tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373418442024-03-20T15:06:19.482+05:30Architectural ThoughtsPankaj Arora's blog on various aspects of IT and Business strategy, Enterprise Architecture, SOA, Process Management, Leadership and Governance. Any statements published in this blog are personal only and are not to be attributed in any way to those of my current or previous employer's.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-91173864294492796992009-01-20T01:07:00.002+05:302009-01-20T01:15:21.466+05:30Heat MapsHeat Maps are good way to depict the application roadmap. A quick way is to show the current state of architecture on the first slide of ppt. And add another slide for the target state. And in between the two slides of Current and Target state, it is possible to add migration steps(phases). <br /><br />Few legend to add on the heat maps for the application roadmap can be - Consolidate, Decommission, New and Impacted. I have tried it with the portfolio for one Line of Business and its provides the clear direction for future state aligned with business vision.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-49019697129136785322008-06-08T21:44:00.006+05:302008-07-31T00:15:31.866+05:30Why Enterprise Architecture is not a joke?After a long time, I am publishing a long pending draft post -<br /><br />A nice discussion was going around <a href="http://www.biske.com/blog/?p=412">Is EA your center of Excellence?</a> and another one <a href="http://schneider.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-enterprise-architecture-is-joke.html">Why EA is Joke</a>. I would like express my point of view, I feel EA is not a joke. Actually it is a challenging and interesting job. Again but, sometimes EA forgets that they are working to add value to the company. EA itself become a silo in a company. With my little experience, I would propose a small solution for a problem - EA group should understand its Customer within a company. Organisation could be complex or simple, depends how you look at it. And EA could consider diverse teams its valued customer. Looks complex task but may not be. Often EA team starts with 2 to 5 people with lot of expectations. And as they are not able to deliver to all its customers and finally vanish. I feel start with small team and create a charter, proper communication interfaces and communicate properly. After a while start increasing the number of people and start serving to all the customers. It could be group of architects serving to different teams like Business, Delivery, Infrastructure etc. And same team participating in effective IT Governance and initiating challenging technical projects for the Business problems in virtual teams.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-59360154921010149472008-05-24T00:16:00.004+05:302008-09-01T23:40:41.442+05:30Attempt to define : IT GovernanceI will attempt to define IT Governance on basis of my experience -<br /><br />IT Governance improves the efficiency of Enterprise and manage the risk. There are different standards like COBIT, ITIL, Six Sigma etc which provides more detail.<br /><br />May be we could divide the Governance in different categories like Portfolio Governance, Project Governance and Architecture Governance in an organisation. <br /><br />Portfolio Governance helps to prioritise projects in pipeline, conducting cost benefits analysis, measuring business value, managing risk, defining effective process, initiating right concept and proposals.<br /><br />Project Governance helps to steer the project towards the expected outcome, improving quality, aligning everyone to shared goal, revisiting the business value, delivering the right solutions.<br /><br />Architecture Governance helps to build the future, identifying the opportunity, preparing road maps, migration plans, gap analysis, documenting current state, governing Enterprise Initiatives like SOA, Web2.0, EDW, Virtualisation etc.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-28628416173449547552008-05-23T23:48:00.004+05:302008-05-24T00:04:57.199+05:30TOGAF FrameworkLast month, I attended the TOGAF training. It was a quite interesting experience. We conducted the case study based on TOGAF framework. It was interesting to follow the Architecture Development Method (ADM) for the case study. <br /><br />TOGAF framework provides good ADM process to develop Enterprise Architecture in the organisation. It provides the insight to the IT Architects who most of time focus on Technology Architecture and remain ignorant about the Business and Information Architecture. <br /><br />I feel most of people in IT industry relate Enterprise Architecture to Technology Architecture.<br /><br />And may be most of Enterprise Architecture programs in organisations keep doing the Architecture Domain analysis. And never able to effectively prepare Migration Planning for the Architecture. It is not easy task with ever changing landscape in Business and IT.