Acknowledgments

This book would not exist if not for the "pattern" works by those such as Dave Hay and Len Silverston (with Paul Agnew making a later appearance alongside Len). Their willingness to share with the world their accumulated experiences has enriched my working life, and that of so many others. They, and a number of others from the object-oriented world, have created entire libraries of assembly patterns. We all owe them much.

My own foundations in the data modeling world were challenged and extended when I was privileged to join Graeme Simsion and his team. They were heady days, and I am sure every one of Graeme's team came away better for the experience. I hesitate to name any of them as they all gave so much to me, but the patience and insight of Bill Haebich and Don Watson in helping me, an old-school data modeler, to "get" what object-orientation was about, is noteworthy.

This book is based solidly on real-life stories. I've worked on great projects with great people. Again I hesitate to name any of my clients for fear of missing out on others who are worthy of mention, but I do want to give credit to two outstanding visionaries. They both led by example, and both were willing to be more than a little unconventional where necessary. And both were a challenge to work with – when either of them called me for assistance, I knew ahead of time I would be stretched! Andrew Matthews and John Barry – thanks for the pleasure of working with you both.

Then there were the clients who not only let me loose on their enterprise models, but generously provided feedback and allowed me to print their comments in this book. In all cases I am grateful for their trust and friendship. Special thanks go to Doug Cameron, Damien McAree, Larry Reed, and Ron Weber.

My most recent major consultancy has been with one of Australia's best known companies. The chief data architect, Mark Kortink, himself a leading practitioner, has shown real leadership in "playing to the strengths" of his team, and trusting us to do the job. Terry Bell mentored me an embarrassing number of decades ago, and continues to politely but directly suggest improvements to my models. Wayne Sigley has a hunger to keep at the cutting edge, and has often been my "go to" person. Sam Kiokakis is another who, like Terry and Wayne, keeps me on my toes, and whose opinion I deeply respect. Further, Monika Remenyi and Wayne Sigley kindly reviewed an earlier draft of this book – you are both true data professionals, and your feedback has been very welcome. It has improved the final result (my incessant fiddling with the words may have undone some of your good work – sorry).

My earlier experiences were solidly based in the "data" world; more recently I have enjoyed playing on the edges of the "agile" world. It is not a coincidence that Scott Ambler was invited to write the foreword – he has lived in both worlds for many years, and has generously reached out to me, encouraged me, and offered constructive advice. Hopefully this book is a worthy jigsaw-puzzle piece to be added to the already extensive published works of Scott and other agile practitioners.

I have often seen other authors express appreciation to their publisher. I now know why. Thanks are due to Steve Hoberman and his team, especially his editor.

There are so many, many more I could and should thank, but I will close with just one more – my wife. Her support for me at a time in her life where she, herself, was under enormous pressure has been astounding. A heartfelt "thank you".