Architecture and OODA Loops – Fast is not Enough

Sense-making and decision-making are critical skills for the practice of software architecture. Creating effective solutions (i.e. the collection of design decisions that make up the product) is dependent on understanding the architecture of the problem. In other words, the quality of our decisions depends on the quality of our understanding of the context those decisions […]

Metatheory and enterprise-architecture

“What’s the theory of enterprise-architecture?”, a colleague asked the other day. “Is there any kind of coherent and consistent theory behind it that holds it all together?” Short answer: no. Slightly longer answer: yes. Or sort-of, rather. Both no and yes

Can you afford microservices?

Much has been written about the potential benefits of designing applications using microservices. A fair amount has also been written about the potential pitfalls. On this blog, there’s been a combination of both. As I noted in “Are Microservices the Next Big Thing?”: It’s not the technique itself that makes or breaks a design, it’s […]

Using SCORE to reframe the business-model

He turned up with a copy of the Business Model Canvas template, printed on a large table-sized sheet of paper. “But where do we start?” he said. Good question… A bit of background first. I am, as usual, still rethinking

Enterprise architect as business-anarchist

I seem to have acquired the half-joking job-title of ‘business-anarchist’. Huh? Anarchist? You mean like those crazy bomb-throwing guys from the past? Uh, no… – not quite… Quite a long way from ‘”not quite”, actually. You did notice that word ‘business’,

Is culture-change the same as software-change?

Should we approach culture-change as if it’s the same as software-change? At a current conference, James Archer seemed to interpret Alex Osterwalder as saying just that: jamesarcher: Company culture can be methodically designed, built, and tested almost like a software product.

Context-perspectives and enterprise-architecture maturity

In what ways does what we do within the enterprise require a different perspective on the enterprise itself? In what ways does our maturity-level – our skills, competence and experience – affect what we can and should do within the

Seven sins, sensemaking and OODA

Following from that recent series on sensemaking and ‘Seven sins of dubious discipline‘, it seems worthwhile to look at that whole context-space from a different direction, another example of a proven metaframework for much the same kind of metadiscipline – namely

Seven sins – a worked example (‘Natural rights’)

Enterprise-architecture, strategy, and more: they all depend on discipline and rigour, in thinking, sensemaking, decision-making and action. But what happens when that discipline is lost? What are the ‘sins’ that can cause that discipline to be lost? How can we

Seven sins – 7: Lost In The Learning-Labyrinth

Enterprise-architecture, strategy, or just about everything, really: they all depend on discipline and rigour – disciplined thinking, disciplined sensemaking and decision-making. But what happens when that discipline is lost? What are the ‘sins’ that can cause that discipline to be

Seven sins – 6: The Reality Risk

Enterprise-architecture, strategy, or just about everything, really: they all depend on discipline and rigour – disciplined thinking, disciplined sensemaking and decision-making. But what happens when that discipline is lost? What are the ‘sins’ that can cause that discipline to be