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Personal Insights
Author's profile photo Michelle Crapo

Personal Thoughts on the developer Insight survey

What was the Insight survey?  It was a survey that was given and could be taken by anyone last year.   I really liked seeing the results, and thought I’d write down what I was thinking….  And I’m wondering if anyone else saw some interesting information and what they thought about it.

Short about me – you can read more in my profile:

So a quick “about me”.   I am an in-house developer.   I do work with Fiori and Hana.   “Most” of our applications are moving towards 3rd party or our on-premise box.  I’ve been a bit worried about getting behind.   Although, of course, I am forever learning.  So that does help.

So some positive takeaways:

  1.  Yes!  Most companies were allowing work from home when the survey was taken.  Of course the pandemic was probably a higher concern at that point.
  2. Developer’s were at the top of the list for job role.   Well that is promising.   Of course it was a Developer’s survey
  3. Geography – I’m from the US, so it was good to see we are in the top 3.
  4. The big surprise for me was that most who answered were in-house developers.  I honestly thought consultants would be the highest.
  5. There are more people experienced in Web apps. / SaaS experience than I expected.
  6. Tools – ABAP Still wins!
  7. Online tutorials was much higher than I expected.

What does that mean for me

I mean I basically just told you what was on the survey for me.  Not what I planned on doing with it.

  1. Continue learning.   With a high concentration on front-end development.
  2. Working from home is a possibility with companies other than mine.  As we use more and more consultants, I may need to know that.  I really would hate back going into a company after enjoying around 10 years of working at home.   So this just gave me a better sense of security.
  3. Since I’ve tried a little bit of everything in my carrier and found my first love is technical.   That made my little heart happy.
  4. Web apps – it’s time to create at least one or two just for fun.
  5. online tutorials – that one is a hard one for me.  There are some areas I do follow.  But sometimes, they can lead you the wrong way.  I’m not sure how to get a better sense of what to watch and what could send me down a rabbit hole.  Of course, my favorite people are always a great source.  I’ll leave you some of my favorite at the end of this post.

What things weren’t as positive to me:

Honestly I’m a glass half full person.   So I think everything was good news.   I guess the exception was that I learn more.   Right now my job is crazy.   I’m learning at light speed, but not always what I need/want to learn.   Although learning is never a waste of time.   And it keeps me on my toes.   Thank goods for the SAP community.   I honestly have always thought, and still do that this is the place to learn and get answers.  It also has lead me to provide better solution in our meetings.  Yes, I still do architecture, requirements, and testing.   This is my kind of job.  Although I learn a lot about everything – so lately have learned anything deeply.  I hope that can change – you know –  when I get time.  HA!  I’m doing this blog while my development system is down.  I plan on learning some more on my weekends as I get a chance.   Right now No-code/low code is at the top of my list.

Comments:

Please take some time and comment.   There are so many questions I have for you.   Feel free to answer one on none.  Or just generally comment.

  • Did you takeaway anything from the survey?
  • Will it change how you do something?
  • Do you have any other links that will take us to great training – it just has to be in you opinion – so what if someone else doesn’t like it.
  • What have you learned or are plan to learn in the future?   With all of the APIs available, do you see more 3rd party software?
  • And of course, these might give you ideas for some blogs too!

I do have time to stop and read comments.

Links:

SAP developers

SAP tutorials for Developers

Github

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      2 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Michael Keller
      Michael Keller

      “Overall, how many years of general software experience do you have?” (449 responses)

      Our developer base could be characterized as highly experienced – over three quarters have six or more years of experience.

      Although the question is aimed at "general software experience", for me the answer also applies to software development with ABAP.

      In my estimation, developers need at least 5 years to learn ABAP and get to know processes in a business area. This combination is incredibly important (above all, which data play a role). Then an ABAP developer can do first steps on his own. It gets exciting from 10 years of experience. You can take responsibility for a lot of things. Oh, you have to! 😉

      Author's profile photo Jelena Perfiljeva
      Jelena Perfiljeva

      My takeaways:

      1. Why does it take so long to process the results? Survey ended some time around end of February / beginning of March. It took almost 3 full months to process the results and finally post them (which was rather hush-hush). This is not a great advertisement for Qualtrics. Although also not as bad as few years ago when it took like 9 months, so I guess "good thing glass isn't empty". 🙂
      2. The only surprising thing in the results for me was that so many people use YouTube for work-related stuff. The rest was exactly what I'd expect from a developer survey on SCN. Majority are ABAPers. Biiiig surprise.
      3. No one noticed but last year, 2000+ participated in the survey vs. just 1000 this year. People are more busy now? Less developers visit SCN? Curious about such a big difference.
      4. The fact that there are fewer developers in the US than in Germany is rather alarming for me personally. When my generation retires, who will do development for the US customers?