Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
Good architects also need to be good “marketects”: they must be able to sell and promote their cause as well as publicize their achievements, outcomes, and results. But how do they do this? What tips and guidelines from the world of marketing can architects adopt to their advantage? First of all, what do we mean Read more
An Enterprise Architecture is an integrated, living and ever evolving business artifact that is both informed and informs other parts of the business. It takes a holistic view of both ‘business’ and ‘IT’ with business being the driver and IT … Continue reading →
This post is the sixth in a series of ten about real life experiences of using business model thinking as a foundation for planning and delivering change. Writing this post I’ve had the help of a true friend and admirable colleague (Eva Kammerfors) whom I’ve shared many of the referred to business model experiences with. […]
This is the fifteenth post in my series on BYOD. I have mostly avoided talking about technology, as in many ways that is the least important, and the most straightforward aspect of dealing with BYOD. Most people automatically think of Mobile Device Management (MDM) when they think of mobile or BYOD technology, but that is far from […]
In Enterprise Architecture, one of the most important aspects of the job is not only to communicate, but to lead change. In other words, it is great to have the data to point to a problem in an enterprise. It is better to help that enterprise overcome it by changing something (processes, technology, training, staff levels, departmental structures, roles and responsibilities, artifacts, governance mechanisms, etc). Change requires more than simple communication. It requires a kind of in-person, face-to-face, listening and hearing and absorbing interaction that is difficult or impossible over written mechanisms like e-mail, word documents, and powerpoint presentations.
Our technology has led us to the point, in modern business, that we consider outsourcing and remote work to be a net benefit for all involved, but each of these “distance” mechanisms introduces the RISK of poor communication. That risk is magnified when the person on one end of the line is hoping to change something that the person on the other end is doing. Change is harder across distance, and that difficulty becomes magnified when dealing with the array of different interactions that are needed at the enterprise level.
I wonder if the PC revolution, that brought us personal access to written communication, has created a deep reliance on written communication in corporate processes. I wonder, further, if that access to technology isn’t directly harming our ability to look a person in the eyes and communicate with them.
As a culture, we have moved from the age of face-to-face all the way to text-messaging-someone-in-the-same-room in the course of a single generation.
Enterprise Architecture is more difficult because of this shift in communication patterns. All forms of face-to-face communication are hampered by it.
Modern technology has done more to damage interpersonal communication than any other paradigm shift in human history.
This worries me.
As an architect involved in an agile implementation (my current gig), you can imagine how interested I was to see that there’s a new book on Agile Architecture, and perhaps how disappointed I was to see that it focused on SOA and Cloud. That’s not to put down SOA or the cloud. I’m a huge fan of both. But it wasn’t the area of agility that I was hoping that a book, with that title, would address. The misunderstanding was mine, not the authors. I haven’t read the book yet, but I’m sure I will.
That moment of misunderstanding crystallized a thought: how even a two word phrase like “agile architecture” had two completely different meanings. The opening scene of the movie “The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey,” puts a rather humorous twist on this idea, when Gandalf introduces himself to Bilbo Baggins (who has apparently forgotten having met him as a boy).
Bilbo: Good Morning
Gandalf: What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not;
Bilbo: <stunned silence>
Gandalf: Or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
Bilbo: All of them at once, I suppose.
Of course, in Enterprise Architecture, we have the same problem. Does Enterprise Architecture mean “the practice of using technology architecture at an enterprise-wide scale,” or does it mean “the practice of using architectural ideas to shape the enterprise itself?”
And after a bit of stunned silence, perhaps it means
“Creating an architecture to describe the externalities of an enterprise to set its context and improve the relationships it has with customers, partners, and suppliers?”
All of them at once, I suppose.
Having just re-watched the Hobbit movie on my morning flight, these bits connected up in my head.
I’m proud to be both an architect of agility (applying the principles of agility to the processes of a business so that the business achieves the ability to change its own processes in response to agile demands), as well as a person who can craft technology architecture that reflects the notion of agility itself (technology that can be set up to change rapidly in response to business events).
All of them at once, I suppose.
Enterprise Architecture Objectives and Claims There are different views (and debates) on the objectives of Enterprise Architecture (EA); is it about describing and specifying (‘enterprise engineering approach’), or is it about understanding and insight (‘decision support approach’) or is about … Continue reading →
By Dana Gardner, Interarbor Solutions Listen to the recorded podcast here: Expert Panel Explores Enterprise Architecture and Business Architecture as Enterprise Transformation Agents, or read the transcript here. Dana Gardner: Hello, and welcome to a special BriefingsDirect Thought Leadership interview series, coming to you in conjunction with The Open Group Conference on April 15, in … … Continue reading →
Just how should we handle qualitative requirements in system-design and enterprise-architecture? Should we, for example, reframe them into quantitative terms, as metrics – because it’s a lot easier to keep track of ‘measurable things’? Over the past couple of days…
Taking place April 15-18, 2013, The Open Group Conference in Sydney will bring together industry experts to discuss the evolving role of Enterprise Architecture and how it transforms the enterprise. As the conference quickly approaches, let’s take a deeper look into the plenary sessions that kick-off day one and two. … Continue reading →
As the consumerization of technology continues to grow and converge, our way of constructing business models and systems need to evolve as well. We need to let data drive the business process, and incorporate intelligent machines like Watson into our infrastructure to help us turn data into actionable results. … Continue reading →
This is my fourteenth post in my series on BYOD. This recent article on Infoworld about how the US Department of Veterans’ Affairs has put its BYOD plans on hold illustrates the point that you need to consider and cover off employee privacy when implementing BYOD. As I understand the article, they are putting their […]