Architecture-by-definition is an anti-pattern. The goal of a…

Architecture-by-definition is an anti-pattern.

The goal of a definition is to remove noise. 

You add another layer of noise when your definitions are model-specific sub-definitions for commonly understood terms. For example: service, product, capability, or system.

Special definitions introduce an additional cognitive load that easily outweighs the benefits of a more sophisticated model.

Service, function and capability (an addendum)

How can we clarify the confusion over service, capability and function in enterprise-architecture models? Andrew Marosy made a comment to my previous post on this that really needs to be brought out here in full: You can also visualise a

Service, function and capability (again)

How can we distinguish between service, capability and function in enterprise-architecture models? This is one of those perennial questions that keeps returning time and time again, and it’s one of the key confusions that Enterprise Canvas aims to resolve. But

The social construction of process

That previous post on process was, yes, I’ll admit it, a bit long: but the key point is that the term ‘process’ is necessarily a bit blurred, and that we get into trouble if we try too hard to sharpen up