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-78403370537084091072007-12-22T23:31:00.000+05:302007-12-23T01:28:54.446+05:30In Search of Patterns in the EnterpriseMy understanding of the Enterprise Architect role improves with every quarter. For last few quarters, my focus was on Technology Architecture and Governance. <br /><br />Its a good beginning for me to understand the Mutual Fund business domain. In my view, Enterprise Architect role demands good understanding of Business Architecture. And to add more, its easy to read the architecture domains as described in TOGAF framework as compared to analyse the complexity of inter-relationship between the architecture domains. <br /><br />I have seen Enterprise objectives, vision and goals for very few companies and they look more or less same. And its interesting to find the pattern on how these are related to initiatives in the different Enterprise. <br /><br />Another interesting place to find pattern is between the mapping of the Business process, applications and technology stack. And for the similar kind of business process in different business unit of same Enterprise which all applications and technology stacks are used. <br /><br />Interestingly, I am still trying to identify the similar resolution pattern for the identical recurring problem at conceptual level in different units of the Enterprise. <br /><br />May be Enterprises needs to define Architecture Policies, Standards, Best practices to abolish the pattern of re-inventing the solutions for the recurring problems at Enterprise level.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-17512662123855656442007-09-27T23:12:00.000+05:302007-10-20T13:20:59.023+05:30Thoughts on RIAFirst thought which comes to mind is whether its a another buzzword and is it going to survive. My view is its going to survive and reason for this not that its cool or hot or bleeding edge technology. But the only driver behind its success would be "Customers are going to Love it". Its the way web is moving towards - a friendly, fast and fantastic user interface. <br /><br />I don't understand the intricacies of RIA and I am not expert in it. But I understand fundamentally that Magic lies in Asynchronous XML messaging. It provides perception of site with hyper intelligence. There many flavours of RIA available in the market. Few famous one's are Adobe Flex, Microsoft SilverLight and JavaFX.<br /><br />Now the challenge for an Enterprise, it is still emerging technology and not based on standards. Is it ready to be introduced in mission critical production environment? Benefits comes with calculated risk. Enterprises need to adopt these AJAX based technologies in less critical applications. Few examples of such selected applications may be for survey, selection of product, search screen, choice based on criteria and wizards. And above all, try to keep the number of AJAX toolkits as low as possible in Enterprise.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-79628821136383388802007-09-07T19:06:00.000+05:302007-09-08T10:03:48.424+05:30Stand up in Universe and find your valueStand in big ground, raise your head and look at sky. Think how you can add value in this big ground? Move one level up, how much value you add in the area where the ground is located. Move up again, do you matter in context of city. At next level, do you matter in context of state level. Now think of country, how country is impacted by your actions. Is this the end? Not yet, think of continent, think of Mother Earth, how you add value to it. That still not over, how my existence matter in universe - May be Inconsequential.<br /><br />Let try the same analogy in big enterprise. A developer working in a module of project. Module is kind of world to him. How his work impact the the whole project. This project is part of some program. Program is run by some business unit. Business unit belongs to some vertical. This vertical is part of regional unit. This regional unit again reports to headquarters in country. Country is just one of countries where MNC operates.<br /><br />Is it possible one person, one team, one group, one unit creates ripple effect to make the Enterprise better? In the last I remember a quote, if you don't make a difference, you don't matter !!Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-56333000282424776342007-09-05T18:24:00.000+05:302007-09-06T19:50:21.496+05:30Attempt to understand meaning of "Strategy"My first attempt to understand the meaning of famous word "STRATEGY". I am using this word for quite sometime during my conversation with teams. Whenever I want to focus on some long term plan with expensive investment. To me, Strategy means to have plan and road map to execute plan with existing resources. With fast changing markets scenarios, one need strategic direction and tactical steps to move in right direction. <br /><br />Furthermore, Strategy could devised at different level in organization for different purposes. It shows the path to reach the identified goals. Mostly organization devise corporate, business and system strategies. <br /><br />Lets try to understand business strategy - It frequently contains simple and common objectives like generate revenue, increase profit margins, reduce total cost of ownership, improve stability, increase agility, create brand value, focus on people and processes, deliver results, innovate, become leader in flat world, motivate people to drive organization and lot many similar things. <br /><br />On similar lines, IT drives the Technology strategy from Business strategy. It plans the future road map from current roadmap, create plans/steps to reach the long term objectives, better align with the business directions, increase reliability and availability, improve service levels and create governance mechanism. <br /><br />Strategy looks quite common sense and most of companies have strategy in place on similar lines. But not all companies are excellent and growing at tremendous pace. What else is needed for business to succeed? May be a excellent implementation of strategy, people who believe in strategy, leaders who keep the whole team moving together in right direction and selection of right strategy at right time.