Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
Combined with reading some of the latest news in EA and having spent a full week with many architects at an internal Microsoft event called TechReady, I decided to share a seemly relevant topic of concern for architects, communication. I’m…
Today the Open Group has released their yearly state of enterprise architecture on their blog (http://blog.opengroup.org/2011/02/16/podcast-examining-the-state-of-ea-and-findings-of-recent-survey ). The panel discussion led by Dana Gardner with Interabor Solutions was recorded at the Open Group conference last week in San Diego. The…
Listen to our recorded podcast on the state of EA, or read the transcript. The podcast was recorded by Dana Gardner of Interarbor Solutions at The Open Group Conference, San Diego 2011. Continue reading →
Listen to our recorded podcast on the OTTF, or read the transcript. The podcast was recorded by Dana Gardner of Interarbor Solutions at The Open Group Conference, San Diego 2011. Continue reading →
For several days, I’ve been digging through my archives – published and unpublished writings, note cards, diagrams and doodles – to surface anything within 5 degrees of change-friendly. It’s been an interesting exercise. According t…
For those that want to learn about Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) alfabet who is a tools vendor is hosting a webcast on their thoughts on EAM. I would assume that they will illustrate that through their tool. Enterprise Architecture Management…
At every turn from agrarian to industrial to informative to creative, fundamental changes occurred in how business was done and in the principles of business management. These changes, although seemingly unrelated to a field like Enterprise Architectur…
Bruce Silver, BPMN luminary, has recently posted a piece on BPMN and Business Architecture where, he says, “In the past year the ‘architects’ seem to have discovered BPMN.” WIth his usual meticulous style he dissects the difference betwee…
Bruce Silver, BPMN luminary, has recently posted a piece on BPMN and Business Architecture where, he says, “In the past year the ‘architects’ seem to have discovered BPMN.” WIth his usual meticulous style he dissects the difference between a process and other notions such as capabilities and functions, terms that architects like to throw around in their paperwork.
He clearly distinguishes process as the “how,” which is what we, at SenseAgility, have been saying as well. Process diagrams, and BPMN diagrams in particular, are the proof behind a particular type of capability, namely the Business Capability. In our work we’ve found that there are specific types of acceptable proofs behind different types of capabilities.
Here’s a statement Bruce makes about typing or perhaps it is even about granularity by implication, “If you’re sorting things into boxes, it doesn’t matter so much if some boxes hold square pegs and others round holes. But when you want to assemble those boxes into a coherent unit, it would be easier if the pegs and holes all had the same shape.” To us this principle is exactly the same one we employ when naming capabilities. As mentioned above, capabilities are different types. You can tell they are different types by looking at the proof behind the capability. That is, what makes the capability a capability in the first place? Business Capabilities have processes behind them, maybe more than one, but at least one.
So what I’m saying here is that if you want to give a name to a capability you need to have something in mind besides appropriate wording. Just getting people to agree on words doesn’t cut it. Why? Because ultimately you need to be talking about something of value. If capabilities can’t be linked to something of value then you might be imagining capabilities in a vacuum.
Anyway, subscribe to Bruce’s excellent blog when you get a chance.
Bruce Silver, BPMN luminary, has recently posted a piece on BPMN and Business Architecture where, he says, “In the past year the ‘architects’ seem to have discovered BPMN.” WIth his usual meticulous style he dissects the difference between a process and other notions such as capabilities and functions, terms that architects like to throw around in their paperwork.
He clearly distinguishes process as the “how,” which is what we, at SenseAgility, have been saying as well. Process diagrams, and BPMN diagrams in particular, are the proof behind a particular type of capability, namely the Business Capability. In our work we’ve found that there are specific types of acceptable proofs behind different types of capabilities.
Here’s a statement Bruce makes about typing or perhaps it is even about granularity by implication, “If you’re sorting things into boxes, it doesn’t matter so much if some boxes hold square pegs and others round holes. But when you want to assemble those boxes into a coherent unit, it would be easier if the pegs and holes all had the same shape.” To us this principle is exactly the same one we employ when naming capabilities. As mentioned above, capabilities are different types. You can tell they are different types by looking at the proof behind the capability. That is, what makes the capability a capability in the first place? Business Capabilities have processes behind them, maybe more than one, but at least one.
So what I’m saying here is that if you want to give a name to a capability you need to have something in mind besides appropriate wording. Just getting people to agree on words doesn’t cut it. Why? Because ultimately you need to be talking about something of value. If capabilities can’t be linked to something of value then you might be imagining capabilities in a vacuum.
Anyway, subscribe to Bruce’s excellent blog when you get a chance.
Bruce Silver, BPMN luminary, has recently posted a piece on BPMN and Business Architecture where, he says, “In the past year the ‘architects’ seem to have discovered BPMN.” WIth his usual meticulous style he dissects the difference betwee…
I note Joe McKendrick at ZDnet asks “Will telcos become the Cloud brokers for integration as a service”. It’s a good question. In fact it’s a really good question that I posed back in 2005 in a CBDI report titled Enabling the Business Service Network. …