Complexity / Structure

Metaframeworks in practice, Part 3: Five Elements

What frameworks do we need to make sense of relationships, interdependencies and dynamics across the the whole of an enterprise? This is the third of five worked-examples of metaframeworks in practice - on how to hack and ‘smoosh-together’ existing frameworks to create a tool…

Metaframeworks in practice, Part 2: Iterative-TOGAF

What methodology-frameworks do we need for broad-scope enterprise-architecture in a human-services government-department? This is the second of five worked-examples of metaframeworks in practice - on how to hack and ‘smoosh-together’ existing frameworks to create a tool that will help people make sense of a…

Metaframeworks in practice, Part 1: Extended-Zachman

What ontology-frameworks do we need, to make sense of the enterprise-architecture of a logistics-business? This is the first of five worked-examples of metaframeworks in practice – on how to hack and ‘smoosh-together’ existing frameworks to create appropriate tools to help people make…

Metaframeworks in practice: Introduction

If most of the frameworks we use in enterprise-architecture are ‘smooshed together’ from other frameworks, according to the needs of the context, then how do we do that ‘smooshing together’? More to the point, when and how and why should we do it…

Methods, mechanics, approaches

Why doesn’t ‘best-practice’ work as best-practice everywhere? And what is it that makes a skill a skill? For me, this one goes way back to work I did for my Masters degree, nigh on forty years ago. And to me, the answer…

Obliquity, serendipity and purpose

When everything is changing all around us, what is the role of purpose? And what is purpose, anyway? The starting-point for this one is a Tweet by someone I deeply respect, quoting someone I deeply don’t: RT @DavidGurteen: Obliquity and serendipity are more…

On human ‘applications’ in EA models

In enterprise-architecture, how should we model a human-based ‘application’ such as a customer-service line or reCaptcha or Amazon‘s ‘Mechanical Turk‘? [Note: on a first glance, this all looks really simple. As soon as we delve anywhere beneath the surface, though, it's definitely non-simple…

On metaframeworks in enterprise-architecture

How do we avoid the dreaded ‘framework-wars’ in enterprise-architecture and elsewhere? If there’s no ‘Single Unified Framework For Everything™’, how do we ‘smoosh frameworks together’ to get the best fit for each current context? The answer: metaframeworks. And, perhaps even more, the disciplines with…

Earthquakes and enterprise-architecture

What happens when other people take our cautious ‘It depends…‘ as an explicit Yes or No? What are the risks that we face as enterprise-architects when others force us to give a definite ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in relation to something that’s inherently uncertain?…

On sensemaking-models and framework-wars

How do we use sensemaking-models in enterprise-architecture? What’s different about this discipline that can so often cause such use to become problematic? I know I need to move on to more of that current series on power and politics in enterprise-architecture, but to…

SCAN and Causal Layered Analysis

How do we make sense of story – the stories and narratives and anecdotes that people tell each other and themselves about their world? How can we link between the layers of story to help us make sense of some broader picture,…

Cynefin and the Chaotic domain – a (non)-review

This is the ‘review’ follow-on to the previous post ‘Cynefin and the Chaotic domain – an update‘. Back in that post I pointed to a report by Dave Snowden that he’s posted an update on ‘Cynefin subdomains in the Chaotic’, and, as…
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