You know how the old saying goes, “you cannot fit a square peg into a round hole“. OK, makes sense, right? I mean how can you possibly put an object of one shape into an object of another. So why does it seem that in this day an age of openness, data portability, APIs, RSS feeds, yada, yada, yada that everyone seems to think that everything is a definite fit with everything else? (OK, maybe not everyone thinks this way, I am certain there are many of you out there that would agree with me that it is not always the case, but attend a conference or two and you will see that there are a lot of peeps out there that do think this way).

I agree that there are certain synergies (there I go with a buzz word no no) that do exist between companies and their technologies or companies and open source technologies, but there are boundaries and limits as to what makes sense and what is a stretch (hell not even a stretch, just down right does not make any logical sense). So why is it if these stretches exist, that people are convinced one: that they are not a stretch and two: that of course X fits in perfectly with Y? I just do not get it, if the shoe does not fit, do not wear it. But time and time again I have seen companies try to force the proverbial square peg into the round hole and what you are left with is a square peg sticking our of or sitting on top of the round hole.

Are the reasons these things are happening because the wrong types of people are making the decisions? Is it that they think they know what they are talking about but in fact when you get to the devil in the details, that they haven’t a clue as to how to make it all work in the first place? I think it is a combination of factors, but I at least believe that the decisions to integrate product X with product Y should be left to those that know what is going on and how to make it work - the ones who actually built the things in the first place, not someone on high (and by this I do not necessarily mean executive management, I mean those that can only scratch the surface, at best, with knowledge of how things really work).

So the next time you are convinced that your square peg will fit into that round hole, I suggest you look for a square hole instead.