Within the first month on a contract at Wells Fargo, I came up with a concept to eliminate all the straight SQL pulls from the department’s SSIS packages. When I proposed the idea, I was told that it was pretty much impossible and that even if it could be done, it would be too costly to do so.

I’ve never been inclined to accept such answers until I know for a fact that it’s true.

At first I wrote up a detailed email with full-blown SQL testing as a proof of concept.

A wonderful colleague of mine requested a meeting the next morning so we could map out the idea on a whiteboard. As we walked through it, it became evident that I needed a visual — so in response to her fine spirit of inquiry, I promised to work something up for the next day.

That visual is the screenshot you see below.

Knowing that I would have to sell the server owners on this deal, my concept was as lean as possible so it would have limited impact. I had my pitch all ready to go when we met, and yet it wasn’t even necessary. Not only could we do what I had in mind, but we could go well beyond that — for I was talking to the lead of the “Post Production Processing Team” (no one in our group knew that such a squad existed).

Within 15 minutes he was suggesting some great ideas that they would be happy to implement for us — for free!