The Integration Engineer
When it just has to work.

I started thinking that I would create a comprehensive integration guide and framework. A document that would guide a person from the beginning to end of an integration, covering all the bases, and addressing all the issues. Then I ditched the idea. No one would ever want to read it. (not even me.) Instead here are 7 simple steps that should get your going, and that you should follow in each integration project. The rest of the plan is largely, and subjectively up to you. (more…)

I google people.

If I had said this a decade ago, you would have thought that I was confessing to something akin to being a peeping tom or voyeur.  But today, everyone reading this knows that I am telling you that I look people up on google to see what the internet says about them.  If you have ever done or said anything on-line, (or if anyone has done or said anything that references you on-line) it can be found.  And it will be by someone at some time.  Don’t let this on-line first impression be random or worse, in someone else’s control.

(more…)

One of the things that I advocate is keeping a copy of the documentation you produce, and the documentation that you encounter and use.  Over a short period of time, this can become a large amount of stuff.  If you are just throwing it all in your MyDocuments folder, it can quickly get out of hand.  To help out in this ongoing task and fight against the chaos, I am going to share some basic approaches that can help keep the sanity and utility in your documentation collection. (more…)

Sometimes a picture can bring more clarity to a concept. For Canonical Data, an animation is what is called for. I found this animation of canonical data and its implementation.  I think the first minute and a half paint a very good picture of how canonical data is implemented and can be leveraged.  Later in the animation they start to describe a global vision of implementation.  Unfortunately I must disagree with this vision.  I don’t think that having a global canonical form of data will ever truly be a solution that works.

(more…)