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While Oracle clearly defines an upgrade path based on a standard implementation of its product, it quite understandably cannot take into account all of the customisations required to ensure the applications meet each organisation’s unique business needs. This leaves organisations with some difficult issues to face.

SDLC Solutions has undertaken a detailed analysis of R12 and our White Paper “Oracle Release 12 and Beyond” examines each of these potential issues, offers a preferred solution and explains the reasoning behind it.
 
To complement the White Paper, our SDLC V12 Accelerator Methodology has been designed to easily navigate you through your Oracle E-Business Suite upgrade project, bringing together the experience, skills and tools to deliver. Using this methodology it is possible to reduce time, cost and, most importantly, the risks associated with a major business-critical upgrade.
 
SDLC V12 Accelerator Methodology starts off with a thorough business assessment to produce a gap analysis which defines the project scope. It then manages the organisation through the technical stages to implementation, training and roll-out. Throughout the project, SDLC Solutions has defined techniques to handle issues and make the most of the new functionality and technologies within R12. We also make sure that the deliverables are aligned with Oracle’s future direction.

Below are some examples of the issues covered by our comprehensive White Paper which may affect you:

Handling of customisations
Customisations are a way for organisations to gain a business edge and adapt the EBS to their unique business processes. However, it is vital that a balance is achieved since the effort of moving custom objects from one release to another is often overlooked or underestimated. Our methodology uses the CEMLI approach (Customisation (either by modification or enhancement), Enhancement, Modification, Localisation, Interfaces) to study these areas before any upgrade project is initiated.

Oracle Applications Framework
The Oracle e-business suite aims to give businesses the flexibility they need to deliver competitive edge in the most effective manner. By increasingly adopting the Oracle Applications (OA) Framework as a RAD UI development tool, more web technologies are being used to access data and present a Web UI for the user.

The OA Framework is composed of a set of middle-tier runtime services as well as a design-time extension to Oracle JDeveloper called the OA Extension. We recommend that, wherever possible, organisations reflect this move towards OA Framework as the standard development tool. It is not a supported route to manipulate data in standard Oracle tables and it is only under extreme circumstances that this option should be considered.

Roadmap for Oracle Fusion strategy
The Oracle e-business suite will move towards the following technologies as its standard build platforms.

• Web Services with BPEL
• Java/J2EE
• XML/CSS/XSL/JavaScript/ADF
• SQL and PL/SQL

It is essential that organisations plan now for the move as this will have a widespread effect on how your organisation structures its future IT development.

Changes to internal skill sets
For the upgrade project, and all development in the future, it is crucial that your organisation has access to new skill sets. Decisions have to be taken on redeployment and retraining, and/or alignment with service providers, such as SDLC Solutions.

Testing and implementation
To reduce risk, your upgrade project must balance the correct level of regression testing with the appropriate amount of quality assurance. SDLC V12 Accelerator Methodology incorporates automation as well as risk-based testing techniques to ensure that your implementation is effective. We examine potential issues to identify where best to concentrate effort and resource.

Custom Workflow
Workflow will survive into Release 12 and all of your custom workflows will be upgraded into the new version, however there may be issues around changes in the base install of the e-business suite.

You will need to unit test and verify all of your custom workflows and ensure they are working correctly. Where standard workflows have been customised they may well be overwritten by the new installation and you will need to re-analyse your custom workflow to fit in with the new implementation.

Removal of MOD_PLSQL
There is no upgrade path for MOD_PLSQL based logic, so all MOD_PLSQL will need to be identified and rewritten using the OA Framework. 

There is no guarantee that OA Framework will be able to mirror exactly what you have in your MOD_PLSQL forms so the business will need to decide which are the business critical MOD PLSQL modules and re-analyse and re-implement.

XML Publisher
Oracle reports will be used less and we recommend moving new customisations to XML Publisher as a standard.

Templates and the final layout are managed within the XML Publisher using a Template Manager; XML Publisher allows conditional formatting of the output by using XSL or XSL:FO code. Additionally, XML Publisher can be used to perform b2b communication by using the XML Data Engine. It can also be used to generate output used for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).

SQL code
When you upgrade to Release 12, the underlying data structures and logic your SQL code is written against may have changed.  It is important that following your upgrade you unit test and verify all of your SQL*PLUS code and custom objects.

Testing custom database triggers
Underlying data model and functional changes could have a serious implication to the functioning of your custom database triggers, so it is necessary to take each trigger in turn, recompile them and ensure they are still valid in the new Release 12 environment. Each trigger should be unit tested to verify that it produces the desired outcome.

Custom views
Custom views should be analysed and checked by database administrators as a standard part of the Release 12 upgrade process.  Some views may become obsolete or need to be rewritten.

As you can see from the above synopsis, you will need to cover all business aspects and their interfaces, completing a baseline and building a process map. The technical aspects that will need attention include understanding the base, standard and custom components of the suite in your own implementation. You will need to consider the configuration management system and the source repository. Finally, you must understand the resource implications, costs and the risks inherent in an upgrade of such business criticality.

At SDLC Solutions, we know that this could be a difficult project and we understand how vital it is to get it right. Our research has confirmed that a comprehensive business view aligned with the appropriate technical resource is paramount. Using our SDLC V12 Accelerator Methodology, we can guide you through all of this.

To find out more, request a copy of our White Paper “Oracle Release 12 and Beyond”.

Depending on expressions of interest, we are planning to hold seminars on this topic in the week commencing 25 June 2008. Please register your name with Diane Chadwick, SDLC Solutions Marketing Manager, if you are interested in attending one of these seminars (venues yet to be determined); Diane will then contact you with further details closer to the date.