The Open Group San Diego Panel Explores Synergy Among Major Frameworks in Enterprise Architecture

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Following is a transcript of part of the proceedings from The Open Group San Diego event in February – a panel discussion on The Synergy of Enterprise Architecture frameworks. The following panel, which examines the synergy among the major Enterprise … Continue reading →

All Data as a Service (DaaS/BDaaS) – Who’s Your D-a-a-S Enabler?

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That’s where we’re headed, inexorably – you’d like to know what’s going on with your systems, what your customers or constituents need, or perhaps the latest metrics concerning device utilization trends during business events. And, you’d like this information (all of it, or lots of it) right now, in an easily consumable, visual, semantically-relevant way – to share with your community and to be automatically (or easily) ingested by your other systems or analysis tools. Secure & compliant, fast, portable, standardized if necessary, high quality.

But most of all, you’d like to pay only for the data and the way it’s delivered to you – not for a bunch of information technology products and services, hardware and software. You want data-as-a-service, as a consumer; i.e. explicit data units delivered via affordable service units. (Note the service deployment method might include Database-as-a-Service, i.e. DBaaS).

Or – you’re on the other side – you want to actually build the DaaS capability, to offer DaaS (or, perhaps a better term is a “Data Sharing Service” ) to your constituents or customers – as a provider.

There are three primary and distinct roles to consider, whether you’re building or buying DaaS – regardless of the type or characteristics of data that’s being exchanged; big data, open data, fast data, IoT/IoE data, metadata, microdata, multimedia content, structured, non-structured, semi-structured…ALL DATA.

  • The DaaS Consumer – who needs not only to acquire data from somewhere (in a way that shields them from the underlying technology concerns), but also then may use it to develop information apps and services, or repackage the data to share further with others.  The consumer assigns and realizes value from the service.
  • The DaaS Provider – who actually builds, markets and operates the business service and categorized storefront (or catalog), and brokers or stewards the data quality & availability, data rights, licenses and usage agreements between the consumers and the original data owners.  The provider creates, shapes and deploys the opportunities for value-enablement of specific data assets.
  • IT Services Management  – who design, implement and operate the information and data management infrastructure the DaaS Provider relies upon – and manage the IT component and services portfolio this infrastructure includes. For example the databases, virtualization technologies, data access services, storage and middleware capabilities. (Note that “IT Services Management” may be a wholly 3rd-party role, as well as a role within the DaaS Consumer or Provider organizations – there may be 3 or more IT Services Management domains).

There’s also a less distinct, more broadly relevant role – the DaaS Enabler. a.k.a. the “Enterprise Architect”, which can be a person, a role, or an organizational capability. The EA scope includes a heavy focus on enterprise “universal” information management and governance, infused (particularly in the Public Sector) with the currently vogue philosophies of SOA, Open Data, Mobility, Privacy-by-Design (PbD) and Cloud Computing. (Note that DaaS does not have to be delivered via a “cloud” deployment model – it’s equally-applicable delivered as a private data services virtualization platform, for example).

Information management includes the entire lifecycle of “information as an asset” capabilities in an enterprise, and into the stakeholder ecosystem – from the data sources, their ingest and “staging/data quality”, to storage in various repositories and access via information & data services, user interfaces and ultimately information-sharing and digital engagement services.  (See more of Oracle’s “Enterprise Information Architecture” ).

The DaaS Enabler (as a person) might be known by other titles, like Chief Data Officer, Chief Information Officer, DaaS Architect, Information Architect – maybe even Chief Innovation Officer (focusing on data assets); regardless of the title, the experience and scope of attention is as mentioned above, coordinated across all three service roles.  EA skills are essential, because DaaS enablement includes people, processes, technology and information concerns.

Each service role (Consumer, Provider, IT Management) benefits from the DaaS Enabler, particularly given the fact that the maximum value to be realized by each role’s investment in effort and resources – is collaboratively dependent on the others, and dependent on acknowledgement of proven, trusted, pragmatic enterprise architecture principles.

