Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
There are days when you just know you are right. It may not happen often, and certainly not with every topic, but it happens – and there is nothing more frustrating than knowing to the depths of your knowing-place that the path upon which others have…
There are days when you just know you are right. It may not happen often, and certainly not with every topic, but it happens – and there is nothing more frustrating than knowing to the depths of your knowing-place that the path upon which others have…
Do you sometimes feel like an Enterprise Archaeologist instead of Enterprise Architect? :-)Please indulge me as I talk IT for a second. Age old legacy systems, thousands of shadow applications, complex dependencies and inability to respond to changing …
Do you sometimes feel like an Enterprise Archaeologist instead of Enterprise Architect? :-)Please indulge me as I talk IT for a second. Age old legacy systems, thousands of shadow applications, complex dependencies and inability to respond to changing …
I caught up with a friend the other day and we were talking about how her work was going. She described a series of different situations where she felt dis-empowered and demoralised.
There were things she saw that needed to change. She knew how to change them, but when she started investigating, talking to people, trying to make things better she received the equivalent of..
This manifested itself in several ways:
– Ego – why are you doing this?
– Territory – This is my thing
– Cultural – That’s not how we do things
– Process Obsession – That doesn’t fit our process
– Poor Management – i’m not going to support you
My friend was trying to change the Status Quo and when she tried, the Status Quo in both visible and invisible ways caused her to pause and think of stopping.
As we were talking i posed the question. ‘What if you were to act as if these things didn’t exist?’
As we explored answers to this question the idea and phrase of an ‘Invisible Coup’ came into my head.
The obstacles placed in front of my friend by the status quo are caused by the entrenched, incumbent networks of power. Why not create your own, new networks of power?
Why not create an ‘Invisible Coup’? what would the features of it be?
I’d like to be able to write that after our conversation my colleague went on and achieved all the things she wanted to, that wouldn’t be true. Change isn’t really like that is it. She is however continuing to engage, continuing to push, continuing to gather support.
As for me, the Invisible Coup is a mental model i return to when i reflect on the dull thud of hitting an obstacle to the change i want to see.
Is the Invisible Coup a useful metaphor? what do you think?
The old analogy is of a graceful Swan seemingly effortlessly gliding through the water, whilst out of sight its submerged legs are kicking furiously in unseen effort.
The ‘Inverted Swan’ is the antithesis of the traditional analogy. The swans legs are out of the water flailing and flapping ineffectively in the air, whilst underneath the water, who knows? where is the grace in the work?
I see the inverted Swan more than i’d like to. Lots of industry with little value produced. Often caused by:
There should always be room for grace.
There should always be room to progress from merely viable to loveable.
When do you see the inverted swan?
How could we make sure we see it less?
Since it is hosted in IT, EA does not live to expectations about its role in managing complexity, change, business and operating models or enabling strategy at enterprise level. It fails.
While this book is not an architecture book, I’ve always maintained that architects need to be across the entire project delivery life cycle. So I think it’s relevant. I’ll start with the book’s shortcomings, but don’t let them put you off, as it does have something to offer. To be frank, the style is a […]
No need to thank me, don’t worry this metamodel will be released under GPL. You can refer to it as ‘The Thing MetaModel’.
Some thoughts:
1) Some of the most effective architecture diagrams I’ve seen have been created using powerpoint objects
2) The stakeholder community that either understands or cares about the difference between modelling an object as a platform service/information system service/logical technology/application component/physical technology/application component is so small and the semantic impact so tiny that its not something you should worry about if you wish to be efficient and effective.
3) Effective and efficient Enterprise Architects should Nevermind the metabollocks and focus on delivering tangible value into the organisations with which they work by focusing on communicating effectively with stakeholders. Communicating effectively with stakeholders is not predicated on successfully navigating a metamodel. Your stakeholders don’t give a fuck about a metamodel.
Got my driving test soon, feel kinda confident about it, but know that if I fail, it will be because of something really dumb and basic. Jotted down a couple of reminders to help make sure they stick in my mind.
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole. – children’s song, Bergliederbüchlein (c 1700) In my prior article, I introduced the concept of a scope bucket to explain the concept of project scope to your stakeholders. In this article, I continue the theme with some […]
‘Precrastination’ is a recently coined word, specifically used to describe behaviour which is characterised by impatiently undertaking tasks, frequently despite having inadequate information and with careless disregard of the risks. Precrastinators: Exhibit the need for applying speed over rigour, May … Continue reading →