The Integration Engineer
When it just has to work.

One of the things that Integration Engineers are asked to do is create documentation.  But as we all know, many times documentation is the last and poorest part of a project.  Developers and programmers don’t generally like writing documentation, and are generally considered the most qualified.

In comes the Integration Engineer to make the system work.  Producing effective documentation at this point is important.  We want to make the system work, and then hand if off to the team that will support it.  If we don’t create effective documentation, this last step can never happen, and we will be unable to undertake new integration work because we are still supporting the first one.  And if we are a contractor, we need this even more. (more…)

So you have done everything right.  You have gathered standards, documented your processes and deployed a successful integration.  Now what?  Do we just sit back watch the data flow and sip soft drinks?

I don’t think so.  You will now start to handle exceptions.  This means errors.  Most likely you will start to have repeating errors. Someone will have overlooked or misunderstood something, and now every time this thing happens there is an exception. (more…)