Highlights of SAP TechEd from a first timer

[janmusil]

I have to admit that I was excited to be selected as a speaker for number of sessions at SAP TechEd 2010 in Las Vegas. While I have been at different SAP events over the years I was still a TechEd virgin. I have heard great stories about the event and the atmosphere so I was looking forward to attend. 

As I said I was excited to have the opportunity to speak with TechEd attendees and discuss topics close to my heart - value management in projects, how to structure BPM implementations, how to achieve acceleration in projects, holistic management of application life-cycle and project management. I was totally blown away by the number of people that joined our sessions and came to the BPM pod to talk about their needs. If anything the interactions at TechEd reaffirmed that the steps we are taking with AcceleratedSAP (ASAP) Methodology and Business Add-Ons are the right ones. In particular discussions centered around value management in projects and post-implementation. The topic of implementation acceleration through various techniques built into ASAP 7 and into the upcoming Agile Business Add-on sparked interest as well.

I only wish I had more time to attend other speakers sessions which was quite challenging with my schedule of over 10 hours of sessions we were delivering. Still I managed to attend few great sessions late on Thursday and Friday that I enjoyed quite a bit. I hope I'll be able to come back next year and possibly see little more of these great sessions. For me TechEd rocks!

I was glad that I planned some down time following the event to recharge and get ready to finalize the Agile business Add-on. Upon my return back to the office the team working on the Agile Business Add-on delivered the first SAP internal version of the add-on. We will be releasing the public version of the Agile Business Add-on after detailed internal review in late December just in time for holidays - or for projects launching early in 2011.

So far the feedback we have received has been very positive and I'm looking forward to sharing the Agile business add-on with the broader community. As a teaser, here is a screen shot of how we incorporated the SCRUM-like iterative approach to the ASAP 7 framework.

If you missed our Agile Add-on sessions at TechEd we have delivered one as a BPM Webinar few weeks ago. The session goes over the project acceleration techniques in more detail and highlights the iterative approach of the Agile Business Add-on. Feel free to review the slide deck (Service Marketplace account required) and the recorded session. You can sign-up for future sessions and all recorded replays on the Real World BPM in an SAP Environment Webinar Series. 

As we are getting closer to December release I'll post more details about the Agile Business Add-on as well as ASAP 7 acceleration techniques. Stay tuned...