Should a basis admin learn ABAP?

Question

Dear gurus:
I am a basis admin with 15 years experience and I am 45 years old.
1) Sometimes my debugging needs some  ABAP which is very unfamiliar to me.
I want to stay in basis area for 10 more years.
Do you think it's worthwhile to learn ABAP for debugging purpose?
2)  Also,  I am NOT a specialist in basis -- basically I am OK for all basis areas.
In order to make me more marketable, what new SAP technology should I
focus?
Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Hello,
if you could quickly describe what Basis mean for you, our potential advise could be better targeted.
1) If you install SAP systems and reorg. database, then you have no use for ABAP. On the other hand if you basis also means portal administration, ABAP roles building and this kind of stuff, then it could be beneficial for you to understand some ABAP, in this case for security reasons + understand the difference between ABAP and Java (so you can do similar things for portal/ PI - Java stack in general).
2) How much do you know about Java? The more you know the better marketability you gain. At least that is my opinion about Java and last few months running around with Java knowledge. Everybody wears a sticker on his/her forehead saying "ABAP" but sticker "Java" is very rare...
In general answer for 2) is closely tight to the question above: what does basis mean for you.
Cheers Otto