The art of architecture #8

Each cell in the great framework is like a piece of the enterprise puzzle. Scrutinized by it self each piece is a mystery to the understanding of the whole. Put together with other pieces it becomes a picture of the whole enterprise or an understanding a picture of a particular part of the enterprise. Thus to create an understanding of more than just a single piece of the enterprise, several pieces has to be investigated

Received new insight and another certification in EA

Bruce Lee once said “True observation begins when one sheds set patterns and true freedom of expression occurs when one is beyond systems.” In the light of this I’ve attended yet another method workshop on Enterprise architecture. 

I spent last week in sunny California, mostly indoors the workshop I attended was the EACOE workshop. L.A. was a fantastic experience and the natives had that cool in them, the cool you have heard stories about but never really thought where real. Anyhow, the EACOE workshop was run by Sam Holcman and I’m happy to say that the workshop was a great experience. I took the learning approach recommended by Bruce Lee and emptied my cup as much as possible. Sam poured some new insights into the cup and after five days the cup was full again.

I’m now certified as an Enterprise Architect by EACOE and received my card and pin

 

 I’ll use the next couple of weeks to reflect back on the knowledge given in the workshop, maybe I’ll write some of it in this blog.

The art of architecture #7

Three little things to remember…

1. Practice the use of the six companions: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.
2. Be sure to make use of them in the different perspectives of us all.
3. Don’t forget to ask your self the questions, regarding the work at hand.

Zachman did a great job on clarifying 1 and 2.

Will the rise of the digital natives kill EA as we know it?

We see change is coming with the digital natives using mashups to manipulate the environment, social networks to connect with others, content communities to express themselves, blogs to remember who they are, wikis to educate themselves and others and instant messaging to communicate. Further down the aisle of time it will all go mobile and then we lose whatever traction we’ve got.

“Social Computing is not a fad. Nor is it something that will pass you or your company by. Gradually, Social Computing will impact almost every role, at every kind of company, in all parts of the world. Forrester Research, Social Computing - How Networks Erode Institutional Power, And What to Do About It”

Here is another article on the same issue: http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=201804743

We see this change is coming fast down the back of an aging workforce and managerial philosophies that erodes slower than the managers them selves.

Who

Digital natives and the rest of us.

When

Now and Zen.

Why

Evolution happens.

Where

Internet, Intranet, Xtranet, Younet, Themnet, Everynet

How

SOA is one part of the stew that will enable a company to transform it’s enterprise architecture into a  constantly moving window of opportunity.

What can be done about it

Leave the fortress and build huts instead which means in EA-speak “Think, act and breathe agile and lean EA”.

The art of architecture #6

The art of architecture #6 simply says: To make sure the success of an entreprise architecture effort one should strive to express the heart of it in a “one liner”.

Others have written about the importance of one liners, not in the common understanding of what EA is but from the stance of strategy. Remember that my stance on EA is an EA focused on strategy where descriptive activities is just one part of the whole effort.

Kenichi Ohmae wrote in his classical work The mind of the strategist, “Inability to articulate a strategy in a single incisive, natural-sounding sentence is a sure sign that there is something wrong in the strategy itself”. More recently W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne wrote in the now famous book Blue Ocean Strategy, “a good way to test the effectiveness and strength of a strategy is to look at whether it contains a strong and authentic tagline”.

Why do you upgrade your mistakes

In an article in Computer Sweden today, Ivar Jacobson the father of use-case wrote about being smart. In conclusion he wrote that “you don’t have to repeat the mistakes of others”.

I gave it some thought and of course you should try not to repeat the mistakes of others, but inevitably you’ll make some mistakes that others has made before you. The biggest problem in todays IT-driven business isn’t that we occasionally repeat others mistakes, it’s that we continue to upgrade the mistakes we are faced with. Thus creating one of two problems, either a highly complex environment or a monolithic inflexible structure. Worse we could create a highly complex monolithic structure. Remember that the mistakes we are faced with, might be the success of yesterdays heroes (the boss of today). So tread carefully on the marshland of change, but be swift when the sponsor is in and make the move without remorse.

Do you have samples of where the pattern of continuously upgrading mistakes has been at play, then comment this so we can learn.

Myself I’ve seen several such mistakes. One that comes to mind is an organization that installed a portal software as an organizational wide intranet. They where never able to capitalize on the capabilities of the software, mainly because lack of interest from division managers. They have decided to upgrade the software to the next generation, an even more complex product. Of course they will fail once again, since it is the same staff and the same managers, thinking the same thoughts. This is a perfect example of “continuously upgrading mistakes”.

