Slide-deck from talk at BAEA EA Cafe, Heverlee, Belgium, 26 September 2013
Where do people fit within enterprise-architecture? This slidedeck explores why we need to include people-issues and people-themes in our EA, and gives a set of practical exercises on how to do this, using standard EA methods.
Where do people fit within enterprise architecture?
1. Where do people fit
within enterprise-architecture?
Tom Graves, Tetradian Consulting
BAEA Architect-Café, Heverlee, September 2013
the futures of business
2. Hi.
(yeah, I’m that guy.)
(that’s the PR done, now let’s get straight to it?)
3. How many people here
work for an enterprise
that consists only of
information?
Question…
4. If you answered
‘I do!’
you’ve just cancelled
your own job…
(a gentle hint…)
5. If there’s more to an enterprise
than only information…
then why does anyone assume
that enterprise-architecture
is only about IT?
In which case…
7. …need to think about this one…
CC-BY-ND alexsemenzato via Flickr
8. …or, in this case,
right at the bottom…
Let’s start this again,
right from the top…
9. Yes, this is EA…
(well, part of it, anyway…)
CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr
…and yes, IT-infrastructure is where current EA started
(back with frameworks like TOGAF versions 1-7)
10. CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr
Yet to understand the IT-infrastructure
(TOGAF versions 1-7)
we need to understand the applications
and the data in those applications…
(TOGAF version 8)
11. CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr
…to understand the applications and data
(TOGAF version 8)
we need to understand the business use
and meaning of the data…
(TOGAF version 8.1)
12. CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr
…to understand the business use of data
(TOGAF version 8.1)
we need to understand quite a bit more
about the business itself…
(TOGAF version 9)
13. CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr
…and to understand the business
(TOGAF version 9)
we need to understand the broader context
in which the business operates…
(TOGAF X, we hope?)
14. CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr
…because, in short,
everything in the enterprise
depends on everything else
(yes – even the IT)
15. CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr
…which gives us the real reason
for enterprise-architecture:
things work better
when they work together,
on purpose.
(A lot simpler and more straightforward
than most definitions for EA…)
39. Step 1: As-is
What name for the ‘people-service’?
What does it do?
(people, process, technology)
What is its structure?
(what, how, where, who, when, why)
Create a sketch-diagram of this service
and its structures, content and actions
41. …or, why do we need people,
anyway?
A question of skill…
42. A question of skill
SCRIPTED
(simple rules and checklists)
TRAINEE / machine-automation
CC-BY The-Vikkodamus via Flickr CC-BY-SA seeminglee via Flickr
IMPROVISED
(guidelines and principles)
MASTER (can’t automate)
ANALYSED
(complicated algorithms)
APPRENTICE / IT-analysis
ADAPTED
(complex patterns)
JOURNEYMAN / pattern-IT
43. “Let’s do a quick SCAN of this…”
Making sense of skills
44. “Insanity
is doing
the same thing
and expecting
different results”
(Albert Einstein)
ORDER
(IT-type rules do work here)
Take control! Impose order!
45. “Insanity
is doing
the same thing
and expecting
different results”
(Albert Einstein)
“Insanity
is doing
the same thing
and expecting
the same results”
(not Albert Einstein)
ORDER
(IT-type rules do work here)
UNORDER
(IT-type rules don’t work here)
Order and unorder
46. A quest for certainty:
analysis, algorithms,
identicality, efficiency,
business-rule engines,
executable models,
Six Sigma...
SAMENESS
(IT-systems do work
well here)
UNIQUENESS
(IT-systems don’t work
well here)
Same and different
An acceptance of
uncertainty:
experiment, patterns,
probabilities, ‘design-
thinking’, unstructured
process...
47. THEORY
What we plan to do, in the expected conditions
What we actually do, in the actual conditions
PRACTICE
Theory and practice
48. Why we need skills
order unorder
fail-safe
(high-dependency)
safe-fail
(low-dependency)
plan
actual
Waterfall
(‘controlled’ change)
Agile
(iterative change)
analysis
(knowable result)
experiment
(unknowable result)
49. Machines and people
order
(rules do work here)
unorder
(rules don’t work here)
fail-safe
(high-dependency)
safe-fail
(low-dependency)
analysis
(knowable result)
experiment
(unknowable result)
MACHINES PEOPLE
Waterfall
(‘controlled’ change)
Agile
(iterative change)
50. Why skills are needed…
What is always going to be
uncertain or unique?
(‘Messy’ – politics, management, wicked-
problems, ‘should’ vs ‘is’, etc.)
What will always be ‘messy’?
