CHAPTER 11
Getting and Staying Healthy

It’s one thing to be a technical whiz, dashing to and fro, putting out fires, making improvements, and avoiding near misses. But effective Enterprise Application management has a more subtle side to it as well, which is about adopting the right approach to the role, and making sure the right personal skills are used to complete all tasks properly. In addition (and not instead of), an application manager should have a clear appreciation of the fact that regularly taking a step back and adopting a more holistic view can also bring insights and a targeted focus that can otherwise get lost in the daily hubbub.

We’re fortunate to be able to discuss this topic just at the start of the life of a new Enterprise Application. Fusion Applications, like its predecessors, will be with us for many decades to come and everyone implementing it has an opportunity to start from scratch and accomplish the things they now wished they had done with their existing Enterprise Applications. This kind of opportunity is indeed rare. Although adoption of Fusion Applications may be incremental, the best management building blocks must be in place from the start, and not bolted on in a hodgepodge fashion in an attempt to quell the effects of poor system management visibility and capability.