#eavoices

50 years ago Richard Montague invented his grammar that first enabled IT architecture first possible

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1967 Richard Montague first voiced: “There is in my opinion no important theoretical difference between natural languages and the artificial languages of logicians; indeed, I consider it possible to comprehend the syntax and semantics of both kinds of language within a single natural and mathematically precise theory.” A few years later he than published his … Continue reading 50 years ago Richard Montague invented his grammar that first enabled IT architecture first possible →

EA = Enterprise Agility

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Enterprise Architecture equals Enterprise Agility
by Mike “MO” Oliver, SOACA
Arhicecture word cloud.png

So how does Enterprise Architecture translate into equaling Enterprise Agility, other than the acronyms both being EA?

Standardization

One key element of any quality Enterprise Architecture is the setting and governing standards across the enterprise.  If you have standards on how to do this or that, then you will likely have templates for various code elements or perhaps you have standardized on a Framework or Enterprise Service Bus.  All of these will reduce the training time, design time, and development and testing time to build a solution or service.  Saving time in going from concept to production is by definition improving agility.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Enterprises that adopt SOA for their strategic integration approach do so largely because of the efficiency  and productivity gains a Service Oriented Architecture can bring. SOA and the Microservices subset are all about designing solutions around small service components that follow separation of concerns and loose coupling paradigms, which also translate into better agility through more granular design and reusable services.  If 50% of the services your current solutions use are reusable, then building a new solution will take much less effort and time, giving you better agility.

Business Architecture

Following TOGAF and documenting your Business Architecture may not seem like it helps translate into Agility, but look at it this way.  If you do not have your Business Architecture documented fully, then as problems and opportunities arise (and they will), how do you know for sure that you don’t already have something in place to do the job? Or worse how do you know what the gap analysis is from what you have to what you need?  That takes time and if you make a mistake and miss something, then you may spend even more time and money to get it right later.  This all translates into Agility.

Conclusion

Agility essentially comes from two things:

  1. Knowledge that keeps you from making mistakes that lead to wasted time and effort.  Enterprise Architecture is mostly about organizing what you have so you know what you have and what you need, and that knowledge makes your enterprise more agile.

  2. The basic Engineering Principle, DRY for Don’t Repeat Yourself.  SOA, as part of your Enterprise Architecture, puts a priority on reuse, separation of concerns and loose coupling. Do those things and you will avoid duplication of effort which equals agility.


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New book: ‘Changes – a business novel’

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Delighted to say I’ve just published my ‘business-novel’ Changes. Hooray! More details are at https://leanpub.com/tb-changes . Here’s the cover: And here’s the blurb: Marco has a new job: Head of Organizational Change. But his bright new plan to bring the company into the…

Why More Industries are Turning to Open Standards

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Many enterprises and their industries are aggressively addressing the need to implement digital and global business models. Increasingly those industries and groups of industries are looking to The Open Group for guidance as to how they can effectively both develop and use standards to accelerate the journey they see ahead, in the private and public sectors.

Architecture Corner: Good at innovation – Seven Deadly Sins of IT

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The latest season of Architecture Corner is a series of episodes on the Seven Deadly Sins of IT. I had the pleasure of appearing on “Good at innovation” with Greger Wikstrand, Casimir Artmann, and many others. In this, the first episode of the series, we deal with the sin of pride. What happens when the […]

Know Your Personality

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5 years ago I wrote that the best personality to have in architecture consulting was the “Type A” – a personality type characterized by ambition, high energy, competitiveness, and thought to be susceptible to stress and heart disease. The whole Type A/B model of personalities isn’t a very reliable one (it was concocted by cardiologists in […]

Layers of Abstraction

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When talking about abstractions to IT architects I am naturally always reminded on the inner-platform-effect that is defined as:’ The inner-platform effect is the tendency of software architects to create a system so customisable as to become a replica, and often a poor replica, of the software development platform they are using.“ So layers will … Continue reading Layers of Abstraction →

Form Follows Function on SPaMCast 442

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A new month brings a new appearance on Tom Cagley’s Software Process and Measurement (SPaMCast) podcast. This week’s episode, number 442, features Tom’s excellent essay on capability teams (highly recommended!), followed by a Form Follows Function installment based on my post “Systems of Social Systems and the Software Systems They Create”. Kim Pries bats cleanup […]