Link Collection — December 18, 2011

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  • Five big data predictions for 2012 – O’Reilly Radar

    FINALLY! –> Streaming data processing: “Over the next few years we’ll see the adoption of scalable frameworks and platforms for handling streaming, or near real-time, analysis and processing. In the same way that Hadoop has been borne out of large-scale web applications, these platforms will be driven by the needs of large-scale location-aware mobile, social and sensor use.

    For some applications, there just isn’t enough storage in the world to store every piece of data your business might receive: at some point you need to make a decision to throw things away. Having streaming computation abilities enables you to analyze data or make decisions about discarding it without having to go through the store-compute loop of map/reduce.

    Emerging contenders in the real-time framework category include Storm, from Twitter, and S4, from Yahoo.”

    tags: bigdata streaming realtime

  • Smart Innovators Value Smaller Teams Over Better Processes – Michael Schrage – Harvard Business Review

    “They work very hard to stay very small. Even top-tier talent is turned aside or denied. The emphasis has shifted from “how do we successfully scale the team?” to “how do we successfully scale the team’s influence and deliverables?” Instead of seeing an explosion of virtual teams, what’s emerged are teams cleverly using digital and social media to extend their reach both inside the enterprise and out. Key suppliers and channels are contacted on an “as needed” basis”

    tags: innovation teams hbr

  • Clive Thompson on Why Kids Can’t Search | Magazine

    “Today the question is, why can’t Johnny search?

    Who’s to blame? Not the students. If they’re naive at Googling, it’s because the ability to judge information is almost never taught in school. Under 2001’s No Child Left Behind Act, elementary and high schools focus on prepping their pupils for reading and math exams. And by the time kids get to college, professors assume they already have this skill. The buck stops nowhere. This situation is surpassingly ironic, because not only is intelligent search a key to everyday problem-solving, it also offers a golden opportunity to train kids in critical thinking.”

    tags: information literacy criticalthinking

  • Don’t Let What You Know Limit What You Imagine – Bill Taylor – Harvard Business Review

    “Many organizations, she argues, struggle with a “paradox of expertise” in which deep knowledge of what exists in a marketplace or a product category makes it harder to consider what-if strategies that challenge long-held assumptions. “When it comes to innovation,” she writes, “the same hard-won experience, best practice, and processes that are the cornerstones of an organization’s success may be more like millstones that threaten to sink it.” “

    tags: innovation hbr

  • Scott Aaronson – Quantum Computing Promises New Insights – NYTimes.com

    The goal in quantum computing is to choreograph a computation so that the amplitudes leading to wrong answers cancel each other out, while the amplitudes leading to right answers reinforce.

    tags: quantum computing

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

Related posts:

  1. Link Collection — December 4, 2011
  2. Link Collection — December 11, 2011
  3. Link Collection- July 17, 2011

How to manage requirements within the Enterprise Architecture using the TOGAF® and SABSA® frameworks

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By Pascal de Koning, KPN  You want to put your company’s business strategy into action. What’s the best way to accomplish this?  This can be done in a structured manner by using an Enterprise Architecture Framework like TOGAF®. TOGAF® offers …

Insuperordination

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In designing management-structures, why is it so often assumed that responsibility-relationships only go one way? Our organisations often place enormous attention on insubordination, a refusal or failure to follow ‘orders from above’; yet why don’t they place the same level of attention on insuperordination, the refusal or failure to respect the the same relationships and […]

Work-in-progress – two more books

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Another follow-on to the earlier post ‘Helping others make sense of my work‘, just a quick note to let you know about two current book-projects. The first has a working-title of The enterprise as story: the role of narrative in enterprise-architecture. This has been a major theme on this blog for the past couple of years […]

Clouds and scalability

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This post comes from an online exchange with Roger Sessions (@rsessions on twitter) Leo de Sousa (@leodesousa) and Chris Potts (@chrisdpotts).Roger makes the point that the various cloud vendors make their case on “scalability” without defining the ter…

Clouds and scalability

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This post comes from an online exchange with Roger Sessions (@rsessions on twitter) Leo de Sousa (@leodesousa) and Chris Potts (@chrisdpotts).Roger makes the point that the various cloud vendors make their case on “scalability” without defining the ter…

Clouds and scalability

by

This post comes from an online exchange with Roger Sessions (@rsessions on twitter) Leo de Sousa (@leodesousa) and Chris Potts (@chrisdpotts).Roger makes the point that the various cloud vendors make their case on “scalability” without defining the ter…

