{ Abhilash Kumar Bhattaram : Follow on LinkedIn }

Last week’s blog was about "change management" , a natural next step is to look at how "production management" and how handling issues on the fly seems to be become accepted norm

In Oracle Production surprises rarely come from “new” issues — they come from changes that were never tested in conditions close to real business reality. Predictable testing is not about perfect test cases; it’s about testing the right workloads, at the

right scale, with visibility into how Oracle actually behaves.

In most Oracle environments, advanced capabilities like SQL Plan Baselines and Real Application Testing are rarely used to validate application changes under realistic conditions. Yet, these are some of the most powerful utilities Oracle provides — designed specifically to recreate production behavior in Non-Prod environments and allow teams to test changes with confidence, creativity, and control before they ever reach production.

1. Ground Zero:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1. Ground Zero: Where Challenges Start                                               |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Non-Prod environments too small to simulate real production load                   |
| - Real Application Testing (RAT) rarely used beyond demos                            |
| - SQL plan changes after patching go unnoticed                                       |
| - AWR snapshots taken, but never compared meaningfully                               |
| - Critical business SQL tested functionally, not performance-wise                    |
| - Month-end / quarter-end workloads never rehearsed                                  |
| - Test windows rushed, driven by change deadlines                                    |
|                                                                                      |
| >> Testing exists, but it does not resemble production reality.                      |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

2. Underneath Ground Zero:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2. Underneath Ground Zero: Finding the Real Problem                                  |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Test data lacks production skew (hot blocks, data growth patterns)                 |
| - SQL Plan instability remains hidden until Prod load triggers it                    |
| - No SQL Plan Baselines to lock known-good execution plans                           |
| - AWR reports treated as static artifacts, not analytical tools                      |
| - RAT capture/replay skipped due to time or skill gaps                               |
| - Performance regressions discovered *after* users report slowness                   |
|                                                                                      |
| >> The problem isn’t lack of tools — it’s lack of workload-aware testing.            |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

3. Working Upwards:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 3. Working Upwards: From Understanding to Solution                                   |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Use Real Application Testing to capture real Prod workload patterns                |
| - Replay workloads on patched / upgraded environments before go-live                 |
| - Establish SQL Plan Baselines for business-critical SQL                             |
| - Run AWR diff reports to compare pre-change and post-change behavior                |
| - Test peak workloads (month-end, quarter-end, sales campaigns) explicitly           |
| - Validate I/O, CPU, latch, and wait events — not just query outputs                 |
| - Promote changes only after performance deltas are understood                       |
|                                                                                      |
| >> Predictable production starts with production-like testing.                       |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Used correctly, utilities like Real Application Testing and SQL Plan Baselines transform Non-Prod from a symbolic test bed into a production-like environment — where real workloads, real data patterns, and real performance behavior can be tested before business is impacted.

How Nabhaas helps you

At Nabhaas, we work closely with teams to uncover dependencies, knowledge gaps, and process inefficiencies to ensure the patching cycle is smooth and predictable.

TAB ( Total Automation Box ) is how we automate patching lifecycles. https://www.nabhaas.com/tab

There is no staright answer to the points mentioned above but all of them needs to be addressed as best fits the organization.

At Nabhaas we ensure we identify all the above before beginning a patch cycle. Feel free to download our whitepaper here