OOW 07 - Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?

Did you ever have to make up your mind
Pick up on one and leave the other behind
It's not often easy and not often kind
Did you ever have to make up your mind

Did you ever have to finally decide
Say yes to one and let the other one ride
There's so many changes and tears you must hide
Did you ever have to finally decide

--From "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind" by The Lovin’ Spoonful

This tune describes my feelings about the sessions offered at Oracle OpenWorld 2007. There are many more interesting sessions then available time slots, so I suspect those of us attending will have to make some pretty choices.

It’s pretty obvious that OOW 07 will have a strong emphasis on migrating to Fusion Middleware; there are about 140 sessions offered on various aspects of Fusion, mostly involving Fusion Middleware or Fusion Middleware components. If you want to learn the latest on Fusion Middleware, this is your conference. Even so, there are also some interesting sessions on Oracle Support and other subjects.

So I’ve made my first pass through the session offerings and picked a few that stand out to me. Your take could be different, but then I suppose you could put your picks up on your own blog... Some sessions look good to me because of the subject matter. Others look good because of the speaker. Then, of course, all the sessions I’ve giving, co-hosting, or ghost-writing will be absolutely brilliant and talked about as the high points of the conference for years to come...at least by me (guess I can be pretty narcissistic sometimes).

Sessions I’ll be directly presenting or co-hosting are:

• OAUG Fusion Council Panel, John Stouffer (and Floyd Teter), Sunday 11/11/2007, 1:30-2:30, Moscone West 3006 L3, Session S292864; this will be a panel discussion on Fusion Applications and Fusion Middleware, with some very special guests seated on the panel.

• Case Study: A Road Map To Oracle Fusion Applications, Floyd Teter, Thursday 11/15/2007, 1:00-2:00, Moscone West 2002 L2, S290983; I’ll be laying out the Jet Propulsion Lab’s detailed plan for migrating from the E-Business Suite to Fusion Applications. Don’t think I’ll exactly fill the room on Thursday afternoon, so stop by if you’re still in town for a pretty informal chat to getting to Fusion Apps.
  

Other sessions that look really interesting to me include:

Fusion-Related Sessions

• S290724, What Oracle E-Business Suite Customers Can Do with Oracle Fusion Middleware Today: Nadia Bendjedou, Oracle; Markus Zirn, Oracle

• S291896, Building Composite Applications, Using Oracle WebCenter: Guneet Bedi, Oracle; Peter Moskovits, Oracle

• S292062, Oracle Unveils Its Master Data Management Suite: The Most Complete MDM Offering on the Market Today: Pascal Laik, Oracle; Christina Bowe, Oracle; Nils B. Decrop, Arhis

• S292502, Architecture: Oracle Business Intelligence Applications Advantages and Deep Dive: Rao Adivikolanu, Oracle; Esmond Chia, Oracle

• S292004, Introduction to Management and Diagnosability of Oracle Fusion Middleware: John Lang, Oracle

• S292603, What's Coming in Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus Foundation: David Granholm, Oracle

• S291694, Oracle Fusion Middleware for Business and Functional Managers: Markus Zirn, Oracle

• S290729, The Latest from Oracle XML Publisher for Oracle E-Business Suite: Tim Dexter, Oracle

• S290917, A Technical Road Map for Oracle Fusion, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, and Oracle Fusion Applications: Brian Bent, Solution Beacon, LLC; John Stouffer, Solution Beacon, LLC

• S292887, Demystifying Oracle Fusion: OAUG?s Three-Step Program: Alicia Hoekstra, Solution Beacon, LLC; John Stouffer, Solution Beacon, LLC

• S292530, IOUC/Oracle Roadmap Wizard: An Online Tool That Provides Guidance on Your Applications Road Map: Debra Lilley, Fujitsu; Paul Pedrazzi, Oracle

• S290852, 10 Things You Can Do Today to Prepare for Oracle Fusion Applications: Nadia Bendjedou, Oracle

• S291779, Hands-on Lab: Service-Enabling Siebel, PeopleSoft, and Oracle E-Business Suite, Using Oracle SOA Suite: Vikas Anand, Oracle; Suzanne D'Souza, Oracle; Latha Krishnaswamy, Oracle; Nishit Rao, Oracle

• S291904, Oracle Fusion Middleware for Extending and Integrating Oracle E-Business Suite Applications: Amit Zavery, Oracle

