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.
