20 March 2009 by blog.

Brain Therapy Exercises 1 and 2 introduce the concept of a Business Architecture paradigm in an attempt to explain some aspects of my life as a semi-retired consultant and to address the question, “What can we do to make the make the world a better place?” These exercises show by example that Business Architecture is about describing how things operate. Exercise 1 is a draft Operational Business Architecture artifact, the Architecture of Fear, that was reverse engineered from reality to explain how the world operates and why we see the outcomes we do today. Exercise 2 also provides an Operational Business Architecture product, the Architecture of Abundance, to show how the world might operate in a future-state with people working together to achieve outcomes that would make the world a better place.

Our next exercise for the brain is the development of a definition of “Business Architecture.” This will allow me to tackle some structured thinking that will, with hope, require intense concentration, thereby inducing the physiological phenomenon of the creation of neuropathic synapses that increase the brain plasticity that is integral to the miraculous abilities of the human being. This should greatly advance my recovery and improve my odds in the long run. So let us dive right in.

Business Architecture may be formal, as defined by various methodologies and techniques, but given the current state of my brain (e.g., recovering) and presumption of fiat from nearly two decades working in strategy, operations, and technology, we shall structure our initial definition informally:

Business Architecture is anything that helps people from different parts of the business (especially the non-technical and technical people) to develop a common understanding of exactly what needs to be done.

The development of Business Architecture as a management tool stems from the thorny issues businesses face trying to figure out technology. In the business world, there always seems to be some issue of getting technology to do the things that people want it to do. Owners, managers, workers, customers, nearly anyone who has ever done or dealt with business can probably relate to the challenges people face integrating and using technology. In larger organizations, this is often characterized as getting the “business people” to understand the “technical people” and vice versa.

Business Architecture is a tool of management communication intended to convey, in non-technical terms, concepts of operations that get people on the same page, regardless of which part of the business they primarily deal with. It is about helping people articulate and understand strategy, define the appropriate organization and resources, and work together towards desired outcomes.

In practice, Business Architecture becomes the basis for Technical Architecture that further decomposes the business into increasingly detailed specifications for technological systems. The general, widely used term for a comprehensive and formalized approach to Business and Technical Architecture is Enterprise Architecture (EA). EA is a practice of developing business and technical architecture tools that support an organization’s strategy by aligning non-technical, functional operations with the technical infrastructure. This is done to crystallize the strategy and increase the efficiency, returns, and capabilities from investments in organizational systems and technology. Organizations and people – businesses – that understand how to do this typically significantly increase their competitiveness through innovation and productivity improvements.

The usage of Business Architecture, however, is necessarily not limited to solely addressing issues of aligning business and technical resources. While technology is critical to every business, at the end of the day a business is only as good as its people. Business architecture, therefore, must address all business processes, people, and resources, specifically as they are organized and deployed. Business Architecture is an idea that by codifying and clearly articulating strategy, using common terminology and the visual presentation of information, people from all domains in the business will understand what needs to be done. This is called alignment of business resources and is critical in efficient, innovative, and successful organizations.

Business Architecture draws on three disciplines in the development of its methodologies and practices:

1)      Management Science, which provides ideas of process analysis, analytics, strategy, management, and communication. The “business” in Business Architecture is about getting things done. Business Architecture concerns itself primarily with Strategy and Planning (i.e., defining the mission, vision, goals, objectives, and tasks) and Organizational Systems (i.e., defining and managing the structures, resources, and operating models for the organization).

2)      Civil Architecture, which provides ideas on design, the visual presentation of information, and communicating across technical and non-technical domains. Business Architecture is less concerned than civil architecture on a formalized methodology of design. Rather, from civil architecture, the idea that a single “blueprint” can be used to communicate across domains is the central adaptation. Business Architecture produces unified blueprints that everyone follows in building and operating the business.

3)      Computer Science, which provides ideas of structured systems analysis, abstraction, and computer architecture and engineering. Business Architecture codifies system design and uses abstraction to communicate and produce increasingly detailed specifications as appropriate to the needs of the business stakeholders. The concepts are valid whether applied across an organization (i.e., Enterprise Architecture) or down to individuals and processes (e.g., work plans and packages).

The practice of Business Architecture, even as it draws on ideas from science, is really an art. The art is the production of unified communications that articulate what the business is about and move people to action.  There are numerous ways to do this, several common frameworks and methodologies that specify useful artifacts, and increasing use of the concepts. Business Architecture, however, is less concerned with how the architecture is produced, for example, compared to Civil Architecture, than it is concerned with producing visionary artifacts, using whatever process and tools are relevant and most appropriate to the business. The objective is to present a conceptual model that enables people to think about the challenges, understand the critical questions, and take actions towards desired outcomes.

