Link: https://clausthorsen.wordpress.com/2016/01/02/always-remember-to-kiss-your-ea/
From Claus Thorsen
OMG! Again, I forgot the KISS principle! ‘Keep It Short and Simple’ is core to successful communication and thus to success of EA. Recurrent oblivions of KISS seems almost to be both a personal and a general human character trait. KISS is unyielding; why do we persist not to learn?
The core of the problem is actually rather simple to understand. As an example let us say, you have to define how your enterprise should approach a given technology. You analyze business needs, the technology, implementation barriers, experiences from other enterprises, and so forth. In the process, you have numerous revelations. You devise the strategy, include relevant examples, best practices, and you make sure to address all the revelations you had and to include the quirky little ‘must remember’ notions. Finally, all is in place; you see exactly which business areas will benefit significantly and you know how best to approach the technology. Hard work, but in your hand you now have nothing but the perfect strategy!
Perfect, except for:
- What you have is a 50++ pages report
- No one is going to read it (unless forced)
- NO ONE is ever going to remember more than five core statements – and hardly the statements you think of as core
- It will be a pick ‘n chose report – isolated statements found by a quick browse will be used to validate given viewpoints (and the isolated statements may well contradict the strategy)
- Your boss is in big trouble when questions about optimal usage of resources arise (apparently EA has the time to write these big reports)
Instead of the perfect strategy, you have just forged yet another nail for your coffin.
Look at my previous blog post ‘Would you hire an Enterprise Architect?‘. Unfortunately, it was also an excellent example of complete KISS oblivions. Reflecting on the value of EA I realized we are one of a number of competing professions. With enthusiasm, I started writing. I presented an idea on how to compare the various competing disciplines. An extremely relevant analysis. It was perfect except for the fact, I had numerous messages and it had turned out to be a gigantic blog post. I absolutely ditched the KISS principle.
Fortunately, we have the ability to learn and improve. On a recent technology strategy, we took out 80% of the text – two times! Leaving out all the small revelations and important observations hurts; it feels destructive and unnecessary; it even feels as if converting the message into a pigeon language. But it sure does sharpen the message.
Being this time of the year, as my new year’s resolution I would like to promise KISS style communication in all of 2016. As a more realistic target, I will do my best with the blog posts.
