Employees roles and company culture

Part of the efficiency of a company relies on the efficiency of its processes. Ideally, these processes  are defined by identifying external actors (customers, providers, …) then by analysing the interaction between these actors and the company (business processes) and finally by defining how these interactions are managed and supported internally by the company (internal […]

Too efficient ?

Each company is functioning at its own pace, its own rhythm. If an employee has the required abilities for his assigned role but is functioning slower than the average, he is potentially in trouble because he will most probably not be able to adapt quickly enough or to simply deliver on time. But when an […]

The shadow of the enterprise

The “shadow” [1] is a concept that has been introduced by Carl Gustav Jung, the father of analytical psychology. To put it simply it is not something negative, it is all that is unconscious in an individual and that drives a substantial part of his actions … This notion of “shadow” is also at work at the […]

Power, Process, Project, People

I keep writing about People, because I strongly believe that in the end the only thing which really matters is people, like in the Agile Manifesto: Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools.

In the past days I have seen plenty of interesting posts putting various concepts in the focus. One caught my attention and is very much worth to read:

RT @davidsprott: The shape of the next generation EA framework. t.co/dolaKQtb #CIO #ecosystem #services #entarch
— Tom Graves (@tetradian) 18. Februar 2013

This post followed some back and forth twittering and it was a very enjoyable discussion. It triggered some thinking I wanted to reflect already for a while, because every now and then I see an interesting tendency to market something as the one and only way on how to look at the world or solutions, be it IT or non IT.

Coming back to people I want to reflect on three forces especially which I observe every day and what I do to work with them or what I see in the typical Enterprise Architecture approaches. The three forces are (for each one definition from Oxford Dictionaries):

  • Power – The ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority.
  • ProjectAn individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.
  • Process – A systematic series of mechanized or chemical operations that are performed in order to produce something. 


The definition of process and project is sometimes confusing if compared, so for simplification I typically differentiate by using project in the context of unique deliveries and process if the deliveries are repeatable. These three forces have a different effect on people, and each and every person has a different opinion what type of force he prefers, but in typical organizations all three forces exist in co-existence and influence each other. The key to all these three powers in the end is the People though and interesting enough they get quite often forgotten.

This is only the first post in a series, otherwise it is getting too long. The next post will be about power. If you have any input to give straight away then I am happy to read or hear from you.

Power, Process, Project, People

I keep writing about People, because I strongly believe that in the end the only thing which really matters is people, like in the Agile Manifesto: Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools.

In the past days I have seen plenty of interesting posts putting various concepts in the focus. One caught my attention and is very much worth to read:

RT @davidsprott: The shape of the next generation EA framework. t.co/dolaKQtb #CIO #ecosystem #services #entarch
— Tom Graves (@tetradian) 18. Februar 2013

This post followed some back and forth twittering and it was a very enjoyable discussion. It triggered some thinking I wanted to reflect already for a while, because every now and then I see an interesting tendency to market something as the one and only way on how to look at the world or solutions, be it IT or non IT.

Coming back to people I want to reflect on three forces especially which I observe every day and what I do to work with them or what I see in the typical Enterprise Architecture approaches. The three forces are (for each one definition from Oxford Dictionaries):

  • Power – The ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority.
  • ProjectAn individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.
  • Process – A systematic series of mechanized or chemical operations that are performed in order to produce something. 


The definition of process and project is sometimes confusing if compared, so for simplification I typically differentiate by using project in the context of unique deliveries and process if the deliveries are repeatable. These three forces have a different effect on people, and each and every person has a different opinion what type of force he prefers, but in typical organizations all three forces exist in co-existence and influence each other. The key to all these three powers in the end is the People though and interesting enough they get quite often forgotten.

This is only the first post in a series, otherwise it is getting too long. The next post will be about power. If you have any input to give straight away then I am happy to read or hear from you.

Nogility

Large technology organizations don’t simply become agile. They’re either agile or not. If they’re not, the path to being so is via change, often radical change at that.

Modelling people in enterprise-architecture

As mentioned in the previous post, one of the key characteristics of ‘crossing the chasm’ to a viable whole-of-enterprise architecture is the explicit inclusion of people. In short, we need to be able to model and map where people fit in relation to the architecture.
But there’s a catch. A big catch. People should not be […]

The Art of Enterprise Architecture – Section Fourteen – The Enterprise Architecture Way

The Enterprise Architecture Way is a simple four steps and two rules based on harnessing the knowledge and experience of you and the rest of the people in the system. The 4 steps Observe the environment that you expect to take part in. Orient your selves to the level of detail you judge necessary to […]