There is a great body of work in Enterprise Architecture. Various methodologies and techniques have been developed and the formalization of EA continues. My take is that while a formalized approach may be useful, the most important idea is the concept – that by clearly articulating the strategy and helping people develop a common understanding of the mission, vision, goals, and objectives of an organization many of the problems that often seem intractable can be solved.

My journey through a couple of decades in strategy, operations, technology, has led me to discover many tools and techniques, out of the academic and commercial realms, for accomplishing non-technical and technical tasks in organizations. The love in Business Architecture stems from its positioning at the nexus of strategy, operations, and technology – you have to do it all to understand and get it right. Done right, Business Architecture is a powerful, invaluable tool that can help organizations – and people – realize new capabilities and increase competitiveness.

Business architecture cuts across organizational boundaries to take an enterprise view so that people understand not only their roles and functions but also what individual actions are required to accomplish strategic objectives. The Brain Exercises will continue to explore using this technique to ask people, “What can we do to make the world a better place?” By cutting across human organizational boundaries (i.e., we address people in every family), Business Architecture allows us to take a global view (i.e., with the Earth as our enterprise) so that we may not only understand our roles in creating the outcomes we see in the world today, but also what individual and organizational actions are required to overcome fear so that we may accomplish the strategic objective of creating a world of abundance.

We shall pause here and seek discussion on our emerging definition of Business Architecture. I look forward to your input. In the meantime, the physiological developments occurring simultaneously to this writing are signaling that the author’s brain is ready for another element of healing – sleep.

Cheers,

blog

Posted in Architecture of Happiness | 1 Comment »

13 March 2009 by blog.

Millions of people suffer traumatic brain injuries (TBI) every year. I had one in 2007 that left me in an abyss of amnesia, seeping brain fluids, and paralysis.  My brain therapy continues, following a miraculous recovery from the deep.

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. Here are some links for those pausing for additional awareness:

The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

Wikipedia

Yahoo! (search)

Google (search)

Thanks,

blog

Posted in Spirituality, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

2 March 2009 by blog.

Following a recent discussion on Facebook with some friends, regards, as we were calling her, the Octo-Mom, I would like to share a thought about your divinity with the rest of the world. The thought is: You, gentle reader, are a Divine individual.

We use a capital ‘D’ to emphasize a nearly universal human belief, namely that all people are Divine. This is expressed in many cultures around the globe, particularly in the major religious doctrines and traditions. Most people have some local translation for the statement, “God is in us.” Let us, therefore, abstract up a level, ever seeking to relate an understanding that the greater commonality is what binds us, even as we get caught up in the indoctrination of division that permeates a world operating over an Architecture of Fear.

No matter where you are, what your circumstances, plight, outlook, or station in the face of what we have created in the world so far, I hope you do not mind if I take this time to pause and share with you how wondrous I find that just like me, you, gentle reader, are Divine!

————

The Octo-Mom is Nadya Suleman, a woman who gave birth to octuplets in 2009. The circumstances of the conception, the situation of Ms. Suleman, and the current state of the world, created a sensation. Many people took time for a pause. My two cents, in considering many issues and often opposing, critical viewpoints, follows below.

It is hard to judge God. On the one hand, if God put all creatures on the Earth and if God does not make mistakes, then who are we to judge God’s creations? On the other hand, as God is in us, blessing us with an innate sense of the Divine, it feels, and sometimes we know, that all is not perfect in us nor in the world.

The mother should know that no matter her inner urges or feelings of deflated self that leave her painfully reaching out in a manner, which by our norms and after 10,000 years of recent evolution, strikes many of us as sad, [the mother should know] that she is a Divine being. She is beautiful and beyond adequate, but her choices do speak of an inner pain that runs deep.

If we were doing right by and for the children already in the world today, surely adding 8 more would increase the universal joy. But we are not there and we have a monumental task with the children already here - 35 million children who live in poverty in the United States; an education crisis, particularly with boys; childhood obesity epidemic; and other things happening with kids that reflect how poorly, really, as a society we are with raising our children. Eight beautiful sparks of life have arrived in this world, it seems, where the deck is stacked against them.

We have our human tragedies but we keep evolving and the program seems to be moving towards perfection. Bless everyone, and thank you all for your time, consideration, and reflection.

Posted in Spirituality | 1 Comment »