Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Comparison : AIM Vs OUM

Time to say good bye to Oracle Application Implementation Methodology as Oracle is going to remove it this month. Welcome Oracle Unified Method with new Templates Good thing it will also standardize BI implementations etc.

The Oracle® Unified Method (OUM) can help you develop and implement technology-based business

solutions with precise development and rapid deployment. You can tailor OUM to support your specific project situation. With its ready-made templates, guidelines, and scalable work breakdown structure, OUM provides the programmatic tools you need to manage the risks associated with your information technology-based projects.

OUM supports the complete range of technology projects including deep support for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Enterprise Integration, Custom Software, Identity Management (IdM), and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC)




Coming to second part of his question, here is Breakup of Activity in typical Implementation Project
Next post will see the different documents and will do a key mapping with AIM's deliverable.


ORACLE UNIFIED METHOD (OUM) – ENVISION
The OUM focus area provides a framework for development and maintenance of enterprise level IT strategy, architecture, and governance.
The Envision focus area consists of two phases:
  • Initiate  -During Initiate, you perform a set of foundational tasks that have a broad range of objectives and applicability. At one end, delivering a service based on the Envision Roadmap process can establish the vision for one or more projects intended to achieve a focused set of business objectives. On the other end, Initiate phase processes can be used to establish a broad set of enterprise level IT processes that are continued in the Maintain and Evolve phase.
  • Maintain and Evolve - The processes and tasks of the Maintain and Evolve phase bring the work begun during Initiate into the day to day life of the enterprise. This phase forms the foundation for governing and managing enterprise level business processes and strategies.
Envision is organized into six processes:
  • Envision Roadmap
  • Enterprise Business Analysis
  • Organizational Change Management
  • Enterprise Architecture
  • IT Portfolio Management
  • Governance


 ORACLE UNIFIED METHOD (OUM) - MANAGE
As mention in previous post, OUM Second focus area is Manage, which provides a framework for all types of projects which can be planned, estimated, controlled, and completed in a consistent manner. Similar to Implement , The Manage focus area (or PJM) has three phases:
  • Project Start Up Phase -The purpose of the Project Startup phase is to provide strong and clear directions for producing a product or service which delivers identified benefits or purpose for the client. During the Project Startup phase, resources are allocated to achieve specific objectives, satisfy needs, and set expectations through a planned and organized approach.
  • Project Execution and Control Phase - The purpose of the Project Execution and Control Phase is to provide adequate visibility into actual progress so that management can take effective actions when the project's performance deviates significantly from the project plans
  • Project Closure Phase - Project Closure Phase is the last phase of the Project Life Cycle. The commencement of the Project Closure Phase is determined by the completion of all Project Objectives and acceptance of the end product by the customer. Closure of any financial issues,Collection and Completion of All Project Records & Archiving of All Project Records are typical elements of this phase.


































Oracle Unified Method (OUM)

Why Partner with Oracle and Oracle Unified Method (OUM)

The Oracle PartnerNetwork will empower your company with exceptional resources to distinguish your offerings from the competition, seize opportunities, and increase your sales.
OUM has evolved to become the single methodology for all Oracle products – supporting the entire Enterprise IT lifecycle. Every successful project depends on a mature, enriched methodology. OUM is your map to success!
OUM is Oracle’s standards-based method that enables the entire Enterprise Information Technology (IT) lifecycle. It provides an implementation approach that is rapid, broadly adaptive, and business-focused. OUM includes a comprehensive project and program management framework and materials to support Oracle's growing focus on enterprise-level IT strategy, architecture, and governance
OUM is available to Oracle PartnerNetwork Diamond, Platinum, and Gold Partners as a benefit of membership.
Key Benefits
  • More Focused Effort – OUM enables projects to clearly define business scope and needs to create architectural models of the enterprise. This planning results in tighter scope control, more accurate business understanding, and a firm foundation for client acceptance.
  • Built-in Flexibility – By combining activities and tasks in different ways, OUM can be applied to many types of information technology software development and implementation projects.
  • Saves Time – Seasoned information technology practitioners representing years of experience have contributed their knowledge to OUM. Project teams can take advantage of this experience by leveraging these leading practices along with industry standards.
  • Higher Quality – OUM subscribes to an iterative approach that incorporates testing and validation throughout the lifecycle, rather than testing for quality only at the end of the project.
  • More Cost Effective – OUM facilitates improved control of project expenses by using a flexible work breakdown structure that allows you to perform only necessary tasks.
  • Reduced Project Risk – Implementing an iterative, broadly applicable method mitigates requirements mismatch. A key focus of each iteration in OUM is to identify and reduce the most significant project risks. This ensures that the most critical risks are addressed as early as possible in the project lifecycle, which results in a measurable reduction of schedule and budget risks.
What's in Oracle Unified Method
The Oracle Unified Method offering provides you with a comprehensive toolkit:
  • Overview Material – Provides an overview of OUM's approach to IT projects, including the industry standards upon which OUM is based.
  • Guidelines – Phase, process, task, role, and work product guidelines cover every aspect of an Oracle-based business solution.
  • Templates – Templates enable fast and easy creation of high quality work products.
  • Tailored Work Breakdown Structure – These standards enable an easy start in managing your project.
OUM Principal
This is based out of five main principles
  1. Business: Focus on the business and assure stake holder acceptance and delivery of the development’s efforts.
  2. Architecture: Define architecture before resources are committed for development and implementation.
  3. Adaptability: Encourages adaptability for scalable delivery across small and large projects possessing disparate resources and skill levels.
  4. Implementation: Provides rapid implementation techniques to ensure business solutions in short time frames
  5. Standards: Leverage the Unified Modeling Language and the Unified Software Development Process
OUM is able to…
Support the complete range of Oracle technology projects including
  • Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
  • Enterprise Integration
  • Custom Software
  • Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
  • Business Intelligence (BI)
  • Enterprise 2.0
  • Enterprise Application Implementation
  • Software Upgrade
Currently Oracle Consulting using this methods, tools support a complete range of technology engagements.
OUM FOCUS AREAS
These 3 Focus Areas provide a frameworks for Enterprise level planning, Project and program management and Implementing .
  1. Envision Focus Area deals with development and maintenance of enterprise level IT strategy, architecture, and governance. This also assists in the transition from enterprise-level planning and strategy activities to the identification and initiation of specific projects.
  2. Manage Focus Area provides a framework in which all types of projects can be planned, estimated, controlled, and completed in a consistent manner.
  3. Implement Focus Area This focus Area provides a framework to develop and implement Oracle-based business solutions .
Next let take a quick overview for Implement Focus area which got replacement of old methods like AIM Foundation, AIM for Business Flows, Compass, Results Roadmap, etc.
Understanding OUM's Implement Focus
This focus area typically based out of milestone based approach. Typical Milestone are:
  • Life cycle objective milestone
  • Life cycle architecture milestone
  • Initial operation capability milestone
  • System in production milestone
  • Sign-off milestone
As mention earlier this comprises of 5 phases and 14 processes, details as follows

