| There are only two kinds of application engineers: | | | | documents. |
| those who say | | | | For example, reverse engineering revealed the current |
| "Data is the problem" and those who say "Data are | | | | state network documentation did not reflect actual |
| the problem." | | | | configurations and existing routes. In another case, |
| The infrastructure team was provided systems | | | | another key subject matter expert identified |
| discovery information from a variety of sources | | | | networking equipment was owned and maintained by |
| including internal IT, contractors and key IT support | | | | telecom provider Sprint instead of by the company. |
| vendors. The consolidation team was delighted to see | | | | Additional verification revealed remote access |
| "current-state" systems information. However, the | | | | equipment had been partially configured and was |
| team became concerned about the accuracy of the | | | | unusable. |
| information because key application end client | | | | The original project had been abandoned by the IT |
| information was missing. The consolidation team | | | | staff short of being fully configured for operations. |
| decided to perform first hand verification of all | | | | Application verification and reverse engineering |
| "current-sate". | | | | identified software code that had been written with |
| The program manager consulted with the acquiring sr | | | | network third party vendor addressing and |
| management team, hired contract systems engineers | | | | communications hard coded into the software |
| with extensive Microsoft application and desktop | | | | bypassing the data file inter-exchange through the |
| experience to review "current-state" discovery | | | | company data interexchange server. |
| information and to log into systems to verify and | | | | The verified and reverse engineered enterprise |
| document the information. In many cases, the contract | | | | architecture was significantly different than discovery |
| network engineer had to reverse engineer networking | | | | information presented by the vendors and local IT |
| equipment and actual protocols to obtain an accurate | | | | staff. |
| "current state" data. In addition, acquiring company | | | | Lesson learned: |
| subject matter experts were engaged to verify and | | | | There is no hard-and-fast reliable information source. |
| document as-built server and storage system | | | | That would be too easy. |