
How to create time to learn BRF+
The most common feedback that I receive when offering my free BRF+ training relates to the lack of time. Something I can fully understand. People tend to be very busy every day and eventually, years later, they wonder what new skills they have learnt. Often a shocking realisation that their skill set has not been widened of deepened, triggering a worry that they become less attractive in the market place.
Finding time to learn new skills has to come outside of normal business hours. This is a trend confirmed by many research institutes. It also becomes an expectation from your employer or client that education is a cost your have to bare yourself. Getting approval for training during working hours becomes a rare occurrence.
There are choices to make when you are convinced that new skills have to be taught in your spare time. Sacrifices need to be made. The biggest issue probably is the rule of delayed gratification. Imagine you want to learn Business Rule Framework but your client or employer is not aware this tool exists. Apart from learning the skills to demonstrate its potential, you have no assurance you will be successful to apply this new skills in your daily working life.
In fact, you probably can make a very long list why you should not dedicate your precious free time to education. The number of reasons to commit to training will be short and are easy to push aside.
But when you are convinced that Business Rule Framework could ignite your career, then creating time for education could be easier then initially thought.
First find out when you are most productive. For many this is either in the early morning or late in the evening. Identify this highly productive time and see what you can do to take full advantage to reserve just 30 minutes to focus on education. Make it a habit that you do something every day to learn something new, even when it seems insignificant.
I am very effective in the early morning, so I have to find time every morning to do something towards my education. The advantage of early birds is that you can give yourself the time off the rest of the day.
If you are also productive at dawn, then avoid reading emails or checking Facebook statuses. Do your education first and then let the chaos of the day take over.
On my blog you can find a training course that allows you to build the rock, paper, scissors game in the SAP system using BRF+. Every day you get instructions and you learn new capabilities every time. After one week you should be able to play this game and at the same time get a basic understanding what Business Rule Framework can do. You make data objects, expressions, call formulas within formulas, call functions within functions, create constants to fill decision tables and load decision table content using Excel.
If you have access to a SAP system in which BRF+ is activated, then building this BRF+ game should not be a huge sacrifice to make.