Oracle is an example of a DaaS Provider  – empowering businesses and public sector organizations (i.e. DaaS Consumers) to “use data as a standalone asset and connect with partner data to make smarter decisions. Oracle DaaS is a service in Oracle Cloud that offers the most variety, scale, and connectivity in the industry, including cross-channel, cross-device, and known and anonymous data.” 

Oracle is also a DaaS Enabler – as an organizational capability, for DaaS Consumers, Providers and IT Services Management.  This includes people (Enterprise Architects, supporting organizations and communities), processes (DaaS engineering, deployment and operations models, case studies, tools and business services), technology (DaaS information and device technologies, tools and platforms, hardware and software) and information (data assets, reference architectures, knowledge capital).

Creating or using Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), Big Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS), or any other DaaS initiative, exposed to the public or entirely within your enterprise?  Identify your DaaS Enabler(s).

All Data as a Service (DaaS/BDaaS) – Who’s Your D-a-a-S Enabler?

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There are three primary and distinct roles to consider, whether
you’re building or buying DaaS – regardless of the type or
characteristics of data that’s being exchanged; big data, open data,
fast data, IoT/IoE data, metadata, microdata, multimedia content,
structured, non-structured, semi-structured…ALL DATA.

The DaaS Consumer – who needs not only to acquire data from
somewhere (in a way that shields them from the underlying technology
concerns), but also then may use it to develop information apps and
services, or repackage the data to share further with others.  The
consumer assigns and realizes value from the service.

The DaaS Provider – who actually builds, markets and
operates the business service and categorized storefront (or catalog),
and brokers or stewards the data quality & availability, data
rights, licenses and usage agreements between the consumers and the
original data owners.  The provider creates, shapes and deploys the
opportunities for value-enablement of specific data assets.

IT Services Management  – who design, implement and operate
the information and data management infrastructure the DaaS Provider
relies upon – and manage the IT component and services portfolio this
infrastructure includes. For example the databases, virtualization
technologies, data access services, storage and middleware capabilities.
(Note that “IT Services Management” may be a wholly 3rd-party role, as
well as a role within the DaaS Consumer or Provider organizations –
there may be 3 or more IT Services Management domains).

There’s also a less distinct, more broadly relevant role – the DaaS Enabler.
a.k.a. the “Enterprise Architect”, which can be a person, a role, or an
organizational capability. The EA scope includes a heavy focus on
enterprise “universal” information management and governance, infused
(particularly in the Public Sector) with the currently vogue
philosophies of SOA, Open Data, Mobility, Privacy-by-Design (PbD)
and Cloud Computing. (Note that DaaS does not have to be delivered via a
“cloud” deployment model – it’s equally-applicable delivered as a
private data services virtualization platform, for example).

Microservices Unplugged

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Given my (well-known and enduring) interest in all aspects of services, I have followed Martin Fowler’s writing on microservices. But I will admit I always found the original paper more confusing than insightful. And in my client work I have resisted the temptation to use a microservices pattern, for precisely the reason that it would more than likely confuse. So I was interested to see the book Building Microservices by Sam Newman published last month, particularly as Newman is part of the Thoughtworks stable, which presumably means it is authoritative.  

Right off the bat, Newman advises that we should “think of microservices as a specific approach for SOA in the same way that XP or Scrum are specific approaches for Agile Software development”. These analogies are very interesting because my expectation was that microservices is a pattern. So I might infer that microservices is a set of process techniques as opposed to an architectural approach. Yet in the book, Newman clearly includes some elements of concept model and architecture as well as process and organization.

Probably the biggest weakness of Newman’s book is the absence of a coherent reference model. He discusses a series of heuristics such as:

                – Microservices are small, autonomous services that work together.

                – With high cohesion.

                – Gather those things that change for the same reason, and separate those things that change for different reasons.

                – Using business boundaries.

