Chapter 9: Installation and Migration

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I have heard that being an Apps DBA is something like trying to herd cats. If that analogy holds, and I believe that it does, then installing and implementing Oracle E-Business Suite is something like having a cattle drive for cats. But it is a cattle drive with a whole new and unusual set of rules.

You start on New Year's Day in Los Angeles with 20 catnip plants. You have to turn the catnip plants into 3 identical herds of 160 cats each and get each of these herds into 3 small cardboard boxes in downtown New York City by June 1. The cats have to be healthy, happy, well-groomed, and well-fed when you get them into the box. The only tools you have to get these cats to the correct box are a ball of string and a Saint Bernard. There are huge fields of rabbits along the way to entice the dog away, but he always comes back. There are mice to entice away the cats. There are other cats to entice away the cats. There are other dogs that will chase away the cats. Your cats will get sick along the way. If one gets sick, there are occasional veterinary clinics that will either try to help you get your cats back on the road to health or tell you that you have to kill a third of your cats. If you kill a third of the cats, you have to go back to Los Angeles get more plants to turn into one herd of cats, get back to where you were, and hope that nothing happens to the other two herds of cats while you are away. And you do not get any extra time to go back, even though it was out of your control. If either of your other two herds of cats has been injured or gotten sick while you were away, you have to take care of them before you can go forward; you may have to kill them and go back to Los Angeles again for still more cats. Up until December 29, you had only heard that something called a cat exists somewhere, but you had never seen one. But because you have dealt with hamsters before, everyone has the utmost confidence that you can get these cats across country in six months and into the box at the end—healthy, happy, and well-groomed.

Methodology

AIM

Oracle espouses AIM (Applications Implementation Methodology) for determining what your needs (your company's needs) are for implementation. AIM is Oracle Consulting program's chosen methodology for getting a client from what they currently have to Oracle Apps. It is based on a predefined and extensively used set of tasks that range from mapping of business processes to postproduction support.

The first step in the methodology is the Business Requirements Mapping step, which looks at the business as it currently is and evaluates how those processes can be adapted and improved by the Oracle E-Business Suite installation. It includes full impact analysis of the new system on the current business process. Gap analysis follows Business Process Mapping. Gap analysis is the process that allows the consultants to help the company determine what parts of the business needs that an out-of-the-box uncustomized implementation would not meet. This step is important because customizing is an ongoing costly endeavor and one that most companies want to avoid if at all possible. This analysis ties closely in with GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) analysis that allows the consultants to assist with configuring the end product, which allows the implementing company to maintain current accounting practices and not be forced to change how they account for their financial information.

The next analysis phase is Data Conversion and Migration. This analysis determines the mapping of current data (from external sources, legacy data, and other feeds) from sources external to the Oracle E-Business Suite product. It includes the mapping of the existing data into known fields in Applications' tables. Finally, during the information gathering and analysis phase it goes through Report specifications and design. This portion of the analysis looks at existing reports and default reports in the new system and finds what is missing in the existing reports that is not in the default reports but is needed to maintain the business functionality. The result of this analysis is company specific customizations required by the business rules.

Now that the analysis phase is done, you are faced with Application setup and configuration. This could be done in parallel with the analysis phase; however, this is not usually the case. This is often the first place that involves technical personnel in the AIM process. Following the installation and configuration (which includes inputting of the client specific data and customized flex field data) is the testing of the system, planning for the ultimate cutover from the current system to the new Oracle E-Business Suite, and end user training.

Go live, you are now on the new system in production and are no longer using the legacy system.

Postproduction support is the final step in the AIM implementation methodology. This portion can be the shortest of all of the steps thus far and is likely to be the place where you will need the greatest help. Much of the help at this point is left to Oracle Support and Metalink.

This is not only the method that is used by Oracle Consulting, it is also the method that is used by the majority of consulting companies that many people use to implement and install Financials. Oracle Consulting can usually plan relatively well how long each step will take, indicate where there can be overlap, and ensure that there is immediate response to problems that arise in the process. Mixed results may be gotten from independent consulting companies. Client companies, those hiring the consulting companies, may not know the ramifications for some of the cost- and time-cutting measures that may show up in a potential contract. I recommend you try to get more than one week postinstallation support; one week is cutting it a little thin. The learning curve for everyone involved with the new system is steep; this is particularly true for a complete paradigm shift over that of a simple (though highly complex) upgrade.

Discovery Approach

While the AIM methodology is the currently stressed, full implementation process, it is not the only one that is being used or supported. Herald & Associates, Inc. has come up with a different methodology that can be used in the implementation process. Their end-to-end approach is called the Discovery approach. This approach is a philosophy change. Mike Herald, founder of Herald & Associates, recently presented his paradigm change to a gathering of Oracle professionals and it was met with great interest in the new process and questions as well.

