Condor update

We held the last of the formal workshops today. It was also one of the more productive ones, despite a couple of people not being able to attend.

From five of these workshops we have managed to discuss and agree on a high-level design, including the need for a new service-oriented architecture across both Wintel and IBM Mainframe platforms. There are still a number of actions outstanding, but by the end of the week, I anticipate we should have all the information we need to form a reasonable initial estimate.

All that remains, then, is to document it all.

Strangely, a few years ago I would have jumped at the opportunity to do that. Writing up requirements, specifications, recommendations, was something I enjoyed doing. This one, though, feels different. This report will be read at the highest levels of the organisation, and there are bound to be a number of different viewpoints and perspectives.

I feel under pressure to produce a document that will be all things to everyone who reads it. It's primarily a report to the Business, so it needs to provide an overview of the recommended approach in terms they will understand. It will also, however, be read by senior managers in the Group's IT division, who will want to see technical details of the proposal. This is all complicated by the political elements at play, since there are two distinct stakeholder 'factions'. And there are a million if's and but's, on which the final decision rests.

There is a huge temptation to inject a healthy dose of my own opinion, in an attempt to sway the decision in the direction I would like it to go, but that's not the way it works.

I have until the end of next week to complete the document. There is a lot of material to get through, and I still have not decided how to even organise it.