QualiWare Conference Coming Up

On 5-6 May, at Axelborg in Copenhagen, we hold the QualiWare user community’s annual gathering. The two days are packed with keynotes, thematic sessions, and customer cases. And a game. We have four keynotes: The future of managed business transformation by Kuno Brodersen The Fourth Industrial Revolution: How “Industry 4.0” becomes Smart Production by Professor Charles Møller Expanding […]

Sharing the Solution Domain Taxonomy

Sometimes, Enterprise Architecture efforts fail.  This is no surprise to folks in the EA business.  This failure occurred slowly, back in 2007 and 2008.  But it did occur.  It took me a while to realize it. 

I had developed a method useful for Application Portfolio Management as well as for Service Oriented Architecture called “Solution Domains”.  The method is good.  It’s a framework and taxonomy for high level descriptions of software so that generalized services can be created AND so that the portfolio of applications can be rationalized.

The method is good.  But I failed to position it’s use in the appropriate enterprise program in the appropriate way.  I failed.  Not the method.  Where we used the method, it worked brilliantly. 

I’ve learned from my mistakes, but being unwilling to let a good thing go to waste, I’m sharing the Solution Domain taxonomy with the world.  It’s not patentable (I tried).  It is useful, however, because it is a part of a business method that supports Application Portfolio Management in a completely technology agnostic manner as well as Middle-Out SOA.

I’ve put the entire taxonomy on my Enterprise Business Motivation Model site at: http://motivationmodel.com/wp/application-portfolio-management-and-solution-domains/ 

I may return here, at some point, and provide further details on how it can be effectively used.  For now, back to work!

The Open Group Madrid 2015 – Day Two Highlights

By The Open Group On Tuesday, April 21, Allen Brown, President & CEO of The Open Group, began the plenary presenting highlights of the work going on in The Open Group Forums. The Open Group is approaching 500 memberships in … Continue reading

Sharing the Solution Domain Taxonomy

Sometimes, Enterprise Architecture efforts fail.  This is no surprise to folks in the EA business.  This failure occurred slowly, back in 2007 and 2008.  But it did occur.  It took me a while to realize it.  I had developed a method useful for Application Portfolio Management as well as for Service Oriented Architecture called “Solution…

Agile and Wilful Blindness

@ruthmalan challenges @swardley on #Agile

Asked what is agile? It’s a method of reducing the cost of change when developing an uncertain act.
— swardley (@swardley) April 21, 2015

@swardley have you seen John Seddon’s quip: “Waterfall: doing the wrong thing righter. Agile: doing the wrong thing faster.”?
— ruth malan (@ruthmalan) April 21, 2015

@swardley in theory 🙂 What we’re paying attention to shapes what we perceive and pay attention to. etc.
— ruth malan (@ruthmalan) April 21, 2015

@swardley I was making a sophisticated/nuanced point. We canalize — we think we’re open to finding misdirection but it’s hard
— ruth malan (@ruthmalan) April 21, 2015


Some things are easier to change than others. The architect Frank Duffy proposed a theory of Shearing Layers, which was further developed and popularized by Stuart Brand. In this theory, the site and structure of a building are the most difficult to change, while skin and services are easier.

Let’s suppose Agile developers know how to optimize some of the aspects of a system, perhaps including skin and services. So it doesn’t matter if they get the skin and services wrong, because these can be changed later. This is the basic for @swardley’s point that you don’t need to know beforehand exactly what you are building.

But if they get the fundamentals wrong, such as site and structure, these are more difficult to change later. This is the basis for John Seddon’s point that Agile may simply build the wrong things faster.

And this is where @ruthmalan takes the argument to the next level. Because Agile developers are paying attention to the things they know how to change (skin, services), they may fail to pay attention to the things they don’t know how to change (site, structure). So they can throw themselves into refining and improving a system until it looks satisfactory (in their eyes), without ever seeing that it’s the wrong system in the wrong place.

One important function of architecture is to pay attention to the things that other people (such as developers) may miss – perhaps as a result of different scope or perspective or time horizon. In particular, architecture needs to pay attention to the things that are going to be most difficult or expensive to change, or that may affect the lifetime cost of some system. In other words, strategic risk. See my earlier post A Cautionary Tale (October 2012).


Wikipedia: Shearing Layers

Agile and Wilful Blindness

@ruthmalan challenges @swardley on #Agile

Asked what is agile? It’s a method of reducing the cost of change when developing an uncertain act.
— swardley (@swardley) April 21, 2015

@swardley have you seen John Seddon’s quip: “Waterfall: doing the wrong thing righter. Agile: doing the wrong thing faster.”?
— ruth malan (@ruthmalan) April 21, 2015

@swardley in theory 🙂 What we’re paying attention to shapes what we perceive and pay attention to. etc.
— ruth malan (@ruthmalan) April 21, 2015

@swardley I was making a sophisticated/nuanced point. We canalize — we think we’re open to finding misdirection but it’s hard
— ruth malan (@ruthmalan) April 21, 2015


Some things are easier to change than others. The architect Frank Duffy proposed a theory of Shearing Layers, which was further developed and popularized by Stuart Brand. In this theory, the site and structure of a building are the most difficult to change, while skin and services are easier.

Let’s suppose Agile developers know how to optimize some of the aspects of a system, perhaps including skin and services. So it doesn’t matter if they get the skin and services wrong, because these can be changed later. This is the basic for @swardley’s point that you don’t need to know beforehand exactly what you are building.

But if they get the fundamentals wrong, such as site and structure, these are more difficult to change later. This is the basis for John Seddon’s point that Agile may simply build the wrong things faster.

And this is where @ruthmalan takes the argument to the next level. Because Agile developers are paying attention to the things they know how to change (skin, services), they may fail to pay attention to the things they don’t know how to change (site, structure). So they can throw themselves into refining and improving a system until it looks satisfactory (in their eyes), without ever seeing that it’s the wrong system in the wrong place.

One important function of architecture is to pay attention to the things that other people (such as developers) may miss – perhaps as a result of different scope or perspective or time horizon. In particular, architecture needs to pay attention to the things that are going to be most difficult or expensive to change, or that may affect the lifetime cost of some system. In other words, strategic risk. See my earlier post A Cautionary Tale (October 2012).


Wikipedia: Shearing Layers

“Force Generation” Architecture: Transition phase

In our previous article we explained how a commander started to initially prepare his organisation – the “Cold Phase”. He got his troops organized and in basic working order. His military capability – an organized element with a specific mode of operation to a specific end – encompassed several ‘building blocks’: staff, basic training, doctrine, equipment, combat drills and joint exercises. Ready for action? Not yet!