Simple, not easy

On this bright sunday afternoon I’m cracking open a VanDenBeld Rouge. A deep ruby coloured, full bodied with lots of character. It has good flavour without being overwhelming, full bodied without being intense. You can sip this wine all afternoon without being bored and without being throat punched. It is a simple wine, a good simple wine. This may not sound like a compliment but its actually a great compliment. Cause it’s not easy to make a wine that’s both simple enough so you can enjoy it throughout the?afternoon and evening without either becoming boring or prematurely throat punching you.?

The first time a client asked me to write a report I build one in the standard query tool. Coming from a database background I was familiar with linking tables together and being able to retrieve data. This tool, like all tools, has it limits. And I was stuck against that limit with an approaching deadline. Then something amazing happend, somebody told me that you can code free-style within the query tool. That was exactly what I needed. I could apply my old skills in my new job as an SAP consultant. I met the deadline and was the wiser for it. This then became my go-to solution for reports. And the fresh-style became more elaborate until I tried to do what?you actually should do in a reporting solution. My reporting solutions became more and more complex. Could I honestly say that this method was scalable and sustainable? I guess asking that question is answering it.?

Later in my career I built a case management system simple to use. Under the bonnet was a very technical mechanism using methods and constructions from a niche part of SAP. When it was time to upgrade to S4Hana this case management system had to be migrated too. This was many years after my free-style coding in SAP. And I decided that I had to kill my darling. So I advised the client to move to a more mainstream solution. Based on an architecture that they already knew and whole armies of consultant had the skills to maintain that solution.?

My solution was from a craft perspective more intricate and more beautiful. And I would do my client a disservice if I didn’t advice them to move to the main stream, clean and simple solution. Just like some wines are revered by wine reviewer and aficionados. The famed houses that have red wines aged for decades to reveal extraordinary complexity and eyewaterinw price tags. Reviewers don’t say it has hits of plum but they mentions some obscure plum from japan that hardly anybody knows. And sure, at times, with great friends, over a great dinner I may splurged on a big wine like that. You don’t drink the wine but you experience it. With Oh’s and Ah’s. My word did you buy Chateaux Covfefe? The wine becomes almost secondary to the experience of the wine.

SAP solutions become complex because the consultants, and that includes me, use their finite knowledge and experience to try and solve an infinite set of complex problems. When you have been with many clients you see those houses of Covfefe. Monuments to limitations of the human brain. Somehow its hard to make simple but effective solutions and it is easier to build upon what either is already there or what you already know.?Whenever possible I ask myself can I do this simpler? And over the years this has become less hard but never easy.?

I pour another glass of ‘Rouge’ and look at the beautiful colour, that glistens as I swirl the wine around in my glas. I realize that projects have various degrees of pressure to deliver solutions. And it’s so tempting to revert back to what we know. And that it’s often hard to make the time to think through your design or solution. Who hasn’t moved forward with great speed and determination to realize at 80% that maybe you house isn’t built on the right foundation to complete the other 20%.?It’s not easy to keep things simple. Take another sip of Rouge, still interesting, still easy.

The experienced craftsmen uses only a few from his many tools.?

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Till next time