Enterprise effectiveness
Enterprise-architecture is dead. As a term, anyway. Although it had been dying for quite a while, we do have some certainty now about when it died; we know how it died, and even why it died. And whilst some of us…
Tom Graves
Idea-parenting
I’d often wondered why I always seem to have such a visceral response to hearing a woman say “I don’t work, I’m only a mother”. What do you mean by “only”? – why would anyone deride it so? And what do…
Two words
There we were, my colleague and I, discussing the possible merits and value for me of going to yet another conference. This time business-architecture rather than ‘enterprise’-architecture, and reasonably-priced too – unlike so many conferences these days. Looked good. Yet…
RBPEA: Attachment, non-attachment, non-detachment
It’d be mid-evening by now, I guess, as I wander down to the platform for the tube-train home. As the train-doors open, there’s a cluster of mostly Asian lads down at this end of the train, happily joshing with each…
RBPEA: The other Bolshevism
Okay, I admit it: I’m passionate. I care. To many people, though, it seems that those are considered to be major faults… Yesterday we had what’s called a General Election in Britain – the once-every-few-years opportunity for the populace to…
RBPEA: “Love, live, work, hope”
What are the real human needs? So far in this series on RBPEA (Really-Big-Picture Enterprise-Architecture), we’ve explored non-negotiable constraints imposed on us by Reality Department, and problems that are inherent in a culture that still actively promotes serious dysfunctionality in a…
RBPEA: The dangers of ‘anything-centrism’
An architecture may have a centre – in fact most types of architecture work best if there’s a central theme or parti. Yet the process of architecting must not have a single centre – and that distinction is crucial, especially as we…
Enterprise-architectures for the real world
“Excuse me”, asks the quiet voice from the seat in front of me, “are you getting off at Colchester? Will you tell me when we get there?” I’m on the late-evening airport bus, on my way back home from the…
RBPEA: Where’s the plan?
This one came through from a colleague on the Twitterstream a couple days back, presumably somewhat channeling John Lennon: Imagine no possessions, we’d all love to see the plan And yeah, it’s a concern (complaint?) I get a lot about…
RBPEA: Feelings are facts
“You can’t feel that! You don’t feel that! You shouldn’t feel that! You have no right to feel that!” All of which stridently ignores the fact that we do indeed feel that… Let’s be clear about this: feelings are facts.…
RBPEA: Object, subject and ‘should’
A bright, sunny day – in Britain, no less! – though it’s the first day back to work after a very wet public-holiday weekend, so perhaps no real surprise there… But since it is sunny out there, my colleagues and I…
RBPEA: Basics and fundamentals
A small girl in the café this morning, with her parents. All happy enough for most of the time, yet also often an all-too-typical example of the dreaded ‘terrible twos’: everything’s ‘Mine!’, even (or perhaps especially) if it was actually…