• S292043, PeopleSoft Enterprise Adoption of Oracle Fusion Middleware: Binu Mathew, Oracle; Hubert Winter, Deutsche Bank AG

• S292083, Short-Shifted Development: Open Source, Eclipse, and Oracle Fusion Middleware: Steve Button, Oracle

• S290549, Siebel and Oracle Fusion Middleware: Dipock Das, Oracle; Uma Welingkar, Oracle

• S292750, Introduction to Oracle Fusion Applications: Steve Miranda, Oracle

• S291987, Extend PeopleSoft Applications, Using Oracle Fusion Development Tools: David Bain, Oracle

• S292751, Upgrading to Oracle Fusion Applications: Planning Ahead: Cliff Godwin, Oracle

• S290746, Integrating Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and SOA: Step by Step: John Mead, Rittman Mead Consulting; Mark Rittman, Rittman Mead Consulting

• S291779, Hands-on Lab: Service-Enabling Siebel, PeopleSoft, and Oracle E-Business Suite, Using Oracle SOA Suite: Vikas Anand, Oracle; Suzanne D'Souza, Oracle; Latha Krishnaswamy, Oracle; Nishit Rao, Oracle

• S291697, Taking Oracle AIA to the Next Level with Oracle Fusion Middleware: Pardha Reddy, Oracle; Markus Zirn, Oracle

• S290856, Oracle Fusion-Ready: Automatically Convert Your Standard Reports to Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher: Nadia Bendjedou, Oracle; Subraya Yeltimar, Oracle

• S292719, Getting Value from Oracle Fusion Technology with Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and JD Edwards Applications Today: Thomas Kurian, Oracle

• S290678, Oracle E-Business Suite: User Interface Migration to Oracle Fusion Toolset: Subraya Yeltimar, Oracle

• S291883, Enhancing Application Users' Experience with Web 2.0 Capabilities: Barry Hiern, Oracle

• S292269, How to Prepare Now for Oracle Fusion: Subaru, Cummins, and Oracle Share a Path to Fusion That Is Delivering Positive Results Today: Steve Harbour, Cummins Filtration; Satish Jayaram, Cummins Power Generation; Gopi Keertinagar, Oracle ; Brian Simmermon, Subaru

• S291457, Oracle Fusion Middleware for JD Edwards World: Tom Carrell, Oracle; Dave Geoffrion, Oracle

• S292523, Top 10 Deployment Tips for Oracle Fusion Middleware: Janga Aliminati, Oracle; Jayesh Shah, Oracle

Support-Related Sessions

• S291919, Top-Down Application Management: Oracle?s Blueprint for Managing from the Business Perspective: Rajiv Taori, Oracle

• S290935, Oracle Advanced MetaLink and Support Best Practices, Tips, and Tools: David Muirhead, Oracle; Chris Warticki, Oracle

• S291552, Extending the Value of Your Oracle Solution with Oracle Solution Support Center: Sun Microsystems: Jennifer Chen, Oracle; Saleem Haque, Oracle; John Will, Sun Microsystems

• S290665, The Power of Adopting Support Best Practices: A Case Study with BMI: Camellia Petty, BMI; Stephanie Tuttle, BMI; Chris Warticki, Oracle

• S290937, Harness the Power of Oracle Diagnostics with Oracle E-Business Suite Support Tools: David Warhoe, Oracle

• S292401, Maximize Your Upgrade Success with Oracle Support: Robbin Henslee, Oracle; Jeff Oparka, Oracle

• S290905, The Future of OracleMetaLink Starts Today: David Muirhead, Oracle; Joshua Solomin, Oracle

Other Sessions

• S290925, Mixing Flow Manufacturing with Discrete Manufacturing in a Single Plant: Larry Gray, Business & Decision

• S291554, Oracle Solution Support Center: Driving Operational Excellence for Telstra: Rik Harris, Telstra; Drew McCarthy, Oracle; Mohamed Nur, Telstra

• S291125, Oracle E-Business Suite Change Management and Best Practices That Support Nearly Out-of-the-Box Implementations: John Govoni, Oracle; Ray Hughes, Eaton

• S292080, Bring Web 2.0 to the Enterprise: Greg Crider, Oracle; Rick Schultz,

• S290694, Customer Case Study: Experiences with Real-World Identity Management and Oracle E-Business Suite 11i and Release 12--Next Evolution: Steven Chan, Oracle; Arun Changamveetil, Fujitsu Consulting

• S292447, Oracle E-Business Suite Executive Update and Road Map: Jon Chorley, Oracle; Paul Pagliari, Government of Scotland; Murali Subramanian, Oracle

• S290677, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Technology Essentials: Lisa Parekh, Oracle

Now, keep in mind that OOW is still a way off. Much of this could change, so keep an eye on the OOW Schedule Builder for changes. But, as I write this, this is what looks good to me.

