Back to the future - or is that forward to the past

I'm starting a new contract this coming Monday. I'd better keep the client confidential until I've found out how they feel about blogs, but the job revolves around data matching and data quality, using Oracle and SSA.

At the interview, I found myself less than 100m from the site of my first ever "proper" job (the old Scicon offices are now an upmarket West End hotel). So just 28 years and 1 month later, I will be sauntering along Oxford Street once again.

I'll be commuting daily at first, but I will try to stay down during the week at least some of the time if I can find somewhere cheap, clean and convenient. Any old colleagues around central London - sometime between now and Christmas we should meet up ...

Change of scene

My current project is coming to a sudden end, so it looks like my weekly commute from Suffolk to Lancashire will be done by Easter. I've already got two or three interesting (and very different) opportunities to consider over the weekend - and if they don't come off, there's plenty on jobserve. More news as it happens; I am looking forward to spending a little bit more time at home and a little less time on the M6.

Onwards and upwards

I've recently started a new contract which should prove very interesting. Starting off with a data migration study, I'm expecting there will be lots of performance planning and assurance to follow.

The setting is a rather large and unusual Oracle Apps implementation - client confidential of course. RAC, stretch cluster, massive batch processing, impossible response and resilience targets? Lots for me to (re)learn, and hopefully some useful previous experience to share.

The 250 mile weekly commute is a bit of a pain...

Bottoms up!

Moving swiftly on

I've reached the end of a nine month engagement, where I've been helping to maintain a 12 year old system; originally developed I suspect on Oracle7, and still running on Forms/Reports 6i. It's been interesting mainly as an example of how to start to rebuild a team's understanding of a system a team (mainly contractors) has been churned, original documentation is hopelessly outdated, and the institution's understanding of its own systems has been undermined.

We started to replace a LAN full of (flakey, unindexed, heavyweight) documents with a wiki-based repository of (current, hyperlinked, searchable, lightweight) 'bits of knowledge' that can be combined in various useful ways. One or two other groups at the client had already started to use PmWiki, so we built on that. When I get a chance I'll post specifically on how I found PmWiki as a tool, and how it compares with other wikis (TWiki and MoinMoin) that I've used in the past.

Now I've started with a new client, where I am advancing my career by working on a data migration study for a 20+ year old system, based on a pre-relational database, whose name of course I can't mention here. The good news is that the 'new technology stack' is firmly Oracle based; but the most interesting part will be dealing with the political and operational issues involved in migrating what are literally the core systems for this business.

On the way, there should be some interesting comparisons of EAI/ETL/EII tools; I hope we see Oracle Data Integrator put through its paces on the way. Certainly I should be able to post more on 'integration' generally for the next few months.

Back in the saddle

After five weeks off (two of them in Italy) I'm finally starting a new contract tomorrow.

Good news
- it's not on an industrial estate behind the sugar factory in Bury St Edmunds, with a visit once/day from a sandwich lady
- the office is on a modern business park with four Starbucks, a restaurant and (not coincidentally) a mobile phone shop

Less good news
- it's 100 miles away, so I'll be spending a deal of time in the car, and/or in B&Bs for the next few months.

At least it should be interesting work with an enthusiastic team (from those I've met so far) - and I'll be well placed for training into London to meet friends and colleagues. And in case it all gets too much, I've got another two weeks in Italy starting a week today with a couple of days in Venice, then back to the house in Le Marche for a rest. It's a hard life...

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Shakespeare knew a thing or two about emotions, that's for sure.

Today my contract finally ends after two and a half years of repeated 3 month and 6 month extensions. There's so much I can quarrel with about how the project was architected and how it has been managed. But today I just feel glad to have been able to help, and sorry that I'll miss the next few steps.

All in all it has been a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone involved, here's hoping that the next job turns up soon (after a break at the farmouse in Italy of course) and that we can learn as much from each other as I have here.

Late Developer

I've been enjoying various Oracle and other industry blogs for some time (thank you Mark Rittman, Oracle WTF and many more), and I realise it's about time for me to contribute as well as simply lurking in the background.

While I was at SpiritSoft I started up a regular internal weekly newsletter about what was going on in the EAI industry. This spread out of the company to some of our partners and suppliers. I covered product launches, some financial news, gossip from the Java community, and any cheap scandal I could find. I managed to keep it up even after leaving SpiritSoft in 2003 - but only for a year. After two years and a hundred issues or so it petered out. It was just too much trouble trying to find enough interesting things to say each week, formatted into a dinky newsletter.

I'm hoping that more informal blogging will work better and last a bit longer. I don't have to pad it with fluff, thank the Lord.

All of your comments and feedback will be most welcome - I'm looking forward to re-establishing contact with former colleagues, and making some new friends on the way.


Cheers!