SAP Cloud Platform Backend Developer Roadmap 2021
The original German version is maintained here. It’s also available in this GitHub repository
I remember the first time I tried to learn SAP Cloud Platform on my own…
It was frustrating.
Conflicting information. Confusing terms. And techniques that didn’t work.
I didn’t know where to start or what to look at.
Many ABAP colleagues of mine are asking, “I want to prepare for the SAP Cloud Platform next year. But I do not know where to start. What should I do?”
Do you want to build knowledge about the development of the SAP Cloud Platform in 2021? This roadmap will help you structure your learning with the SAP Cloud Platform. It contains topics that you might learn to know SCP well.
This is my biased recommendation. It focuses on JavaScript / TypeScript and Cloud Foundry on the SAP Cloud Platform.
It can be scary to work through this roadmap because there are so many things to learn. This roadmap covers everything I would recommend to have at least heard. Do not feel overwhelmed. You don’t need to know everything in the beginning if you want to get started.
The purpose is to give you an idea of the landscape. It should guide you if you are confused about what to learn next and not encourage you to choose what is hip and trendy. You should understand why one tool is better suited for some cases than another. Hip and trendy does not mean that it is best suited for the job.
So let’s start without further ado…
So this is my recommendation on how to learn backend development on the SAP Cloud Platform in 2021. I’m working on collecting good tutorials, articles and videos on the individual topics. I will add them here bit by bit.
Are you of a different opinion? Can you improve the roadmap? I’d be happy to hear your feedback and thoughts in the comments.
Feel free to follow me to stay updated about new content on SAP Cloud Platform.
This is awesome!!
Thank you Tobias Steckenborn, for this amazing topic map! This is an awesome resource for someone anyone working with SAP Cloud Platform.?
Keep sharing your journey here with the community. 😊
best regards
Ronnie
Clear. The next step is to detail the areas. However, I’m afraid it won’t be until next year when I want to detail the areas in a consumable and meaningful way.
The journey is the destination. Let’s see when I’m ready.
Hi Tobias,
Really awesome, thanks a lot for sharing!
Some proposals to further extend your map:
Best regards,
Boris
Thanks for the hint, Boris. I’ll take that up when detailing out the single areas.
Great article. I wanted this from long. Yes cap is confusing, but your article gives clear idea on what to do and how. Thanks a lot
Hi,
It’s really great. !!Why do not you say simply 2021 is for Robots.
Regards
Damo
The cake is a lie ;)… Guess we all just need to make one step after another and we’ll learn what we need to learn.
Hi,
Thank you very much for sharing.
Best Regards,
Ajinkya Jadhav
Thanks for taking the time to reply 😉
In addition to the languages, technologies you have to master AI, ML, Security, … and understand the different variants of clouds ☁️;-)
Isn’t it scary enough as it is? I tend to agree, but those are topics for another day ;)…
Well, that’s overwhelming. I really don’t know how a lot of present day ABAP developers will be able to cope with that sort of development setup. The best part about ABAP was the single IDE to do everything. A developer didn’t have to worry about git, versioning, CI/CD pipeline and above all the ugly messy Eclipse. All she had to focus was the business logic. She could summon the database into an internal table and do magic with it – all without having to worry about becoming a dev-ops ninja!
Open source is great! Maybe. But, disrupting such a well settled ecosystem baffles me.
You nailed it right, this is exactly what I have been thinking after going through the blog. Where to start next and when we work with those real projects is something am eagerly planning for. I feel we are moving fast in terms of technological advancement, looking at the customer setup who are still quite comfortable with ECC 4.6, I do sometimes go crazy and think of when can we actually realize and adopt these trendies 🙂
I agree that it felt easier in an old ABAP stack. However, it is probably also simply a case of getting used to it. Outside of SAP, the world has moved on. I guess it’s not that we are moving fast in terms of technological advancement, but we need to get back on par with the outside world.
We all have a long way to go. But you grow from your challenges. It remains exciting and I hope the efforts are worthwhile for our clients and thus society ;)…
Thank you Tobias for sharing us your journey. I made something similar last year, but not quite that deep as you did. There are so many things to discover, and the most important point: It’s a moving target, so there are changes everytime.
The world of open source is really nice and at the same time it’s so much effort to spend and understand modules and things around your chart. So you need a lot of time and motivation.
I can tell you people: it’s worth it!
Thank you verry much, Tobias!
Hey Cedric,
I agree that it’s probably a moving target, but some things are likely to stay, specifically around the design and development principles. On the other hand, it’s hard to evaluate which trendy topics you can safely avoid and which ones are really worth the effort.
Did your journey include additional topics that are worth adding here?
Great blog, Tobias! Thanks for laying it out in a very digestible way. Very informative and practical.
Hello Mark,
Thank you very much for the feedback. Is there anything that would further improve the information content and practicality for you?
Great, thanks!
Glad you like it!
It will take a lifetime to learn.
I think we overestimate what we can achieve in the short term and underestimate what we can achieve in the long term.
With a little bit of commitment, a basic level of knowledge in each area should be achievable within a year or two. However, closing the gap from 80% to 100% in most areas will take a long time.
Best regards,
Tobias
Thanks Tobias for this flowchart detailing the possibilities for the developers in the cloud. This definitely make us easier visualize the different technical aspects.
Hey Siddharth Bet,
glad you liked it. Anything you would like to see improved?
Best regards,
Tobias
Thank you so much Tobias Steckenborn!!! This is exactly what I was looking for, but could never find a proper flowchart which could explain clearly.
I am not sure why such information are not officially given by SAP, so that intrested developers & consultants can plan their Career path accordingly.
If you find similar flowchart for Frontend Developer (UI5 & MDK) and HANA Native Developers, please do share it. Thanks again!!
Sure, if I see something floating around I’ll share it. If nobody else in the community is doing it ping me at the end of the year and I’ll see if I manage to create one as part of my end of year activities :).
Best regards,
Tobias
Thanks Tobias Steckenborn for sharing information from your personal learning experience.Very well written and presented. It is a well drafted plan for someone to take up this learning journey. Lot to learn 😉
Kind Regards,
Kapil Patil
Hi Kapil,
I agree, there is a lot to learn. But if you focus on certain areas, you can still get going quickly. After all, a craftsman needs to sharpen his tools to stay effective, right? 😉
Best regards
Tobias
Hi Tobias Steckenborn
thanks for this great map!
As Siddhesh Dingankar mentioned, I would also be interested if there is a similar chart for Frontend Development.
Best regards,
Ridvan
Hey Ridva,
glad you liked it. I didn’t create a chart for frontend development yet. Perhaps somebody of the community is willing to do that?
Best regards
Tobias
Great overview and I think you nailed the path. This is pretty much how I progressed last year. The worry I share with so many others in these comments is how do we take ABAP developers that are working on projects day in and day out and move them through this diagram as quickly as possible.
Great that you could progress on that “road” last year. Any recommendations for others on how they can make it efficiently? Any changes you would propose to the roadmap based on your experience?