Enterprise Frameworks: In Perfect Harmony Together…

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If you are not a practicing Enterprise Architect, words such as COBIT, TOGAF, ITIL and ZACHMAN will either mean nothing to you or will more often than not confuse you. Most IT professionals will relate these terms with concepts such as architecture framework, technology framework, standards, modelling, analysis etc. which may or may not correct depending on referring context. However, thanks to greater awareness of Enterprise Architecture in the last decade or so, it should still be easy for keen Enterprise Architecture enthusiast to find out more about the above and other similar Enterprise Frameworks. Most of above listed frameworks are available free to download for limited-time review or even free to practice if you are undertaking non-commercial internal enterprise purposes (see useful links and references below). The real question however which seldom gets asked it how do these frameworks relate with each other, if at all? How can they interact and collaborate with each other? What are considerations of such engagement across frameworks? And more importantly is it worth it from business value and relevance perspective?  Such questions would ideally demand a decent whitepaper which analyses such interactions. Given time constraints however, I am trying to present my thoughts in this blog post as an executive summary.
Before discussing a few frameworks and their potential linkage with each other, I would like to present business and IT context of such interaction. Based on my practical experience, I would propose a simple map as presented in below figure. Business goals and objectives demand strategic IT response in terms of strategic and tactical IT programs, investments and activities. They need to be governed to ensure compliance of deliverables with the business objectives. Strategy needs planning and architecture disciplines to ensure that strategic intents are given shape of tangible constructs. This is where enterprise architects convert abstract into specific plans and architectures. This is where artefacts such as business architecture, application architecture, infrastructure architecture get conceived. Such plans and architectures need to be further developed in detailed designs, transition plans and activities. More importantly, resultant IT systems and solutions are required to be operational ready and feasible. I am aware that this presents an overly simplistic picture of often much complex and complicated technology implementation reality. But the purpose here is to give a broad and high-level overview of chain of actions which need to take place in the journey of business goals to business processes, applications, solutions to their eventual technology implementations and operations.
image
Why and Where do Framework Matter?
Going back to set of initial questions which I raised in this post earlier, let us now tray and map a few leading frameworks to the above outlined concept and journey. I have picked up three leading frameworks for this purpose; COBIT, TOGAF and ITIL. COBIT framework in this map provides the overarching Strategy and Governance mechanism. It takes business goals and governance drivers as inputs and then provides a seamless mechanism to link IT Resources with planning, implementation, delivery and monitoring of delivered systems. I would like to propose that, COBIT however needs a more thorough framework such as TOGAF to further elaborate and develop the Planning and Architecture activities in the journey. TOGAF ADM provides a very good and comprehensive process discipline to take requirements through various steps such as vision, architecture, solution definition, planning and change management. At this point however, I would like to suggest that, to take the architecture to the next level of detailed design and transition planning, a framework such as ITIL will be extremely useful. ITIL takes a service view of the world in definition of systems and not a mere technology view. ITIL practitioners will put operability ahead of technology or architecture purity, and rightfully so. ITIL sees through the design through transition and operations of the service.
image
COBIT TOGAF and ITIL in Prefect Harmony
I have to clarify that, above is simply one way of arranging these very useful frameworks to work with each other. It can be argued that, TOGAF in certain instances can provide overarching umbrella for such journey from requirements to delivery. Or indeed ITIL on it’s own can be adequate to see the system design through to implementation. There is no right or wrong with Enterprise Architecture and that is the strength and weakness of the practice I would like to argue. The purpose of this post as I stated earlier was simply to showcase benefits and effectiveness of such Enterprise Frameworks work together in perfect harmony!
Now to the real question….what is the business benefit of this? Is it worth the investment and hassle? The answer is that it depends….depends on the business context. It may be worth the more complicated, complex and distributed your business requirements and resultant technology response. It may be an overkill if your requirements and responsive systems are not so complicated. In the long run however, Enterprise Architecture is about entire business and technology estate and not just one program or project and hence often you will find that medium to large size organisations will use more than one framework. In most cases, such framework do not interact well…and this is where my draft proposal above may be useful. 

References and relevant links for further reading..

  • TOGAF – The Open Group Architecture Framework
  • ITIL – Information Technology Information Library
  • COBIT – Control Objectives for Information and related Technology
  • ZACHMAN – named after inventor John Zachman

Enterprise Frameworks: In Perfect Harmony Together…

by
If you are not a practicing Enterprise Architect, words such as COBIT, TOGAF, ITIL and ZACHMAN will either mean nothing to you or will more often than not confuse you. Most IT professionals will relate these terms with concepts such as architecture framework, technology framework, standards, modelling, analysis etc. which may or may not correct depending on referring context. However, thanks to greater awareness of Enterprise Architecture in the last decade or so, it should still be easy for keen Enterprise Architecture enthusiast to find out more about the above and other similar Enterprise Frameworks. Most of above listed frameworks are available free to download for limited-time review or even free to practice if you are undertaking non-commercial internal enterprise purposes (see useful links and references below). The real question however which seldom gets asked it how do these frameworks relate with each other, if at all? How can they interact and collaborate with each other? What are considerations of such engagement across frameworks? And more importantly is it worth it from business value and relevance perspective?  Such questions would ideally demand a decent whitepaper which analyses such interactions. Given time constraints however, I am trying to present my thoughts in this blog post as an executive summary.