Hope to see you at OOW! If you get a chance, stop me and say hello...you can never have too many friends.

OOW 2007 Momentum...Sort Of

Well, Oracle OpenWorld 2007 is starting to build some momentum…sort of. I received an email this afternoon letting me know that the Schedule Builder is now live, so that I can start reserving a seat in the sessions I’d like to attend.

I logged in, pulled up the Schedule Builder’s Content Catalog, and checked on a few sessions. I did see a few errors pertaining to session I’m involved with (for example, the Oracle Fusion Council meeting attendance should not be limited to Oracle Develop attendees), but that’s to be expected when things like this first go live. No big deal.

Then I ran into a really big deal that hit me where right where I live. Unfortunately, I can’t book anything. When I tried, I got the following error message:

Your current registration level do NOT provide you access to enroll in this session

(NOTE: Don’t blame me for the grammar, as it’s a direct quote…probably an error message written by some DBA)

Grammar aside, it’s a pretty entertaining message when you consider that I’m co-hosting a panel discussion on Sunday and speaking on Thursday (granted, I'm speaking on Thursday afternoon so I'll be talking to an empty room, but still...). I wonder if the security folks at the conference will let me in for my panel discussion and speaking event if we can’t get this problem fixed…

Tried using clearing my cache, using different browsers, rebooting, using a different computer, and all the rest of the usual stuff, just in the hopes of an easy fix. No luck with all that. So I called the registration help desk a few hours ago, but they’re just as stumped as I am. They took down my name and my email address, and promised to get back with me soon. As I write this, “soon” has yet to arrive…I wonder if this is a spin on “the check is in the mail”…hmmm.

Hopefully, Oracle will get this issue fixed before all the good sessions fill up and I find myself considering a change in my attendance plans. In the meantime, I think I’ll hold off on buying my airplane tickets for a few days…

SEPT. 24th UPDATE: Spoke again with the event registration people this morning. The good news is that this problem is limited specifically to me...you shouldn't have any worries. The bad news is that it seems the problem is bigger than I originally imagined.

Turns out that if a speaker at OOW 07 is categorized as a "Government Speaker" (that is, a speaker from a government customer), their complimentary pass to the conference is only good for the day on which you are speaking. You'll have to pay for the other days of the conference in order to get full attendance privileges and enroll in other sessions. Apparently, this is a new wrinkle, as I've attended as a "Government Speaker" for the past two years with full privileges and no issues.

If the event registration people have their info correct, I'm not very enthusiastic about the idea of paying a fee in order to evangelize for Oracle. I mean, I like their products and the software works great, but there's a limit as to how far I'll go in spreading that word...paying Oracle to evangelize for Oracle is way on the other side of that limit. I've asked for the full conference pass on the basis of being a speaker. If I get it in the next day or so, great. If not, I'll either cancel the speaking engagement and pay the full conference fee as an attendee (if the good sessions are still open), or I'll just cancel out of OOW altogether and go fishing that week. Stay tuned, I'll let you know how it plays out.

FINAL UPDATE: The problem now appears to be solved, at least for me. The deal is that speakers from U.S. government entities are only "comped" for the day of the conference on which they are speaking. In order to obtain full conference privileges for the other days of the conference, they must pay the price of a Full Conference pass for those days. If you're an employee of a government entity contemplating speaking at Oracle OpenWorld, make note of this new wrinkle.

I was able to make other arrangements for my OpenWorld registration, so that I now have Full Conference privileges for the entire conference as a result of my presentation. But, I have to tell you, it wasn't easy! Fishing was looking pretty good until just a few minutes ago...

Final Thoughts On The Fusion Roadmap

A few final thoughts to share as we wrap up Roadmap series of articles...

• Getting to Fusion Applications will require a mastery of Fusion Middleware. Although the apps won't be out until 2008, you may want to get started with the middleware right now. In fact, I can't think of a better way to get started than attending OAUG's Oracle Fusion Middleware Boot Camp.
  

