Deep Dive Thursday at Kscope14

Choices, choices, choices

I already wrote about the Planning deep dive I am hosting on Thursday, 26 June 2014 at Kscope14, two weeks ago and I encourage you to keep on sending deeply embarrassing and probing (not regarding me, regarding Oracle thankyouverymuch) Tweets using the hashtag #PlanningDeepDive.   This is your chance to, metaphorically at least, put Essbase and Planning Oracle product management on the spot.  Let’s not have all the questions come out of my not terribly imaginative mind lest the next release of Planning look like this:

Yes, that is somewhat unlikely, but there are many who would applaud the return of AppMan, or at least something that behaves like it for both Essbase and Planning.  So mark that down as one of my questions to Shankar and Gabby.

But the Planning Deep Dive is not the only Deep Dive happening on the last day of the conference.  Oh no, you are to be spoilt for choice as there are nine different Deep Dives happening at the same time.  In other words, the competition is on, and the competition is fierce, but that only means that you win as there will be great content no matter what session you attend.  I only point out that the Planning session that yr. obdt. svt. is likely to be the most interesting, entertaining, and generally awesome of the bunch.  Ahem.

The heart of the matter

As I wrote, there are nine Deep Dives in total, and I will not be crushed (a bit hurt, mind, but not crushed) if your interests do not revolve around Planning and Essbase.  ODTUG is catholic in its scope, and there is quite literally something for everyone.  What do I mean?  Cast your eyes down the page and gasp in wonder.

Application Express

Scott Spendolini of Enkitec will be leading a two hour session covering APEX security including instance and application level settings, architecture reviews, and eliminating coding vulnerabilities.  This is Important Stuff.

ADF & Fusion Development

Don’t know what Application Development Framework (I think I have that right) is?  Take a look at EPM 11.1.2.3.500 on the web.  ADF all the way.  So it is an important part of the EPM architecture and really the way forward for all of Oracle’s web-based development.

Luc Bors of AMIS Services will be showing how to go far beyond the documentation (almost always a good thing and that is sort of why you come to Kscope, right?) by showing the undocumented and not taught tips and tricks that make a mobile ADF application fly.

Developer’s Toolkit & The Database

I have to preface this summary by saying most of what Cary Milsap of Method R says about the Oracle database flees far, far, far over my head.  Having said that, Cary is a fantastic speaker and he has some very interesting takes on what it means to be a good programmer.  

Let me try putting it this way – often when I attend a session at Kscope I learn new technical features, knowledge about a product, or a way to fix something that doesn’t work.  That is all great, in fact better than great, but Cary explains how to think about problems.  That’s a very different proposition and one that I find fascinating.

His session on the Oracle database is all about finding slow code, timing it, and fixing it.  I daresay he will throw in a mix of why you should think about performance and how to think about it.  Powerful stuff indeed.

Business Intelligence

Kevin McGinley of Accenture and Stewart Bryson of Rittman Mead are two physically opposite geeks who think with one mind.  And apparently that mind is fixated on Late Night With David Letterman if only Dave did BI.  

Inquiring minds want to know:  do they do Stupid BI Tricks?  Join them and find out.

Essbase

Tim German of Qubix is trying something really ambitious – a very different and in depth approach to the content a panel covers.  Normally, a panel presentation takes questions from the audience during the session and the panelists respond.  There’s not a thing wrong with that approach and there are several such panels on Essbase and Planning during Kscope14.

What Tim is doing that is exciting and different is that he is asking you, oh Kscope14 attendee, to submit questions during the week that will hopefully stump, confuse, and inspire in-depth responses from the panelists.  I think of this as a way for you to propose mini-presentations (they may be minus fancy Powerpoint slides, but the quality of response should be there) to the panelists.  With luck, they will disagree with one another, sparks will fly, and good time will be had by all.  At the very least it ought to be entertaining.

I should mention that the panelists will be:

• Tim Tow
• Mark Rittman
• Glenn Schwartzberg
• Carol Crider
• Sarah Zumbrum
• Steve Liebermensch

So yeah, some interesting people. :)

Here’s how you can submit questions to Tim:

• Via the Twitter hashtag #EssbaseDeepDive
• Directly to Tim’s Twitter account at @CubeCodeDotCom
• Via email to EssbaseDeepDive@gmail.com

Planning

As I wrote at the end of May, I am moderating the Planning Deep Dive and I think it is as unorthodox as the Essbase session.  Both the Planning and the Essbase product managers, Shankar Viswanathan and Gabby Rubin, will be on stage, ready to take your questions.  It has been one of my frustrations that Essbase and Planning have their road maps discussed separately as Planning is so reliant on Essbase for its features and Essbase is equally driven by Planning’s requirements.  The two are symbiotically joined and finally we have the ability to quiz both of them on where the products are and where they are going.  Send in your questions either via this blog or on the Twitter hashtag #PlanningDeepDive.  Apparently I am an underachiever compared to Tim as I have only two ways to contact me – Twitter and of course this blog’s comment section.  

Regardless of my laziness, I am counting on your difficult and interesting questions to make Oracle inadvertently tell us all kinds of cool things that maybe they would have withheld.  Of course Gabby and Shankar may never come back, but one can at least hope for an interesting session this Kscope.  Next year is someone else’s problem.  ;)

Financial Close

Chris Barbieri of Ranzal is continuing his “What would happen if I did…in Hyperion Financial Management” series.  Will he:  split the atom, discover a cure for the common cold, or merely come up with something super cool in HFM?

My guess is on the last as from the description I see both hacks of HFM (what fun is it if the tool isn’t twisted into a pretzel?) and how to actually test if the hack works (Test? Why do that?  Oh yeah, the destruction of the earth is a possibility.)  All of this is to help you, HFMers, to understanding how the tool works at the lowest level.  Cool stuff and I should add that Chris is a very entertaining speaker.

EPM Foundations

Those of you foolish enough to read this blog on an ongoing basis know that I am somewhat challenged when it comes to infrastructure.  That is in fact a fiction, I am an infrastructure idiot – it is simply beyond me and my skill set.  Sigh.

The guy that I call when I am absolutely and positively stuck (and the guy that I unreservedly recommend to clients) is none other than the moderator of this session – John Booth of Huron Consulting.  John is kind enough to take pity on me and once in a while I sort of, kind of, barely repay him.  So basically it’s all giving on his side and all taking on mine.  

John continues his generosity with all of you by  heading up a three man panel (John, Rob Donahue of Rolta, and Eric Helmer) giving you 90 minutes of their combined knowledge and infrastructure good practices.  That is simply amazing and if you are responsible for your implementation’s trouble-free running, this session is for you.

Reporting

Tracy McMullen of interRel is heading a mix of EPM and BI reporting experts.  If her abstract can be believed, restaurant paper napkins are one of the media.  I think that might be tounge in cheek.

In fact what Tracy has on offer is a you-ask-‘em, they-answer-them panel that interestingly covers both sides of the Business Intelligence/Enterprise Performance Management divide.  Smart View, OBIEE, and Financial Reports are to be covered, and if you ask, maybe, just maybe those paper napkins could be in play.

And there you have it

As always, Kscope suffers from too much good content all at the same time.  What a conference, what a problem to have.  

Thursday’s Deep Dives continue that tradition and I know you will all be there for what promises to be a very interesting and innovative series of events.  If I wasn’t moderating, I would be flitting from room to room, trying to get all of the geeky wisdom I could into my brain.  You might just be able to do that.

See you in Seattle.