                – How small is small? Could be written in 2 weeks; small enough and no smaller; can be managed by a small team

                – Separate entity. All communications between services are network calls. Decoupled. Minimum dependency.

                – We need to think about what our services expose, and what they should allow to be hidden. If there is too much sharing our consuming services become coupled to internal representations.

And these are mostly useful principles, but are most unlikely to guide a consistent approach. Given Martin Fowler’s involvement, I would have expected at least some good patterns. But mature SOA needs a defined concept model, like CBDI-SAE, SOA-RM etc.

This lack of clarity is fundamental. Many organizations treat operations as services, and they typically end up with thousands of services. They will be confused by the very term microservice because they already have what they perceive as small services. Perhaps the term microservice has been chosen because of the ubiquitous use of the ITIL service, which undoubtedly means monolith. Most mature SOA organizations define services and operations as a primary technique to establish cohesion guided by reference models such as SOA-RM and CBDI-SAE. Just as important is the clarity and precision around specifications or contracts and what is exposed to consumers (APIs) and providers. Yet the book contains nothing on the subject of rich service specification or contract as the primary means of achieving implementation independence and business alignment. Organizations adopting microservices will need a defined reference model. Without that there will be architecture governance by personal opinion. I wonder how Thoughtworks advise their clients in this area? 

The book contains some quite general advice on business capability based decomposition – which is a tried and tested method of defining services. However there is little or no advice on what a well-formed business capability is, it’s characteristics and governance considerations. In my experience this is an area for considerable confusion; the business capability concept is so well known, but little understood, it’s an accident waiting to happen. And as for the relationship between capability and service, there’s no model provided, and more importantly, the granularity of a business capability service is likely to be non-trivial.

Similarly there’s no guidance on types of service. Do all services contain a mix of channel, process, business and data behaviors? Which you might expect given the explicit advice to gather those things that change for the same reason, and separate those things that change for different reasons.

The one area that might be helpful is the concept that microservices are highly autonomous, and a capability cluster of services would be a unit of deployment. But sadly for Newman, this is an idea that I and my colleagues worked on and popularized nearly 20 years ago. We called it Component Based Development, and the concept was closely allied to Rich Service Specifications which enforced the component boundaries, a concept that seems to have escaped him.

Once upon a time I had expected there to be a microservice pattern. But having read the book, all I see is a set of established ideas being rehashed in a very superficial manner, under a new name; with many key concepts missing or misunderstood. Apparently there is a lack of consensus on how to do SOA well. That failure of SOA is caused by vendors’ products, issues with granularity or picking wrong places to split a system. These assessments of the problem illustrate the lack of understanding of the author and his colleagues. Yes, there have been SOA failures, but mostly they have arisen through a) a focus on integration technology not business, or b) lack of reference model, reference architecture and governance. As an aside, in mature SOA we don’t consider “places to split a system”; we define the scope of a service using well defined heuristics and techniques that vary by type of service. To claim therefore that microservices is the answer to problems with SOA is downright disingenuous. And given the amount of hype I see about the topic generated by supposedly responsible organizations such as Thoughtworks and Gartner, that’s downright irresponsible. Disappointing. 

Public Domain information on Mature SOA architecture and delivery practices

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Microservices Unplugged

by
Given my (well-known and enduring) interest in all aspects of services, I have followed Martin Fowler’s writing on microservices. But I will admit I always found the original paper more confusing than insightful. And in my client work I have resisted the temptation to use a microservices pattern, for precisely the reason that it would more than likely confuse. So I was interested to see the book Building Microservices by Sam Newman published last month, particularly as Newman is part of the Thoughtworks stable, which presumably means it is authoritative.  

Right off the bat, Newman advises that we should “think of microservices as a specific approach for SOA in the same way that XP or Scrum are specific approaches for Agile Software development”. These analogies are very interesting because my expectation was that microservices is a pattern. So I might infer that microservices is a set of process techniques as opposed to an architectural approach. Yet in the book, Newman clearly includes some elements of concept model and architecture as well as process and organization.