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-69409839937220784752007-08-29T23:49:00.000+05:302007-08-30T00:22:38.971+05:30In Search of Excellence by Tom PetersOne more must read book. 7-S model is interesting and provides insight into the working of organization. This <a href="http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/models.htm">link</a> shows the various models at organization, team and individual levels.<br /><br />7-S model define the various elements which forms the organization. I am still trying to understand the various stages in the life of any organization. Is there exits a trend for stages during life of Organization? May be on the lines of <a href="http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/tuckman.htm">Tuckman's team model</a>.<br /><br />Another team model worth reading is <a href="http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/sitleader.htm">Situational Leadership</a>.<br /><br />Experience matters more than any theoretical knowledge. I think in Architect role, we get lot of opportunity to hone leadership & process management skills but people management skills take a backseat. In my view, People management skill is also important in long term and one should find ways to develop it.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-61846206134825163132007-08-15T20:29:00.000+05:302007-08-17T21:37:08.220+05:30The Google Story by David A. ViseNot just another book. It looks more like a fiction. Google phenomenon happened during our lifetime and before our eyes. Its a inspirational story.<br /><br />Sergey Brin and Larry Page are people of principles and beliefs. They have reaped benefits of economies of scales. Google is default search engine and have unique position. Power of Google lies in <br />- Search Engine business case i.e. Information and Search significance are directly proportional to each other, both are growing at fast pace. <br />- Secondly, in having a winning edge on technical front. Mammoth hardware clusters and creative software to harness the power to generate lightening results.<br />- and in the last, they are able to build a big brand name associated with high integrity, values and reach.<br /><br />Lets end this blog entry with Google Motto "Don't be Evil".Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-66330557537676557122007-07-21T20:33:00.000+05:302007-07-21T20:47:36.470+05:30Is productivity directly proportional to time?<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Business/Rising_Re_makes_IT_sector_work_more/articleshow/2215781.cms">Few Indian companies</a> are thinking to increase weekly working hours from 40 to 50. In my view productivity is not directly proportional to number of hours spent in office. It could easily be improved by increasing the focus on doing right things and improving motivation of workforce. But by increasing number of hours would only increase the billable hours not productivity.<br /><br />Quite opposite to study conducted by <a href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=506529">Gartner</a> and trend suggest that weekly hours will reduce.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-62747600043184260762007-07-21T17:30:00.000+05:302007-07-21T17:58:36.613+05:30SOA in MOE and LOEMore acronyms - MOE and LOE. May be due to my roots in Telcom domain, I am used to acronym in day to day life. MOE means Management Oriented Enterprise and LOE means Leadership Oriented Enterprise.<br /><br />MOE is basically a type of culture prevalent in Enterprise. In this type of Enterprise, there exists lot of committees. Every decision is approved by hierarchy of people. Decisions are based on big reports. Long discussions take place to improve the efficiencies. Every big enterprise has processes. In this enterprise, employees follows all the processes to complete milestones. It helps to check the progress but the value of each step in process is not evaluated. Employees just complete the activity to tick the completeness. Delivery is primary focus.<br /><br />LOE is another type of culture prevalent in Enterprise. In this type of there exists Leaders. Leaders at all levels. These Enterprises also creates lot of small committees. These committees come up with small action items. They believe in pilots, POC, prototypes instead of big reports. Long discussions too happens but with actionable outputs. Processes are followed and employees try to add value in each step. Quality is primary focus.<br /><br />Somehow, I feel MOE adopts top down approach of SOA and LOE adopts bottom up approach due its culture. A push for top down in LOE is going to be much more successful than in MOE.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-3166334818222263222007-07-21T17:16:00.000+05:302007-07-21T17:22:57.501+05:30Find how much you are addicted to blogging?