Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
Reblogged from Successful Workplace: Most of the information I read about disruption focuses on the fact it is happening all around us and warns that organizations should be prepared to deal with it. A quick read of the news tells … Continue reading →
I had had the pleasure of being on a panel of Enterprise Architecture (EA) experts at The Open Group Conference in Newport Beach, California. We were assembled to discuss complex trends such as big data, Cloud Computing, security, and overall…
In the first post about my first app, I quoted Tim Berners-Lee, who says “every single web page out there, if you like, is like a computer” with reference to HTML5. I took one single HTML5 web page and turned it into something “like a computer”, namely an app. I mentioned that Gartner talks about hybrid architecture, which “combines the portability of HTML5 […]
We recently assembled a panel of Enterprise Architecture (EA) experts to explain how such simultaneous and complex trends as big data, Cloud Computing, security, and overall IT transformation can be helped by the combined strengths of The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF®) and the ArchiMate® modeling language. … Continue reading →
@JohnZachman insists that his classification scheme is fixed—it is not negotiable. Comparing his Zachman Framework with the periodic table originally developed by Dmitri Mendeleev, he says, “You can’t argue with Mendeleev that he forgot a column in the periodic table”.
Well, actually, you can. If you look at the Wikipedia article on the Periodic Table, you can see the difference between Mendeleev’s original version and the modern version. Modern chemists now use a periodic table with 18 columns. As Wikipedia states, “Mendeleev’s periodic table has since been expanded and refined with the discovery or synthesis of further new elements and the development of new theoretical models to explain chemical behavior.”
What makes chemistry a science is precisely the fact that the periodic table is open to this kind of revision in the light of experimental discovery and improved theory. If the same isn’t true for the Zachman Framework, then it can hardly claim to be a proper science.
Some observers have noted that early versions of the Zachman Framework had fewer columns, and see this as a sign that the number of columns may be variable and open to discovery. But the Zachmanites reject this; they say that the six columns have always existed, it was just that the early presentations didn’t mention them all. “Humanity for the last 7,000 years has been able to work with what, how, who, where, when, and why.” (This sounds like a Just-So-Story – “How the Enterprise Architect Got His Toolset”)
Mr Zachman has a degree in chemistry, so he ought to understand what makes the Periodic table different from his own framework. However, some of his followers are less cautious in their claims. I found an article by one Sunil Dutt Jha, whose “proof” of the scientific nature of EA seemed to rely on two key facts (1) that Mendeleev transformed alchemy into chemistry by creating the periodic table, and (2) that the Zachman framework looks a bit like the periodic table, therefore (3) EA must be a science too.
An earlier version of this comment was posted on Linked-In Is it true to say that “Enterprise Architecture” is a scientific basis for creating, maintaining and running an Enterprise?
Erecting the Framework (Feb 2004) – John Zachman discussing his Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture in an interview with Dan Ruby
John P. Zachman, The Zachman Framework Evolution (2009-2011)
Sunil Dutt Jha, Biggest myth – “Enterprise Architecture is a discipline aimed at creating models” (January 2013)
See also
Richard Veryard, Satiable curtiosity (September 2009)
Alan Wall, Pattern Recognition and the Periodic Table (March 2013)
Link added 24 March 2013
We’re excited to announce the formation of a new forum, specifically designed to advance The Open Group vision of Boundaryless Information Flow™ by helping enterprises to take advantage of these convergent technologies. This will be accomplished by identifying a set of new platform capabilities, and architecting and standardizing an IT platform by which enterprises can reap the business benefits of Platform 3.0. Continue reading →
Once upon a time, people thought of an information model as defining the structure of the stuff you want to remember. Nowadays, this definition is too restrictive: it might possibly be adequate for a system/database designer, but is not adequat…
Let’s do a fun problem. Consider the following problem stated by Rudolf Arnheim (I’ll give the full reference later): One morning, exactly at 8 A.M., a monk began to climb a tall mountain. The narrow path, no more than a … Continue reading →
There is a growing interest among enterprise architects in systems theory or thinking. (In this context, the words “theory” and “thinking” seem to be for all intents and purposes interchangeable.) There are several possible reasons for this interest.1….
In recent years, organizations have pushed risk management and business support functions to the forefront in their efforts to improve company operations and performance. The finance department was typically the first to adopt new practices in process and quality improvement, … Continue reading →
In the professional world, inhabited by pretty much anyone likely to be reading this, we tend to borrow words from natural language to describe very specific concepts. Sometimes the usage is often a form of metaphor or analogy, but with familiarization that fact becomes forgotten and it becomes just another word we take for granted. Continue reading →
Below is a copy and paste of the document where i note down all my thoughts on what i’m calling ‘Open work’
I thought i’d share the raw shizzle in the interests of practising what I preach and trying to be as open as possible as I work these thoughts through (hopefully) into something coherent, useful and publishable. Enjoy! all comments welcome
Open Work
What is openness?
