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Re: Re: XML As Fall Guy

  • From: Stephen Cameron <steve.cameron.62@gmail.com>
  • To: Len Bullard <cbullard@hiwaay.net>
  • Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 08:27:48 +1100

Re:  Re: XML As Fall Guy
We have to accept and cope with the fact that 99% of the people on the other side of the table don't have the foggiest what we are talking about when we describe the technical necessities and gotchas.  They are Money Elites and We Are Socially Beneath Them Because They Know The RIGHT People Who Sign Checks.

I do think that this is a big problem, the notion that software is just like any other product that can be purchased. I heard of a project at an institue of higher learning that has gotten itself into heaps of difficulties, as I understand, because they thought they could buy COTS systems and integrate them (with another expensive ESB tool). The problem is that none of the COTS software systems provide services for integration, so the development team has to go to the underlying data-stores for data and replicate it between systems. So it seems that in the process of minimising risk by buying COTS they have in fact added to it greatly.

This notion of purchasing solutions is the heart of the problem in my opinion, you'd think that the requirements of such a system whilst complex, are not at a level that is'nt handled successfully in large businesses very regularly. Also, it would make alot of sense for the similar institutions to get together and build an combined effort, probably as free and open-source, and share the costs. So, it does seem to be a case of those with the $ getting to make the call and not listening to those with experience and if you do have the $ then the urge to have a shiny new toy is a difficult thing to resist.

Steve


On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 3:07 AM, <cbullard@hiwaay.net> wrote:
The politics will obscure yes, still there are some clues:

1.  MarkLogic is being blamed with the statement that having XML is in the database is apples in the orange bin.   What were they trying to do with the
MarkLogic XML database or were they actually using it?  Did they push XML
to the edge and try to do everything in a relational database?  How did
they design the communications among the multiple back ends?

2.  Any system for applying and registering requires a lot of legal records,
say forms, to be filled out.  The more different authorities are required, the more variants on the forms there tend to be (how many ways can you screw in a driver's license). Were they reconciling these (one data schema to rule them all) or were they accepting them as classes of forms (say PDF bit buckets where the PDF looks like the original but the field names are or are not reconciled to the Lord of the Data Schemas)?

3.  They are cleaning up and the thing is running better and faster.  Whatever the problems were, they weren't fatal OR someone is disabling pieces of the system that are problem children and working on the ones that can be made serviceable fast.  I wonder what the tiger team's strategy is.  This can tell us a lot about optimizing the front of the project for better success.  Say Priorities That Must Be Emphasized in the RFP to Clean Up The Procurement.

We have to accept and cope with the fact that 99% of the people on the other side of the table don't have the foggiest what we are talking about when we describe the technical necessities and gotchas.  They are Money Elites and We Are Socially Beneath Them Because They Know The RIGHT People Who Sign Checks.

BUT... we will still take the blame or the lash depending on the plantation one is working on.  For our own sakes, we need to fix the procurements in such a way as to avoid the whips by getting the harvest in the barns before the first frosts.  We've had a few decades of They Needs Us So We's Gold.   That time is past.   They believe we are interchangeable and more are coming on the next boat.

The better educated we are about big systems design and architecting based on real-world examples, the more we escape the whip.


len

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