Thank you Ivar for the spark of thought gave me on this Friday morning, now I’ll go and tear down the ceiling in my living room.

The art of architecture #5

Number five is about practicing EA and making it a part of your organizations operations as well as part of it’s strategic tool set. Here are the questions I sought to answer: how can we ensure EA’s success in the organization and how can we mine the knowledge and innovative force of the corporate body as well as the corporate tail.

EA as a massively collaborative effort

If we set up a view of EA as a massively collaborative effort, then we have at least three different approaches to choose from. They are the orbital, cantor set and project centric, all of these approaches can of course be combined and intertwined to create something more fitting for your organization. A variant on the above approaches would be to use a Wiki as the repository for knowledge, then anyone in the organization could work on the EA.

The Orbital approach

If we want teams that move in and work with a core cadre then we can choose the Orbital approach. In this approach we would launch a center of real excellence (CORE) to act as the engine of the effort. In this CORE we would bring diverse teams together to create new knowledge. The members of the CORE rotate out of their regular work and in to the CORE, where they remain for three days up to three weeks. During this period they work on learning about and improving the EA. They form cross organizational teams around topics of knowledge and interest, working on issues such as strategic alignment of IT and innovative use of our capabilities to create new offerings.

Through the steady influx of new participants, this will diffuse our approach to EA throughout the whole organization.

The Cantor Set

If we have the time and money to educate a large cadre of people then the cantor set is an approach to be used. The principle behind this approach is that we educate at least three people on EA and our strategy. Those three educate the next layer, and they in turn educate the next layer. The original three remain as support for all other in the organization. We can expect the amount of information processed and knowledge of the EA practice to diminish as the Cantor Set becomes more and more like a dust cloud. This is to be expected and it is an effect we want. There is absolutely no need for people at the extremes of the organization to know all about the way we do EA. There is however a need for people to know that we do do EA and what that EA means for them.

The project centric approach

If you don’t have a budget for EA or you have a small budget but you have the buy in from a senior sponsor. Then a project centric approach would be the way to go. In this you start by establishing a baseline architecture. One way of creating a baseline architecture is to take inventory of the running projects, the established policies and architectures. Using this baseline to communicate with and thus educating the projects on the EA, you will receive buy in from many parts of the organization. Continuing to refine the baseline EA through the mining of projects you’ll build up enough traction to show the true value of EA as an instrument for strategy and operations.

Did I get an answer to my questions? Well at least one can see that using any of the three methods suggested we establish a broad sense of EA in the organization and we mine the body as well as the tail. None of the methods are explained in any detail but hopefully it’s enough to get started.

There is obviously other ways of establishing EA within an organization that has not been covered by here. If you know of one I’d be happy to learn about it.

The art of architecture #4

In an interview on MIT Sloan Leadership Center featuring Mikael Kaiser, I found the core qualities, abilities and aptitudes of a great architect.

#1 Do good work

“The most important thing is to do good work. It’s as simple as that,” Kaiser insists.

#2 Focus on long range planning

“Long-range planning is critical to bringing troubled organizations back from the brink of disaster”

#3 Stay true to your core business and stand by the plan laid down

“He credits his successes not to wholesale firings, bringing in his own people or slashing costs and wages, but to concentrating on creating good art, increasing marketing, opening the door to the press, and staying “hyperfocused” on the organization’s plan. “

#4 Take the lead, but stay humble

“You will never see me doing an audience survey asking an audience what they want to see or hear. I don’t believe in that,” Kaiser says. “I believe my job is to lead the public and not to follow the public.”

ArchiMate and The Open Group Join Hands

Apparently good things are happening in the field of enterprise architecture.

“The board of the ArchiMate Foundation and the board of The Open Group have expressed their intentions to adopt ArchiMate as an independent standard for enterprise architecture modelling and analysis under the aegis of The Open Group”

You can read the ArchiMate newsletter here.

Adrian has some good thoughts on this topic

The art of architecture #3

To be truly effective we have to go beyond the traditional EA mappings. We have to incorporate maps that show the social connections of people, organizations and software. Simply put, “what does the network look and act like in these dimensions”. By combining techniques for social network mappings with value network mappings we should be able to increase our understanding of the Enterprise.

Traditional EA dimensions for maps:
1.) Business
2.) Applications
3.) Information
4.) Technology

Additional EA social dimensions for maps:
1.) People
2.) Organizations
3.) Software