<a href="http://mingle2.com/blog-addiction" style="color: #D64B32; text-decoration: none; display: block; width: 286px; height: 128px; padding-top: 50px; padding-left: 17px; background: url(http://mingle2.com/img/bb/blog_addiction/badge.jpg) no-repeat; font-family: Times New Roman, sans-serif; font-size: 30px;">50%<span style="display: none;">How Addicted to Blogging Are You?</span></a>Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-48899671768034812922007-07-05T22:32:00.000+05:302007-07-11T20:20:06.140+05:30Run a country without governanceIdea looks quite weird to run a Country without governance. Even thought is scary that if no governance is present in country, what will happen to state of a nation.<br /><br />Think of a Country which is composed of States. And there is no central governance present, what will happen to States. Few States might be able to self govern, few will loose direction and few will become rogue States. With time, it will become difficult to manage the Country as a whole. Vision of country will be blurred and lost. States won't be able to leverage each other strengths. States will try to run their own charters and soon forget that they are part of Country. Most of States will have their own priorities, goals and budgets.<br /><br />Still not convinced and think that Governance is overhead in a Country. Just for information, check the link <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4017147.stm">Somalia</a> , which is the only country in the world where there is no government.<br /><br /><p>Now just replace the Country with Enterprise and States with Projects. Hope you understand that missing governance in Enterprises is one of most common reason for complex IT state.</p>Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-38243203387529608732007-06-30T07:52:00.000+05:302007-07-21T17:31:53.629+05:30Candidate for the EDAFor a long time, I am reading excellent posts on <a href="http://soa-eda.blogspot.com/">SOA and EDA</a> blog by Jack Van Hoof. EDA reminds me of Telecom domain. This domain is excellent candidate for EDA. Telecom network generates the events. These events are intercepted by application services like Prepaid, Ringback tone, Follow me, VPN etc.<br /><br />Explaining my point with scenario like execution of Single Service -<br />Consider scenario where prepaid caller dials a called party number. A event is generated, service capture the calling party number and called party number. Based on called party number it routes the call. Now caller listens the ringing. Called party picks up the phone. Another event is generated. Service captures the events and starts charging. There is voice channel between caller and called party. After sometime, called party hangs the phone call. Another event is generated and service based on this event stops charging and persist the duration of call. In this flow, based on current event and last event result, application service executes the business logic. There is requirement for storing the state of call. This makes scenario little bit complex. Events cann't be consider stateless in real sense.<br /><br />Execution of Multiple Services<br />In this case, one approach is to introduce Service Manager and this Service Manager further manages the interactions with several services and their sequencing.<br /><br />In contrast with Enterprise application, Telecom applications are more chatty i.e. Events are too many and are of very short duration. Due to this, scalability and performance becomes burning issues. Secondly, all these events are in real time. While events are processed, customers are waiting for call to connect, waiting for ring back tone, announcements etc. It makes true testing ground for EDA.<br /><br />In last, I feel, SOA and EDA could change the landscape of Telecom services. Niche companies could provide services like charging, rating, application services on internet. These services could be consumed by operators instead every one building themselves. Telecom domain is always a front runner at concept level. Hub & Spoke model of Telecom switches was innovated three decades back. This model is foundation for buzzword ESB nowadays.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-66414064818410551012007-06-29T20:05:00.000+05:302007-06-29T20:39:28.992+05:30Integrity of BloggersFew months back, there was lot of buzz around the <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/04/draft_bloggers_1.html"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Blogger's</span> Code of Conduct</a> from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">O'Reilly</span> Radar. My viewpoint is that blog shows the level of Blogger integrity. My thoughts about Employers and Employees perspectives are -<br /><br />Employers Perspective - Many companies are not in favour of employees expressing views in public domain. If you see from employers viewpoints, not all employees are mature and have high level of integrity. There are intermittent periods when employee is not satisfied due to any reason and publish their views based on perception or prejudice not on facts. Blogging requires high degree of mutual trust between employers and employees.<br /><br />Employee Perspective - A blogging demands a high integrity from the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">bloggers</span>. In my view, best practice is to keep blog independent of company references. Never ever share the company information or link to company site. Blog's objective is to share your thoughts with people with same frequency. There is no inherent requirement to share any kind of company information.