I didn't say "blind", Mike.  I said, "Not their shot to call".   I also said
they should inform the business manager about performance and I consider
improvements to design a performance issue.  It is the data designers
obligation to inform.   It is not their right to determine.

Successful businesses coordinate and inform, but unless a data designer or
any other employee understands proper authority, no business remains in
business for very long.   So again, I quibble with the question as posed.
In essence, implementation serves the business, not vice versa.

len


From: Michael Kay [mailto:mike@s...] 
 
> The data designer does not answer the question of when a 
> business rule is *legitimate*.   It simply is not their shot to call.   It
is 
> their job to determine how to meet the business requirement as determined 
> by the business owner/manager as long as that requirement is within legal 
> constraints.  

Actually, I don't believe it's a good model that IT people blindly do what
the business tells them to do, and I don't believe successful businesses
work this way. If the IT people are good at implementing IT systems then
they also have the brainpower to design improved business processes (perhaps
to take advantage of IT potential, but perhaps just because they have the
right kind of thought pattern). 

I remember when I was a student one of the computer science faculty members
(John Larmouth, I think) implementing a program to automate the complex
rules for University Senate elections, and ending up proposing an improved
set of rules which were duly incorporated into the University Statutes. I
think that's the way things should work.

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