Inside Architecture
Notes on Enterprise Architecture, Business Alignment, Interesting Trends, and anything else that interests me this week...
Leaving technology out of requirements gathering
I'm going to suggest a minimal way to gather requirements, one that produces a (minimum)...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/15/2008
As-Is versus To-Be... what to model first
I have always taken the advice at face value: the "to be" model matters much more than the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/07/2008
Rant: Avoiding the Problem Duck Hunt
Just a rant. "I've got me a shotgun... let's go find a duck!" I call that a "problem duck hunt." You...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/30/2008
Merging Capability Modeling with Process Modeling
Gentle reader: can you help me to solve a debate? Introduction Many companies have adopted the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/24/2008
Measuring Maturity in BPM - Automation is the wrong answer
I'm working on a BPM effort right now. I've spent a bit of time talking to business users inside my...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/18/2008
The ROI of Building an Internal Community
One thing we sometimes forget to do... make time to make relationships. It is good when we do it...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/18/2008
Root Cause Analysis for Software Problems
Let's assume that every problem worth solving has a cause. Interesting assumption. Reality: Any one...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/31/2008
Put perspective on both short and long term problems
I'm always a bit worried when someone has "the answer." Lot's of red flags go up when someone tells...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/28/2008
The Problem with Process
I love business process. I hate "business process." I love the goals and concepts and important...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/25/2008
JaBoWS is the Enemy of Enterprise SOA
As a community, we have sat silently by as the pundits have sold products that fail to deliver on...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/17/2008
Right-sizing the Event Message
One challenge in designing Event Driven SOA exchanges is to decide how big your event messages...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/06/2008
Why can't Open Source be used to fix problems like this?
I work deep in the heart of Microsoft, and I make no secret of it: I like open source. I won't start...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/29/2008
Enterprise Architecture: Earning our keep
Does anyone ever ask you to justify what you do? I've worked in most roles in technical development...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/23/2008
Inversion of control, part two
I started an interesting thread when I weighed in on the use of IoC and the Dependency Injection...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/20/2008
Teaching Science with Mythbusters
I love the Mythbusters. Not just because I like to watch them blow stuff up. (I do), More...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/19/2008
Introducing the "Double Iron Triangle" of Enterprise Architecture
You have probably heard of the Iron Triangle of project management (Cost, Scope, and Time). Did you...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/15/2008
What is the tradeoff with Inversion of Control (IoC)
Recently, I caught wind of a discussion about use or overuse of Inversion of Control and Dependency...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/15/2008
Want the Software Quality Attributes of a service? -- ask the customer!
Nilesh starts blogging, and his first post is of such high quality that I have to rave about it...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/13/2008
Standardization works with a limited, and rational, scope
I've been on a roll lately, calling for the creating of a standardized approach to the partitioning...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/05/2008
Standards and Innovation
When I opened my call for a Shared Global Integration Model, I expected some folks to say "we don't...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/28/2008
The future can be seen, if we decide to look
Harry "Devhawk" Pierson, whom I'm glad to count among my friends, sent me an e-mail last...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/23/2008
Engineering for Serendipity
REST is not enough. I just read Steve Vinoski's article "Serendipitous Reuse?" in IEEE Internet...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/09/2008
Towards a shared global integration model
I'm renewing my call, now over a year old, for creating a single model for integrating all open,...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/09/2008
Flattened by the flu
Nothing makes you appreciate your health more than spending a week, flat out sick with the flu. Just...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/07/2008
RIP Netscape
It has been a long road towards the end of Netscape. Every worthy competitor deserves an honorable...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/31/2007
Measuring Risk in Application Portfolio Management
I decided to take a few minutes of my vacation time to catch up on my reading, and I read through...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/26/2007
Measuring the agility of a SOA approach
I'm thinking about the business case for integration again... (still). We talk about SOA providing a...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/14/2007
The battle for the net-top heats up
Sometimes, in a long struggle, a goal that was strategic one day, becomes unimportant later. This...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/11/2007
Fitting SOA+BPM into the software lifecycle
I have a SOA view of the software development lifecycle. And, in that SOA view, BPM fits nicely....
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/07/2007
Get BPM into IT project funding
One challenge that we run into: having a software developer design the business process. Now, that's...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/06/2007
Alignment through "honeypot" funding
How do we take EA governance from a "push" model to a "pull" model? In other words, how to we create...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/03/2007
IT Funding Processes
Like many corporations, Microsoft has many business units, and many IT groups. Enterprise...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/02/2007
What's in your wallet?
Capital One has repeated that phrase to me so many times, it's amazing. The fact that I cancelled my...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/28/2007
All bloggers are Customer 2.0, but not every Customer 2.0 is a blogger
I'd like to draw a distinction that I should have drawn before. I had an interesting discussion in...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/27/2007
Focusing on Customer 2.0
There's been talk, for years now, about concepts like Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0. We are all so...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/23/2007
Politically, Can I live without an enterprise canonical data model?
Finally, getting back to "normal" blogging after my series on the CISR models. By the way, Microsoft...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/21/2007
SOA in the Diversification Model
This is fifth in a series on the impact of the business operating model on Service Oriented...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/13/2007
SOA in the Replication Model
This is fourth in a series on the impact of the business operating model on Service Oriented...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/05/2007
SOA in the Unification Model
This is third in a series on the impact of the business operating model on Service Oriented...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/27/2007
SOA in the Coordination Model
This is second in a series on the impact of the business operating model on Service Oriented...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/19/2007
SOA and the CISR Operating Models
I'm begining a new series on Integration. Five parts. Clear up some of the noise on SOA. This series...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/12/2007
A Tale of Two Visions
As I am called upon, more and more, to present a clear "vision" for how SOA will occur, I realize...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/11/2007
If you don't like the senator's politics, attack his clothing
Pete Lacey started an interesting discussion a few days ago when he reopened the debate over the use...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/10/2007
The culture of art vs. the culture of engineering
You know what seperates an artist from an engineer? Let's say Joe designs something pretty cool....
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/09/2007
The New Life of Joe - Part Three - The Users Are Coming!
Joe was in a good mood when he walked into the meeting with his Process Management leads for the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/08/2007
The new life of Joe - Part Two - Managing Complexity
Selina Colander is up in Joe's face. Joe Freeflier, the new IT manager for the Sales, Marketing, and...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/01/2007
The New Life of Joe - Part One - Off to a cold start
Joe Freeflier is not a lucky man. He's been promoted. Oh, he wanted the promotion. He asked for the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/27/2007
Asking IT to perform Business Process Management...
One of the current trends in IT is for CIOs to vie for the right to take over Business Process...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/24/2007
Paying for SOA
Once again, I'd like to return to the economic model for SOA. This time with a comparison to other...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/23/2007