Openness is the freedom that is felt at a personal level and experienced in an organisational context to share thoughts feelings, opinions and information
Openness is also the receptiveness to receive what is shared
Openness is the culture that pervades social interactions that are based on freedom
Later on I need to talk about freedom and how to enable that freedom.
Leverage social proof
Don’t judge the sharer, judge the hoarder
Hoarding
The construct that i describe as Openness has both an organisational and personal element
because the Silos can be both be structural and interpersonal
show an organisation, function, team, interpersonal siloes
siloes that can be vertical within hierarchy or horizontol across functions.
graphic of horizontal and vertical partitions.
Ask yourself how many edges do I have, how many edges does my team have? My department? Directorate? How removed am I from these?
What pattern can you apply to break these down? link to fast iterations of virtual structures,
that revolve around hubs. what are the hubs?
Who are the hubs?
WHY?
Symptoms
Where does your orgs ideas come from?
E.g.g corporate goals
Who sponsors your change activity?
are two people/temas working on the same thing in isolation?
Are two intiatives unknowingly working to undermine each other?
are two changes competing for the same resource?
Is there conflict between business units, functions, teams people caused by competing goals?
Do you get different answers if you ask different employees what the organisations top 3 priorities are?
top down
bottom up
top up
bottom down
top bottom
up down
What is wrong with these words where is the width? (Flanking)
These words are part of a language of hierarchy that is anachronistic.
-Reject closed language
Recognise the language you use that is not open.
Compare contrast open/closed phrases, investigate the etymology of these words
E.g.
Buy-in
Post
Role
Function
Directorate
Structure
Organisation
Group
Alignment
Influence
Direct report
Subordinate
Meeting
Conference
Desk
Office
Work
Strategy
Outcome
Lead
Manager
Senior
1:1 (like its something special)
Presentation
Promotion
Hot desk
Go for a coffee
Deadline
Cascade
All hands
Rush hour
Deliverable
Stakeholder is there someone who isn’t a stakeholder?
Influence
Performance review
Transparency: of many things e.g. committments
Lunch and learn is a broken concept, why not learn the rest of the time, and why not in work time
Staff survey, do you share the results and raw data?
concepts/principles
Should I split these into, attitude, enablers, constraints, principles?
Leadership = openness
Be brave
‘Open Argument’, argument is not negative!!!
Conflict too strong word, but the debates are open and lead to a better position, rather than seething resentment
Task over structure
Negatives/things to look out for
Openness needs accountavility or you create cracks. May be counter uintuitive
Also decision making
Signal/Noise and noise reduction.
What are the mechanisms for noise reduction?
Timeliness
Context, tagging or do I need to go there
Cones of interest, sharing those up front. What do I need to know
-Context
Bring the contextual baggage to a conversation.
Move conversation through different mediums for maximum value e.g. Start conversation on desktop, continue on mobile
Relate data and meta data to conversations, e.g. Here is the conversation that led me to talk to you.
Design for collision
-radical/extreme/progressive sharing/shariarchy
-channels of discovery
-foster emergence
-Social architecture: (thinking stack/zachman etc)
-connectedness (connectivity and psychological sense by what? shared vision?
-finding
-serendipity design for
-ego-less
-embrace criticism but by embracing criticism how to avoid paralysis (too many arguments)
-Clear threshold for decision making – stops paralysis
-radical un-secrecy
-Virtual Structures
– finite structures, rapid iteration of create, grow, destroy
– task/problem networks (mayfly)
-Now-ness – relate to the when/tenses of sharing future, past, present
-Presence
– hire for compatibility, culture is context context is people, understand organisational context.
– Energy
– feel time
-ownership
-positively reinforce sharing
– Your goals -> our goals
reward/incentivise colab and sharing, how? measure engagement.
– Shared goals are your compass goals are your culture, the thing direction of travel
Embrace emerging structures
– space is not a barrier, space is not as big as it used to be
there are tools to enable skype, vc units, desktop vc mobile vc
Current State:
-No opportunity for serendepity
-Closed networks
-Entropy
Trends:
-Privacy as commodity/desensitisation
-Hyper sharing
-High bandwidth communication/consumption
-Open source, social networks,
– task/problem networks
Thoughts:
There is no reason not to share
There is no impediment to sharing
appendix
valve handbook
open business cushman 90/10?
References:
http://fasterfuture.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/the-10-principles-of-open-business.html
http://blog.ted.com/2013/01/24/why-radical-openness-is-unnerving-reshaping-and-necessary-a-qa-with-ted-ebook-authors-don-tapscott-and-anthony-d-williams/
http://www.ted.com/pages/tedbooks_library#TapscottWilliams
http://www.ted.com/talks/don_tapscott_four_principles_for_the_open_world_1.html
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671797/from-zappos-4-simple-hacks-to-foster-office-collaboration
gore tex
http://www.gore.com/en_xx/aboutus/culture/index.html
http://www.managementexchange.com/story/innovation-democracy-wl-gores-original-management-model
http://metro.co.uk/2013/02/25/facebook-twitter-or-email-what-do-we-share-online-and-why-3508887/