Say Cheese!

How to align different technologies in a solution? Every technology has its roadmap, it evolves independently of others. If you want to build a solution that is made up of multiple evolving technologies, how to ensure they will work together?

Imagine you want to take a group picture of 20 smiling people while everyone is moving around and not everyone is paying attention. How will you do it? However you take your picture, you will catch a few smiles, but it's impossible to catch everyone in the same shot. One way to do it is to take individual pictures of each person or smaller group of people first. Then Photoshop them to make a group picture. If certain people are still not smiling, you'll have to dig out their old smiling pictures and Photoshop them. If you couldn't find any smiling old pics, Photoshop again.

Technologies alignment is the same. You will probably have to align key technologies first, then build generic interface to other technologies. Sometimes you may not be able to work with the latest version of certain technologies, but your interface will have to be flexible enough to work with older version of them and still be compatible with newer versions when they are available. Sometimes that means building adaptors for those that refuse to comply.

XML, SOA, EAI, adaptors are the Photoshops for technologies alignment.