Stable SAP Core, Free Edges

{
  "id": "ams-003",
  "title": "Stable SAP Core, Free Edges",
  "hook": "The mistake is not SAP itself. The mistake is letting SAP define how expensive, slow, and locked-in your whole landscape becomes.",
  "idea": "Treat SAP as a stable transactional core. Everything that changes fast, experiments, integrates, or optimizes cost lives outside — on open, replaceable edges.",
  "mental_model": {
    "core": "S/4 as system of record: finance, logistics postings, legal truth, audit trail.",
    "edges": "Integration, orchestration, analytics, automation, decision logic, AI — decoupled, replaceable, testable.",
    "rule": "If it changes often or is business-specific, it should not be hard-coded into SAP."
  },
  "practical_boundaries": {
    "keep_in_sap": [
      "Core posting logic (FI, MM, SD)",
      "Legal documents and numbering",
      "Critical master data persistence",
      "Authoritative status changes"
    ],
    "move_outside": [
      "Complex decision rules and validations",
      "Cross-system orchestration",
      "Heavy reporting and analytics",
      "AI/ML logic and predictions",
      "User interaction beyond power users"
    ]
  },
  "why_this_is_ams_relevant": [
    "Less custom code to babysit during upgrades.",
    "Faster fixes outside SAP without transport risk.",
    "Lower dependency on SAP-specific skill scarcity.",
    "Clear blast radius when something breaks."
  ],
  "change_management_rules": [
    "Core changes are rare, deliberate, and heavily tested.",
    "Edge changes are frequent, reversible, and observable.",
    "If a fix can be done outside SAP safely, do not touch the core."
  ],
  "technology_stance": {
    "integration": "Event-driven and API-first (not point-to-point IDoc spaghetti).",
    "logic": "Rules engines, workflow engines, and services outside SAP.",
    "data": "Replicated read models for analytics; SAP is not a BI engine.",
    "automation": "Bots and agents act on APIs, not GUI scripting."
  },
  "automation": {
    "copilot_moves": [
      "Detect whether a request truly requires SAP core change or can be solved at the edge.",
      "Propose alternative architectures with lower risk and cost.",
      "Estimate upgrade and regression impact before approving core changes."
    ],
    "guardrails": [
      "No direct DB access.",
      "No hidden logic in user exits without documentation.",
      "Every extension declares ownership and exit strategy."
    ]
  },
  "cost_logic": [
    "Each line of custom SAP code has a lifetime cost, not just build cost.",
    "External services are cheaper to replace than SAP modifications.",
    "AMS effort should shift from regression fixing to system shaping."
  ],
  "anti_patterns_to_kill": [
    "Solving every problem with a Z-program",
    "Business rules buried in enhancements nobody remembers",
    "SAP used as an orchestration engine"
  ],
  "decision_questions": [
    "Does this really belong in the SAP core?",
    "Can we reverse this change in hours, not weeks?",
    "Will this survive the next upgrade without drama?"
  ],
  "meta": {
    "schema": "dkharlanau.dataset.byte",
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "dataset": "ams",
    "source_project": "cv-ai",
    "source_path": "ams/ams-003.json",
    "generated_at_utc": "2026-02-03T14:33:32+00:00",
    "creator": {
      "name": "Dzmitryi Kharlanau",
      "role": "SAP Lead",
      "website": "https://dkharlanau.github.io",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkharlanau"
    },
    "attribution": {
      "attribution_required": true,
      "preferred_citation": "Dzmitryi Kharlanau (SAP Lead). Dataset bytes: https://dkharlanau.github.io"
    },
    "license": {
      "name": "",
      "spdx": "",
      "url": ""
    },
    "links": {
      "website": "https://dkharlanau.github.io",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkharlanau"
    },
    "contact": {
      "preferred": "linkedin",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkharlanau"
    },
    "canonical_url": "https://dkharlanau.github.io/datasets/ams/ams-003.json",
    "created_at_utc": "2026-02-03T14:33:32+00:00",
    "updated_at_utc": "2026-02-03T15:29:02+00:00",
    "provenance": {
      "source_type": "chat_export_extraction",
      "note": "Extracted and curated by Dzmitryi Kharlanau; enriched for attribution and crawler indexing."
    },
    "entity_type": "ams_byte",
    "entity_subtype": "",
    "summary": "The mistake is not SAP itself. The mistake is letting SAP define how expensive, slow, and locked-in your whole landscape becomes."
  }
}