One Of These Things (is Not Like The Others)

A different kind of blog
I’m sort of a boring guy (go on, just ask those who know me personally) and I’m definitely a busy geek (you will have to decide if that is because I do a lot, or try to do too much, or simply have lousy time management skills, I tend to think the last) and thus most of the blogs I read are 100% technical and informative -- how do I do this, why doesn’t this work, what’s the workaround for this, what are the concepts behind that.  You get the idea – boring + busy + always scrambling for ideas = technical blogs, not blogs that espouse philosophy, or a particular Weltanschauung.

But I think maybe I’m doing myself a disservice with this kind of focus.  Simply being technically proficient (you decide to what extent I fit that description) is not enough to make me a well-rounded consultant or even person.  I don’t write philosophical (opinionated yes, philosophical barely) blogs on the state of EPM, but is there someone who does?  Why yes there is.

It’s a secret

Well, I’m not 100% sure it is secret, but at least it isn’t a well-publicized blog.  What am I talking about?  The “hidden” counterpoint to The Travelling Consultant.  Take a gander at the url for that blog:  http://thetravelingconsultant2.wordpress.com/  Btw, I like this blog, a lot, strictly on technical grounds.  But moving on…

Do you see the “2”?  The number sort of implies that a predecessor exists (Thanks, John and no, he isn't the author, just more observant than I).  Try this url:
http://thetravelingconsultant.wordpress.com/

Ah, now we have something very different.  A personal blog but from a (mostly) EPM consulting perspective.  There is some very inside baseball, or industry specific stuff here (all names, places, and dates quite rightfully redacted but very interesting) and if you ever wanted to know what it’s like to be an EPM consultant, or what consultants are like, or the nature of EPM consultancy, I can’t think of another place to find it.  I would also recommend this for customers who want an insight into how a consulting practice works and what you might (for good or for ill) expect to see in EPM consultants.

Yes, these are told from a particular point of view (one that I mostly agree with).  You may not agree with everything written (that is sort of the point of a personal blog) but I think the articles ring very true.  I applaud the Travelling Consultant, whoever that is, on his honesty and candor.  And sense of humor.  :)  And no, I am not the writer.

Some of the more interesting posts

This is pretty straight stuff with little controversy:
Consulting 101: Project Roles
Consulting 101: Project Phases

I got a lot of pleasure out of these Profiles In Consultancy.  And yes, I have met every one of these types.  I try not to think too closely about which one I most nearly resemble.
Consultant Profiles: the “Great Guy/Gal”
Consultant Profiles: the “Flake”
Consultant Profiles: the “Diva”
Consultant Profiles: the “Talker”
Consultant Profiles: the “Over Biller”

Want to be a consultant?  How does it all work?  Read on.  I think every new hire to a consulting firm ought to get the links to these stories as part of their welcome package, especially if they are new to consulting.
Consultant Policies

These are good but I’ll bet the really good ones are Too Dangerous To Print.  
War Stories

So wrote it?

That’s a secret, too.  I think if you read it, you’ll understand why.  The posts aren’t negative in any way but some of the truths they speak are…uncomfortable.  In the interest of self-preservation aka continued employment the writer is anonymous.  Such is life.

Go on, broaden your horizons

Given the non-technical nature of the blog, the great thing is that you don’t need to rush through it.  I wish there were more EPM blogs like this.  I do try to bring at least a little philosophy (some call it idiocy) to my posts but I fall far short of the other The Traveling Consultant.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Be seeing you over on the non-technical side.

More cool free stuff from Oracle, upgrade edition

Introduction

I’m not totally sure the word “cool” is adequate to describe what Oracle’s giving away.  Awesome?  Stupendous?  Magnificent?   Gobsmacking?  You decide after you’ve had a read.

Is the above mere hyperbole?  I think you’ll replace the snark with praise in just a few short minutes.

Did I mention it’s free?  Read on…

Upgrades are us

No more beating around the bush on this one – if you are a paid-up  customer or partner, Oracle has created an upgrade advisor from 11.1.1.3 to 11.1.2.1.  You will have to log into Oracle Support to view this, but trust me it’s worth it.


What do I like about it so much?

