The Integration Engineer
When it just has to work.

The 3rd layer of the EDI envelope is the ST segment.  The ST segment contains a Document Identifier, and a control number. The ST and its partner the SE segment define the beginning and ending of the Document.  The SE segment contains a counter of segments within the document, and the corresponding control number to the ST.  Relatively simple compared to the ISA and the GS. (more…)

EDI in its proper form is wrapped.  This means that there is nothing between the segment terminator and the beginning of the next segment.  Sometimes this is hard to read, for humans anyway.  And at those times people will unwrap the EDI so that it looks more like a flat file.  This is not hard to do, and is useful for debugging and trouble shooting processes.  A good parser or validator should be able to read either file. (more…)

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…)