<br /><br />Few attributes of good <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">bloggers</span> -<br />1. Ownership - Any comments published on one's blog are responsibility of blogger. Always keep moderation on for your blog. Just publishing a disclaimer is not enough.<br /><br />2. True Character -Its a test of one character when things are not moving in right direction in professional life, one should resist any comments on it. This is time when you will do something unethical. If you <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">can't</span> resist and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">can't</span> stop yourself from mud slugging, stop blogging for sometime.<br /><br />3. Correct information - <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Bloggers</span> shall share the correct information. It should not be biased based on one's goals. This shared information is for the benefit of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">bloggers</span> community. This is platform which provides the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">opportunity</span> to learn from each other <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">experiences</span>. May be good idea is to declare one's level of expertise on blog topic.<br /><br />4. Respect - Show respect for other bloggers. Only constructive comments drives the fruitful discussion.<br /><br />Happy Blogging !!Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-5041921248484662552007-06-23T13:21:00.000+05:302007-06-24T19:51:48.443+05:30SOAtization of Enterprise CultureFor last few years, whenever any projects is initiated or any product is launched, it claims to be following principles of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">SOA</span>. Most of big Enterprise claims that they are in process of successfully adopting <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">SOA</span>. To measure the maturity, one can find many <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">SOA</span> maturity models on lines of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">CMMi</span> models.<br /><br />Actually, SOAtization of Enterprise is a change in culture of Enterprise. One needs lots of <a href="http://www.biske.com/blog/?p=200">impact players</a>, support of management, proper communication to developer community, strong collaboration with business and Enterprise Architecture team.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">SOA</span> is a concept, architecture approach and above all its a cultural change. Enterprise starts discussing in taxonomy of business processes. Top down approach is followed to find business services. Delivery teams believes in building reusable business services and infrastructure services. A proper governance exists and services are registered in repository. People don't owns the applications and projects.<br /><br />Simple way to check the SOAtization of the Enterprise is to find whether people are building business processes or applications.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-29891196177278567582007-06-19T23:09:00.000+05:302007-06-26T22:09:17.997+05:30SOA - The Elephant<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihhe0q5FxwM1I1KcmvbgoTaNu542fD2vvI-AtpRvONf-MQKJhZr3WrDc2DaK9KHELMEgoHtV4TuWl2NEenMVK58CWGUOV5OiVuJbTnCkN4zHe_AuXb65nXW6zKpuv7NsNfAbdCNw/s1600-h/elephant.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077832877538202354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihhe0q5FxwM1I1KcmvbgoTaNu542fD2vvI-AtpRvONf-MQKJhZr3WrDc2DaK9KHELMEgoHtV4TuWl2NEenMVK58CWGUOV5OiVuJbTnCkN4zHe_AuXb65nXW6zKpuv7NsNfAbdCNw/s320/elephant.gif" border="0" /></a><br />There is always a debate who should drive the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">SOA</span></span> initiative in Enterprise. It could be business, architecture team, delivery or Operations team. It benefits all of them in different ways. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">SOA</span></span> from different viewpoints looks like<br />- Business see <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">SOA</span></span> as a set of business services that are exposed to its clients. It reduces the time to market and costs of building business processes. It increases business agility and simplify the IT.<br />- Architects see <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">SOA</span></span> as an architectural approach to build business processes. It is based on well known principles and patterns like loose coupling, separation of concerns, encapsulation etc. It constitutes of provider, consumer and contract.<br />-Developer see <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">SOA</span></span> as a set of standards, tools and technologies like Web Services.<br />-Operational people see <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">SOA</span></span> as a better contract between Service provider and Service consumer.<br /><br />In my view, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">SOA</span></span> impacts the entire Enterprise and everyone is stakeholder. Unlike earlier concepts of distributed computing in IT, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">SOA</span></span> is more near to business people. Hope IT will fulfill the agility and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">reusability</span> promise this time.