Liquibase in the Enterprise: Part 3
Amazing that it has been nearly a year since I posted Part 1 and Part 2 of my series on Liquibase in the enterprise, and since then these have been two of the most visited posts on this blog. From the data that Google Analytics provides me, it is clear that some visit because they are looking for the proper syntax to use for some operations that I happened to mention in my examples in Part 2. Some are looking for more general information.
But what is becoming increasingly clear is that there is a growing number of individuals who visit because they are looking to see what Liquibase offers, especially when compared to other tooling. For example, they appear to be looking for reviews written by Liquibase users who have been in the trenches so that they can get a better feel for the product, in order to determine whether further investigation is necessary when considering enterprise adoption.
In revisiting what I wrote for Part 2, I think this series started heading in the wrong direction, but I was not initially aware of this because I was knee deep with Liquibase for the first time, and was caught up with some of the detail that can probably be found elsewhere, although write-ups such as this one are extremely rare, and most of the posts I see out there are in regard to Liquibase bugs that development teams have encountered.
While the first client project on which I used Liquibase has ended, I started a new client engagement several months ago where my use of Liquibase has continued. The first project involved a new enterprise database and a team of dozens of software developers, but this new project is a bit different because it involves:
- a specific client application rather than the enterprise
- a legacy database rather than a new database
- hundreds of stored procedures, which we did not permit on the earlier project
- an Oracle 11g database rather than a DB2 9.5 database
- shared database instances between regions, rather than dedicated instances
- a software development team not familiar with agile practices
- a much smaller software development team
However, while these two projects are different, I am noticing a lot of similarities, or patterns:
- initial DBA resistance to Liquibase, followed by acceptance and endorsement
- relatively early approval of Liquibase by management, who see its benefits
- integration at the data storage layer rather than the services layer
- the amount of work involved is easy to underestimate
These differences and similarities can be synthesized into several broad discussion points:
- database purpose
- database product target
- culture: management
- culture: the DBA staff
- culture: the software development team
- work estimation
My involvement on these projects has been as a data architect, enterprise architect, software developer, deployment manager, and project manager. As a consultant, my involvent on projects usually transcends specific roles since I am expected to be able to fill the shoes of multiple individuals in a traditional organization. So in upcoming entries in this series my goal is to explain these discussion points from multiple perspectives. While Liquibase might be viewed as a niche product, and my work with the product involved just a portion of my time on these projects, Liquibase has played a central role throughout.
Speaking of "niche", I realize that this blog is a bit of a niche as well. While as of today Google Analytics tells me that visitors have originated from 90 countries since October, 2009, the number of visitors is in the thousands rather than the millions. And I must admit that the material here can be a bit eccentric, fusing my consulting experience from multiple areas along with reviews of books that I have read to increase my value to clients, together with my occasional thoughts on running, which has been my passion for many years and which contributes to my problem solving abilities for clients.
That said, I look forward to your comments and emails as you visit these pages.
Liquibase in the Enterprise: Part 1
Liquibase in the Enterprise: Part 2
Liquibase in the Enterprise: Part 4
Liquibase in the Enterprise: Part 5