Posts by: Ming Fai

6 Rules of Thumb for Enterprise Architecting

What rules of thumb guide your EA efforts?(photo credit: Sanna R) This is the second half of my 12 heuristics for Enterprise Architecting.  I have already started using some of them to guide me in EA exercises, for example heuristic #7.  And…

• June 13, 2012
• Ming Fai

Architecture of my life: continued

Continuing down the life architecture path (photo credit: .:Adry:.)My earlier post Architecture of my life generated a lot of interest, which was encouraging, but it also stressed me to follow up with updates as many readers asked for that.  Moreover, I too am…

• May 30, 2012
• Ming Fai

EA Heuristic #6: Examine if the metrics are frequent and granular enough to be actionable

Metrics guide our actions (photo credit: stefan)(this article is part of the series "12 Heuristics for Enterprise Architecting")How can an organization recognize progress without appropriate metrics?  Metrics are helpful in assessing if the organization is doing well or not, and if not,…

• May 23, 2012
• Ming Fai

EA Heuristic #5: Address the concern of “you are echoing back what I told you”

(this article is part of the series "12 Heuristics for Enterprise Architecting")Stop parroting me! (photo credit: Ferran Pestaña) In some ways, the “as-is” phase of enterprise architecting exercises do not generate new content. It brings together observations from different parts of the organization…

• May 21, 2012
• Ming Fai

Enabling Better Communications with Physical EA Models

A pretty BMW car.  photo credit: marco_dmoz Physical Models: Powerful visual cues for enabling better communicationsBMW's innovation centre in Munich is designed with deep considerations on how to encourage innovation and collaborations between employees.  One key feature of the building is full…

• May 20, 2012
• Ming Fai

EA Heuristic #4: Collect and analyze data with reusability in mind

Metal Bottle Cap Flowers (credit: urban woods walker)(this article is part of the series "12 Heuristics for Enterprise Architecting")EA exercises involve collecting a lot of data and distilling insights from them.  It seems wasteful if the fruits of these efforts are used…

• May 15, 2012
• Ming Fai