Help!

They Expect Me to Be an

Oracle Projects Business

Analyst!

Session 12760

Louise Abdulkader

Projects People International

Visit our new blog at www.OracleProjectsBlog.com

• Projects People International, LLC. was founded in 2004 to assist

project centric organizations in finding the best resources for their

Oracle system requirements. The term “Projects People” has become

synonymous with the people, both users and consultants, who are

passionate about the Oracle Projects Suite products. Keeping abreast

of the features and functionality emerging with each new release, in

addition to understanding the ever expanding integration points and

products, requires a commitment that far exceeds just using or

implementing the applications. It is this dedication to the Projects

Suite products that labels some people “Projects People.”

www.projectspeople.com

The Role of an Oracle Projects ‘Business Analyst’

How to Support (Really Know) Oracle Projects

Oracle My Support Resources

Other Resources Available

KEY POINTS

The Good News First

Consistently Ranked as one of

the best and most in demand

Jobs in America

BCS, The Chartered Institute

for IT, proposes the

following definition of a

business analyst:

"An internal consultancy

role that has responsibility

for investigating business

systems, identifying options

for improving business

systems and bridging the

needs of the business with

the use of IT."

Business Analysts are

‘Knowledge Workers’

•Analyzing data to establish

relationships

•Assessing input in order to

evaluate complex or conflicting

priorities

•Identifying and understanding

trends

•Making connections

•Ability to brainstorm, thinking

broadly (divergent thinking)

•Ability to drill down, creating more

focus (convergent thinking)

•Producing a new capability

•Understanding cause and effect

•Creating or modifying a strategy

Knowledge worker roles

Knowledge workers bring benefits to organizations in a variety

of important ways. These include:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_worker

• The International Institute of

Business Analysis (IIBA) describes

the role as: "a liaison among

stakeholders in order to

understand the structure, policies,

and operations of an organization,

and to recommend solutions that

enable the organization to achieve

its goals."

“someone who apart from

gathering Business

requirements, also assists in

Integration and Acceptance

Testing, supports the

development of training and

implementation material,

participates in the

implementation, and provides

post-implementation support. “

Oracle Specific Methodologies

• As an Oracle Business Analyst it is

important to understand the framework

of Oracle’s Application Implementation

Methodology (AIM) and the Oracle

United Method (OUM)

• This will enable you to effectively

communicate with industry consultants

and experienced Oracle resources

AIM was retired in 2011

Oracle Unified Method

http://samhomer.com/cv/?page_id=14

Enterprise Analysis

• Purpose: Identify and propose projects

that meet strategic needs and goals

• Tasks: Identify Business Need,

Determine Solution Approach, Define

Solution Scope, Develop the Business

Case

Build a Business Blueprint • What are the desired reporting goals?

What needs to be measured? What are

the key performance indicators?

• What do people need to do their

everyday jobs efficiently and

accurately?

• What is mandatory – internal and

external?

Greatest Deficiencies

• Root Causes for the following:

• Manual Processes

• Reconciliation Problems

• Inaccuracies in Data

• Financial Closing Delays

Elicitation

• Purpose: Explore, identify, document

and confirm stakeholder needs

• Task: Prepare for elicitation, conduct

elicitation, document results, validate

results

Preparation and Planning

• Identify all stakeholders

• Finance, Project Management (PMO

or Program Control), Human

Resources, Contracts, etc.

• Never forget the “Single Source of

Truth’ concept

Back To Basics

• Sometimes what you really need is

less…Simplify

• Use standard functionality or extensions

to replace manual or difficult processes

Requirements Analysis

• Purpose: Elaborate stated

requirements to sufficient level of detail

to accurately define the business need

• Tasks: Organize, prioritize, specify and

model results, establish use cases

Enumerate Your Requirements

• Make it testable under all scenarios

• State all assumptions and known

constraints for validation

• Define source of requirement, i.e. Is it

statutory, corporate governance,

defined policy, customer mandated, etc.

• Focus on desired results

Solution Assessment

• Gap Analysis – Mapping requirement to

existing functionality

• Include any known information regarding

planned product enhancements

• Include alternatives considered – Is there

another way to achieve results?

Invaluable Resource

Technical Resources

Will need your assistance

in finding information

Billing Extensions Lots of information related to design

concepts for extensions

Provide Information to Technical

Resources

The Not So Good News

• You will never feel you have the time to

explore new features and improve

business processes if you spend your

time chasing down exceptions and

working on Production Support

problems…

What Makes Projects Different?

• Projects is a full suite of products fully

integrated with many other E-Business

Suite Projects

• There is functionality in Projects that is

often misunderstood, misconfigured,

misused or unknown

Oracle Projects

Supporting Oracle Projects

Sixty-Two References to

Exception Reports

Every process produces exception reports

Have a Smooth Closing…

• Period Close Advisor: E-Business Suite

(EBS) [ID 335.1]

• Period Close Procedures And

Exceptions in Oracle Projects Release

12 [ID 1336233.1]

Read and Understand the Step

by Step Guide

Read Everything and

Look for Conflicting Information

•How To, Troubleshooting Guides & FAQ’s

•Knowledge Searches

•Product User and Implementation Guides

•Diagnostic Scripts and Guides

•E-TRM Electronic Technical Reference Manual

TOOLS OF THE TRADE Oracle’s My Support Site

Transaction Import

Everything you need to know for

troubleshooting and training Diagrams for use in Documents

Electronic Technical Reference

Manual E-TRM

E-TRM

Training for Diagnostics

Anyone can use diagnostics!

Projects Specific Diagnostics

Patch and Form Version Info

Linked In Groups

• OAUG Conference Paper

Database

• Blogs:

www.oracleprojectsblog.com

Search for Oracle application blogs

• Oracle Technology Network

Questions?

Comments?

THANK YOU !!