To illustrate my point, back in Oracle8i days, while speaking to about 300 Oracle E-Business Suite DBAs, I took a survey. I asked the DBAs to raise their hand if they kept increasing shared pool memory to reduce 4031 errors, but while the 4031 errors decreased, they also saw a significant increase in shared pool latch contention. To the surprise of their colleagues, about one-third of all the DBAs raised their hands! Upon further questioning, we learned that for the Oracle Applications (as they were called then), the point of diminishing returns was around a 700MB shared pool.

Once subpools where introduced, and especially combined with the other solutions I've outlined, shared pool latch contention can be successfully resolved.

If you want to rile an Oracle DBA, sneak up behind them and whisper, "4031." A 4031 error is Oracle saying to you, "I give up." Perhaps there is an, "I tried and I'm sorry" just before that, but it doesn't offer much consolation and surely doesn't stop the phone calls from angry users.