Oracle Pro Tips, Trends & Technology eXTRA Pinnacle Publishing http://www.pinnaclepublishing.com Issue 3.11 July 10, 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1) Pop Quiz (answer at the end) 2) Code Walkthroughs 3) Oracle News 4) Requirements Analysis 5) Answer to the Pop Quiz --------------------------------------------------------- 1) POP QUIZ (answer at the end) --------------------------------------------------------- What is Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB)? --------------------------------------------------------- 2) CODE WALKTHROUGHS --------------------------------------------------------- As part of our application development methodology, we schedule periodic code reviews by the developer's peers. The purposes are as follows: a. Ensure that the program complies with the coding standards b. Ensure that the program executes optimally c. Ensure that the developer of the code can defend his/her coding algorithm in front of his/her peers d. Ensure that the code complies with the business requirements. Oftentimes, the business requirements are first defined by the business analysts and team leads, and then communicated to the individual developers. The code walkthrough ensures that what's defined as a business requirement is indeed implemented properly. e. Provide education and background information for the team Here's a sample list of what the walkthrough entails: 1. Ensure program name, source file location conforms to standards -- that is, code is properly named and has been checked out of the source code library 2. Header documentation and in-line comments 3. Code formatting, naming conventions of variables, procedures, use of loops and control structures 4. Handling of known exceptions and propagation of these errors to the caller 5. Handling of unexpected Error and graceful propagation to the caller 6. Definition of input/output parameters 7. Code optimization 8. Code maintainability Do you do this on your project? Do you find this process useful? What other items do you go through as part of your walkthrough? --------------------------------------------------------- 3) ORACLE NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- There's an article written by Joseph Menn on Oracle's challenges. According to the article, Oracle faces pressure on all fronts. First, Oracle is facing stiff competition from IBM and Microsoft on software licensing. Its ERP strategy is also causing Oracle to compete with companies such as Siebel and SAP that might otherwise help drive demand for Oracle licenses. Last but not least, Oracle's treatment of its customers and aggressive sales strategy have created unease among some of its customers. Find out more at the following URL: http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/460735p-3687733c.html * * * * * Here's another article on the challenges that Oracle faces. It highlights the factors such as the IT industry downturn, cost control, and market share that will affect Oracle's bottom line. Nevertheless the article has brought out an interesting point about Oracle -- that it's a survivor, and it continues to have a great balance sheet, lots of cash in its war chest, and surprisingly few lay-offs. Find out more at: http://biz.yahoo.com/ft/020709/1025793449254_2.html --------------------------------------------------------- 4) REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS --------------------------------------------------------- Last week, we started a discussion on gathering business requirements. Here's another article on how we "misuse use cases" and how we can correct them. http://www.therationaledge.com/content/jun_02/t_misuseUseCases_eg.jsp --------------------------------------------------------- 5) ANSWER TO THE POP QUIZ --------------------------------------------------------- OWB is an Oracle product that's used for designing, building, populating, and managing data warehouse environments. Typically, you use OWB to perform the following: -- Define the data warehouse database schema -- Define the data warehouse data source -- Define the data extract rules, data loading, and scrubbing rules -- Populate and refresh the data warehouse According to the OWB methodology, the data warehouse is defined based on the following stages: 1. Definition Phase -- Define the warehouse and the data sources -- Define data extract, loading, and scrubbing rules 2. Generation Phase -- Create the physical database for the warehouse -- Create the scripts for loading data into the data warehouse - Create the scripts for data scrubbing and transformation 3. Load and Manage Phase -- This refers to the deployment, or runtime, phase in that actual data is extracted, loaded, and posted to the data warehouse. OWB is made up of the following facilities: -- OWB repository. Similar to other Oracle tools, such as Oracle Enterprise Manager, OWB requires a set of database tables that are used for storing OWB configuration data. -- Design, build, and runtime environment -- Within the design environment, there are wizards, editors, and property sheets that you can use to manage OWB objects. OWB design components are organized into projects, modules, and objects, as depicted below: -- OWB project. You can use OWB projects to organize and encapsulate OWB design components. -- Each OWB project is made up of one or more OWB modules. -- Each OWB module is made up of one or more OWB objects. For more details, go to the following URL for product documentation: http://technet.oracle.com/docs/products/warehouse/content.html --------------------------------------------------------- Well, that's it for this week. I welcome your feedback, input, tips, suggestions, Web sites, and other Oracle- related news. If you send me something, please let me know whether I can use your name with your comments. I apologize in advance if I don't respond personally to each of your questions or suggestions, but I'll get to as many as I can in the eNewsletter if not personally. Garry Chan, Editor Database Architect mailto:GChan@ProcaseConsulting.com This eNewsletter is brought to you compliments of Pinnacle Publishing, Inc. Copyright(c) 2002 http://www.pinnaclepublishing.com All rights reserved.