TTR). Attention: using the SDTR like the TTR won’t work. For instance, while for the TTR adopt means that this item should be adopted (by the industry), for the SDTR adopt means that it should be tried out in a project (by the SAP developer or customer). Even when an SAP developer is only using technology listed in HOLD or STOP this is per se not bad. HOLD or STOP for the SDTR means that if a strategy is in place to maybe replace it, there is no risk. The technologies listed there are of course not the best fit for new projects. USE in the SDTR represents a general recommendation, or best practice, that this technology can be safely used in any project.

The items listed are mostly from SAP. Only in exceptional cases where the benefit for SAP developers is, without understatement and doubt, incredible, it is added. That is simply because SAP technology is normally just there. CDS Views, RAP, BOPF just come with a certain NetWeaver release. Developing BTP apps normally comes with BAS, or the option to develop CAP apps. 3rd party software however is not available across most SAP customers simply because they are SAP customers.

Versions

The SDTR cannot be static. The best practice applicable for S/4HANA 2023 is different than it was for ECC 5 development. Technology evolves, SAP is introducing new technology, and as well is retiring it. The SDTR must reflect these changes, and they are maybe occurring more often. Therefore, the idea is to have a new release published at least twice a year. This release is than reflecting the current view on technology for SAP developers. Keep in mind: this is version independent from what the developers have available at their work environment.

Later versions can show how a technology performed over the versions / years. This allows architects to validate how their strategy performed. For developers this will reveal how their tech stack evolved over the years.

Participate

The SDTR cannot be maintained by a single person (currently: me). To get the most benefit from it, it must represent the opinion from a larger SAP developer audience. SAP developers are invited to contribute to the SDTR. The repository contains more information on how to contribute. The short version is: add / change a technology definition, get it merged, then voted for (tbd) and have it added to the next published version. Technology cannot simply added, some QA must be fulfilled, like: supported, relevance or usage. That’s why currently no Build (AppGyver) or Build Code (with AI) is listed. But it could be added in the current proposal collection phase. If there is proof that it is relevant, it will be added.

At the current branch for adding changes to the next (and btw first) published version 2024.06 are already some items added, like ATC, SEGW. I hope the documentation is good enough to understand how to contribute and how the process works.

Curious how the voting will work? For the next release 2024.06 it still might be an invitation only process. There is work going on to found an association (German: Vereinsgründung wird gerade aktiv vorangetrieben. Dann können die Mitglieder über die Einreichungen mitentscheiden).

Let the world know
Categories: SAP

Tobias Hofmann

Doing stuff with SAP since 1998. Open, web, UX, cloud. I am not a Basis guy, but very knowledgeable about Basis stuff, as it's the foundation of everything I do (DevOps). Performance is king, and unit tests is something I actually do. Developing HTML5 apps when HTML5 wasn't around. HCP/SCP user since 2012, NetWeaver since 2002, ABAP since 1998.

13 Comments

Christian · February 27, 2024 at 16:18

When I first read the announcement (on Mastodon, I think), I hoped this would be “SAP official” and reflect their internal point of view. If I understand correctly, right now, it’s your personal point of view and you plan to make it an open process.
A great initiative, and I hope it can attract a large and divers group of developers from on-premise to cloud native on different platforms.

Peter · February 28, 2024 at 09:15

Why shall I use CAP? I thought it is the new Java Web Dynpro.

    Tobias Hofmann · February 28, 2024 at 17:20

    USE does not mean that you should use it. You can, and you are aligned with general best practices. After all CAP JS is supported, gets new features, is positioned by SAP as the framework to use when developing BTP apps.

    If you are going to be happy in a few years with your investment in CAP? Will there be a broad enough adoption from SAP customers in the future? Will there be enough developers available? That’s a different story and in my opinion, that’s where in the future CAP will not succeed.

Nick · March 1, 2024 at 13:32

CAP reminds me CAF in the old time. What do you think?

Törehan · March 14, 2024 at 10:50

Hello Tobias,

I wanted to start by commending you on the excellent article you wrote. The visuals you included were particularly effective, making complex topics much more accessible and easier to understand.

I do have a question regarding your decision to designate SE80 as obsolete. Are you suggesting the use of Eclipse as an alternative to both SE80 and SAP GUI? However, I noticed that Eclipse wasn’t mentioned either. Could you please clarify this for me?

    Tobias Hofmann · March 18, 2024 at 09:15

    Hi Törehan,

    SE80 and SAPGui are marked as STOP as both
    a) do not work with S/4HANA Public Cloud,
    b) both do not support CDS,
    c) RAP development and
    d) do not help you much in going for ABAP Cloud or Fiori Element development.
    The recommendation from SAP is also to use ADT for development.

    Eclipse is not in the list, as it is hidden by ADT (ADT for Eclipse). After all, you won’t develop using Eclipse, but with Eclipse + something. The +something here is ADT (ADT for Eclipse).

Sven Treutler · April 22, 2024 at 13:54

Hallo Tobias, erst einmal super Arbeit. Wäre es für dich ok, wenn wir das für unsere Firma adaptieren. Der Hintergrund ist der, dass wir das als Empfehlung für unsere Mitarbeiter mitgeben möchten und wir sind da noch einen Schritt zurück? Wir würden auf Basis deines Githubs ein eigenes erstellen.

    Tobias Hofmann · May 15, 2024 at 13:15

    Warum nicht? Der SDTR steht unter der Apache Lizenz.

      Sven · May 19, 2024 at 23:51

      Kann es sein, dass die config.json fehlt?

        Tobias Hofmann · May 21, 2024 at 18:58

        Ich glaub nicht. Ich habe keine in meinem lokalen Repo.
        Ich habe das von GH gecloned und es hat funktioniert:

        git clone https://github.com/tobiashofmann/sap-dev-tech-radar.git
        cd sap-dev-tech-radar
        npm i
        npm run conv
        npm start

        Das öffnet zumindest bei mir den Browser mit dem SDTR.

          Sven Treutler · July 28, 2024 at 07:36

          Hat geklappt danke 🙂

Gustavo · April 22, 2024 at 17:58

Is BOPF discontinued? Isn’t that used in s/4 hana? On the other hand, thanks for the information, for someone starting out as a SAP developer, do you recommend starting with JS to enter (sapui5,CAP) or do you recommend abap, abap for hana and RAP? I will wait for your response, thank you

Sven Treutler · October 16, 2024 at 07:24

Hallo Tobias,
vielen Dank für diesen Techradar.
Wir haben es nun für unsere Firma adaptiert und wir finden es einen schönen Überblick.

Danke dafür!

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