Solution-tasting

There’s an old Roman saying “In vino veritas” which translates to “there’s truth in wine”. That truth is what I experienced the 1st of April at a VanDenBeld wine tasting event.?

The job an independent FiCo consultant is to model SAP so it can support the clients business processes. The world of SAP consists of endless requirement-and-solution cycles. There’s this thing in the world of SAP that’s called Best Practise, SAP done the way SAP thinks you should do it. It feels like it’s a ready-to-wear solution but it isn’t. The best practises are guide-lines and examples but rarely are the copied one-on-one. Between the best practise and the solution are the white boarding sessions. The solutioning workshops.?

My profession is very result oriented and every project seems to be notoriously short on time. With the daily stand-up progress meetings to chasing deliverables and efforts to squeeze more in the same time frame I feel the pressure to not waste time. To get the solution right in one go. Don’t waste time! This goes against the essence of white-boarding. It conflicts with the fundamentals of problem solving. Although I solved this problem many times I’ve always adapted the solution to the current assignment and client.?

Sipping a delicious sparkeling VanDenBeld Brut, I checked the layout of the tasting room. Where to start, what angle to take. The VanDenBeld family has big smiles and are meeting old friends and new friends.?

I’m starting with one of my favourite wines, Rouge (simple not easy). Each year they make a new vintage of Rouge, and each year the grapes are different depending on the elements. Each vintage has its own development curve. I’m tasting the 2022 and it’s had so much sun and so little rain that the high sugar makes the wine pretty forceful with big tannins. This wine needs to develop a bit further. Or perhaps I should rephrase that. The wine right now is not for me but that may change in the future as the wine and circumstances change.?

White-boarding is an intellectual version of a wine-tasting.?I pick the most suitable option out of all the options I came up with. Each option is like a vintage that is being evaluated for a certain purpose. At the event I opt for the 2018 vintage of Rouge, which offers me softer tannins and a good balance between complexity and drinkability.

Over the years I’ve built op a collection of possible solutions. Some I’ve used once, some never and others multiple times. This is why allowing myself time to experiment, try-out and explore options. I’m building a library that in the end will make me a better consultant. Im re-tasting the different vintages of the wine. To make sure I get the wine ‘solution’ right, right for my wine ‘requirement’. Different situations pop into my mind where I could drink certain vintages of Rouge. Taking some time to evaluate the options yield better results.

Difficult topics are not solved in one session and get parked for later. I’m researching them using my own library of books, self-created documents, internet blogs and SAP’s own resources. I’m making lateral connections, find similarities or dive into specific technical solutions. Will they fit the mold? A solution I previously rejected may have matured so it and now fits the mold.

This wine tasting showed me that winemakers that focus on the expression of each vintage produce wines that are adaptable. Great today but not so much tomorrow or the other way around. And each vintage develops differently. In the end there are so many cross-roads or data-points. The development curve, food paring or lack there of, my physical and mental state, the company I keep. The results are infinite outcomes and that’s why I find such wines exciting. ?

This affirmed that I should always allow myself to have a solution-tasting. Professionally I’m constantly experimenting with solutions. Experimentation also yields a lot of outcomes. The wine teaches again. All the wine I taste, I also spit out. And I won’t take a sip until I have to make the final decision. So I taste many but drink very few. And trust me that’s difficult when all wines are good. Doing this as a consultant is difficult too. I have an attachment to my brain-children. Still, I must abandon them all except the one I’ll see through to maturity. The other solutions are appreciated, filed and then I let them go.?

I encourage you resist the time-pressure and indulge in a solution-tasting, use the most applicable solution and trust that the rest remains stored in your problem-solving pallet. That’s a truth I found in wine.

Yesterdays experiments are the craftsman’s future solutions.

Till next time