Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
When as an architect you work in the business or in IT you will often meet people that will tell you that they are not interested in the details when you want to present them with the big picture, but at the same time spend endless days in discussing the screen layout of a single … Continue reading On Stupidity – Abstraction →
Enterprise Architecture (EA) has great potential, no doubt about it.
Because it can describe the enterprise in a structured manner as never before.
Think of the Enterprise as a virtual body consisting of parts, processes, systems, peo…
Often business cases of architects will contain the rule of reuse, especially if those architects are engineers. However there are two inherit problems in this area. the first is that of a business case. The assumption behind a business case is that we can predict the future and break down all complexities into a simple … Continue reading The lie of reuse →
This little canvas is part of my toolbox for detailing and documenting scenarios. The Scenario Canvas Note: I’m currently in a process of changing my presentation design (the image shows what the new design looks like) for all my work. When I’ve stabilized the design and applied it across all canvases and related material I’ll […]
Agile and Architecture seemed to be, rightly or wrongly, often discussed together today. Should Enterprise Architecture be Agile? This is the question we all ask in fact.
Let’s go back to basics.
Agile is the developer’s way to do more work with…
Some of my readers will have noticed that I have two blogs. This one entered on architecture with the other centred on critical thinking. Since many forms of architecture in business and IT were created out of the academic area of system thinking there is a huge overlap between both areas. Now in architecture you … Continue reading Positive critical thinking →
Sometimes, Enterprise Architecture efforts fail. This is no surprise to folks in the EA business. This failure occurred slowly, back in 2007 and 2008. But it did occur. It took me a while to realize it.
I had developed a method useful for Application Portfolio Management as well as for Service Oriented Architecture called “Solution Domains”. The method is good. It’s a framework and taxonomy for high level descriptions of software so that generalized services can be created AND so that the portfolio of applications can be rationalized.
The method is good. But I failed to position it’s use in the appropriate enterprise program in the appropriate way. I failed. Not the method. Where we used the method, it worked brilliantly.
I’ve learned from my mistakes, but being unwilling to let a good thing go to waste, I’m sharing the Solution Domain taxonomy with the world. It’s not patentable (I tried). It is useful, however, because it is a part of a business method that supports Application Portfolio Management in a completely technology agnostic manner as well as Middle-Out SOA.
I’ve put the entire taxonomy on my Enterprise Business Motivation Model site at: http://motivationmodel.com/wp/application-portfolio-management-and-solution-domains/
I may return here, at some point, and provide further details on how it can be effectively used. For now, back to work!
Sometimes, Enterprise Architecture efforts fail. This is no surprise to folks in the EA business. This failure occurred slowly, back in 2007 and 2008. But it did occur. It took me a while to realize it. I had developed a method useful for Application Portfolio Management as well as for Service Oriented Architecture called “Solution…
When I was new to architecture I was of the firm belief that all that went good in projects was due to it being architected and all that was bad was due to the facts that managers did not evolve an architect. Then quickly due to my critical mind I discovered that most great application … Continue reading Emergent Architectures →
Most architecture aims to enforce standards to achieve synergies. So instead of diversity we try to use the same tool over and over again. Usually this leads us to use tools for areas that they were never designed for. The other point is that over time an organisation is drained of knowledge of different methodologies. … Continue reading The tool trap →
Over the last 2-3 years organisations have gone through significant change. Existing capabilities have been transformed, and vast amount of new capabilities have been invested in to ensure organisations remain sticky in the customer’s digital life. Everything from collaboration, to new ways of working has enabled organisations to build deeper meaningful connections with their customers. Read More
I trust you are all familiar with UML use cases as they are used by virtually all architects where you connect an actor with use cases. Well, you will find that same concept in many many other methodologies, but the strange thing is that very few people have ever followed through systems build on an … Continue reading The failure of actor lead system thinking →