Spencer said, "Well, we know where Craig stands. Are there any other options that we should look into? No? Well, what does everyone think?"

Paul was first, "We know that we're not going to find resources to make the changes in all of the consumers at the same time, so that option is out. Likewise, it doesn't make sense for Ramesh's team to write their own service given our SOA goals, so that one is out, too. As for whether Maria's team maintains two versions of the service or utilizes some transformations somewhere, it really doesn't matter to me. From my perspective, both options give me the freedom to migrate at the time that works best for me."

Jason immediately added, "I agree with everything Paul just said."

Ramesh then offered his opinion, "Well, I certainly know that I don't want to give up any of my developers to work on Jason's and Paul's systems. We need every developer we can get right now. As for writing our own service, we've already been down that path two years ago, and now we're obviously changing the system again. If we had migrated to the service earlier, it would be one less thing that we had to touch as part of these changes. As long as Maria's team delivers my service on time for my projects, it doesn't matter to me what Maria's team chooses to do on their side."

Spencer replied, "Well Maria, it looks like everyone else thinks that we need a solution that will allow all of the consumers to continue to use their existing interfaces or the new one, but the details of how that happens is completely up to you and Craig."

Maria said, "Let's not jump to conclusions yet. If I'm going to maintain multiple versions, I need some kind of guarantee that the existing consumers will eventually migrate to the new version. If my team allows continuous use of the old interface for 12 months from the time the new interface goes live, would that be an adequate time to complete whatever modifications are necessary?"

Jason and Paul thought about it and decided that this was reasonable. For the past three years, they'd averaged an update every nine months.

Maria said, "I'll make sure to remind you, early and often, that the old version and its associated interfaces are going to be decommissioned. In the meantime, I'd like to first get the new version built. I'm going to need to keep both versions around initially just to compare messages. Ramesh's team can begin using the new service, and…" As she was talking, she stopped mid-sentence.

Spencer said, "Is there a problem, Maria?"

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