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-54440609874640527582007-06-04T19:02:00.000+05:302007-06-04T19:55:51.633+05:30"Meet the Architects" Video from YoutubeMeet the Architects<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df4RnVl03Es&mode=related&search">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df4RnVl03Es&mode=related&search</a>=Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-64203953419600953272007-05-28T22:32:00.000+05:302007-06-03T00:39:47.780+05:30"The World is Flat" by Thomas L.FriedmanShape of world is changing from Round to Flat. This b<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">rilliant</span> book finds out the forces behind it and impact of them on our day to day life.<br /><br />A must read book for every organization & individuals who wants to survive in Flat world. Rules of game are changing. Countries & Corporation who will adapt to changing rules will grow and others will fight for their survival.<br /><br />I feel, in another decade, people in India & China will face the same challenge and difficult time as faced by people in West today. It will be opportunity and concern at the same time.<br /><br />Another thought, all <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">flatteners</span></span> are happening to reduce TIME spent in chores. Time is becoming most precious and whatever we think of today is time consuming, will not be done by us in future. It will be either outsourced, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">off shored</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">in-sourced</span>, automated, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">extinct</span> or ignored.<br /><br />Check Convergence II chapter in book, vertical silos are replaced by Service ecosystem in businesses. It reflects that World is also adopting concept <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">SOA</span> in its own way.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-18163350742506554482007-05-26T08:41:00.000+05:302007-05-26T09:59:47.186+05:30Mindset of CompaniesFirst thought, do companies too have mindset? Entirely based on my own experience, I agree, companies have mindset. I am being lucky to work in companies with different mindset.<br /><br />Second thought, Is it possible to categorize the mindset? It could be based on size, domain, geography, business model and vision. Most popular or known to me ;) categorization is based on business model like Product, Service and End user companies. Another popular one is based on size like Start ups, mid size or large Enterprises.<br /><br />Now further talking about the Mindset based on business model. We all agree that Product and Service companies have different way of working. What about End user companies? These companies who don’t have IT as there core business and still build there own IT systems. If I put the Product and Service companies on opposite ends and now want to put End user companies between these two ends. Will End User Company aligns more to Product or Service Company? Thought is still vague, context and taxonomy is missing. Lets define in next paragraph.<br /><br />Product companies generally have better vision and strategy. They have more focus on non functional aspect of IT system like extensibility, flexibility, modifiability, manageability, scalability etc. Service companies generally have wider experience of domains & technologies. They maintain the resource pools. They have more focus on delivery. Due to this non functional aspect gets less attention unless conveyed and agreed before signing off. Any changes after delivery means more revenue for Service Company.<br /><br />Now, lets again think about End User Company, they are building systems for themselves in competitive market. This means they have to focus on Time to Market and aligns more to Service Company. But they have to maintain the system after delivery too. They can’t ignore the truth; maintenance & enhancements cost is much more than original development cost. This is fact and leads to conclusion that End User Company should be more aligned to Product Company Mindset.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-31874916742958668412007-05-17T18:19:00.000+05:302007-05-17T22:12:13.953+05:30Tactical Projects and Flyover in CityJust a thought, if Enterprise Architecture is analogous to City planning than Tactical project becomes analogous to flyover in City.<br /><br />Flyover is constructed to reduce the bottleneck at one junction/crossing. Similarly Tactical project is executed to provide the short term solutions.<br /><br />Flyover results into traffic jam on subsequent crossing after the flyover. Now we need to build another flyover to remove this bottleneck. Is it right approach? Or do we need long term planning to handle increasing traffic and a better public transport to take care of public. A better infrastructure and proper city blueprint to avoid all these traffic jams.<br /><br />Same thing happens to Tactical project, which results into another tactical and another tactical. We need Enterprise Architecture to prepare Blueprint and vision of enterprise. This will help in reducing risk and cost of IT.