I messed up. I recorded too much content at SAP TechEd 09, and I'm still playing catch up posting it. At any rate, I've been wanting to share this podcast on SAP BPM skills that I recorded live at TechEd Phoenix with the SCN community, and now is the time. 

One of the reasons I was glad to do this podcast on SAP BPM skills is that many still think of SAP BPM as futuristic stuff - images of "business users putting on propeller hats" might be one way to dismiss these trends. Enter SAP's Greg Chase, who had approached me prior to SAP TechEd Phoenix to tell me about the customers SAP was hearing from who were looking for a type of SAP BPM skill set that was not readily available. Particularly in today's economy, I'm always making a note of the areas of SAP skills demand SAP professionals should be moving towards, so Greg had my attention.

During TechEd, I was able to sit down with Greg, who is the Director of Platform Marketing with SAP, covering BPM and CE (Composition Environment). We were joined by his colleague Patrik Fiegl, who is with SAP's Business Transformation Consulting Services Organization, driving BPM growth with customers.

During this 19 minute podcast, we examined the relevance of SAP BPM to today's project environments, and took a closer look at some of the skills that are needed as BPM intersects with IT. The discussion led us to new skills that can be added to existing roles, as well as an overall convergence of business and IT that is creating the need for new modeling tools experience and new scrum-inspired methodologies.

Note: we also debriefed on the Process Design Slam in Phoenix and why it charted new waters, and we talked about the SAP BPM curriculum that is part of SAP's BPX certification. Of course, since this podcast - more has happened. Thorsten Franz's post on the future of BPM (with busy comment thread) is worth a look. Plus, the Process Design Slam took place again in TechEd Vienna, and received good reviews. 

(If for any reason the player doesn't work, you can download the podcast using the "download media" link on the right hand side).

(Trouble downloading? if for some reason it's not playing in its entirety for you, check out the version on JonERP.com in the meantime.)

Here are some podcast highlights:

:44 Why this topic is compelling:

Greg: Many firms do not have the kind of SAP-savvy "agile" development teams needed to realize the BPM vision from a skills perspective - so changes need to be made here.

Patrik: IT has not served business needs as well as it could have. We needed a better translation effort between IT and business. BPM is "back to the future" because we are pulling in business users who understand the problem into the process design. 

3:41 So what is the problem we are trying to solve?

Patrik: Whatever the top priority business need is: acquiring a new company, rolling out a new product, making an existing product more profitable.

4:55 What skills are lacking in a traditional SAP consultant that are needed for BPM initiatives?

Greg: This is where the business and IT lines start to blur. You need someone who is a business professional and understands the business, but who can also translate those needs into technical requirements. On the technical side, there are agile development processes that require new IT skills and knowledge also.

All: Become a "suite" - a cross between a "suit" and a "geek."

Patrik: The SAP BPM consultant is a new type of persona, providing solutions and solving business problems. This is more than just Enterprise Architects.

10:00 What should SAP professionals be doing in terms of learning new BPM tools, such as NetWeaver BPM, formerly Galaxy, or even an open source modeling tools like Intalio?

Patrik: You want to understand NetWeaver BPM, and you want to be familiar with modeling tools that are used primarily for driving discussion during process design, such as the IDS Aris tool which is often used in SAP environments.

11:55 The Process Slam at TechEd Phoenix used the Google Wave Gravity tool - what else happened at the Slam?

Greg: At the Process Slam, we were inventing a crowd-sourced BPM methodology on the fly. In this case, we used Gravity, which was very helpful because we were pulling in European team members live. But the original design was also important - we had to have an initial business case and story so we could define the opportunities for optimization. Teams could then work on creation of business rules that would go into NetWeaver BRM (Business Rules Management), and then the user experience design in the Composition Environment (CE). Then the implementation team leverages existing services, and figures out which new ones are going to be needed, and pulls in the relevant model, rules, and UI design. This all happened live at the Process Design Slam.

14:46 The Process Slam focused on sustainability and solving a real business problem in the Utilities industry in a live setting.

Greg: This was a scrum-like project setting with many who are not used to being in a scrum environment - and many of the folks participating were new to a scrum-like approach.

15:35 So I'm listening to this podcast, I'm interested in acquiring more SAP BPM skills, I'm not totally sure where to begin, how do I get started?

Greg: The SAP BPX community is a great place to start. There's a "plethora of information" about the product, the methodology, and how to apply these things in practical ways.

Patrik: Recommends the BPM Roadmap book, as well as the BPX Education track that focused on BPM tools, methods, and processes.

17:40 There is also a formal BPX certification for those who complete the class track and pass the BPX certification exam. Those first adopters who get those BPX certifications are going to get a lot out of it career-wise. It's also a great business opportunity for SAP partners.

At some point, I'll post a blog with all my TechEd content posts. Meantime, best way to track it all across multiple blogs is through my feedburner feed.