Probably the biggest weakness of Newman’s book is the absence of a coherent reference model. He discusses a series of heuristics such as:

                – Microservices are small, autonomous services that work together.

                – With high cohesion.

                – Gather those things that change for the same reason, and separate those things that change for different reasons.

                – Using business boundaries.

                – How small is small? Could be written in 2 weeks; small enough and no smaller; can be managed by a small team

                – Separate entity. All communications between services are network calls. Decoupled. Minimum dependency.

                – We need to think about what our services expose, and what they should allow to be hidden. If there is too much sharing our consuming services become coupled to internal representations.

And these are mostly useful principles, but are most unlikely to guide a consistent approach. Given Martin Fowler’s involvement, I would have expected at least some good patterns. But mature SOA needs a defined concept model, like CBDI-SAE, SOA-RM etc.

This lack of clarity is fundamental. Many organizations treat operations as services, and they typically end up with thousands of services. They will be confused by the very term microservice because they already have what they perceive as small services. Perhaps the term microservice has been chosen because of the ubiquitous use of the ITIL service, which undoubtedly means monolith. Most mature SOA organizations define services and operations as a primary technique to establish cohesion guided by reference models such as SOA-RM and CBDI-SAE. Just as important is the clarity and precision around specifications or contracts and what is exposed to consumers (APIs) and providers. Yet the book contains nothing on the subject of rich service specification or contract as the primary means of achieving implementation independence and business alignment. Organizations adopting microservices will need a defined reference model. Without that there will be architecture governance by personal opinion. I wonder how Thoughtworks advise their clients in this area? 

The book contains some quite general advice on business capability based decomposition – which is a tried and tested method of defining services. However there is little or no advice on what a well-formed business capability is, it’s characteristics and governance considerations. In my experience this is an area for considerable confusion; the business capability concept is so well known, but little understood, it’s an accident waiting to happen. And as for the relationship between capability and service, there’s no model provided, and more importantly, the granularity of a business capability service is likely to be non-trivial.

Similarly there’s no guidance on types of service. Do all services contain a mix of channel, process, business and data behaviors? Which you might expect given the explicit advice to gather those things that change for the same reason, and separate those things that change for different reasons.

The one area that might be helpful is the concept that microservices are highly autonomous, and a capability cluster of services would be a unit of deployment. But sadly for Newman, this is an idea that I and my colleagues worked on and popularized nearly 20 years ago. We called it Component Based Development, and the concept was closely allied to Rich Service Specifications which enforced the component boundaries, a concept that seems to have escaped him.

Once upon a time I had expected there to be a microservice pattern. But having read the book, all I see is a set of established ideas being rehashed in a very superficial manner, under a new name; with many key concepts missing or misunderstood. Apparently there is a lack of consensus on how to do SOA well. That failure of SOA is caused by vendors’ products, issues with granularity or picking wrong places to split a system. These assessments of the problem illustrate the lack of understanding of the author and his colleagues. Yes, there have been SOA failures, but mostly they have arisen through a) a focus on integration technology not business, or b) lack of reference model, reference architecture and governance. As an aside, in mature SOA we don’t consider “places to split a system”; we define the scope of a service using well defined heuristics and techniques that vary by type of service. To claim therefore that microservices is the answer to problems with SOA is downright disingenuous. And given the amount of hype I see about the topic generated by supposedly responsible organizations such as Thoughtworks and Gartner, that’s downright irresponsible. Disappointing. 

Public Domain information on Mature SOA architecture and delivery practices

——————————————————————————————

What’s A Strategy?

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Link to article
Recently, I was asked this simple question: What is a strategy?
According to this article a business strategy is: the result of choices executives make, on where to play and how to win, to maximize long-term value. 

Which seems reasonable enough definition, for the CEO, but doesn’t really help those who need to think strategically about other initiatives,  like, for example,  business change programmes. 

