Description
The latest technology buzz is incorporated into your system for the sake of telling people about it.
Context
Derived from: “The Shiny Nickel”
Cause
The Shiny Nickel antipattern is often caused by soft procurement rules and a lack of a common IT strategy and vision. Often, product procurement takes place independently from projects, which leads to technology decisions on projects being driven by a desire to minimize shelfware.
Consequences
Technologies are rarely re-used from one project to the next as IT delivery moves to the next shiny nickel. Each project lays down another technology stratum that increases the cost and complexity of support and creates an integration challenge for future projects.
Solution
Fixing The Shiny Nickel is about knowing in which direction you want to go. This means defining what you want your architecture and enterprise to look like in a few years and understanding the steps, standards, and therefore technologies that will take you there. It also means getting a grip on IT procurement so decisions are ratified against the roadmap.
Example
Introducing an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) for 2 services that have no translation or routing requirements.
Tags
soa, business, application, technology
Related smells
- Golden Hammer (relates)