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Oracle Fusion Progress

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Thanks to Systematic Viewpoints for this heads up.

I’m quite entertained that Oracle President Charles Phillips thinks “Oracle is already halfway to achieving its Fusion promise … and the company’s developers have defined necessary software functions for the suite.”Songini, Marc L. , January 19, 2006. “Oracle touts progress on Fusion.” ComputerWorld. Retrieved from http://www.computerworld.com on January 19, 2006. Let’s think about this. The company’s developers have defined necessary software functions for the suite. This (sounds to me) means that they have decided that accounts payable, payroll, general ledger and HR are necessary functions. OK – I’m exaggerating a bit here, but it basically sounds as though they have put together the list of functional requirements. What is uncertain is if they have documented the technical specifications for these requirements, or if they have just completed the business analysis. Based on some more detail needed, being “halfway” there is a pretty serious stretch for any imagination. Let’s look at this more closely:

  1. First thing is to decide what you want in scope. If we are thinking HR, then:
    • do we want compensation and how much of it?
    • What specific functions do we want to program, and what do we leave out?
    • What is the cost of each additional compensation feature?
    • What is the time needed to program these features, and are resources available?

    This is the business documentation of functionality. Basically can we do it and how?

  2. After the business justification is written for each function (in a good HRMS, there will be hundreds – for a good ERP 1000’s) then the technical specifications need to get written. This is stuff like:
    • What tables do we need?
    • what’s the field name?
    • what are the key fields?
    • how do table relate to each other?
    • what will the on-screen presentation look like?

    This is the type of stuff that goes in the technical specification. Every table, field, screen, everything needs to be fully detailed.

  3. After that, the hoards of programmers get to work coding. FUN FUN FUN!!!
  4. Interspersed with coding is all the testing that goes on. Oracle could be testing a single line of code, a screen, or a whole module. In my opinion, Oracle is not halfway through until they are mostly done with coding and beginning to enter testing hell.
  5. After the last testing phase, Oracle is going to test more. And then some more.
  6. If Oracle is lucky, they will go into beta testing with a few partner clients willing to be guinea pigs.
  7. Beta testing will most likely reveal a few holes and bugs not discovered in prior testing rounds. These need to get fixed.

That’s just my opinion of what needs to happen at a high level. Oracle has been at this for a year. They have 2 years to go. In my opinion, they are still in step 2. I had been assuming for a few months that they were coding already. Therefore, I’m going to say they are nowhere near halfway through the Fusion project and they might even be behind.

I’ve been saying for a while that my personal belief is Fusion is never going to go into general release. As time moves on, I doubt my position. However, I definitely think Oracle President Charles Phillips is being much too optimistic.

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5 responses to “Oracle Fusion Progress”

  1. of fusion for HP services to build out SOA based biz apps and services. The Oracle Fusion Blog Blended process at heart of Oracles Fusion Oracle Fusion, and future PeopleSoft functionality …from and HR, end-user perspective. Oracle Fusion Progress

  2. systematic Avatar

    C’mon dubs, don’t hold back…tell us what you *really* think! 😉

    As far as I can tell I won’t have a product to consider as a PS replacement for another 4 years.

    -systematic

  3. Double Dubs Avatar
    Double Dubs

    The enterprise system spectator also posted today:
    http://fscavo.blogspot.com/2006/01/is-oracles-fusion-really-half-complete.html

    This is a bit more to my liking – about 25% complete. I’m still holding onto my position that fusion is ever going to fully release the currently promised capability. I’ll be pleased just to see it release at all in 2008. Someone has to give SAP some competition!!!

  4. systematic Avatar

    Agreed, that’s probably more realistic from where we sit. I suspect that there’s a sliding frame of reference in use. Since Oracle’s existing middleware has been rebranded, one could see someone spinning that as a major milestone putting the job that much closer. In any event, if I made claims like that when I was a project manager my career would have been much shorter!

  5. Richard Byrom Avatar

    Mmmm…. like the use of the footnote in a blog post, never seen that before. Thanks for teaching me!! I’ll add your blog to my blogroll