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LIGHTLY TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS ON PEOPLESOFT, SQR, AND RELATED AND UNRELATED TOPICS

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A Single Source of Truth

A rant.

I had a very pleasant trip visiting family over the holidays. But along the way I was exposed to a few system-related glitches, mostly under the control of a particular airline whose systems seem rather untied or disunited.

Denver had weather problems. The first flight was delayed an hour. But don't worry about your connections, announced the flight attendant, because most connections were probably delayed as well. Just look at the monitors in the terminal, but keep in mind that at the Denver airport, flights are removed from the display after they were supposed to have left, whether they have actually left or not!

Of course, I didn't believe this: that's just silly. My next flight was still on the board but was marked "closed." I interpreted this to mean "door closed, ready to push back." So I stopped running and started walking toward the gate. But upon arriving, I saw that the door was very much open and boarding had not even begun. What luck!

Well, sort of. I arrived at the destination but my luggage didn't. The next day I called the automated baggage tracking line and was asked for the ticket number and whether I'd already submitted a claim (no). "No problem," the voice said, because the bag can be tracked. Unfortunately, all representatives were currently busy. But instead of the usual music and "your call is important to us," this system just hangs up if there is nobody immediately available to take the call. Nice. Tried again. Same thing. Tried the local number that had been given by the baggage agent at the airport, but that number went unanswered.

So I called the reservations number, reached an agent, and was put through to a baggage number that was answered immediately! (For best service, call the wrong number, not the right one.) This agent asked for the baggage ticket number but couldn't seem to find the bag in the system. Then she asked for my name but still couldn't find the bag. Finally she asked for the flight number and then found the bag. (?) The bag showed up a day late but intact.

Time for the return trip. The automated notification system called me to say the first flight was cancelled and to call a reservations number. The agent there said the next available flight was a day later. Any availability on another airline? An immediate "no." (I'm sure he tried very hard.) What about my second flight—is that still on schedule? No, that's cancelled too. Eight hours before it's supposed to leave?

This began a series of inquiries online and off, by phone and in person. Here's the tally of answers received. The first flight was cancelled according to the automated notification system, the reservations agent, the online flight status, and the agent at the airport. It was on time per the online itinerary and the flight status board at the airport. The second flight was cancelled per the reservations agent and on time per everything else. I took a short bus trip to the connection city and flew home on the "cancelled" flight.

At every step there were indications that these various interconnected systems lacked a single source of truth—one place to look to find the reliably correct answer. The Denver airport system apparently thought the clock was the best place to look (and I'm still scratching my head over that one). The baggage tracking system couldn't find a bag despite having a good, unique key, but could find it using related attributes. The web site displayed two different flight statuses at the same time. The second airport display apparently didn't have the same source of information as the ticket agent's terminal, and so on.

We often face the same issue. This seems particularly common in the benefits area, where we are dealing with various third party systems. Larger companies may have dozens of different benefit plans and providers and interfaces. It is then particularly important to identify the one official owner of every piece of data.

For example, where is an employee's address stored? Well, we have that in our PeopleSoft system, of course. The benefit provider may also need it. As long as we feed this information to the provider, there should be no problem. But what happens if the provider maintains a web site at which the employee can enter an address change? I once worked on a project where the employees were to be able to maintain their personal benefits-related information in three different systems. Fortunately, we were able to reduce this to one.

The one owner of each piece of data must be explicitly identified, and all parties must know it. However, this can change due to circumstances. For example, the PeopleSoft system might be the owner of active employees' addresses, but an external system might be the owner of addresses for retired and terminated employees. Even though those employees' addresses remain in the system, they might not be reliable. Ideally there would be one place for a terminated employee to update this address and it would then be propagated to other systems that need to know, but this is rarely the case.

Another example is where the company has outsourced payroll and/or a service such as 401(k) administration. If the PeopleSoft system is expected to display history of paychecks or 401(k) activity, then it is critical to receive an inbound interface containing actual amounts. I've seen companies attempt to "predict" the results by doing calculations in PeopleSoft and displaying those. That generally won't work. The actuals must be loaded on a regular basis. In this case, the external system is the single source of truth for payroll or 401(k) balances.

Normalization of data structures is generally effective in avoiding these problems. Of course, it's difficult to normalize a database that logically extends to third parties' systems. Watch out also for timing issues related to batch processing, where a change sits in a staging area before it is updated. Even "changes-only" or "delta" interfaces present opportunities for error, and I usually try to push for full-file interfaces wherever possible.

