Hi,    

We  started  the  survey  on  maturity  of  ETL  code  development  standards  and  processes  to  find  out  how  companies  host  their  ETL  code  development.    

So  what’s  in  it  at  all?  Quite  a  lot,  actually.      

Imagine  your  wardrobe.  If  you  keep  all  your  staff  in  order,  how  long  will  it  take  you  to  find  your  favorite  red  socks  in  there?    

And  now  imagine  you  have  a  mess  of  your  clothing.  How  long  will  you  look  for  your  socks  in  this  case?  And  your  girl  friend  if  you  ask  her?  And  when  your  wardrobe  is  10  times  bigger?  Imagined?  The  same  is  with  your  ETL  code  produced.      

If   there  are  no  standards  of  ETL  code  quality  and  no  processes   to   trace   it…   if   there   is,  but  you  don’t  enforce  it  or  simply  skip  it  under  pressure  of  project  deadlines…  soon  it  will  become  a  problem  to  find  anything  there.      

It  will   impact  your   system   further   support  and  modification.  When  a  problem  occurs   it   takes   time   to  find  the  cause  of  it…quite  a  lot  of  time.  Still  worse  when  someone  developed  the  code  for  you.  In  this  case  you  are  that  girl  friend  looking  for  red  socks  in  a  huge  messy  wardrobe.    

The  reason  why  we   launched  the  survey   is  to  see   if  companies  acknowledge  the  problem  or  will   they  wait  until  a  problem  occurs  (as  happened  with  some  of  our  clients).    

In  our  survey  took  part  companies   from  Telco,  Banking,  Financial  Services,   IT  consultancy,  Computer  Software  from  Europe,  the  US  and  India.  As  a  result  we  have  4  types  of  companies  allocated:    

Adventurers   -­‐  companies  with  quite   low  level  of  code  review  processes  and  automation  as  well  as  of  check  maturity.   They  may   have   standards   on   critical   issues,   but   they   are   not   strictly   followed.   They  have  no  procedures  for  code  review  and  check  it  mostly  randomly  if  any.    

Hard  Workers  -­‐  companies  that  check  their  ETL  code  to  different  rules  mostly  “manually”.  These  rules  are  not  standardised  or  formalised  and  are  transferred  to  each  other  by  the  word  of  mouth.  They  have  no  procedures  for  code  review,  but  they  check  code  scrupulously.      

Enthusiasts  -­‐  those  who  have  formalised  ETL  procedures  and  even  may  check  their  code  with  a  help  of  an  automated  tool  that  makes  checking  easier  and  with   little  hassle.  They  even  may  have  formalised  standards.   Though   their   standards   are   on   most   critical   rules   only   and   procedures   are   not   strictly  followed  though  exist.    

Leaders  -­‐  companies,  who  have  formalised  mature  standards  and  procedures.    They  check  their  ETL  code  on  its  compliance  to  standards  thoroughly    at  development  or  testing  project  stages.    

 And  here  are  the  results  of  the  survey:        

 

 

 

     Want  to  know  where  is  your  place?    Want  to  know  what  you  can  expect  from  your  ETL  development?    Give   it   a   try   and   complete   the   survey   to  get   a   report   of   your  own  with   analysis   of   your  ETL   code  current  condition  and  what  impact  it  may  have  on  your  system.    You  can  complete  the  survey  here:  http://www.addpoll.com/Acctiva/survey/etl-­‐codequality-­‐survey