In most projects, it doesn’t take long to design a strategic data architecture — the one that will power the required software capabilities, be easy to maintain and upgrade, and eventually, drive good ROI. However, the vision you have almost always clashes with the need to solve current tasks, and quite often this means creating an architecture that is different from what you’ve pictured, and that will need to be transformed after the tactical goals are reached. The key and the most challenging part here is to find the balance between long- and short-term goals, prioritize aspects that bring maximum business value, and reach a compromise between business needs and technical feasibility.