Before discussing a few frameworks and their potential linkage with each other, I would like to present business and IT context of such interaction. Based on my practical experience, I would propose a simple map as presented in below figure. Business goals and objectives demand strategic IT response in terms of strategic and tactical IT programs, investments and activities. They need to be governed to ensure compliance of deliverables with the business objectives. Strategy needs planning and architecture disciplines to ensure that strategic intents are given shape of tangible constructs. This is where enterprise architects convert abstract into specific plans and architectures. This is where artefacts such as business architecture, application architecture, infrastructure architecture get conceived. Such plans and architectures need to be further developed in detailed designs, transition plans and activities. More importantly, resultant IT systems and solutions are required to be operational ready and feasible. I am aware that this presents an overly simplistic picture of often much complex and complicated technology implementation reality. But the purpose here is to give a broad and high-level overview of chain of actions which need to take place in the journey of business goals to business processes, applications, solutions to their eventual technology implementations and operations.
image
Why and Where do Framework Matter?

Going back to set of initial questions which I raised in this post earlier, let us now tray and map a few leading frameworks to the above outlined concept and journey. I have picked up three leading frameworks for this purpose; COBIT, TOGAF and ITIL. COBIT framework in this map provides the overarching Strategy and Governance mechanism. It takes business goals and governance drivers as inputs and then provides a seamless mechanism to link IT Resources with planning, implementation, delivery and monitoring of delivered systems. I would like to propose that, COBIT however needs a more thorough framework such as TOGAF to further elaborate and develop the Planning and Architecture activities in the journey. TOGAF ADM provides a very good and comprehensive process discipline to take requirements through various steps such as vision, architecture, solution definition, planning and change management. At this point however, I would like to suggest that, to take the architecture to the next level of detailed design and transition planning, a framework such as ITIL will be extremely useful. ITIL takes a service view of the world in definition of systems and not a mere technology view. ITIL practitioners will put operability ahead of technology or architecture purity, and rightfully so. ITIL sees through the design through transition and operations of the service.
image
COBIT TOGAF and ITIL in Prefect Harmony

I have to clarify that, above is simply one way of arranging these very useful frameworks to work with each other. It can be argued that, TOGAF in certain instances can provide overarching umbrella for such journey from requirements to delivery. Or indeed ITIL on it’s own can be adequate to see the system design through to implementation. There is no right or wrong with Enterprise Architecture and that is the strength and weakness of the practice I would like to argue. The purpose of this post as I stated earlier was simply to showcase benefits and effectiveness of such Enterprise Frameworks work together in perfect harmony!
Now to the real question….what is the business benefit of this? Is it worth the investment and hassle? The answer is that it depends….depends on the business context. It may be worth the more complicated, complex and distributed your business requirements and resultant technology response. It may be an overkill if your requirements and responsive systems are not so complicated. In the long run however, Enterprise Architecture is about entire business and technology estate and not just one program or project and hence often you will find that medium to large size organisations will use more than one framework. In most cases, such framework do not interact well…and this is where my draft proposal above may be useful. 

References and relevant links for further reading..

  • TOGAF – The Open Group Architecture Framework
  • ITIL – Information Technology Information Library
  • COBIT – Control Objectives for Information and related Technology
  • ZACHMAN – named after inventor John Zachman

Active Information: Big Data from left field; Big Data Rx

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My latest posts on the HPIO Active Information blog:

Ready or not, here comes Big Data

Sometimes though, a trend is so compelling (e-commerce, mobility), in-your-face (social media) or simple to comprehend (cloud), that it leaps into mainstream media and takes on a life of its own.  Instead of playing the role of serial advocate, corporate IT leaders and architects are suddenly in a game of catch-up.

Rx for AstraZeneca: Real-world evidence

Rethinking their prelaunch process, and data needs, AstraZeneca proposed a data collaboration with customers.

And one of my favorites:

Reclaim the “I” in CIO

Why do we still have titled CIOs, yet no clear candidate C-level executive to manage the organization’s information agenda?

Related posts:

  1. Active Information: Data Scientists, Moneyball, Competitive Analytics & Big Data Definition
  2. Active Information: Reclaim the “I” in CIO, Big Data & Collective Intelligence
  3. Active Information: Data-Driven Business Innovation

Sustainability: A Million-Dollar Opportunity for the CIO

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The CIO is in a great position to lead sustainability initiatives at a corporation. Why? Because like information technology, corporations must weave sustainability into the fabric of the enterprise to generate the opportunities that companies like The Dow Chemical Company, SAP and Intel have orchestrated. Their successes are featured in: “Sustainability: Moving from Compliance to Leadership.” To generate revenue, Dow Chemical created a Sustainability Chemistry Index, which increased its sales of sustainable chemistry products between […]

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  1. Is the Cloud a Key to Sustainability?
  2. One Million Dollars or One Year
  3. Demystifying Business Innovation