• There is a high degree of complexity as well as quite a few interrelated "moving parts" in Oracle Fusion architecture...lots of orchestration and integration required. Customizations will only make things even more complex. Rather than going for a highly complex, highly customized "Mouse Trap" architecture, consider replacing your customizations with vanilla functionality now.
  

• Migrating from sunsetting technology is a recurring theme. We're seeing the decommission of some technology we've come to know and rely on: mod_plsql, Oracle Reports, and Oracle Workflow are all examples. Migrating to the replacement technologies without impacting your enterprise operations is a huge concern.
  

• Moving to Fusion Applications promises to be a big effort with substantial technical underpinnings: it's a whale sandwich. The best way to eat a whale sandwich is one bite at a time. Ditto for Fusion Applications - take it a little at a time using an incremental and iterative approach rather than attempting to make the entire change at once.
  

• Oracle's journey to Fusion Middleware and Fusion Applications continues to be an evolutionary journey; as they learn more, things change. The same holds true with what I've written here...everything is likely to change. I've just shared what I think I know right now. Any errors, omissions, poor predictions or misinformation are my fault alone.
  

• The journey will be a little different for each enterprise. My roadmap is not necessarily a good roadmap for you. My intent in sharing my roadmap in the hopes that doing so will start a discussion and perhaps prompt others to begin their own planning, which is the reason I shared pictures rather than writing lots of words. Hopefully, you've seen or read something that will help you get started.

• [UPDATED Sept. 14 2007] The Roadmap closely follows the guidelines laid out by Dr. Nadia Bendjedou in her presentation "10 Things You Can Do Now To Prepare for Fusion Applications". You may want to review her presentation as a starting point for building your own roadmap. You can find that presentation here.
  

Well, developing this roadmap was an ordeal...what a long, strange trip it's been. Now that I've shared it with all of you, I look forward to hearing your feedback and your own plans for moving ahead.

The Lifecycle Management Layer

So, here we go now with (hold down the applause) the last layer of the Roadmap! Yup, we've finally worked our way through to the Lifecycle Management layer.

The scope of the Lifecycle Management layer is pretty significant. It includes operational components to keep your Fusion environment running in top shape, such as Performance Management, Business Activity Monitoring, the Oracle Applications Manager and the Configuration Support Manager. It also includes other components such as the Implementation Workbench. In my own shop, we'll also need to consider our plan for moving to some type of distributed computing structure (RAC, Grid, etc.). We also have some aging Sun big iron that will need replacing. In short, there's a lot here. Open up the jpeg and take a look for yourself - quite a few tasks dealing with several highly complex issues. Rather than go through them all here, just take take away this single point: please don't ignore or neglect this area when planning your own path to Fusion Applications.

NEXT UP: Some Final Thoughts On The Roadmap

The Development Layer

Sorry about the time lag in posting this next article in the Roadmap series. I've been hit recently with a double whammy: a few days of jury duty immediately followed by an electricity outage that's now lasted for several days. In fact, I'm actually writing this article during the blackout and hoping to post once Southern California Edison pull things together again...gives me something constructive to do while I'm Dancing in the Dark.

In building the roadmap for the Development layer of the Roadmap, three important considerations heavily influenced the final product:

• Oracle's development tools continue to expand and evolve rapidly. In fact, much too rapidly for me to keep up with most of it. This is where I rely most heavily on the buzz from the Oracle user community. This space is just too large and changes too quickly for me to do hands-on testing and form first-hand opinions on all the various development tools.
  

• The development layer is closely tied to certain components in Fusion Middleware. For example, changes in JDeveloper seem to be driven by evolution in industry standards and revisions to OC4J; the latter is really a middleware infrastructure component. As another example, although Oracle is certainly publicizing the hot-pluggable functionality in Fusion Middleware, I suspect the hot-pluggable concept may be a more complex proposition with the addition of ERP or CRM applications. So my goal is to stick with Oracle components in any architecture utilizing Oracle applications until I see more evidence supporting hot-pluggable in this type of environment.
  

• As is true throughout the Roadmap, migration from sunsetting to newer technologies is a concern. Most specifically, the sunsetting of OAF and Oracle Forms and Reports are big concerns here.

NEXT UP: The Lifecycle Management Layer