Wherever these occur,
you’re going to need human skill…
54. Research: money-alone only motivates
for ‘robotic’-type (non-skilled) work…
CC-BY justin pickard via Flickr
55. …for skilled-work, relying on
money alone as a motivator
can often make things worse. CC-BY andré luís via Flickr
56. To motivate skills-work…
What research shows will work, for individuals:
• Autonomy (decision-making at the point of action)
• Mastery (development of personal skill)
• Purpose (guidelines to assess personal achievement)
(Note: in Taylorism, all of the above are explicitly blocked or forbidden)
…and at the collective level:
• Fairness (socially-determined)
• Shared-purpose (vision/values etc ‘greater than self’)
57. …whose story is this, really?
- who can have impact on the
enterprise?
- what could their impacts be?
(direct, or indirect?)
Stakeholders…
58. “An organisation is bounded by
rules, roles and responsibilities;
an enterprise is bounded by
vision, values and commitments.”
Tom Graves, Mapping the Enterprise, Tetradian, 2010
Whose enterprise?
Organisation aligns with structure, enterprise with story.
We need a balance of both for the architecture to work.
59. A useful guideline:
“The enterprise in scope
should be three steps larger
than the organisation in scope.”
Tom Graves, Mapping the Enterprise, Tetradian, 2010
Whose enterprise?
60. Whose enterprise?
If the organisation says it ‘is’ the enterprise,
there’s no shared-story - and often, no story at all.
63. Whose enterprise?
The market itself exists within a context of ‘intangible’
interactions with the broader shared-enterprise story.
64. A stakeholder
in the story
is anyone
who can wield
a sharp-pointed
stake
in your direction…
CC-BY-NC-SA evilpeacock via Flickr
Stakeholders in the enterprise
(Hint: there are a lot
more of them than you
might at first think…)
65. …what story would be a ‘guiding star’,
to bring all of these stakeholders together?
Vision and values…
What works best is a three-part ‘story’ :
-shared-concern (‘What’)
-action (‘How’)
- qualifier (‘Why’)
66. A myriad of ‘guiding stars’ out there…
…choose one that looks right to you.
Use it as your guiding-star. Everywhere.
Example (TED conferences): “Ideas worth spreading”
67. Concern: the focus of
interest to everyone in
the shared-enterprise
“Ideas worth
spreading”
CC-BY UK DFID via Flickr
75. Perspective: Associate
For an employee-engagement model that works well,
most organisations will need some mix of all perspectives.
76. …names can be important!
- a misplaced metaphor
can have very unfortunate
unintended-consequences…
Choose the right name for it…
77. is when they are slaves…
CC-BY-NC-ND littlejoncollection via Flickr
Choose metaphors wisely…
- the only time that people are ‘assets’
“Our people are our greatest asset!”
78. Choose metaphors wisely…
(probably best not to show a literal image for ‘Human Resources’…)
“Human Resources”
CC-BY-SA shockinglytasty via Flickr
79. Step 2: Drivers
In what ways do all of these themes
- skills, motivation, stakeholders,
story, perspectives, name -
apply in your enterprise?
What do they imply for your ‘as-is’
systems for employee-engagement?
81. The ‘as-is’ tells you what you have…
…your choice of
how to respond to the drivers
tells you what you need…
…where do you go from here?
Design the ‘to-be’ systems…
82. Step 3: To-be
What name for the ‘people-service’?
What does it do?
(people, process, technology)
What is its structure?
(what, how, where, who, when, why)
Create a sketch-diagram of this service
and its structures, content and actions
84. This is where things tend to get
really, uh, interesting…
From here to there…
85. Step 4: Roadmap
What are the gaps
between as-is and to-be?
How will you bridge those gaps?
What change-projects will you need?
Over what time-scales?
How will you tackle
all the politics of this…?
86. What do you see differently now?
CC-BY Gulltaggen via Flickr
87. It’s all about the experience!
What can you do in your enterprise-architecture
to create engagement in the ‘people-side’ of the enterprise?
89. Contact: Tom Graves
Company: Tetradian Consulting
Email: tom@tetradian.com
Twitter: @tetradian ( http://twitter.com/tetradian )
Weblog: http://weblog.tetradian.com
Slidedecks: http://www.slideshare.net/tetradian
Publications: http://tetradianbooks.com
Books: • The enterprise as story: the role of narrative in enterprise-
architecture (2012)
• Mapping the enterprise: modelling the enterprise as services
with the Enterprise Canvas (2010)
• Everyday enterprise-architecture: sensemaking, strategy,
structures and solutions (2010)
• Doing enterprise-architecture: process and practice in the
real enterprise (2009)
Further information: