Welcome back to Nerd Exchange, a new ASUG column from Jelena Perfiljeva and Paul Modderman, The Boring Enterprise Nerds. Helping subscribers stay on top of SAP, AI, Cloud, and enterprise software news through their hit Boring Enterprise Nerdletter, Jelena and Paul are funny, cynical, and always interesting—a breath of fresh air for the enterprise software landscape. Below, the Boring Enterprise Nerds offer their take on the continued relevance of “legacy” in the SAP user ecosystem.
Paul Modderman: It's that most wonderful time of year, when SAP TechEd and ASUG Tech Connect (register here!) lay out all the latest gifts under the ERP tree. And one part of the nerdiverse rejoices, because they get new toys that their up-to-date S/4HANA systems plug right into. The rest of the nerdiverse gets stockings full of coal from SAP Santa Claus, with no special Joule skills or automatic ABAP Cloud unit tests for legacy ECC customers.
Jelena Perfiljeva: It’s interesting that the word “legacy” used to have such noble meaning but has since become a euphemism for old, outdated, and sometimes just plainly ineffective technology. “Legacy code” and “legacy system” are not considered achievements these days. What’s up with that?
Paul: I think we should do a hostile takeover and redefine the term! To me, the better framing of "legacy" is the story of the systems, processes, and programs that you've inherited from your predecessors and that you pass on to your successors. For everything in a legacy system that looks strange and outdated, there's a story of a business process that this ancient system improved. And that means this ancient system is battle-tested. It's proved its value for years!
Jelena: Great point. Every enhancement or customization is driven by the business process. There is a lot of talk lately about “technical debt,” too, but it is not just a technical problem: bad process leads to bad code that adds to technical debt. There are ways to improve quality of development and coding practices, but that will only solve the implementation part of the problem. It’s not going to solve the root cause: bad process. What I’m saying is that it's not just a technical problem, but rather a “national debt” within your company that everyone needs to pitch in to pay off.
Paul: Legacy is implicit in the "clean core" discussions these days, too. All of the SAP training and blogs start with extensibility as the first concept - but quickly expand to these:
Just look at this list! It's clear to me that, if you're looking to clean the core in this manner, the most important and impactful criteria are also the hardest to pin down. No inconsistent or inefficient processes? Complete and correct data? Those are super-duper extra hard.
If you think about the story that has gone into legacy systems, teams are already striving for these end goals. It doesn't take planning for or running S/4HANA to make a core clean. Inefficient processes can be fixed just as effectively in legacy systems.
Jelena: Of course! And you always have to ask the question: "What is the real problem we're solving?" For example, the perceived issues, such as the complexity of upgrades, might not be as problematic if your core is well-managed, even if it’s not “clean,” per se. If you document the reasons behind the modifications you’ve made, you'll have a finely-tuned legacy system as well as a system prepared for S/4HANA update.
Paul: So, if legacy is not a bad word, what is our prescription for these SAP users?
Jelena: I recommend that teams push their managers to help them do a better job with their existing systems. In SAP ECC, you can do much more with the latest enhancement pack than with an ancient one. (By the way, for some older releases, mainstream maintenance ends in 2025.) The CIO is asking for innovation? Ask back to obtain better developer tools, to adopt open-source projects, and to set up a project team of business experts and tech enthusiasts focused on finding and implementing innovation opportunities.
It’s funny how many SAP customers believe they would innovate more or better if only they had access to some new technology. At the same time, many innovations talked about in the event keynotes or vendor presentations are already accessible, even to ECC customers. You can create a vendor portal or a chatbot, do robotic automation, or even run some Fiori apps in ECC too.
Paul: When you're talking about the old systems like SAP ECC, "legacy" means "story," and the story's quality doesn't depend on its age. The systems will change, the people will change, the programs and processes will change. But every day, the decisions and changes you make add to the story of your legacy system. Make every word count. Then you can pressurize those stockings full of coal into beautiful legacy diamonds.
For more insights from the Boring Enterprise Nerds, attend "Unfiltered Conversations: An Interactive Session for SAP Developers" at ASUG Tech Connect (Nov. 11-14, in West Palm Beach, Florida; register here).