10 Must Have Skills for IT Architects

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Het bericht 10 Must Have Skills for IT Architects verscheen eerst op Rob Vens.

The Physical Environment and its Outcomes

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A dispute is currently raging between the UK Department for Education and the architecture profession. Famous architects such as Lord Rogers are demanding the right to design fancy schools, appealing to studies indicating that a well-designed environment can improve learning outcomes for schoolchildren. However, Michael Gove claims that school building costs can be reduced by 30% by reducing unnecessary space and eliminating “frills”. A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “There is no convincing evidence that spending enormous sums of money on school
buildings leads to increased attainment. An excellent curriculum, great
leadership and inspirational teaching are the keys to driving up
standards.”

I haven’t studied the detailed evidence myself, but I suspect the truth is somewhere between these two positions. The study identifies such factors as lighting, circulation, acoustics, individuality and colour. Politicians who spent their own childhood in stuffy or draughty classrooms with flickering flourescent lighting may imagine these factors to be character-building, but surely most people will think that children and teachers deserve a decent environment.

But surely a decent environment doesn’t need to cost an extra 40%. Is white paint so much cheaper than a nice colour? Does poor lighting and inefficient air conditioning really save money? Or does the 30% saving really come from cramming more pupils into less space?

And to what extent is Lord Rogers’s complaint really about these factors? Perhaps it is more about the architecture profession’s desire to create exciting and iconic buildings, with lots of curves. Can a curve be cost-justified in terms of educational attainment? Conversely, is the banning of curves merely a symbolic gesture on Gove’s part?

There are several problems with this kind of debate. Firstly, the people who have the greatest knowledge and expertise are seen as having a vested interest in expensive solutions. Secondly, other stakeholders sceptical that the expense can be justified (in terms of ROI) and tending to regard good architecture (whatever that means) as an expensive luxury. Thirdly, a tiny amount of genuine evidence gets stretched very thinly, through rival interpretations and extrapolations and opinions. And finally, the complex relationship between cost and benefit gets overlaid with politically motivated simplicities.

Well, that’s architecture for you.

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Let the Chief Architect take the lead during 2013

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The Chief Architect have an excellent opportunity to step up and take the reigns during 2013. To aid in focusing the effort of the Chief Architect there is The Wheel of Leadership and The Art of Enterprise Architecture to focus mind and body. Continuing to strengthen the support of the Chief Architect let me introduce The […]

What have I done this year?

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At the start of this year of 2012 I decided that I was going to get off my arse and do things, work on the ideas that are always flying around my head and actually, not just work on them, but finish them as well!

(These are all non-day job related things, ill save all that stuff for another post)

I started off the year with the first version of ‘songs as a service’:
http://songsasaservice.wordpress.com

I then took my first stab at ebook publishing by writing a parody ‘business book’ called ‘How to be a dick’:

http://leanpub.com/howtobeadick

Then I wrote a 30 day diary recording me using Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategies’:

http://leanpub.com/30daysonobliquestrategies

I then rounded off the year with a 2nd version of ‘songs as a service’:
http://www.songsasaservice.com

Some of these things were successful, some were not, but most importantly they were all fun experiences that I learnt a lot from. My hope for 2013 is to build on the confidence that working on these things have given me and do something even more challenging in the coming year.

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How information systems learn

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In his book “How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built,” Stewart Brand notes that building architectures are mainly designed from the spatial perspective, whereas the temporal dimension receives less attention. Building on the notion of She…

Togaf and GERAM

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[amazon_image id=”3642055664″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Handbook on Enterprise Architecture (International Handbooks on Information Systems)[/amazon_image] Some time ago I read this book on Enterprise Architecture, which is a compilation of various chapters about the GERAM framework for Enterprise Architecture. Now, while very extensive it seems that GERAM is dead. The last publications on the standard date […]

Het bericht Togaf and GERAM verscheen eerst op Rob Vens.

Link Collection — December 30, 2012

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  • The Rise of the Attention Economy by Esther Dyson – Project Syndicate

    “This is not the familiar question of whether our machines will put us all out of work. In fact, the question is whether we will start doing more and more intellectual work for free or for barter, becoming more like our ancestors. Instead of producing food or housing for ourselves or for barter, we will be producing content and amusement for one another, without engaging in explicit (taxable) financial exchange. Yes, there is a so-called gift economy, but there is also an attention market that may not be fungible or priced – a distributed, many-to-many economy that harks back to the old days.”

    tags: dyson attention

  • What entrepreneurs can learn from artists – Fortune Management

    Finally, my youthful art escapades are validated:

    “Indeed, the “art” of business has become more important as the “science” grows ubiquitous. As Big Data and sophisticated analytical tools allow us to make our processes more efficient, intuition and creativity are fast becoming the only differentiating factors among competitors. Like any “soft asset,” these qualities cannot be exploited, only explored. And like artists, innovators must cultivate creative habits to see the world afresh and create something new.
    How do artists think and behave? Here are 12 traits”

    tags: entrepreneurs artists leadership

  • Everything You Need To Know About the Economy in 2012, in 34 Charts – Matthew O’Brien – The Atlantic

    “We asked some of our favorite professors and writers to chip in, and here are their 34 favorite economic charts of 2012. Ross Perot has nothing on us.”

    tags: economy charts data atlantic

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.