Oracle Fusion Applications: If I Were An AppsTech

If I were an Oracle AppsTech with an eye on Fusion Applications, there are three tools/technologies I'd want to master as soon as possible:

1. Applications Development Framework (ADF): it seems like everything…and I do mean EVERYTHING…in Fusion Apps was built in ADF. Even advanced UI Personalization in Fusion Apps requires some knowledge of ADF.

2. BPEL Process Manager (BPM): you'll be using this to build customer-specific business processes, leveraging the abstractions (especially the entity objects) and the services built into Fusion Apps. To be honest, I'm really a fortunate neophyte here. I didn't know jack about BPM a few months ago, but my colleagues at Innowave are bringing me up to speed quickly (they really are among the best at this stuff - I'm a lucky boy playing sponge with these guys).

3. WebCenter: all the collaborative workspaces in Fusion Apps are built and accessed via WebCenter. Portal, Composite Apps, Collaboration and Social functionality, Content Management…yeah, you better know this one.

So if you've been keeping up to speed with Fusion Middleware tools as they've become available in the Applications Unlimited products, you're in pretty well prepared for the apps technology in Fusion Applications. However, if you're still working with older tools (yeah, I'm talking to all apps developers still writing apps customizations in PL/SQL), you need to get moving on improving your skillset.

In fact, now that I think about it, you need to get going whether or not you're interested in Fusion Apps - these are the tools of the future for all the Oracle Applications. Feel the fuse burning?

How Is The New Gig?

I have lots of people asking me how my new gig is going, so I thought I'd take a little self-indulgent departure to provide an update here.

I've admittedly had to adjust a bit in leaving JPL to join Innowave Technology. I've been out of the consulting game for 8 years and things have changed. I'm learning to be more flexible in the face of rapidly-changing circumstances; it can be a little bumpy teaching an old dog new tricks, but I'm getting there. My day is full of variety and rarely goes the way I think it will over breakfast.

It's a pretty interesting time to be at Innowave. Lots of concurrent projects, expansion into new niches, and a rapidly-growing business backlog are driving us to change our delivery model a bit (changing to support expansion is a nice challenge to have). it's been exciting to have the opportunity to test some of my own ideas in the SME (Small and Medium size Enterprise) market, including some of the ideas I've written about here. What makes it even more interesting is that Innowave is an SME itself, so I see the impact of my decisions and actions right away. I think I've been a positive influence so far, but there's still much to do.

The downside? I see so much I can do, but I've learned very quickly that I just don't have the bandwidth to do it all. Busy, busy, busy. I've had to prioritize, which is something I detest doing. Some things of my contributions to the Oracle user community are falling through the cracks, and I have to figure out how to strike a better balance with that.

The bottom line is that it's really nice to be doing what I like doing the most: helping people learn to apply Oracle products to meet their business needs.

Now we'll get back to our regular programming...