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"Can you translate the geek-speak for the non-techies in the room?" he asked drily.
"Oh! Sorry. ETL stands for extract, transform, and load. Extract and load are what they sound like: pulling data out and putting data back in. Transform means we have to massage the data before we load it. Like checking that dates are in the right format or that there aren't any weird characters. Kind of like when you create a new password and the system checks that it meets all the rules?"
Noah nodded.
"So, the old process was already clunky, and adding in another step just made it worse. But the latest software update includes a new feature that makes exporting and importing data much easier. If we use that built-in tool, we can cut out several of the steps we're doing now. Let me show you."
She shared her screen with the group and demonstrated the new options. Claire inhaled deeply, then continued. "We could ditch the transformation program altogether and use this instead. I mean, why not let the system do the work for us?"
The room went silent as the developers on the team considered the ramifications of her find. Their faces were a mix of surprise and calculation. The project coordinator—Vivian? Victoria? Vicki! Why did he have such trouble remembering the woman's name?—was taking notes on her computer like a madwoman. While Noah knew zilch about programming, the facial expressions of the developers told him Claire's suggestion was a good one.
After studying her shared screen, Rick asked, "How did you find this?"
"Oh. I've worked on a similar system, where we used a process like this. I searched the MADAS help site and found it. If you review the change history, you can see they just added it in the last version. It's brand-new, and they buried it in a random admin screen, so easy to miss if you're not looking for it."
Noah wondered how the developers felt about being told they'd missed something. The lady had skills in diplomacy. He smiled.
Before anyone could comment further, Claire pressed on. "I've already written a script to automate the monthly refresh in the development environment using this new method. It includes simple on/off switch, so we can disable it if needed. We still need to test it before using it, but I'm confident it'll make life easier for everyone." She paused, then added, "But that's not the part I'm most excited about. I have a proposition to put forth."
She took a sip of her water and glanced at Simon. "So here's the thing. Being able to pull fresh data whenever you need it is a developer's dream. Having to wait on someone else slows everything down, especially when you're working on something that doesn't affect anyone else. And in our case, the structure of the data hasn't changed. We just want to run new transactions through our code. This shouldn't require permission."
Her words noticeably sped up as if she feared someone might cut her off. "Look, I believe we could build in some guardrails. For simple things like adding new transactions, we could create a menu option that pulls in fresh data without needing formal oversight. For anything more complex, we'd use our normal approval process." She took another sip of water. "It would save a ton of time and effort."
Noah held his breath while the development team studied each other, and Simon regarded the room. Because of his time spent in the weekly coding sessions, he'd halfway understood what she was saying.
"Rick, your thoughts on Claire's suggestion?" Simon asked.
Rick pulled off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirttail. When he was done, he glanced at the two other VIG developers, then back at Simon. "Based on what I'm hearing, it sounds like an acceptable solution. We'll need to do a code review and testing, but partial automation could significantly reduce the workload and increase our efficiency."
Noah watched Claire on his screen while Rick spoke. She'd gone statue-still at Simon's question, then visibly relaxed at Rick's answer. A brief smile tugged at her lips and her hands formed two thumbs-up signs before she laid them flat on the table. He grinned inside at her quiet celebration.
"Good," Simon said. "Let's get the testing done. Rick, I'd like suggestions for which data loads can be done without oversight. Based on recent feedback, it would be nice to find a balance between too much oversight and none at all. I'll run your suggestions by Jackie, and we'll come up with a framework for you guys to automate. Nice work, Claire."
Noah watched Claire wiggle in her chair and smiled to himself. Okay, she did good. The more he saw her in action, the less it looked like she was a puppet for upper management. Perhaps it was time to let go of all the "spy" nonsense and be a better colleague.
Claire held her breath and watched Vicki's face as she ran the report. Her stomach flipped as the project coordinator scowled. Oh, no. It didn't work.
This morning, two workdays after Simon okay'd her solution, the team spun up a fresh database to test her new data load process. The ending balance on Vicki's report should match the earlier report's number. If not, they'd have to dive in and troubleshoot where it went wrong.
"Vicki," Rick said. "Did it work or not?"
Vicki's face went blank for a moment before she looked directly at Claire. Then she grinned. "It worked. The numbers match."
A cheer went up around the room, and Claire exhaled, her shoulders sagging in relief. "Girl, you made me nervous for a minute."
Vicki's smile brightened. "I can't imagine why. You're the latest wonder kid for Caprock."
Claire froze for half a second. The words were fine. The delivery… less so. Was that a compliment? Or a dig wrapped in sugar? She forced a smile and shook her head slightly, trying to brush it off. It's possible she was reading too much into it. Again.
"Claire." Rick called her name and waited for her to look away from Vicki. "Excellent work. If you'll finish documenting the procedure, we'll distribute the instructions to everyone and get this process in place."
Claire flushed and focused on her laptop. "Yes, sir."
Rick addressed the room. "All right, let's mark this one in the win column. Now that we have our new process in place, we need to get back on track with our coding tasks."
Delbert rolled up his sleeves. "That seemed faster than our pre-Claire efforts. I'm thinking we'll easily make up the time we lost last week trying to figure out how to work through Simon's bottleneck."
Claire soaked in the change in attitude. After agreeing with them last Thursday that running everything through her was a terrible process, they'd transferred the blame to Simon. Yay, progress!
