Cay Hasselmann

Some month ago I got interested on the ethics around architecture and discovered that apart from some group that claim to represent all architects very little is published in the English spoken world. I also reached out to other nations and their architects that are proud to have a very detailed set of business ethics, … Continue reading Global business ethics →

Regardless of our background we all have the tendency to divide our work into units. This tendency is usually called the unit bias. A simple example that we all have experienced occurs in cleaning where we first divide the area in subareas. Once we achieve a unit we feel a level of achievement so we … Continue reading The unit plague →

I am unsure if you are familiar with the halo effect in psychology. The effect describes our inbuilt judgement to observe a person in a few aspects and then use them as the template for all other traits of that person. Actually only the positive form is called the halo effect, while the negative is … Continue reading Sainthood in architecture →

Have you seen that large groups of people (especially men) can often make really bad decision or behave badly, while each single member of the group will never do anything so stupid? I think we have all seen this and if not just go back in history where you will see many example of this … Continue reading Stay away from large groups of architects →

The FUTON I am after here is not the Japanese mattress, but the ‘Full text on net’ bias. FUTON is the tendency of academics to base their research solely on information free of charge on the internet. Often the opposite is called ‘toll access publications’. Now in architecture there is similar trend to be seen. … Continue reading FUTON Architecture →

When we are hired as an architect we often try to address the major problems first. We do this in various ways, but we will always try to look at the whole picture and try to find the underlying problem(s) and design solutions. We quite naturally find this way the right one without asking ourselves … Continue reading Address the known or the unknown problems →

When designing any architecture as architects we often tend to underestimate some areas, while overestimating others. Typical examples in underestimations are around the data availability and documentation when designing interfaces or to overlock manual business continuity. Examples of overestimation are areas like terrorism or potential non-availability  of less critical systems. This under- or overestimation is … Continue reading The Emotional Design Challenge →

I am not sure if you have worked on any global projects. I have worked on a lot and they usually show a key aspect where business, as well as application architecture is going wrong. Usually on a global project Business Architects will work on one country at time. When challenged to think more outside … Continue reading The problem with most global Business & Application Architecture →

With every trend in architecture and in IT we are always faced with analysts and a lot of marketing people declaring that staying put this time is just no option. The last example I have seen was with digitalisation. At the same time I had contact with a business that was just introducing email and … Continue reading Keep calm and carry on →

About 35 years ago all information was delivered through a data hub, usually a database. However due to limitations mainly on the number of open ports required and the missing latency on the networks in the pre internet time. The solution was to send data packages between applications and later via data hubs. The packages … Continue reading Database Hub instead of Message Hub on the service layer →

As architects we are usually prone not to work on similar problems all the time and we also often end up doing things outside of a close team structure. This makes us different to many people around us as most people in IT or in the business have a repetitive job or at least a … Continue reading The hot handed architect →

Do still like things you were forbidden as a child, even if they are junk? Most of us do and this behaviour is called reactance. It is also used in marketing to create a situation where you not be able to by a certain product any longer and as such forcing a purchasing decision. Reactance … Continue reading Reactance →