The quickest way to gain SAP knowledge
I have 12 - 13 years experience being a very hands-on manager leading medium and larger projects in Web Technologies. I suddenly was forced to move into senior roles which involved leading projects in various technologies and just as suddenly found myself leading an SAP support project.

I feel I am now at the crossroads of my career since a functional overview across modules makes me feel half baked. The project is going well, but I feel handicapped because I am not able to add value technically/functionally. What is the quickest way to scale up, or should I just go back to Web Technologies?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register, you will start receiving targeted emails from my award-winning team of editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics and biggest challenges faced by SAP professionals today.

    Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchSAP.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchSAP.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

I think the problem you are running into is that different companies have different ideas about how "hands-on" their managerial roles are. You say in your question you are "hands-on," but in fact it seems like you are not getting strong technical or functional experience in this management role. I would suggest seeing this particular project through to a successful milestone. Prove yourself in this area, and ask your company what the prospects are for more of a hands-on managerial role in SAP. If it doesn't look promising, then you'll have a clearer idea of your options.

If you're determined to get further under the hood of SAP, then at that point, you may want to apply to other companies until you find one where the managers are more hands-on in SAP. Smaller companies running on SAP may offer more opportunities for this.

This was first published in July 2007