Sheets, email, and the source of truth
Tools can be live while the source of truth is still a spreadsheet. Production needs one system of record you can defend.
Part of Digital Asset Operations(13)
Tools can be live while the source of truth is still a spreadsheet.
Symptoms:
- Reconciliation done in Excel after the chain has moved.
- Approvals in email with no link to a work item.
- The “master” client list on a personal drive.
- An exception log that is really a Slack search.
The production question
For the one workflow that matters: where does the system of record live, and can dual control and evidence attach to it?
If the answer is “several places,” you do not have production. You have a collage.
What changes it
A Solution Definition Sprint forces an honest as-is map. Then the operating application becomes the system of record for that workflow, with queues, approvals, exceptions, reconciliation and evidence. It integrates with the systems you actually run instead of a future platform fantasy.
We are not religious about vendors. We are religious about one path you can defend.
Next step: Screenshot the real source of truth, even if it's ugly, and bring it to us. A pretty architecture without a source of truth is fiction.
Fence: Implementation on your stack. No rip-and-replace.