Inside Architecture
Notes on Enterprise Architecture, Business Alignment, Interesting Trends, and anything else that interests me this week...
Finding the Root Cause of IT Systems Complexity
Six Sigma encourages us to examine a situation and, through analysis, data, and good old-fashioned...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/29/2006
Achieving a balance between policy and process
Have you ever wondered where business rules come from? Who thinks these things up? We say "the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/28/2006
Simplification requires dev capacity - like aircraft maintenance
Simplification reduces the cost of maintenance. The business probably doesn't want to think about...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/27/2006
How to get IT involved in projects earlier
In Enterprise Architecture, we have a goal: be a strategic asset to the business. That means that we...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/25/2006
Winning by whining
One of my favorite organizational 'anti-patterns' is "winning by whining." This is otherwise known...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/25/2006
When an executive "assigns" a task to a department, does that change it's purpose?
This one is fun. It comes up in EA because we deal with change... a lot. Frequently, we are in the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/24/2006
Social process development, ERP, and Software as a service
I wonder: what advantage would a customer have for deciding to use an ERP package provided as a...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/23/2006
Things I learned on vacation with kids
I took my kids to a regional amusement park called Silverwood in Idaho. We had fun, but it's a small...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/22/2006
Manual administrative process - to automate or to discard
So it is time to 'solve' a business problem with a computer. (peculiar to say). This inevitably...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/16/2006
An apology, and opportuniity, and a promise
Sometimes you find you are doing well and everyone recognizes your achievements, and other times,...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/14/2006
The SOA and simplification paradigm shift
In order for SOA to deliver in its promise, we need to change the way that the requirements analysts...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/13/2006
Just when is standing your ground a Career Limiting Move (CLM)?
Yes, we have an acronym for it. CLM -- any action within your scope of control that you could do,...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/11/2006
Becoming more visionary
These past few months have been very difficult. Without a good vision in place for where our...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/09/2006
Giving names to two different roles within Corporate IT Governance
There is a difference between simplifying a porfolio and creating a system of behavior that favors...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/07/2006
The difference between creating a new app and updating an existing one
A team I am working with agreed to 'leverage and extend' an existing application rather than write a...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/06/2006
Can we measure agility? Can we afford not to?
In Enterprise Architecture, we spend a lot of time caring (strongly) about agility. How do we reform...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/04/2006
Don't walk in with a problem until you have a solution
Enterprise Architecture is a source of chaos, obstacles, and high-level fights. Any organization...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/01/2006
Cop out: failing to perform app portfolio management
I pointed out in my prior post that there is some debate in the IT community about whether the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/28/2006
Is IT a commodity that a corporation would be well-justified to outsource?
This question has been asked before, but not often of people like the readers of this forum... the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/27/2006
Who owns the application, the process, and the solution?
Three different things. A process comprises steps, preferably in an optimal order, that leads to a...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/22/2006
Can a committee simplify anything?
Personally, I'm no great fan of committees. Oh, they go by many names. Virtual teams, cross...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/20/2006
Seperating Simplification Patterns from Migration Patterns
On further study, simplification patterns are about where capabilities move over time. Migration...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/18/2006
Simplification patterns as a subset of migration patterns
I'm going to try to get back to architecture in this blog. I spent some time this afternoon going...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/14/2006
Family loss -- offline for a week
For those of you who read this blog, and for those who have expressed interest in the simplification...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/01/2006
Patterns of IT Simplification
I have started to develop a first cut at a pattern language for IT Simplification. I find that...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/24/2006
The leader of the band is tired...
Nothing will bring you back to earth quicker than the illness of a loved one. As I type this, my...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/21/2006
A single taxonomy of business capabilities
I've blogged in the past about the value of standards. I also have seen many efforts to create...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/16/2006
Just say "no" to your architect
A good friend once told me that she knew the exact day when she went from adolescence to young...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/12/2006
Consider: are there Patterns of IT Simplification?
Are there patterns to the IT Simplification Process? I think there are. To quote Christopher...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/11/2006
Leverage, Buy, Build - the EA Simplifiation Motto
One of the key principles of Microsoft EA is Leverage - Buy - Build. Meaning: if you want to invest...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/11/2006
Pent up Karma - 2 HD failures in 3 days
I guess I had it coming. I've been in computing for 26 years. The first time I've had a personal...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/10/2006
Allowing feedom within the machine
Our economic system works not because the central government controls things, but because it only...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/02/2006
What incentives lead to an optimum portfolio?
Ever heard the expressions: "People will do what you pay them to do." It literally means that they...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/01/2006
Help wanted: who pays to simplify your IT portfolio?
Entropy creates IT portfolios. As time goes on, business needs change. Mergers happen. Tool...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/28/2006
Do we need a new measure of software complexity to calculate the TCO of a portfolio?
A few days back, I blogged about a formula I'd suggest to measure the TCO of the software portfolio....
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/27/2006
Architecture is an attitude, not a model
I ran across an interesting post by Bob McIlree that discusses, among other things, that the 'real...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/25/2006
How Enterprise Architecture enables Web 2.0
The role of an enterprise architect is not well understood. That much is clear. Some folks say that...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/22/2006
Is IT software development BETTER than embedded software development?
We hear all the time, especially in IT, about the dismal failure rate for software development...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/21/2006
Ahead of the curve... again
Fascinating. First, we hear that pundits on the blogosphere have given the name AJAX to 1997...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/18/2006
We didn't start the fire, so when do the hoses arrive?
The meeting has begun. It is a meeting I have been dreading for three weeks. Odd, really, when you...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/17/2006
The service repository concept is incomplete
Everyone in my family is a big fan of the new TV show "Numbers." We are also big fans of Tivo, so...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/15/2006
What is a SOA application, part deux
In a prior post, I asked the question: should we redefine the word 'Application' now that our...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/13/2006
SOA Services are Guilty until proven Innocent
I have to credit my manager for this gem. And it is easy to see why it is true. If you have an...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/12/2006
The Elevator Speech: Why Workflow
A friend of mine asked me a good question recently. Why use workflow tools? In other words, if I...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/07/2006
In the SOA world, what does the word 'application' mean?
Back when I was in college, there wasn't a lot of debate about what a 'program' was. It was pretty...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/04/2006
Maria will find out
I don't think I've ever seen Maria so flustered. Don't get me wrong. Every architect gets a little...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/03/2006
Design review is not a test of your UML skills
Meiko asked me yesterday "To prepare for the design reviews, do I need to brush up on UML?" It's...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/31/2006
TCO and the number of applications
How do you break down the costs of owning your application portfolio into a components that can be...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/28/2006
IT Capabilities Assessment tool... ?
Fascinating (IT Capabilities Assessment Tool). Never heard of this before. I think we all should...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/27/2006
Jacob and the data
When Jacob gets going, the best thing to do is step back and watch. He stands, all five-foot-six of...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/25/2006