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-24974958853913910142007-05-16T22:12:00.000+05:302007-05-16T22:31:38.079+05:30Improving Architectural SkillFew tools to improve the Architectural skills are -<br />1. Reading books & best practices<br />2. Defining & Assurance of System Architecture<br />3. Attending seminars & conferences<br />4. Discussions with <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">experienced</span> Architects, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">colleagues</span> & team<br />5. Reading white papers & blogs<br />6. Writing blogs and books<br />7. <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Registering</span> for daily updates on technology and domains from <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Internet</span> sites<br /><br />Fastest way to improve skills is through point number 4, Dangerous way is to be dependent only on point number 1, Slowest & safest way is through point 2 and Impressive way is through point number 3.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-41219190868517985632007-05-09T21:22:00.000+05:302007-05-17T18:18:38.473+05:30ROI from Enterprise ArchitectureIt is difficult task to measure the ROI on Enterprise Architecture. Few activities of Enterprise Architecture includes -<br />1) Defining standards and guidelines.<br />2) Preparing reference architecture<br />3) Defining and maintaining IT roadmap<br />4) Governance activities.<br />5) Consultancy<br />6) Defining Strategy for moving from "as-is" to "to-be" architecture<br /><br />Point number 1 and 2 produces various kinds of artifacts about Application, Information, SOA, Security, Content Management, B2B architectures. Various teams refers to these document and extend project architecture from these artifacts.<br />ROI - Is it possible to find out how reference architecture benefits the project architecture. How it saves time, add value, improve quality of project?<br /><br />Point number 3 produces the IT roadmap for different elements across the layers. Any project should refer to this roadmap before finalizing the technology stack and aligns with it.<br />ROI - Is it possible to find out the operational and maintenance cost saved by aligning with predefined roadmap? Is it possible to find the effort saved by project when it adopt the preferred technology from roadmap instead of evaluating different products, technology and protocols.<br /><br />Point number 4 includes activities like reviewing and approving architecture for projects. Assuring that projects are following standards and guidelines.<br />ROI - Is it possible to find the value of improved quality in project due to assurance from EA?<br /><br />Point number 5 includes EA mentoring, coaching and guiding Solution Architects to align with standards, directions to follow best practices, refinement of the solution architecture of projects.<br />ROI - Is it possible to find the whether directions were right or wrong, whether they are adopted or not?<br /><br />Point number 6 requires vision and leadership qualities. EA defines the long term strategy inline with Business Architecture. This helps in reducing the cost of IT in long term. It increases the agility of business. It simplify and standardize the architecture and implicitly increasing the stability, flexibility and extensibility of IT.<br /><br />Above points shows lot of activities, but is it possible to measure the extent of benefits from these points. These benefits increase with time, they are like snowball which gathers momentum and becomes bigger as it falls. All these points prevents problems to occur in future.<br /><br />May be it is easy to measure the benefits at enterprise level instead of project level. Identifying major architecture issues in enterprise like re engineering of legacy application, producing enterprise level reusable components, product engineering, improving integration of various application or deciding Build vs Buy. All these benefits of EA provides the ROI and help in building the metrices for EA ROI.Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37341844.post-90999878214139999472007-04-15T17:57:00.000+05:302007-04-30T21:34:57.392+05:30Assumptions in Software ProjectAssumptions in software projects become the facts with the time. There is nothing wrong with assumptions. They help us to move forward in software project. The problem arises when we forget that assumptions are not facts. We should be prepared for the unexpected outcome of assumptions.<br /><br />A short story on assumptions and how they work from "The Art of Negotiating" by Gerard I.Nierenberg -<br /><br />A husband was watching his wife as she prepared a roast for the evening meal. After placing the roast on the cutting board, the wife cut the first slice and dropped it in the refuse can.<br /><br />"Why did you do that, dear?" the husband asked. "I don't know," was the answer. "My mother always did it". The next time he saw his mother-in-law, the husband asked if she always removed the first slice from the roast before cooking it. "Yes," was the reply. "My mother always did it." So the husband, intrigued, called up his wife's grandmother. That elderly lady explained, "Oh, yes, I always removed the end slice from the roast because the pan I cooked it in was too small."Pankaj Arorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034277935079127473noreply@blogger.com0