Data Lifecycle Middleware

Within the Conversion/Migration practice, WayTo has developed capabilities of integrating multiple data sources into a single middleware environment. In a typical conversion project, data is captured from an array of sources. This gives rise to conflicting information from individual sources. In addition, when the sources are put together, a number of other inconsistencies expose themselves. By having all the data in this single environment, all the QA steps could be run against the MIMIC database. When an inconsistency is discovered, the capture source or process is identified. Thus one can find every case impacted by this flaw.

The most important feature in converting or migrating data into a new system is traceability. When a flaw is discovered, even if it’s in the target system after the fact, it is important to find the source or process that placed that attribute. Since a value in an attribute can be placed directly from a source OR go through some transformation process, it is important to know whether this in the source, or in the transformation process. With traceability one can determine the scope of the discovered flaw in the target system, thus determining the priority applied to its resolution.

Most conversions are not captured in the target database, thus all the rules and validity checks are not available until the data is loaded into the target system. MIMIC provides the basis of encoding the validity and verification into the capture tool itself. The traditional conversion from paper process is less common now, as a large number of automated data sources are now “assembled”, validated, and then loaded into the target model.

The distinction between Conversion and Migration is the typically, capture from Paper (or Scanned PDF) versus, data from automated sources. The multitude of sources may map to the same attribute, e.g. a transformer rating may come from a CAD file, a GIS attribute, or an asset management system. Whatever the new system the data is going into, much as there is a desire to say use Asset Management, then GIS, the CAD file, it may be more advantageous to report on the discrepancies PRIOR to loading them into the middleware environment. This function could potentially be handled by WayToResolve, allowing a resolution before the conversion/migration process is underway.