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

Form Follows Function on SPaMCast 373

This week’s episode of Tom Cagley’s Software Process and Measurement (SPaMCast) podcast, number 373, features Tom’s essay on #NotImplementedNoValue and a Form Follows Function installment on simplistic mental models. Tom and I discuss my post “All models may be wrong, but it’s not a contest to see how wrong you can be”, talking about cognitive […]

All models may be wrong, but it’s not a contest to see how wrong you can be

The one thing you can be sure of is that nothing is dependent on only one thing. Michael Feathers‘ tweet last week brought this to mind: Too often we construct simplistic mental models that fail to account for outcomes that are possible, but inconvenient for us in some way. As Aneel noted while discussing OODA […]

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

We Deliver Decisions (Who Needs Architects?)

What do medicine, situational awareness, economics, confirmation bias, and value all have to do with all have to do with the architectural design of software systems? Quite a lot, actually. To connect the dots, we need to start from the point of view that the architecture is essentially a set of design decisions intended to […]

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

Seven sins – 5: The Possession Problem

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 – 4: The Meaning Mistake

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