EA Voices

Finally I can see the end of the red line created by the great post from Ivo Velitchkov. So far I have created following posts:

1. drEAmtime – Communication
2. drEAmtime – Bridging the Silo
3. drEAmtime – Capability Cemetery
4. drEAmtime – EPIC SCAN
5. drEAmtime – Archetypes
6. drEAmtime – WISE SCAN
7. drEAmtime – PACE SCAN 
8. drEAmtime – Frameworks

Two more posts to go, this one and another final one. To quote Ivo: 

Then of course modelling itself is believed to help in dealing with complexity. But what kind of modelling? A very complicated architecture diagram does not show complexity. It just shows a lot of effort spent in denial of it.
 

Actually I personally believe that modelling is a great tool and support communication quite a lot, if applied correctly. I also have a couple of models here in my blog which help me to explain and visualize what I think. Looking at them isolated they are most likely confusing and difficult to understand, which makes it sometimes indeed difficult to use them alone. But in the support of the whole storyline, be it as part of a blog post or as part of a presentation the model helps to align the thinking. The one I refer to most here in the blog is actually the circulatory GLUE system:

Coming back to Ivos post there is jokes circulating around me: “When have you last time had a meeting with Kai without him using the whiteboard?” or “We are trained to sit so that we have free view towards the whiteboard.” Scott Ambler has heavily influenced my thinking with his great website about Agile Modeling besides a lot of great colleagues I had over the years who showed skilled approaches in supporting their line of argumentation with the right model at the right moment. I also liked his Whiteboard Warrior concept, but he has put it offline from his website. There is some traces left in the web though.

One of my key approaches is to draw while I speak. Many words (and I say and write a lot) are more often confusing than enlighting, while a single diagram just shows it. Finding those is not always easy, but the more I model the easier it is to create the right drawing at the moment when it is needed. So my advise is: draw to support your line of thinking, explain in pictures, add a story and the whole gets  its own life. Which most likely will return back to you one day, grown over time, transformed and morphed, but beautiful. I try to show Enterprise Architecture and the elements which are delivered via Enterprise Architecture in their full beauty, sometimes I fail, sometimes I succeed.


And a model which is beautiful will carry the story way longer and way more emotional than any dry facts. If Dennis Dutton is right with his assumption than it is rooted in human beeings. I found the success in this approach by try and error. Feedback and comments as always more than welcome.

It looks like as if I am getting closer in finishing my exploration of the great post from Ivo Velitchkov. So far I have created following posts:

1. drEAmtime – Communication
2. drEAmtime – Bridging the Silo
3. drEAmtime – Capability Cemetery
4. drEAmtime – EPIC SCAN
5. drEAmtime – Archetypes
6. drEAmtime – WISE SCAN
7. drEAmtime – PACE SCAN

To quote Ivo once more:

If you are an Enterprise Architect, a popular way to deal with complexity is to arm yourself with a framework. With a good framework, it is believed, you can do two things. First, reduce the variety of the enterprise to just a few things that share the same properties, according to some classification theory and where things doesn’t fit, add more layers of abstraction. And second, reduce the things you can possibly do to just a few but well defined and in a specific order, with well prescribed inputs and outputs, because that was common for so many organisations that did well so that it became a best practice, and the chances are, if you follow this way, it will do you well as well. Now, because of the shared understanding of the beneficial role of the abstract layers, and the boundaryless imagination unconstrained by the reality, there is a serious number of frame-works and on top of them other-works on how to adapt and adopt them.

And once more a lot of truth in it. One of the first things I learned while dealing with complexity actually was that it created panic. Even though it seemed to me quite obvious what the answer is and how to explain it by using an enormous amount of framework knowledge (of course shameless stolen from many) in my explanation I kind of did not really deliver the message. So my current working approach is to remind the audience of one simple short statement of wisdom: “Don’t Panic“.
I like to use frameworks, but the amount of frameworks is indeed enormous and heavily increasing (and I add one by bringing my GLUE thinking into the game). Pragmatic EA has an overview about frameworks which I personally find very interesting (GLUE is not in that list, because I did not register it so far and obviously no one else did).

So I do exactly what Ivo says: “Reduce the variety of the enterprise to just a few things that share the same properties” and it actually helps me to understand the complexity and trace broken information flows. So I personally find it very useful, but GLUE is of course at this very moment nothing else than an attempt to materialize my very own thinking where there was absolutely no need for any agreements with others. So it is strong for me, but most likely useless for everyone else. If you are interested in applying my thinking please let me know, I will see if I can somehow help you in understanding and applying my thoughts.

With respect to Ivos other statement: “And second, reduce the things you can possibly do to just a few but well defined and in a specific order, with well prescribed inputs and outputs, because that was common for so many organisations that did well so that it became a best practice, and the chances are, if you follow this way, it will do you well as well.” I have a different approach. I personally believe that GLUE always happens and is inevitable. So I personally don’t focus as a primary task on implementing one (or many if you look at the amount) framework, but instead I primarily look at broken information flows or GLUE diseases.

And those diseases I then try to fix, sometimes by proposing (and implementing) a framework, sometimes by inventing something new, sometimes by just talking to the people. It all depends on the context, but I try to guide the energy in the system in a way that it allows to emerge an solution.. It is of course very interesting (but not always relevant) to get hung up in discussion about frameworks or become really religious in applying some technique in one or the other way, but try to avoid that discussion, even though it is sometimes needed to cultivate collisions and by that look for something new (if lucky innovative).

Dell has just become one of the latest members to join The Open Group here in 2013. Dell joins as a Gold member along side many other high tech companies such as Apple, HP, IBM, Oracle and Microsoft to advance…