Documentum

I Want YOU to Speak at EMC World!

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I have a confession to make…I’m a fraud.  I may know a lot about Documentum and ECM, but when you get to pick your discussion topics, it is easy to look smart and knowledgeable.

imageMany of you know a lot about implementing successful ECM projects with Documentum, SharePoint, Alfresco, Nuxeo, or any number of systems.  You have all learned things that I’ve never even considered when planning for a project.

And the number of things I don’t know about Documentum is mind-boggling.  There are new components every few months and there is no way that I, or anyone for that matter, can keep up with it all.

So I am asking for your help.  Please think about the projects you have worked on in the past year or so.  Did you learn a few things?  Did you run into a few hurdles to over come?  The odds are that the project wasn’t perfect.  Even if it went well, there are things that you would do differently.

Share what you learned with me.

Share it with everyone!

Speak at EMC World!

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Documentum Renewal: Wrapping it up with a Bow

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This is an important post.  This is all about pulling it together and helping everyone to understand the thought process behind this series of posts.  Before I do that, here is the list of links to each post:

My Christmas Gift to EMC

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Documentum Renewal: Simplify and Bundle

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This next in the series is actually not technical in nature.  It is much more complicated than architecture and features.  It is all about money.

One of the biggest issues I have when working with clients is helping them understand what they have purchased and helping them figure out what they might need to purchase.  As I make zero on software sales, I do not even take a perverse joy in telling them about the fact that they need one MORE, or more than one, product.image

Then there are the times when I point to an item, usually between the 15th and 20th item on the list, and ask them what they planned to do with that component.  They look at it and don’t even know what it does.

The price list for Documentum related products is well over 100 items.

Problem.

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Documentum Renewal: Architecting Content Applications

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Of all my posts in this series, this is the one that is probably the least needed.  I say this because it looks like EMC is some of this now.  It does need to be said though, just so EMC know that we still care, and in case I am guessing wrong.  The themes for the Architecting of Content Applications is closely related to the Application Separation topic and in many ways, is the complement to the Focus on the Core edition.

I’m going to stay away from some specific feature requests for applications.  I would want to do complete run-downs on any app before I did that.  I want to be a little more strategic in my advice.

As always, please feel free to add/comment.

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Documentum Renewal: Identity Management

Continuing my Christmas present to EMC.  I’ve talked about Application Separation and the need to Focus on the Core.  Now it is time to revisit a critical piece of the puzzle, Identity Management.

This is not a new topic for me. One of my most popular posts this year is the Single Sign-On, SAML, and Authentication in Documentum post that I wrote back in 2007.  I’ve talked to EMC engineers and product managers about this issue repeatedly over the years.  It was one of those things that James McGovern always pinged EMC on when he was a regular blogger.

This is the reason that I feel eRoom died. This is what will stop application developers from using just any ECM platform.

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Documentum Renewal: Focus on the Core

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I just started writing a series on what EMC should do with their Documentum product as part of my Christmas gift to EMC. That part is key…this is a gift from the community because we want Documentum to be better and to stick around.

Why do I say the community? Simple enough…because I hear these things from many users at different installations across multiple verticals. I hear things from clients, partners, competitors, and random people at meetings.

We criticize because we care.

That being said, my first post in this series, on Application Separation, had a great reply from Lee Smith which is worth looking at.  Take a moment.

Today we are looking at the Content Server, the engine that makes everything work.

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Documentum Renewal: Application Separation

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This is the first in a series that I am writing as a Christmas present to EMC.  I want them to think about Documentum as a platform for the future and not on just adding on chunks that can be used to drive revenue.  Revenue is important, but investment now means revenue in the future.

After all, if they want their vision of SkyNet to come true, they need to get to work.

Why Web Publisher Sucks

I talked recently about how there are many ECM vendors out there that have sub-par applications, like Web Publisher from Documentum, that shouldn’t be required to be an ECM vendor.  It isn’t that they aren’t capable of writing good applications.  It is that the landscape changes faster than the release cycles for the platform.

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A Tale of Two Documentum User Groups

In the last month, I attended two Documentum User Group meetings.  They were very different experiences, beneficial in different ways.  The NY group was fun and was a chance to talk to lots of different users

I am going to do something slightly different this post, I’m going to focus on the positives. Let’s see how that works.

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Tip: Identifying Documentum Object Types

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Last month, I ran into an error.  You know the type, vague, irritating, and an r_object_id that I didn’t recognize. (Okay, I never “recognize” an id given the complexity, but usually I can figure things out from the first two digits.)  The error basically said that the r_object_id “53…” did not exist.

Anyway, a quick look didn’t reveal anything. I determined that it wasn’t derived by dm_sysobject by doing a quick query on the table. I decided to throw the question out to Twitter and see what happened.

Okay fearless #Documentum hackers, what object type begins its r_object_id with a ’53’?

I got two replies, one from Lee Dallas (@ldallasBMOC) and another from David Matheson (@davidfmatheson).

@piewords #Documentum 53 is dm_literal_expr – if you are asking-you need to run data dictionary publish,clear caches restart app svrs

@piewords #Documentum @ldallasBMOC beat me to it, I would add you can check IDfId for the full list of what’s what in any version of DFC.

So Lee gave me the fix, which had already been executed, but he told me why the restart of the client application worked. (The Data Dictionary runs regularly in our environment, so it had already run). David taught me how to answer the question in the future.  I also found another way to make the determination as well.  I’m going to share them both now.

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Throwing Documentum Developers into the Fire

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A long time ago, in blog-years, I wrote a page on Building Documentum Talent. I meant it to be something upon which I could build, but I haven’t. Well today that changes, at least for a day. I’m doing two things. I’ve revised that page some (and cleaned old/non-informative comments off) and I’m going to talk about turning your everyday Documentum resource into an expert in this post.

What Doesn’t Kill You

If you read the title, you may think that torture is involved in the “next” step. You would be right. Over the years, I’ve trained many resources that I’ve identified as having potential, and desire, to become good Documentum developers. That is one of my favorite things about new projects, teaching the joys of ECM and Documentum to young consultants.

imageUnfortunately, you can only train and prepare Documentum resources so much.  You can train them and have them write Documentum applications, but they will NEVER become an expert if that is all they ever do.  They may become a senior Documentum developer, but they will not become a Documentum expert. That requires a little more work.

Every ECM project, outside of the simplest proof-of-concept, will encounter some challenges. The next time you hit one that isn’t mission critical to solve yesterday, give it to a Documentum resource. Make them solve it. Make sure that they understand the symptoms and let them at it. Be a resource for them, rarely giving answers, but telling them where to find the information.

A few things to consider first…

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