If you do what you’ve always done…
… then you’ll get what you always got. That’s on old saying that we use when we encourage people to change the way they approach their work. And it also applies to SAP and SuccessFactors consulting – in two different ways.
When I bring consultants on to a project or advise customers who are evaluating candidates I always look for production support experience. I know that production support is viewed unfavorably by a lot of people, but for me it is valuable experience. If a consultant or business analyst only does implementation configuration then they never get to see how their work performs in a real live production system. I don’t care how many test cases you throw at a system, there is nothing like seeing it run in the wild with real scenarios. And then how does your work hold up? How well does it handle the real world? If you are never around to support your work, you will never really know. You will never get any information for improving your work.
The other information I look for – and this is more difficult to get from the typical resume – is if the person is still a few releases behind the times. Are they implementing the new features, or are they still implementing old features using old practices? SAP’s HCM changed rapidly the first 10 years or so, and SuccessFactors is following the same pattern. New features are released all the time – are you leveraging that new functionality or are you implementing what has always worked for you?
Now, sometimes our experience tells us that certain practices are worth repeating because they are just that good (see first point). But if we don’t remain open to new changes then we are not serving our clients’ interests. And not every piece of new functionality is worthy of implementation - there are some things I continue to advise clients to not use, or to wait for more product maturity.
So yes – if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got. Sometimes good, sometimes bad – and always something to be aware of.