Hi folks,
TechEd is coming up soon, and I wanted to give you some hints regarding our topics in the "Application Lifecycle Management" track, see http://www.sapteched.com/usa/edu_sessions/tracksview.htm?id=5 (Phoenix) and http://www.sapteched.com/emea/edu_sessions/tracksview.htm?id=5 (Vienna) respectively. Lifecycle Management topics are not new at TechEd, however this year we redesigned the layout of this track towards a more process oriented view closely aligned with ITIL methodology. The subtracks (Requirements, Design and Build, Test, Deploy, Operate and Optimize) correspond to the various ITIL phases and reflect the different processes that are executed during an SAP implementation. You will find overview and roadmap sessions in the "overview" subtrack. They help you to understand the big picture before you dive into the details. Here are a few introductory sessions that you should not miss:
http://www.sapteched.com/usa/edu_sessions/session.htm?id=173
http://www.sapteched.com/usa/edu_sessions/session.htm?id=262
http://www.sapteched.com/usa/edu_sessions/session.htm?id=80
In the "Requirements, Design and Build" subtrack we deal a lot with "innovation management" which is our current buzz word to bring in new technology and solutions on top without disrupting your core business processes, basically the Enhancement Package story. An overview session is
http://www.sapteched.com/usa/edu_sessions/session.htm?id=73
In the "Test" subtrack the focus is on test infrastructure and tools. An important driver for test demand is to basically understand and analyze the impact of change, like in
http://www.sapteched.com/usa/edu_sessions/session.htm?id=189
In the "Deploy" subtrack we look at ways to address correction and transport issues and how you can better manage them by means of inserting quality gates to keep consistency, see
http://www.sapteched.com/usa/edu_sessions/session.htm?id=195 and
http://www.sapteched.com/usa/edu_sessions/session.htm?id=196
The subtrack "Operate" contains all the tools to effectively monitor and operate your system covering topics like job mgmt, monitoring and alerting, virtualization and performance management. The full list is way too long which shows the importance of that phase. Finally the subtrack "Optimize" features topics such as upgrade and downtime reduction among others. Together with the Business Intelligence the Application Lifecycle Management is the biggest track at TechEd in 2009. Maybe not a surprise in economically tough times but definitely a clear statement towards reduction of TCO. There is also plenty of partner, SCN and ASUG sessions to be found in this track. If I did not mention a session explicitly this has nothing to do with its quality. The others are simply good candidates to illustrate the philosophy of the new track layout.
