Oracle APEX at the IT Company of Defense

The planning system of the Royal Netherlands Air Force was originally built with Oracle Forms and Reports. Jan Willem says: "Forms has been fully developed. An important reason to start the modernization project. Mobile access was also a challenge. We wanted to keep the database, continue working with the same tables and reuse as much of the existing software (stored procedures) as possible."

From Forms to APEX

APEX has many similarities with Forms. Jan Willem: "The similarities make the transition easier. But there are still plenty of interesting technical challenges. Together with the users, we had to reinvent many old functionalities. For example, the auto refresh mechanism. That is the live updating and marking of changes in the data shown on a screen, when other users have made changes to that data. Or when two people modify the same mission simultaneously. Then the changes must not conflict. This was all built into Forms at the time, including through custom Java. In APEX, we had to figure out these key functionalities in a new technical way. When that succeeds, it gives a lot of satisfaction."

Ready for the Future

Jan Willem continues: "We also want a system that works on all devices. That's why we prefer to build a perfect responsive website rather than an app. The application must work completely in the browser, based on modern web standards. This way we can also make OMIS accessible on mobile later. Completely ready for the future."

High Level of Knowledge

The project works completely agile with two scrum teams. Jan Willem: "APEX development teams lend themselves well to working according to scrum methodologies. The OMIS team consists of a project manager, product owner, functional administrators and eight APEX developers. The complexity of the project requires a high level of knowledge from the APEX developers. We also expect this high level from our hired IT professionals."

"The complexity of the project requires a high level of knowledge from the APEX developers. We also expect this high level from our hired IT professionals."

A Good Balance

OMIS has many different users. Jan Willem: "I am the intermediary between the development team and the users. I am constantly looking for the balance between what is desired and what is possible. With so many different users, that is quite a challenging task. Each airbase has its own culture and customs. All with a different desired display of the screens. And then there are also other users of the system, such as parts of the army."

Renovating with the Store Open

This makes the job even more challenging for Jan Willem and his team. "In OMIS, among other things, all flights of the Royal Netherlands Air Force are planned. The system is also completely tailored to exercises. No one should be affected by our renovation. That's why we work hard to minimize downtime. The agreement is a monthly release cycle with a maximum of 2 hours of downtime per month. So we renovate with the store open. Scaffold by scaffold. This allows us to renew parts of the system in phases. And we phase out environments gradually. A number of user groups are already working with the modernized APEX screens. Other users still with the old screens. This is how OMIS modules are modernized in phases. User groups can use more and more modules in the modernized APEX application. The parts of the old system are gradually phased out. A big advantage, because the underlying database remains largely the same. And that's great."

A Pleasant Collaboration

Qualogy is one of the partners of the Ministry of Defense for hiring APEX specialists. Jan Willem: "APEX consultant Wouter de Waard works with us through Qualogy. He is flexible and has the level of knowledge we strive for. JIVC encourages knowledge sharing. We regularly organize knowledge sessions for team members, by team members. Wouter is happy to share his knowledge there."

About Jan Willem Janse

Jan Willem Janse is product owner of the OMIS team at JIVC: the IT company of Defense. JIVC falls under Defense Material Organization (DMO). He has a background in IT, including at Oracle. Jan Willem has been working for Defense for over 15 years and has been involved with the OMIS system for many years. As a result, he has built up a lot of functional knowledge, which he combines with his technical IT background in his current role as product owner.