Lots of projects involve the use of PeopleSoft as the system of record for HR driven provisioning with FIM.
This article discusses a practical alternative to the PeopleSoft web connector, under certain circumstances.
The current PeopleSoft management agent relies heavily on what is known as “Component Interfaces”(CIs) and is exposed as web services to external systems such as FIM. Component Interfaces are essentially function calls into PeopleSoft. For those of you with an SAP background just think BAPI. The Microsoft documentation, while thorough, is a daunting 90-page document that would make most PeopleSoft Admins’ heads spin. Couple that with likely possibility that the out of the box Windows Workflows for the MA will not function without a lot of tweaking, then you have a perfect storm to grey your hair. What then is the answer? Death by a 90-page document full of PeopleSoft web services that will not work on the first, second or third try? I think not.
Peoplesoft has the ability to expose employee data through a SQL view. You need to ask the PeopleSoft DBAs to build this view and publish it for you. From there you create either a standard SQL or an Oracle MA to read this data. See my wiki article for a step by step guide on how to create an Oracle MA.
This approach offers a number of advantages compared to the PeopleSoft WebServices MA.
Be sure to stress that you only want employee data that fits the “name rank and serial number” mode. PeopleSoft has a lot of information that you might want to sync to AD or other target systems so always ask what you can get and what other downstream systems might be able to use it. Do not include any personal identifying information (PII), if at all possible in this view, like a home phone or Social security number.
If you have the time and wherewithal to configure the official PeopleSoft web service MA then I say go for it. Just be sure to publish your findings since there is not a whole lot of information out there on this MA.
A potential compromise is to use the SQL view to make initial progress on your project. This will allow you to create provisioning services, flow attributes, demonstrate value and buy you time to configure the CIs of the standard PeopleSoft WebServices Management Agent.