Do you know the typical steps of the PeopleSoft “initial pass”? Do you know why these are so important to the PeopleSoft upgrade process? For someone new to PeopleSoft, a PeopleSoft upgrade “pass” is the process which upgrades the PeopleSoft system from an old version to a new version˳ In the course of my career I have performed these steps many times and each time I learn more about the significance of this cornerstone in the upgrade project˳ Hopefully this whitepaper will help you gain this understanding more quickly˳
A typical PeopleSoft upgrade requires significant planning, time, resources, development and testing˳ The upgrade process utilizes PeopleSoft’s Change Assistant tool to streamline copying and modifying system objects such as records, pages and PeopleCode from one PeopleSoft database to another and finally into your current Production database˳ At least three or more upgrade passes are required to ensure that the final upgraded Production database has all the changes as expected˳ We must complete all of these passes to achieve a successful upgrade˳
The first pass is called the “initial pass” and it is performed differently from the rest of the PeopleSoft passes˳ The first pass gives an opportunity to bring forward the custom objects that we want to retain˳ If we don’t make the right decisions on the customizations to bring forward, then we lose this opportunity and would need to manually bring the objects forward during the Development phase˳ Bringing custom objects forward from an old PeopleSoft version to the new version can be time-consuming˳ It may also require a PeopleTools only upgrade if the Tools versions are different between the old and new systems˳ Thus it is very important to get the first pass correct to save time and bring forward the customizations that are needed˳
The first pass is also the most time-consuming pass as there are decisions that need to be made with respect to the customizations and the new functionality in the system˳
Below is the sequence of steps involved in making the decisions during the first pass:
1˳ Understand the new functionality being delivered in the new PeopleSoft version and look for opportunities to reduce customizations
2˳ Run the compare reports and analyze customizations
3˳ Conduct the Fit-Gap sessions˳ It is useful get functional and technical teams together for these meetings because both a technical and functional understanding is needed to fully analyze customizations
4˳ Make collective decisions on what customizations to bring forward to the upgraded environment
5˳ Record the decisions made in a manner that can be understood by both the Development and the Testing teams
Since all the important decisions regarding customizations to keep and new functionality to implement are made in the first pass, the second and subsequent passes do not require running compare reports˳
Below are the high-level steps to perform the first pass:
1˳ Compare the copy of Production U9X to DEMO9X and create the UPGCUST project˳ This is a project which segregates all your customizations into one project˳ It will be used later for analyzing any customizations in the system
2˳ Export the SYSADM schema from the 10g DB in the old environment and import into the 11g shell DB in the new environment˳ This step upgrades your DB to the required new version of Oracle
3˳ Perform a PeopleTools upgrade on U92 to bring it to the latest PeopleTools version
4˳ Run a compare report of UPGCUST in U92 against DEMO92˳ This is another compare report used to further uncover all the customizations in the system
5˳ At this point, all of the compare reports need to be analyzed˳ Critical decisions need to be made on which customizations need to move forward and which need to be dropped˳ This is a time-consuming step, requiring one to three months depending on the number and complexity of customizations in the system
6˳ Move UPGCUST to DEMO92 with all of your selections set to which customizations need to move forward to the upgraded environment
7˳ Move all 9˳2 objects along with UPGCUST into the U92 environment
8˳ Run the Record Alter scripts to synch up Application Designer objects and DB tables
9˳ Run a PeopleSoft data conversion to populate data into the new fields delivered as part of the new application version˳ Customizations to the delivered PeopleSoft conversion Application Engine may be required based on the overall customizations being brought over from the old PeopleSoft version
10˳ Complete the rest of the Change Assistant steps to finish the upgrade
These steps are specific to each PeopleSoft instance and usually need special expertise from a consulting firm such as Animato that can bring vast experience from many upgrades and a different perspective
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?PeopleSoft-Upgrades:-Importance-of-the-PeopleSoft-First-Pass&id=8035866
