Posts by: Richard Veryard

Functional Organization at Microsoft

@iamjaygreene and @jimkerstetter of @CNETNews are not surprised by the departure of unpopular Windows boss Steven Sinofsky from Microsoft. Jay Greene, Steven Sinofsky: Microsoft's controversial Mr. Windows 8 (CNET 21 October 2012) Jim Kerstetter, A tale of two execs: Microsoft's Sinofsky and…

Seeing is not observing

@anniemurphypaul advises us how to increase our powers of observation - by emulating scientists. "As practiced by scientists", she writes, "observation is a rigorous activity that integrates what the scientists are seeing with what they already know and what they think might…

On Agility, Culture and Intelligence

Deal and Kennedy (1982) proposed a model of organizational culture, which depended on two factors, risk and the speed of feedback. Source: Deal and Kennedy Meanwhile, speed of feedback also affects organizational intelligence. Shorter feedback loops are associated with greater agility and…

Co-Production of Data and Knowledge

Here's an analogy for the so-called hierarchy of Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom DIKW). Data = Flour Information = Bread Knowledge = A Recipe for Bread-and-Butter Pudding Wisdom = Only Eating A Small Portion Note that Information isn't made solely from Data,…

Is Organizational Integration a Good Thing?

Some members of the UK Government are keen on integrating health and social services. In his first speech as Minister of State for Care Services, @NormanLamb said "The consensus behind integrated care is pretty universal. In government, in think tanks, in patient…

The Purpose of Business Architecture

What is business architecture good for? Here are some suggestions. Designing Organization Structure. Restructuring the organization and reassigning responsibilities are commonly seen as ways of dealing with poor performance, poor governance and other system-wide difficulties. But if the business requirements are not…

On Business Architecture and Management Accounting

Someone asked on Linked-In Should EA be knowledgeable about accounting and its pitfalls? Here is a rewritten version of my reply. Management accounting provides a view of the distribution of costs, benefits and risks. Costs include labour costs, materials and other purchases,…

Learning Lessons Learned

#orgintelligence Adapted from my contribution to a Linked-In discussion on "Lessons Learned". There are several strands of learning from experience, and it may be useful to call these out explicitly. 1. Signals. What signals (that turned out to be important) could we…

Architecture and Reality

There are various confusing notions of "real" and "reality" circulating in the enterprise architecture world. 1. The idea that business people are only interested in things that are real. 2. The idea that architectural models represent some form of reality. 3. The…

From AS-IS to TO-BE

Architects produce many types of models. One useful distinction is between AS-IS models (which describe the current situation) and TO-BE models (which describe some projected future situation). If we can compare an AS-IS model with a TO-BE model, we can identify and…

Architecture and the Imagination

An architect looks at a valley and imagines a viaduct. She then describes this imaginary viaduct in great detail. As a result of her imagination, and the efforts of many engineers and other workers, when we visit the valley ten years later…

Evolving the Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge

#entarch #EABOK There is a considerable "body of knowledge" in the enterprise architecture world. Among other things, this includes Founding documents that everyone references, such as Zachman's 1987 paper for the IBM Systems Journal, and the MIT book on Enterprise Architecture as…
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