 
OUM Project Phases
The Workflows within an OUM project are categorized into five phases: 1) Inception, 2) Elaboration, 3) Construction, 4) Transition, and 5) Production. These phases are described below:
(A) Phase I: Inception :As the first phases in the project life cycle. Major goal of this phase is to achieve concurrence among all stakeholders on the life cycle objectives for the project. Kick off's, review , high-level business requirements along with initial project plan is being targeted in this phase only.
(B) Phase II: Elaboration :This is the second phases in the project life cycle, where major focus would be to develop the detailed requirements models, partition the solution, develop functional prototyping, and baseline the architecture of the system.
(C) Phase III: Construction :As the third phases in the project life cycle, Construction focuses on design, implementation, and testing of functions to develop a complete system.
(D) Phase IV: Transition :This typically consist from installation onto the production system through the UAT and launch of the live application, open and ready for business.
(E) Phase V: Production : The goal of the Production phase is to operate the newly developed system, assess the success of the system, and support the users. This includes: monitoring the system; acting appropriately to ensure continued operation; measuring system performance; operating and maintaining supporting systems; responding to help requests, error reports and feature requests by users; and managing the applicable change control process so that defects and new features are prioritized and assigned to future releases.
OUM Process - Typically OUM process defined as "A discipline or sub-project that defines a set of tasks related by subject matter, required skills, and common dependencies". A process usually spans several phases in an approach.
All OUM tasks are also organized into processes that group related tasks together. Project team members are assigned to these groupings according to their specialization and background. OUM includes the following 14 processes
  1. BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS [RD] – Objective of the Business Requirements process is to identify, refine, and prioritize the business requirements for the proposed system
  2. REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS [RA]– Objective of the Requirements Analysis process is to further analyze the requirements identified during the Business Requirements process as the basis for analysis and design.
  3. ANALYSIS [AN]– Objective of the Analysis process is to analyze, refine, and structure the system requirements via the Analysis Model.
  4. DESIGN [DS] – Objective of the Design process is to translate requirements into a system design that meets all functional and supplemental requirements.
  5. IMPLEMENTATION [IM] – Objective of the Implementation process is to develop the final system, through a number of iterative steps.
  6. TESTING [TE]– The Testing process is an integrated approach to testing the quality and conformance of all elements of the new system.
  7. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT [PT]– Objective of the Performance Management process is to define, construct, and execute an effective approach to managing performance throughout the project life cycle.
  8. TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE [TA]– Objective of the Technical Architecture process is to design an information system architecture that realizes the business vision.
  9. DATA ACQUISITION AND CONVERSION [CV]– Objective of the Data Acquisition and Conversion process is to convert all legacy data necessary for the operation of the new system.
  10. DOCUMENTATION [DO]– Objective of the Documentation process is to develop documentation that augments product manuals with information about custom software and business procedures.
  11. ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT [OCM]– Objective of the Organizational Change Management process is to identify the human and organizational challenges of the project in order to mitigate risk.
  12. TRAINING [TR]– Objective of the Training process is to adequately train the project team to begin the project and train the users to run the new system.
  13. TRANSITION [TS]– Objective of the Transition process is to install the system and go production.
  14. OPERATIONS AND SUPPORT [PS]– Objective of the Operations and Support process is to monitor and respond to system problems to fix errors and performance problems and plan enhancements.
Believe with this method companies get simplified project management, improved planning, reduced risk which make them manage project within time within Budget. Next post will more the details for other Focus area. Keep watching this space.