Power point that accompanies white paper by same title that was presented at the Oracle Application User Group Conference in 2013. It details information relative to being an effective Oracle business analyst, i.e. how to utilize existing resources, etc.

1. Help!
They Expect Me to Be an
Oracle Projects Business
Analyst!
Session 12760
Louise Abdulkader
Projects People International

2. 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

3. The Role of an Oracle Projects ‘Business Analyst’
How to Support (Really Know) Oracle Projects
Oracle My Support Resources
Other Resources Available
KEY POINTS

4. The Good News First

5. 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."

6. 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

7. • 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. “

8. 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

9. AIM was retired in 2011

10. Oracle Unified Method

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

13. 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

14. 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?

15. Greatest Deficiencies
• Root Causes for the following:
• Manual Processes
• Reconciliation Problems
• Inaccuracies in Data
• Financial Closing Delays

16. Elicitation
• Purpose: Explore, identify, document
and confirm stakeholder needs
• Task: Prepare for elicitation, conduct
elicitation, document results, validate
results

17. 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

18. Back To Basics
• Sometimes what you really need is
less…Simplify
• Use standard functionality or extensions
to replace manual or difficult processes

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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?

22. Invaluable Resource
Technical Resources
Will need your assistance
in finding information

23. Billing Extensions
Lots of information related to design
concepts for extensions
Provide Information to Technical
Resources

24. 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…

25. 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

26. Oracle Projects

27. Supporting Oracle Projects

28. Sixty-Two References to
Exception Reports
Every process produces exception reports

29. 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]

31. Read and Understand the Step
by Step Guide

32. Read Everything and
Look for Conflicting Information

33. •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

34. Transaction Import
Everything you need to know for
troubleshooting and training Diagrams for use in Documents

35. Electronic Technical Reference
Manual E-TRM
E-TRM

36. Training for Diagnostics
Anyone can use diagnostics!

37. Projects Specific Diagnostics

38. Patch and Form Version Info

39. Linked In Groups
• OAUG Conference Paper
Database
• Blogs:
www.oracleprojectsblog.com
Search for Oracle application blogs
• Oracle Technology Network

40. Questions?
Comments?

41. THANK YOU !!