Who would you choose to work this project?

[Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>]

Scenario: An organization has a legacy data format that they want converted to XML. Specifically, an XML Schema is to be created (and possibly a Schematron schema and possibly an XSLT/XPath program). The domain is complicated. It takes years to master the domain. There are two candidates available to perform the task. Both candidates are bright and energetic. One candidate (let's call him candidate #1) is a master of the domain but knows nothing about XML (XML, namespaces, XML Schema, Schematron, XSLT/XPath, etc.). The other candidate (let's call him candidate #2) is a master of the XML suite of technologies but knows nothing about the domain.

Which candidate would you choose?

Are there other factors (beside knowledge of the domain and knowledge of the XML suite of technologies) that you would take into consideration when choosing a candidate? For example, would you take into consideration how much time is allocated to complete the project?

How much does domain expertise matter when converting a legacy data format to XML? How much does knowledge of the XML stack matter?