This Group

Tue May 4 16:45:53 EDT 2010

Much as I'd like to agree with you Susan, I see and hear plenty to the  
contrary from SAP's own consultants every day  here in the UK. And it  
disappoints me because I see a lot of untapped potential being  
overlooked because: a) it's considered to be 'old' so it's not being  
taught in Walldorf/Mumbai, b) it's entirely dependent on ABAP to  
function and c) SAP are trying to abandon their traditional Gui for  
Web UI / BOL / GenIL at an alarming rate.

Granted our situation is a bit peculiar because of the size of the  
system and the (over)dependence on Workflow here but I feel I have to  
regularly defend Workflow as a 'workhorse' on a daily basis. And to be  
honest I'm starting to regard it more and more as an obsolete dead-end  
as that seems to be the overwhelming attitude of anyone coming in from  
the CRM and PI worlds. I don't really believe that it is dead by the  
way but I do think the bell is tolling faintly.

Start talking about BOR to a CRM Consultant these days and you'll hear  
a guffaw of contempt followed swiftly by a dismissal about it being  
yesterday's tool with a limited future. Mention SBWP to the latest  
breed of Developers and  half won't have a clue the other half won't  
care, prefering to talk instead about the Web UI home page instead.

Now it could be just me but I really don't see any investment in  
Workflow stuff, just a tacit acceptance that it's hanging around so  
people have to be aware of it and be backwards compatible. The only  
driving force behind Workflow now appears to come from the clients who  
use it and rely on it.

As with ABAP it seems that SAP aren't dumb, they know they have cash  
cow with Workflow. So it's not like it's going to disappear anytime  
soon. But apart from the massive OO heart bypass we saw from 4.6c to  
ECC 6 little else is on the horizon as far as we know. Perhaps you  
know different?

Mike GT

Sent from my iPhone

On 4 May 2010, at 20:25, "Keohan, Susan - 1140 - MITLL" <keohan at ll.mit.edu 
 > wrote:

> Hi All,
> I have seen the decrease in traffic over the past few years.  As a  
> matter of
> fact, I proposed sunsetting this forum in 2007 - at it's 10-year  
> birthday.
> At the time, many subscribers asked that the list be kept alive, and  
> so it
> is.
> As long as someone sees benefit in it, then it is serving its'  
> purpose.
>
> Perhaps one way to increase traffic and pour more knowledge into the  
> SAP-WUG
> fountain is to make a commitment to try to answer - say one question  
> a week
> - even if it's a little time-consuming?  I'll sign up for that.
>
> As for Business Workflow receding and waning as a skill set - I  
> respectfully
> disagree.  It's true there are new tools and new technologies,  but  
> I still
> see workflow as the workhorse it is.
>
> Regards,
> Sue
>
> ----
> Susan R. Keohan
> SAP Workflow Specialist
> Enterprise Applications
> Information Services Department
> MIT Lincoln Laboratory
> 244 Wood Street, LI-200
> Lexington, MA. 02420
> 781-981-3561
> keohan at LL.MIT.EDU
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On  
> Behalf Of
> Madgambler
> Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 3:04 PM
> To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
> Cc: SAP Workflow Users' Group; sap-wug-request at mit.edu
> Subject: Re: This Group
>
> Hi,
>
> No point replying to other posts on this thread as the original
> message is succinct enough to merit a direct response.
>
> I think the attention being paid to this forum is directly
> proportional to the amount and complexity of Workflow development
> being carried out and the depth of Workflow development experience in
> the average subscriber.
>
> Now it could be argued that fewer 'new' Workflow issues being
> discussed here could mean good or bad things are happening in the real
> world. From my personal experience it seems more likely that SAP
> Buisiness Workflow is receding as a tool and waning as a skillset.
>
> Granted it's more immediately accessible to the general Client because
> it's embedded in the standard offering. But are people pushing the
> boundaries of what it can do or have we hit them already and that's as
> far as SAP plan to take it?
>
> These days the juicier Business Process Modelling projects are being
> done in the Composite Environment (Java) arena and less often in the
> ABAP stack at all.
>
> So rather than this Forum losing support I would actually argue that
> Workflow itself has reached a plateau and stopped evolving. Perhaps
> only for a while...
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike GT
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 4 May 2010, at 16:48, Nash John <emailtonash at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> I get the feeling that this group is slowly but steadily loosing its
>> significance as I don't see members active/willing to get involved
>> in discussion/help as it used to be 3 to 4 years ago.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Nash
>> _______________________________________________
>> SAP-WUG mailing list
>> SAP-WUG at mit.edu
>> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/sap-wug
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