What is the Discovery approach? Discovery allows companies to model their critical business processes using the preconfigured Vision database that ships with every set of implementation CDs. Herald suggests that under the Discovery approach, companies can use the software to discover their business needs and at the same time create a knowledge base and an expertise in the software. All the while, maintaining their knowledge of their business processes. They take their existing knowledge of how they do their job currently into the Discovery process into the new software product. While they maintain their current way of doing business, they are investigating the new interfaces, the new processes, and the new reports.

The Discovery approach does not provide the 125 or more deliverables that are often accumulated with other implementation approaches that are a road map of where the team has been in its journey through the process. But the documents that are part of the process in the Discovery approach are living documents that provide ongoing value to the organization. These living documents can also show you where you have been, but they are created primarily by your company and show your learning process. They include business processes and system flows, test scripts, meeting agendas and minutes, and a log of every issue and its resolution discovered in the process. The test scripts and issues log will follow your implementation and will be used and reused in clones and patching processes that will follow you through your experiences with the Oracle E-Business Suite product as well as through your experiences with all of its iterations.

The Discovery approach is entirely software-centric. You learn what a powerful tool it is, what a deep set of seeded reports can be found in its libraries, and what more you can bring to your company if you think outside of the current box. This means you can severely limit scope creep because those involved in the process will learn where reports are that meet and exceed their current expectations and will discover where the true gaps are that will have to be fixed. It also provides the venue that will allow the user base to build an Oracle 11i knowledge base while determining what if anything is lacking in the interface.

So what is the Discovery approach? As you can see in Figure 9.1, it is a mix of technical as well as functional tasks that run in parallel and end with a larger core team that has a better idea of what they are dealing with.

Figure 9.1: The Discovery Approach

Readiness Assessment

The Readiness Assessment phase includes evaluating the business needs and the business readiness for the project as well as determining all of the critical business drivers for implementing 11i. It looks at evaluating the technical needs and readiness and reviews what is currently in place and how that will play into the end implementation. It takes a realistic look at customizations, interfaces, and any custom reporting that currently occurs in the enterprise. Finally, it sets realistic expectations for project timelines and project budget.

Define Scope, Objectives, and Plan

The Discovery approach next defines the scope based on all desired business benefits and develops a plan for effective communications and a project plan that includes realistic end dates. The end outcome for this phase should be a guide, complete with measurable objectives for all project activities and decisions. It must include input from the project sponsor and the steering committee and define the vehicle for communication and status reporting to the group on all aspects of the project. There needs to be a process for reviewing and approving documents (including the document that is the outcome of this phase) and a process for handling not only issues that arise, but for analyzing the testing strategies and the outcome of those tests. The steering committee needs to help define the approval chain for all customizations that come out of the process and assist in the identifying of milestones for status reporting and to keep to the projected end date.

Assemble Critical Requirements

In this phase, you will want to concentrate on what differentiates this company from other companies, what processes are mission critical to this company, and the business benefits that will come from implementing 11i. These business flows should be kept high level. Keeping them high level will help alleviate the analysis paralysis that can come with spending too much time trying to determine exactly how everyone does everything that they do, regardless of the ultimate impact to the business. From this phase, you will derive the basic plan on how to proceed through the Discovery workshops.

Conduct Discovery Workshops

A Discovery workshop is an exploration into the functionality of 11i. Through these workshops, your team discovers the 11i opportunities. The team will gain hands-on experience and will be able to start visualizing the business opportunities that can be gained. This will be the start of building your core team's knowledge base in 11i. In preparation for this Discovery workshop, you (the Apps DBA) will have gotten your first taste of an Apps installation. This installation will be kept current and will be periodically refreshed as a part of the workshop process. This is, primarily, where your part of the process and your learning begins. Here you will learn to apply patches and mega patches in an effort to make sure that the instance is stable and you will learn how your future responsibilities will take shape. From here, you and the development side of the team will start to draft suggestions on future technical architecture and gather reports that the functional team finally decides are not present and that they cannot live without. Now (not a year after Go Live) is the time to start to define an instance management strategy, a change management strategy, and a plan for acquiring components that will become critical to your environment.

This is also the time when you will learn how to manage the process of upgrades, archiving, and purging data; where you will learn tricks of the trade and tune and refine the process. Working through this process several times allows you to learn all you can before it becomes critical that you are able to do it all in the minimal downtime. You do not have to be in this alone. There are companies (Herald & Associates is one) that will help you through the process. Remember that if you contract any part of the process out, you are the customer. Do not feel that you have to blindly bow to every decision or suggestion that a contracting company makes. They should be in the process for your best interest because a happy customer is the best kind of advertising.

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