Architecture and Engineering
It seems that I am having to take side journeys whilst trying to get back to the issue of complexity. It seems necessary, however, for me to assert a position regarding the linkage between architecture and engineering in the context of the enterprise.
Within the Enterprise Architecture community and the wider information systems architectural community, there seems to be a developing trend to move away from the term Enterprise Architecture and towards Enterprise Engineering. I have considerd this move and actually started moving towards it in the language of my client work. However, a recent experience has reasserted for me the view that architecture is the language we seek at the interface between the business, its aspirations, and the information systems which support the achievement of those aspirations.
Recently I attended a traditional latin mass at a Cathedral in Melbourne with all its attendant mystery and ritual. I realised as I sat there transfixed by the experience, that here was a process being applied to the use of a technology (and great Cathedrals are certainly technological achievements) that was a perfect expression of the aspirations of a community.
In like manner, the discipline of Enterprise Architecture was intended to express the vision of the enterprise in a means that would allow it to be translated into the relevant technologies to deliver that vision or aspiration.
One of the conclusions I have drawn is that the push to move to the use of the term enterprise engineering instead of enterprise architecture is flawed. The discipline of EA was intended to be the means for expressing the vision of the enterprise. As you will see my thinking has evolved to encapsulate techno-social systems. Such systems have a deep impact on the evolution of human communities. And once you put the pieces together it becomes obvious that what we are actually talking about is the evolution of the human enterprise. Ever since those earliest ancestors of homo sapien sapien picked up rock and bone and turned them into tools, the ascent of man has been the story of human evolution through the application of process to the use of tools to either shape or respond to the environment. The very use of those tools has even shaped the evolution of our own bodies - the opposable thumb being a great example.
The discipline of architecture in the built environment is one of expressing the aspirations of a community, group or family in the shape of a built environment. Engineering is about taking the architectural vision and translating it into pipes and bricks and cement and all of the other materials that make up a built environment. Therefore, to try and reframe EA as an engineering discipline is to remove the business vision from the organisation. We are then back to the IT centric view which expresses the solution in terms of databases and transactions and communication systems. Engineering at the solution layer is right. The concept of a solution architect has never been about anything more than working out how to put the pieces together.
It is fundamentally wrong to try and reframe EA though. If we remove the architecture from the concept then where does the enterprise go to, to express the linkage between the enterprise goals and aspirations and the processes and technologies used to deliver that vision. To further try and reframe it because the IT industry has done a poor job of providing EA services is, again, a flawed approach.
EA expresses the concept of Aristotle's "holon" in it's holistic intent. With Husserl I believe that the disciplines of information systems are the source for the philosophy of our time. For that philosophy to be relevant it must, as expressed by Hegel, represent "it's very age comprehended in thought". EA is the right frame of reference for expressing the aspirations of the organisation. Enterprise engineering does not in my humble opinion.
Complexity and Complex Systems
In our work we frequently refer to undertaking analysis of complex systems, or reducing complexity in order to under understand how a given situation might be better understood or a solution developed to a complex problem. What do we mean though when we talk about a complex system or complexity analysis? This will be the first in a series of blogs about the concepts of complexity and the conduct of analysis in complex systems. The discussion is not intended to be authoritative in any way. It is simply an opportunity to consider complexity and, perhaps, take some little steps towards understanding complexity and complex systems and their importance in human design.
Complexity - What is It?
It is probably easiest to start by stating what complexity is NOT. The most certain thing to state up front is that complexity is NOT chaos. Chaos theory has its roots in mathematics, and anyone who wants to delve into the beauty of chaos theory is pointed to the work of Henri Poincaré, James Gleick and others. Personally I find the beauty and wonder of a Mandelbrot set a delight to explore. But chaos is NOT complexity. There is a linkage between the concepts however, which we will explore in a later post.
Transformation and Inflection Points
Transformation and Spirituality
Jonas Salk, the medical pioneer who developed the vaccine for polio went on to undertake significant research into the cycle of existence for various species. In his work he concluded that there were three very distinct patterns to the lifecycle of any species. In brief they were:
• Following long and stable growth, the rate of growth suddenly spurts upward, after which the species ceases to exist;
• Growth accelerates, then rapidly declines, then accelerates, then declines again, fluctuating throughout its entire existence;
• A long period of steady growth is maintained, then spikes upward and then hits a plateau on which it maintains itself from then on (this is the normal pattern for species which survive).
In the third type of transformation, the species reaches a “point of inflection” which divides the entire mode of the species’ existence into two distinct epochs. At the point of inflection, a transformation is triggered in the existence of a species which creates the conditions conducive to the long term survival of the species. Salk concluded that the human species was entering the point of inflection and that there would have to be a significant shift in human values and modes of survival if the species was to continue to survive. Critical to this period was that Salk concluded that as a result of our work on genetics and other related fields we have reached a point where we can affect the genetic outcome, and closely aligned to this that we had reached a point where we could, through the application of human will, affect the outcome of our own evolution.
Sustainability as a Principle
I was recently pondering a range of initiatives which have been either stopped as a consequence of questions of sustainability or which were framed to achieve enhanced sustainability. In all cases that I have looked at there appears to be a strong skewing to one aspect of sustainability - the natural environment.\
As a systems thinker I have often been struck by the fact that sustainability is generally only seen in terms of the natural environment. I think there is a more holistic view of this issue of sustainability.
I believe there are three distinct aspects to sustainability:
Sustainability in terms of the natural environment
Sustainability in terms of human performance; and
Sustainability in terms of the human enterprise.
Of Accountants, Project Managers and Long Term Thinking
During the past week I was asked to sit in a value management workshop for the design of a new facility for emergency management. While sitting in the workshop I was struck by the short term viewpoints which seem to dominate our thinking as a society. As discussed elsewhere in this website, the design of new working environments needs to incorporate human considerations in its design. There is a fine balance between form and function and the need to provide work environments in which humans can act and work effectively for sustained periods of time. This is no more evident than in the context of emergency management centres where high information workloads are combined with long hours and high impact decision to create difficult working environments.
During the workshop I was struck, however, by the dominance of short term thinking which seems to dominate our present modes of thinking.
Where Will the Children Play
Last weekend I was visiting my family at Portland in Victoria. While I was there an extremely large school of tuna was passing to the South of Portland and fishermen from many miles away had come to fish for Tuna. The spectacle of the entire fishing wharf area of Portland covered in boats and boat trailers was quite a sight to see. But amidst the sight was a sad reality.
There have been questions over the total fish stock left in Australian waters for a long time. The size of the catch seemed to indicate that perhaps stocks are recovering as a result of recent initiatives. However I could not help but wonder if there was something wrong with what was happening. As boat after boat came in laden with tuna it became obvious that this school was going to be significantly depleted if not destroyed by the level of fish take. Whilst individual fisherman may observe bag limits etc, the aggregate catch was probably more than the school could bear. On Saturday evening as I watched the catch being processed by the fishermen I was informed by a council worker that they had already taken over 160 tonnes of tuna waste to the tip. And the fishing went on for several more days.
Beige Thinking
Homo sapein sapein has made amazing leaps in the last 6000 years. The rate of innovation in modern times is nothing less than astonishing. In the internet age a full technology cycle is now somewhere around 3 years. So much of this advance happened in western countries but somewhere in the last 10 years a fascinating new influence has infiltrated its way into western nations, including Australia. This influence has acted to suppress innovation, to deride original thought and to suggest instead that watching other people living in a house or fighting to rise to supremacy on a desert island is actually more enjoyable than learning, listening to music, reading a good book or spending time with good friends.
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