Effort estimation / Resource planning for Oracle DBA and Oracle APPS DBA work :

Effort estimation for Oracle DBA and Oracle APPS DBA work.



There are Formal estimation model available for Software development effort estimation.Effort estimation and resource planning in DBA world is a complex task. As there is no formula available to calculate it.

DBA world ?

I could not find out any Formal Estimation Model for Efforts.

How should we calculate , How many DBAs or Apps DBAs required for support/implementations.

1. No Formal Estimation model available.
2. Task List is not same everywhere (Development DBA, Security DBA, Performance Tuning DBA, Support DBA, Production DBA, DBA with RAC Expertise, Oracle Apps DBA (with HRMS Experience), Oracle APPS DBA (With ASCP experience), Oracle Applications DBA with Upgrade Experience)

I do agree that the Roles and Responsibilities of DBAs are widely common but Day to Day Tasks may vary depending upon the kind of work a CUSTOMER may have.

Lot of People have asked this question to me. I tried google,wiki,documentation could not find a Formal Approach.

In this blog, I am trying to Summarize the factors which should be considered for DBA and Apps DBA Effort Estimations.
THIS IS FOR STUDAY PURPOSE ONLY:

1. scenarion 1:
DBA support: Day to Day task for Running/Stable database.
I think in general One DBA , 8hrs a Day can handle between 6-8 databases (Including one Production, Assuming that no on-call support required) , 8-5 support.
In General having a DBA is definitely not a good idea if you Production support is required. You may have problem if you need on-call support
or have p1 issues with Oracle (requires 24*7 contact info - DBA and Management). If possible keep a back DBA ready as contigency plan to
support the Primary DBA.


2. Scenarion 2: DBA suppoting Development team: 1 or 2 DBA per 8 to 10 databases (Assuming that we donot have very tight SLAs and Support on Development Databases will be on First come and First Serve BASIS.


3. Scenarion 3: Lot of Production and Development Databases running:
Its a bit tricky to find out how many DBAs required to support.
- You should know if any upgrades/OS change is about to happen. May need additional DBAs.
- You should know the Database sizes, If on-call Required , SLAs, Clone Frequency , release plans etc.
- You should know the Skills required for the DBAs (If RAC/Dataguard/DR is setup, You may need some senior DBAs in the team)
- You should know the if any data migration task (Big Data Migration) is planned.
- All you should know is the kind of work which DBAs are going to do.

A rough Estimation can be given ,And later you can on/off the resources as required.
Typically, If you have critical databases running (24*7) with no downtime. You should have Senior DBAs in the Team.

40 Production Databases: 100 Development databases : A team of 12-15 Senior + Junior DBA. (Just an Estimate, Please use Judgmental
combination, and Its nice to know theory of Estimation in software engineering )

It will be worthwhile to Analyze the Number of requests (In Ticket Tracking System) and group by them by the type of Tasks.
You need atleast 8-10 DBAs in case 24*7 support (Man Shift is required).


4. Things which one should know while doing the Effort Estimation for Oracle APPs DBA work.


1. First thing we should know the number of Oracle apps instances. (Production, Dev, Test)
2. We should get the information about the Release plan from Release teams. (Or the Developement Team)
3. Volume Analysis (Wherever possible ) for tickets and Kind of work is really helpful.
4. Cloning Oracle Applications is a time taking task. If possible get the frequency of clones in (1-2) quarters.
5. Any upgrade on the way ?
6. Any new module implemetations on the way (This may surge the Ticket volumes)
7. Patch Frequency, Number of Iteration of patching before moving to production. (Oracle Recommads to apply patches on Test system before we
apply on production)
8. Quarterly Release plans ?
9. Size of Database to be supported.
10. Any datamigration on the way.
11. Very Important: Please try to get the list of third party integartions with Oracle Applications. (Like 170 System,Aventx,Appworx,Applimation,SSO etc)
12. Scope of work in Oracle Applications SYSADMIN Task (User access etc)
13. Oracle application architecture. (Multi node, Single Node, DMZ , RAC, PCP)
14. Information if Remote Support, On-site support, 24*7 support required.
15. Oracle Apps instance related Availability management
16. Oracle Apps instance related change management,
17. Oracle Apps instance related Release management,
18. Oracle Apps instance related Service continiuity management


Effort Estimation for Oracle APPs DBA work in Developemnt env. A rough Estimate ( 1 Apps DBA may support 5-6 Oracle applications instances ,
Just rough figures based on the experience)

If we have 100 Oracle applications instances to be supported with 5 to 7 production, We should have atleast a team of 15-20 Oracle
Applications DBA. (Again , Its just a rough estimate)



PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE ESTIMATES ARE JUST FOR STUDY PURPOSE, I AM NOT TRYING TO MAKE ANY RECOMMONDATIONS HERE..PLEASE USE YOUR JUDGEMENT...