Is it even fair to compare openSAP with certification?

Even before I write this blog, I would like to confirm that I have no internal knowledge of who comprises of openSAP team and certification team at SAP and how these teams do operate. It has just happened that I appeared for Associate level HANA certification (did I clear it?) and then also attended openSAP course on HANA. The aim of this blog is to just express my personal opinion on these two and does not intend to undermine or judge any. I have already expressed my opinion of attending openSAP course here. Every now and then I see question posted on different channels as to if one would be able to take up the certification exam on HANA based on openSAP experience. I am not sure if people having similar doubts have visited SAP’s training and certification site for the relevant course. Taking example of C_HANAIMP_1, the certification course content is explicitly stated here. One of the explicit advantages of doing certification, that I have realized is, it expands the horizon of knowledge on the subject to a much greater extent.

In my view, openSAP’s course on HANA was completely centric on development exercises which appeal much to a developer’s heart. It was much focused on native apps building on HANA. On the other side to do a certification a much broader and of course deeper insights of HANA is required. One of the clear examples would be in modeling when we have to create joins. Shouldn’t have we to think which join type is required for a particular scenario. Did openSAP give the reason? This was a very minute level observation. The explicit ones are clear from the course content required for being certified. I don’t find it relevant highlighting contents which were not even touched in openSAP as it clearly stated ‘Introduction to software development on SAP HANA’.

If I have to represent the two courses diagrammatically, anyone reading this blog could help me in choosing from one of the below:

The little intersection part is inevitable as the subject of imparting knowledge remains the same.

The valid question in my opinion would be, will SAP training and education get influenced by openSAP style of imparting knowledge? I am not sure what triggered delivering free education on HANA in the form of openSAP but I very much appreciate this move. But at the same time it has certainly raised expectation of SAP consultants. Some of the inevitable questions have already started pouring in, like this course should be extended for functional domains as well. I just can’t stop thinking that any event is faced with questions on being developer centric. The same has been asked at many SAP events including SIT.

The next contradictory question would be, certification requires much broader knowledge then why does the training course lasts just for 3 days or likewise? The cost associated is altogether a different topic of discussion.

All these observation are based on the present form of openSAP. I am sure this program would evolve in many efficient ways. I have an idea that Graham would be able to share better insights on this topic. In the last group #mentorbuddy chat organized by Sue, Graham had shared his view which I had liked much. I was also happy to know that Jan Penninkhof thinks alike that openSAP does not provide skills for certification.

For now I would keep an eye as to how these two programs influence/grow in future.