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I’m just back from the ODTUG Kscope11 conference in Long Beach, where I presented my regular tools overview presentation, a WebCenter session, an enterprise ADF development session and an ADF tuning session as well as various panels.

One thing I noticed very clearly is that almost all the non-Oracle presenters in the Fusion Middleware track were from outside the U.S. For example, the Lunch and Learn panel on Fusion Middleware consisted of

• Guido Schmutz (ACE Director, Switzerland)
• Sten Vesterli (ACE Director, Denmark)
• Ronald van Luttikhuizen (ACE Director, Netherlands)
• Chris Muir (ACE Director, Australia)

In Scott/Tiger, we are busy with ADF development, and I know from my ACE Director friends in Europe that they are also working on ADF and SOA projects.
Is nobody in the U.S. actually using Fusion Middleware? Or are they just not talking about it?

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The important discussion where to use APEX and where to use ADF tends to get bogged down in an unproductive argument about the relative merits of PL/SQL or Java. However, this is not really the most important factor that should drive your decision.

Instead, you must first determine if your application is

• Data-driven, or
• User interface driven

A data-driven application is one where the data structure determines the user interface. Existing Oracle Forms applications tend to fall into this category, and if you only want to do a one-to-one replacement of a Forms application, the wizard-driven, browser-based approach of APEX works well.

A user interface driven application is one that starts from a set of requirements to support a work process. This is typically the case for new application development, or where an existing Oracle Forms application is being redesigned. User interface driven applications are typically specified with detailed screen designs that are easier to implement with the flexible architecture of ADF.

If you are in Norway for the OUGN spring conference, you can hear me talk on this topic in the presentation called “APEX or ADF? From Requirements to Tool Choice”.

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As part of the “Fusion UX Advocates” team, I visited the Oracle Applications User Experience team this week and had the opportunity to play with a real, running Oracle Fusion Application installation. And I can tell you:

• It’s real

• It’s good
• It looks cool
• It’s like no enterprise application you have ever seen before.

But once Fusion Applications hits the street, it will set the standard for all enterprise applications from now on.

There are two ways to build applications: Based on product (data) or based on process. And up until now, we have had to build applications based on data, because that was all our tools allowed. An accounting system has a table of invoices, so our application had a screen for handling invoices. And when an accountant had to decide whether to approve an invoice, he would have to go to several other screens, based on other tables, to gather the information he needed to make a decision.

But with the ADF components, Oracle has been able to build an application based on the actual work process, providing all the information the accountant needs to make a decision on one screen.

The usability revolution has finally caught up with enterprise applications; they will no longer be built based on the capabilities of the database, but on the needs of users.

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Oracle Fusion Applications!

It’s been “announced” at OpenWorld 2009 and again in 2010, and we have seen demos and screenshots - now is the time for Oracle to deliver. I want to see real-life Oracle Fusion Applications installations, so we can really have a look at how Oracle is building a serious enterprise application with ADF - I’m sure there are lessons to learn.

Additionally, I would really like Oracle to offer a “Fusion Applications Services” license - just the engine, not the UI. That would allow me to use the rock-solid data model and services, but put together a custom application on top. If the engine license was reasonably priced, we Oracle partners could start breaking into the middle market with vertical solutions to compete with SAP. But Oracle is very much an enterprise software company selling big bundles to big companies, so I’m not holding my breath…

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For my upcoming book (”Enterprise Applications with Oracle ADF”), I am currently writing a chapter on productive teamwork with ADF. This was a good reason to have another look at Oracle Team Productivity Center (OTPC), which is Oracle’s Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tool.OTPC offers integration to Bugzilla, Jira, Rally and Microsoft Project Server, as well as an undocumented chat client. Since I use Jira and other Atlassian products, that’s the integration I tested.What I like:

• Ability to acces my Jira items from within JDeveloper
• Google Talk client within JDeveloper
• Ability to link code checkins to issues
• Ability to save and restore context (open files)

What I don’t like:

• Whole product has an unfinished, v0.9 feel. Usability leaves quite a bit to be desired
• Auto-update can’t install OTPC - you need to jump through some hoops to perform a manual install
• Jira integration is still rudimentary and slightly flaky; you need to switch to regular Jira too often
• No ability to connect a document repository
• Link between issue and checkin can only be seen in JDeveloper. If Jira Issue ID was automatically put in SVN commit comments, I could match code with issue in Jira/Fisheye as well

Should you use it? If you wish to map issues to source commits, you should use it. If you are running Jira and Fisheye for better issue-to-source mapping, you must manually add Jira issue ID to comment to establish the mapping. If you don’t need this mapping, you are just as well off staying with stand-alone Jira in a browser.I haven’t tested the Rally integration - but it is promising that the Rally extension is developed by Rally Software themselves. So if you’re into Agile and running Rally software, I encourage you to look at OTPC.Oracle Team Productivity Center definitely looks promising - now Oracle just needs to finish the tool…

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I’m watching a builder working on the roof of the office next door. This morning he hauled up a big batch of insulation material, and now he’s putting down the last insulation batt. He has none left over and he’s not missing any. He had exactly the right number. Why? Because he didn’t guess how big the roof was, he measured.