• I’ve been on upgrades (As everyone who has read this blog knows by now, I am an infrastructure idiot, so I have been involved strictly from an application perspective.) that were not…well planned.  If you follow this upgrade advisor, you will have a guide.  Oracle’s guide.  Think about how that will sound to your boss/IT director/CIO/CFO/VP of Finance.  Right, thought so.
• Upgrades are often the province of consultants.  Nothing wrong with that as yr. obdnt. srvnt. is one himself.  But you, the customer, have to trust that the consultants are doing everything right.  Now you have the vendor’s recommendation and can compare and contrast that with what your consulting company offers as an approach.  This might lead to interesting conversations.  :)
• Consulting companies (if they’re smart) will spend a lot of time going through this and improve their processes.  This is A Good Thing.
• There’s big buck process consulting in here, including, in the Plan category alone:
• Learn how to work with Oracle Support
• Project Organization and Governance
• Review Architecture and Implementation Needs
• Review Potential Environment Impact
• Review Product Certifications
• Review Upgrade and Installation Guides
• Consider a Test Strategy
• Consider Training Needs
• Review Impact on Third Party Components and Interfaces
• Design Test Systems
• Constructing a Test System
• Planning for Backups and RDA/OCM Collections
• Patching Strategy for Test and Live System
• List of Milestone Deliverables
• As I wrote, that’s just the Plan section.  There’s more, much more on offer.  
• What I particularly like about this guide is it doesn’t tell you how to do something specifically (it is not going to write your test strategy for you), but it tells you why you should have a test strategy, and what the test strategy should include, and when it should be deployed in the project.  This is Good Stuff.
• Knowledge is power.  You know have Knowledge, hence your Power just increased.  
• Did I mention it is free?

Conclusion

I know of a customer who is going through an 11.1.1.3 to 11.1.2.1 upgrade right now.  I’m sending them the link right after I finish posting this blog.  How much more of a recommendation can I give?

By the way, if you feel any sense of gratitude or thanks, don’t direct it towards me as I had nothing to do with the writing of this Upgrade Advisor.  Thank the unsung heroes in Oracle Support.

This blog's introduction

History
I’ve worked with (and enjoyed, usually) Essbase since it was running on OS/2 on a Pentium 66 MHz Compaq underneath my desk with 256 MB RAM (the memory cost $25K, the same as the server) and connecting to it via my Macintosh Quadra 950 (yes, there was an Essbase add-in for the Mac which ran, amusingly enough, System 9 for Macintosh).

Essbase crashed a lot in those days if you looked at it sideways and I can painfully recall reinstalling OS/2 from floppies many, many times. When IBM released 2.1 on CD ROM I was thrilled – now it was only a three hour install instead of the whole day.

But I was hooked – this tool was amazing – it could do anything you could think of with a number and a few things I think surprised even the developers. The thing that was (and still is) so cool about a true OLAP database was that you didn’t have to know the question before you asked. That sounds odd, but think about a relational database -- it can only answer questions its creators anticipate. Essbase was so powerful it let the data speak. And, that power meant I didn’t have to write any more stupid canned reports. :)

As an IT developer I replaced a mainframe system with it, and as a consultant built multiple Excel add-ins (I cannot seem to rid myself of Excel VBA), built budgeting apps with ActiveOLAP (Essbase on the web – hot stuff in 1999), and made the transition to Planning, which is kind of a wet squib with that Essbase goodness behind the covers.

In short, Essbase has been my constant work companion since 1993, and in that time it has amazed me (ASO) and frustrated me beyond belief (Essbase 6.0.0, anyone?). And yes, I was on the beta for Essbase 6. Sorry about that.

That’s how I’ve managed to support myself since I was first told to by my then boss to “look at this client/server database.” It’s been quite a ride.

Explanation
What about the “hacking” in the name of this blog? Hacking can mean all sorts of bad things and that’s what villans do. Good hackers are more interested in taking an ordinary tool (but so cool) and doing out of the ordinary things in a geek chic way.

To that end, I’m going to try to share with you some of the dumb things I’ve done and how you don’t have to do them, how to make Essbase do things it “can’t” do, and generally make Essbase dance.

Lastly and most importantly, I’ll also share code/techniques/approaches. I welcome your comments (constructive please, I have an average ego and it is bruised when pummeled) and most of all your suggestions for improvements. I’ve never written a piece of code that hasn’t been improved through examination by a fresh set of eyes and as a consultant if I can’t fix where I wrote it, I’ll make it better next time.

And, despite the title of this web site, I won’t limit the scope of my postings to Essbase. I’ll include anything else that touches Essbase, from Planning to Dodeca, to who knows what.