Results for “per_grade_spines_f”

AI-generated from documented ETRM metadata — verify critical details on the linked pages.

Overview

PER_GRADE_SPINES_F is a table in the HR schema of Oracle E-Business Suite, belonging to the PER — Human Resources product. It stores the progression points (spine steps) that define the pay or grade progression structure for each grade scale. In other words, for a given grade, this table records the ordered set of steps — the "spine" — through which an employee may advance, along with the ceiling step that bounds progression and the starting step from which an incumbent begins. The table is dated (effective-dated) and is a key part of the Oracle grade/step framework used by Compensation and Grade Step Progression functionality.

The supplied metadata classifies this object heuristically as a link table within a Data Vault modeling scheme. This is a reasonable suggestion: the table resolves relationships among a business group, a grade, a parent spine, and a ceiling step, effectively acting as an associative entity between the various progression components rather than a standalone hub of business keys. A Data Vault implementation would typically render PER_GRADE_SPINES_F as a link joining the business group and grade hubs, with effective-dated attributes carried in an adjacent satellite.

Key Information Stored

The documented physical schema for 12.2.2 contains 18 columns. The most significant are:

• GRADE_SPINE_ID — Surrogate identifier for the grade spine record; part of the composite primary key.
• EFFECTIVE_START_DATE / EFFECTIVE_END_DATE — Date-range columns that, together with GRADE_SPINE_ID, form the composite primary key PER_GRADE_SPINES_F_PK. They make the record effective-dated, allowing historical tracking of progression structures.
• BUSINESS_GROUP_ID — Foreign key to HR_ALL_ORGANIZATION_UNITS; identifies the business group (enterprise) that owns the spine definition.
• GRADE_ID — Foreign key to PER_GRADES; the grade to which this spine belongs. This is the principal business-key candidate.
• PARENT_SPINE_ID — Foreign key to PER_PARENT_SPINES; links the spine to its parent spine definition, enabling hierarchical progression mapping.
• CEILING_STEP_ID — Identifies the maximum step to which progression is permitted for the grade.
• STARTING_STEP — Identifies the initial step at which an employee enters the spine.
• REQUEST_ID / PROGRAM_APPLICATION_ID / PROGRAM_ID / PROGRAM_UPDATE_DATE — Standard concurrent-program audit columns recording the process that last touched the row.
• LAST_UPDATE_DATE / LAST_UPDATED_BY / LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN / CREATION_DATE / CREATED_BY — Standard WHO audit columns.
• OBJECT_VERSION_NUMBER — Optimistic locking column used by the Oracle Applications framework.

The unique index PER_GRADE_SPINES_F_PK on (GRADE_SPINE_ID, EFFECTIVE_START_DATE, EFFECTIVE_END_DATE) confirms the surrogate key is the spine ID combined with its effective dates, while GRADE_ID plus dates is the practical business-key candidate.

Common Use Cases and Queries

Typical usage centers on grade step progression processing, compensation reporting, and validation of valid steps for a grade. A representative query retrieving the current effective spine for a grade:

• SELECT grade_spine_id, grade_id, starting_step, ceiling_step_id FROM per_grade_spines_f WHERE grade_id = :p_grade_id AND TRUNC(SYSDATE) BETWEEN effective_start_date AND effective_end_date;
• Joining to PER_GRADES and HR_ALL_ORGANIZATION_UNITS to produce a report of grades, their progression ceiling, and owning business group.
• Historical comparison using EFFECTIVE_START_DATE ranges to audit how a grade's progression structure changed over time.
• Feeding Grade Step Progression batch processes, which read the spine to determine the eligible next step for an assignment.

Related Objects

• PER_GRADES — joined via PER_GRADE_SPINES_F.GRADE_ID = PER_GRADES.GRADE_ID; supplies grade definitions.
• HR_ALL_ORGANIZATION_UNITS — joined via BUSINESS_GROUP_ID; the owning business group.
• PER_PARENT_SPINES — joined via PARENT_SPINE_ID; parent spine hierarchy.
• PER_GRADE_STEPS / step definition tables — referenced through CEILING_STEP_ID and STARTING_STEP to resolve step details.
• PER_GRADE_SPINES_F_PK — primary key index that enforces uniqueness of spine/date combinations.
• Grade Step Progression and Compensation APIs, which consume spine data during eligibility and progression calculations.