As technologies mature, measurements take over from guesswork. It’s happened in database tuning where most people now measure before they start wildly changing database parameters. It’s happening right now in ADF applications (as I presented on at OpenWorld). And it’s happening in user interface design.

How do you measure a user interface? One way of doing this is using eye tracking. When I recently visted the Oracle Applications User Experience team, I had a chance to try out their eye tracker. It looks like a normal screen, but is has a little panel below the screen that tracks my eyes and produces images like this:

The top image shows a “heat map” providing an overview of the total time all users spent looking at different areas of the picture while the bottom image show a detailed eye track from one user, with each fixation point numbered.

Looking at the Oracle Fusion Applications screenshots, you can see that they don’t look much like typical ERP systems. That’s because Oracle has started measuring actual user experience and building applications to match the way people work.

Are you measuring user experience? You don’t need an eye tracking device - but you need to build UI prototypes and test them on actual users

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After Oracle decided that SQL Developer Data Modeler should be a paid-for product, adoption naturally dropped to so close to zero you couldn’t measure it. I’ve asked around at several conferences and never managed to find a single person who paid for this product…

Just before Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle realized the error of their ways and announced that SQL Developer Data Modeler would be free (again).

This has another advantage, as Sue Harper explains on her blog - if a product is free, Oracle can release early adopter releases of it.

It seems that the database side of Oracle understands that Free! is the future of business. Now we just need the middleware people to see the light and set ADF free (link to Oracle Mix, free oracle.com account required).

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A good thing about Larry Ellison’s keynotes is that the rambling, free-form style gives you a good impression of Oracle’s focus - something that’s not in the slides or the press kit.

On Wednesday, Larry spent all of his allotted time (and more) speaking about his favorite new box, the Exalogic Elastic Cloud server. And of course on attacking Salesforce, who seems to have won the “Oracle Enemy of the Year 2010″ award. The Oracle Fusion Applications demo was tacked on at the end with Larry walking off stage, leaving his demo crew with a rapidly emptying Moscone Center.

It is clear that Larry’s heart is currently in the boxes - the big-iron, full-size racks performing amazing feats of computing. It will be interesting to see if he re-discovers a passion for Fusion Applications once this software ships (general availability date has now slipped to 1st quarter 2011). Without enthusiastic support from Larry, Fusion Applications is in danger of not getting the market penetration this next-generation product deserves.

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The ADF framework has improved dramatically over the years, but mysteriously, it remains a niche product outside a select circle of Oracle enthusiasts. If you look at the Google Trends graph for the last couple of years (below), you see Forms slowly declining and APEX is slowing climbing at about the same rate. And far below both of these, you find ADF flatlined.

It seems that ADF is stuck in the no-mands-land where Oracle products suffer a slow death - not free, but too cheap for the Oracle salesforce to bother with.

It’s too bad - ADF 11g is a great product, and Oracle would do the world a big favor by setting ADF free (Oracle Mix, free oracle.com account required).

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Traditionally, Oracle software is sold “forever,” i.e. on a perpetual license. However, it is also available on what is called a term license - for a limited number of years at some fraction of the cost of a perpetual license.

The Oracle price list states:

Term licensing available for all Oracle Products. The list price for a term license is based on a specific percentage of the perpetual license price. Annual terms licenses are available from 1 to 5 years: 1 year - 20% of list; 2 year - 35% of list, 3 year - 50% of list, 4 year 60% of list and 5 year 70% of list. Support for all term licenses is 22% of net perpetual fee.

Plotting cost vs. years used gives the following graph. (The example is Oracle WebCenter Suite, but that only affects the dollar amounts, not the trend.)

Obviously, if you intend to use the software for 10 years or more, a perpetual license is cheapest. That might be a good idea for the database, but there are many other Oracle products in areas where the technology is not quite settled yet. In these areas, you can minimize your risk by purchasing short-term licenses.

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