Technical Consultants – Jack of all trades

Author: Kynan Jones, Technical Practice Lead

When considering a topic for this blog, my initial thoughts were to focus solely on a technical (development) topic. However, as most people will happily point out, that sort of thing is generally quite boring. Good to read on the plane when having difficulty sleeping, but it’s not for everybody.

Instead, what I propose to discuss, is the various roles a Technical Consultant can/should/does play on any given SAP project, as part of the Extend Technologies team.

The key differentiator between a back of office developer and a true Technical Consultant is their ability to cover off enough of each skill to provide our clients with the best possible solution for their requirements.

After beginning my working life in End-User roles for a number of companies I made the switch to the world of Consulting. Needless to say, the resulting differences and challenges I faced were many and varied.

With years of “getting my head around it” now thankfully behind me, I look towards those stepping into similar positions and facing the same dizzying challenges. It’s never easy, but with time and a bit of toughening it gets easier.

The expectations and demands placed on a consultant can at times be overwhelming, both from clients, and from within one’s own ranks. Regardless of the quality in the surrounding team, the need for a consultant to “stretch” is never far away.

One point that stands out when comparing a seasoned veteran and a relative newcomer is the variety in their skill set. Cross Skilling was a pretty popular term for a while there, and it’s one that took me a while to appreciate. Some may indeed argue that it is this cross skilling that draws a certain breed of person to consulting. Studies have shown that people enjoy variety in their day to day job: from different clients, different industries, different functional areas, and different products.

Whilst I am certainly not saying that a person in a technical position for an End-User company cannot have an excellent cross set of skills, I believe that a technical consultant (and indeed a consultant in general) is required to demonstrate this – it’s simply part of carrying the ‘consultant’ tag.

For example, in the past few months, as a Technical Consultant I have been a:

• Developer – ABAP/ Workflow/ Web Dynpro/ Java/.Net
• Solution Architect
• Portal Administrator
• Basis Consultant
• Functional consultant (I’ve seen this in Reverse many times as well)
• Project Manager
• Pre Sales
• Tester

Please do not assume that I am doing these roles to cover other’s failings (far from it), but simply that demand can often exceed supply, or that budget/time can restrict the available resources for a given project.

I know many a functional consultant that is happy to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into some ABAP development (pricing routines, smartforms, debugging etc), and many a Project manager that relishes getting into the functional requirements gathering.

We do what we’re employed to do, and sometimes that’s all. Other times we do what we do, plus whatever we have to do.

Read our interesting post on sap one as well.