Here’s some thoughts on what a strategy is, and what it isn’t:


A strategy:
– Tells a story

– Is future focused

– Can apply to short, medium on long term futures

– Provides focus on what is important (and what isn’t)
– Is actionable

– Is a framework for decision-making

– Is holistic – considers changing environment & external events

– Examines alternatives

– Assesses risks

– Takes step back from Business As Usual – it is an abstraction from the current operation
– Can be emergent and living: will undergo revisions and course-corrections.
– Is a reference point for dealing with emergent change
– Is ‘WHY’, ‘WHAT’, ‘WHEN’ and ‘HOW’ focused. The ‘HOW’ in a strategy is a ‘Meta-HOW’:  often speaking to unknowns and unplanned (unknowable) events. The ‘WHEN’ is often more sequence focused than time-definite


– Is a choice

What a strategy isn’t:

– A detailed plan of activities

– A grand design

– A set of desired aims/objectives ( although these might be the basis)
– A mission statement

– A budget plan

– A collection of pre-determined projects

– A list of possibilities (technology-based or otherwise)

– Only applicable to ‘big’ or ‘long-term’ change (things often labelled as ‘strategic’).

Addendum:
I recommend reading Roger Martin’s wise words on the subject of Stategy.  A few quotes from his post:

“The problem with a lot of strategies is that they are full of non-choices. Probably most of us have read more than a few so-called strategies that say something like, “Our strategy is to be customer centric.” But is that really a choice?”

“I would argue that 90 percent of the strategic plans I’ve seen in my life are really more accurately described as budgets with prose”.

“If you’re into destroying innovation, two words—”prove” and “it”—will do the trick”.

What’s A Strategy?

by

Link to article
Recently, I was asked this simple question: What is a strategy?
According to this article a business strategy is: the result of choices executives make, on where to play and how to win, to maximize long-term value. 

Which seems reasonable enough definition, for the CEO, but doesn’t really help those who need to think strategically about other initiatives,  like, for example,  business change programmes. 

Here’s some thoughts on what a strategy is, and what it isn’t:


A strategy:
– Tells a story

– Is future focused

– Can apply to short, medium on long term futures

– Provides focus on what is important (and what isn’t)
– Is actionable

– Is a framework for decision-making

– Is holistic – considers changing environment & external events

– Examines alternatives

– Assesses risks

– Takes step back from Business As Usual – it is an abstraction from the current operation
– Can be emergent and living: will undergo revisions and course-corrections.
– Is a reference point for dealing with emergent change
– Is ‘WHY’, ‘WHAT’, ‘WHEN’ and ‘HOW’ focused. The ‘HOW’ in a strategy is a ‘Meta-HOW’:  often speaking to unknowns and unplanned (unknowable) events. The ‘WHEN’ is often more sequence focused than time-definite


– Is a choice

What a strategy isn’t:

– A detailed plan of activities

– A grand design

– A set of desired aims/objectives ( although these might be the basis)
– A mission statement

– A budget plan

– A collection of pre-determined projects

– A list of possibilities (technology-based or otherwise)

– Only applicable to ‘big’ or ‘long-term’ change (things often labelled as ‘strategic’).

Addendum:
I recommend reading Roger Martin’s wise words on the subject of Stategy.  A few quotes from his post:

“The problem with a lot of strategies is that they are full of non-choices. Probably most of us have read more than a few so-called strategies that say something like, “Our strategy is to be customer centric.” But is that really a choice?”

“I would argue that 90 percent of the strategic plans I’ve seen in my life are really more accurately described as budgets with prose”.

“If you’re into destroying innovation, two words—”prove” and “it”—will do the trick”.

Mastering ArchiMate

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This is not your usual architecture book as its title suggests it is about modelling using the ArchiMate notation. The author doesn’t promote any particular tool and concentrates on the notation, which recently underwent a major revision. Whether you are new to ArchiMate or have been using it for some time I think you’ll find […]