This is the fourth in a series of articles: Upgrading Like a PeopleSoft Pro. So far, we have discussed the various requirements and information gathering stages. Here is where we start to roll up are sleeves and do some analysis against our current version of the application and the new release of the application. This is called a Business Fit Gap Analysis.

Got Customizations?
Well if you have a lot of customizations and you are embarking upon an upgrade from an earlier release, this task will be very important. You will start by looking at the release note and comparing them to your current customizations. In doing so, you will find the various fits and gaps between your customizations and the new features and changes you found in the release notes. Take your time to carefully identify all of your customizations and compare the current release functionality with the new functionality in the new version.

Retire those Customizations
Now, this is what you either love or hate to do, but it will work to your advantage, for years to come, if you do it right. During this step is where you get to make all kinds of decisions on whether to dump or keep your customizations. Why would you want to dump them? Because, if you find that your customization has been replaced with a delivered functionality or component, you will want to keep the delivered and dump your customization to save you countless hours in maintenance and upgrades, both now and in the future. To Re-Customize or Not to Re-Customize??
You should identify as many opportunities as you can, to retire those high-maintenance customizations and accept the new delivered functionality that replaces them. While doing this, make sure that you examine both the online and batch components that you have customized. For Batch reporting, look at your reports, interfaces, and batch programs that you customized for your business needs. For online components, look at pages, PeopleCode, records, menus, fields, etc. to determine the differences in your customizations and your new release

Thou Shalt Know Thy Customizations
Most importantly, be certain that you know your customizations like the back of your hand. If you have done it right, then you will already have the documentation for all of your customizations. If not, well then get busy! You need to know your customizations to perform a successful fit gap analysis. So, Know Thy Customizations!

Here is a good book to prepare you for your re-customizations, using PeopleSoft 8 - Developing PeopleSoft 8 Applications. It is written for tools 8.1 but will also apply to the tools release through 8.49

Finally, if you can, try to obtain the same project team members for your upgrade that you used in your implementation and throughout the lifecycle of your installation. This can save you a countless number of hours during your upgrade. In our next article we will discuss the planning of your technical requirements.

If you need assistance implementing or upgrading your PeopleSoft applications, please consider using DMT Solutions (The parent company of PSoftPros)