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SQRSQR lines, boxes and images 08-10-2014
SQRSQR one-point coordinate grid 08-09-2014
SQRSQR proportional fonts 08-08-2014
SQRSQR print positioning 08-07-2014
SQRSQR reports: The basics 08-06-2014
PS Fear of customization 07-18-2014
SQRSQR variable names 07-02-2014
PS Concatenating strings in PCode05-12-2014
PS HTML and server communication 05-05-2014
PS JavaScript in HTML areas 04-21-2014
PS Using HTML areas 04-18-2014
PS The HTML object 04-11-2014
PS Types of HTML areas 03-14-2014
SQREmbedded SELECTs in SQR 01-31-2014
PS Exporting all PeopleCode 11-30-2013
PS Disabling autocomplete 09-29-2013
SQRSP Debugger for SQR update 09-12-2013
General Stopping... and restarting 09-02-2013
SQRSQR debugger version 2 09-29-2010
SQRA few SQR items 05-20-2009
PS Ignoring "component changed" 05-07-2008
PS App Engine 04-30-2008
PS Commenting code 04-02-2008
PS The "Powered By" page 03-05-2008
PS Formats in PeopleCode vars 01-30-2008
PS Page layout with group boxes 01-09-2008
PS Meta-SQL wrappers 12-19-2007
PS Derived record PeopleCode 12-05-2007
PS A Cancel button 11-28-2007
General "Leading" the test effort 11-07-2007
SQRTemporary tables in SQR 10-31-2007
SQRUpdating long character data 10-24-2007
PS Record.Field specification 10-17-2007
PSSQRRELLANG.SQC 10-03-2007
PS Migrating project definitions 09-26-2007
PS Derived records 09-19-2007
PS Positioning elements on pages 08-29-2007
General Thanks 08-22-2007
SQRSQR "code alerts" 08-08-2007
PS Styles in HTML Areas 08-01-2007
SQRDynamic SQL for performance? 07-25-2007
PS Page Field Name 07-18-2007
PS PeopleCode event order 06-27-2007
SQRFormatting Excel using HTML 06-06-2007
Component-changed state 05-23-2007
PS Selecting styles for page fields05-16-2007
SQRSending email from SQR 05-02-2007
General Contractor networking 04-25-2007
PS Project X--and another project04-18-2007
PS Effective and data entry dates04-11-2007
PS A PeopleSoft home page 04-04-2007
PSSQRHyperion and the future of SQR03-21-2007
General The data doesn't lie 03-14-2007
PSSQRHyperion acquisition 03-07-2007
General Taking ownership 02-28-2007
PS Source control 02-21-2007
PS Sandboxes 02-14-2007
PS Migration instructions 02-07-2007
PS PeopleSoft environment usage 01-31-2007
PS Multiple environment strings 01-24-2007
PS Multiple testing environments 01-17-2007
PS PeopleSoft support environments 01-10-2007
General A single source of truth 01-03-2007
Nothing Smile 12-27-2006
PS Navigating the component buffer 12-20-2006
PS JavaScript and styles 12-13-2006
PS SQL for common HR queries 12-06-2006
SQRSQR program complexity 11-29-2006
SQRFrequent SQR questions 11-22-2006
PS Followup 11-15-2006
PS Expanding subrecords 11-08-2006
PS Bind variables 10-25-2006
PS Attaching objects to projects 10-18-2006
PS Partial transaction completion10-11-2006
PS The multi-process component 10-04-2006
PS Employee rows lost to security09-27-2006
SQRSQR document sections 09-20-2006
PS Empty-string compares in SQL 09-13-2006
SQRNulls, blanks, empty strings 09-06-2006
General Company policy 08-30-2006
PS Auto-lookup exclusion 08-23-2006
PS Effective status 08-16-2006
PS A couple of HRMS/HCM utilities08-02-2006
PS Translate value changes 07-26-2006
General Updating views 07-19-2006
General Set-based updates 07-12-2006
PS SQL set-based processing 07-05-2006
Being happy about bugs 06-28-2006
Busy in the PS marketplace 06-21-2006
General 2-way documentation 06-14-2006
PS Interfaces as views 06-07-2006
PS Hijacked fields 05-31-2006
General Agile software development 05-24-2006
General Working within Waterfall 05-17-2006
General Over the Waterfall 05-10-2006
PS Experimentation in PeopleSoft 05-03-2006
PS Unlimited enhancements? 04-26-2006
PS Testing direct DB updates 04-19-2006
SQRDelayed evaluation of SQL 04-12-2006
PS Database compares 04-05-2006
General Support problem? Call FBI! 03-29-2006
SQRFinding SQR errors 03-22-2006
PS Finding PeopleSoft Queries 03-15-2006
PS PeopleSoft Query support 03-08-2006
PS JOB table and SetIDs 03-01-2006
PS Migrating the project 02-22-2006
PS Compare and Report options 02-15-2006
PS Comparing and migrating projects 02-08-2006
PS Object security in App Designer 02-01-2006
PS Automation of App Designer 01-25-2006
General Contractors on PS projects 01-18-2006
General "Smart coding" 01-11-2006
SQRDebugger tricks 01-04-2006
PS EFFDT and component processing12-28-2005
PS Referential integrity 12-21-2005
PS Menu navigation using SQL 12-14-2005
SQRA coding standards wish list 12-07-2005
PS More App Designer options 11-30-2005
PS Pages in App Designer 11-23-2005
PS Finding objects on the menu 11-14-2005
PS Magic search record fields 10-31-2005
PS Documenting object attributes 10-24-2005
PS Monitoring server performance 10-17-2005
PS Searching PeopleCode 10-10-2005
PS Speeding up App Designer 10-03-2005
PS Using the message catalog 09-26-2005
PS Good ideas that sometimes aren't09-19-2005
PS And now Siebel 09-12-2005
SQRDate comparisons 09-05-2005
PSSQRFTP options 08-29-2005
PSSQRMoving code across environments08-22-2005
PS Spring cleaning 08-15-2005
SQRBuild your own SQR "IDE" 08-08-2005
PS Change control in App Designer08-01-2005
PS App Engine: disadvantages 07-25-2005
PS App Engine: advantages 07-18-2005
SQRCoding Excel file output 07-11-2005
General Creating Excel files 07-05-2005
PS Dave's next move 06-27-2005
SQRSQR variable oddities 06-20-2005
SQRSQR arrays 06-13-2005
SQRCompiling SQRs 06-06-2005
PS 5-character SETIDs 05-30-2005
PS Use all of the keys 05-23-2005
SQRDynamic SQL in SQR 05-16-2005
PS Running the in-place conv 05-09-2005
PS Searching for fields in DB 05-02-2005
PS Converting setup data 04-25-2005
PS Associating effective-dated tables 04-18-2005
PS Upgrading without an upgrade 04-04-2005
PS Scheduling patches 03-28-2005
PS To patch or not? 03-21-2005
PS Basic tools 03-14-2005
SQRWay back with sqrtools.com 03-07-2005
PS Meta-SQL 02-28-2005
PS Dropping the user index 02-21-2005
PS User indexes 02-14-2005
PS Page changes in App Designer 02-07-2005
General Generate SQL from SQL 01-31-2005
SQRSQR report viewer 01-24-2005
General Bug or enhancement? 01-17-2005
PSSQRTagging objects and code 01-10-2005
General Issue tracking 01-03-2005
PS PeopleSoft 10? 12-27-2004
PS Purging tables 12-20-2004
PS Acquisition 12-13-2004
PS Exporting PCode as text 12-06-2004
PS Simplify SQR code 11-29-2004
PS New site for SQR info 11-22-2004
PS Comparing objects 11-08-2004
PS Applying SQL-from-SQL 11-01-2004
General Generating SQL with SQL 10-25-2004
General Generating SQL 10-18-2004
PS Scrambling data 10-11-2004
PS What's going on with PS? 10-04-2004
SQRPrint positioning in SQR 09-27-2004
PS Oracle vs. PeopleSoft 09-13-2004
General Word, email, and lava lamps 09-06-2004
PS Custom run control: tips 08-30-2004
PS Custom run control: building 08-23-2004
PS PeopleCode, behind the scenes 08-16-2004
PS Language-specific pages 08-09-2004
SQRUsing substitution variables 08-02-2004
SQRSQR substitution variables 08-02-2004
PS HTML areas 07-19-2004
SQRRecursion in SQR 07-12-2004
SQRSQR code formatting 07-06-2004
SQRDebugger beta release 06-28-2004
PS Application Designer tidbits 06-27-2004
PS Configuration for custom SQR 06-14-2004
PSSQRModify or clone? 06-07-2004
PS Identifying custom objects 06-01-2004
PS EFFDT again 05-24-2004
General Change-only interface: impl 05-17-2004
General Change-only interface: concept05-10-2004
PS Cache troubles 05-03-2004
PS Component PeopleCode 04-25-2004
PS EFFDT and EFF_STATUS 04-18-2004
PS SETID in subselects 04-11-2004
PS Denormalized tables 04-04-2004
PS Documenting retired custom 03-28-2004
PS Sharing login IDs 03-21-2004
SQRGlobal and local SQR variables03-14-2004
SQRDISPLAY and MOVE 03-07-2004
PSSQRRun control in SQR 02-29-2004
SQRCommon sources of SQR bugs 02-22-2004
PS Implementation setup data 02-15-2004
PS Managing setup data 02-08-2004
PS Managing objects 02-01-2004
PS Make a home page 01-01-2004