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Archives for October 2006

OOPSLA Event-Driven Architecture Workshop – 10.22.2006 in the “other” Portland

October 17, 2006 By brenda michelson

Last week, during dinner with friends, I was asked about my upcoming travel.  I told them I was off to Portland next week, which got me a round of grief for traveling less than 30 miles from home.  I then had to explain, "the other Portland", the one on the left coast.  Although, there is no reason why a big technology conference shouldn’t come here.

Anyway, next week I’ll be attending OOPSLA, to participate in the Event-Driven Architecture Workshop on Sunday, 10.22.2006 and then attend some sessions on Tuesday 10.24.2006.  A session that looks like a must is Design Patterns: Beginnings and Futures — a panel discussion featuring the surviving members of the GOF (Erich Gamma , Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson), in honor of John Vlissides.

The way the conference is setup, for the first time ever, I’ll have a free day to explore another city.  Or at least write in a location more interesting than the hotel.  If you’re attending OOPSLA and want to meet up, let me know: bda at elementallinks dot com.

Filed Under: circuit, event driven architecture

Office 2.0 Podcast Jam “Transcript”: Business focused IT Toolkit mixing Excel and SOA with “2.0” concepts

October 16, 2006 By brenda michelson

Friday, I was visiting an enterprise client to review their architectural plan and discuss a business architecture initiative. During our conversation, we touched on the need for business users to simulate a proposed business change, without a big IT effort to provision the information and provide a front-end. In this scenario, a flexible front-end is crucial, because the business users are really experimenting with different models.

This got us to talking about Excel, and as luck would have it, I had just recorded a related podcast for Anne’s excellent Office 2.0 Podcast Jam. The client asked for a transcript of the podcast, and it occurred to me I should probably post it. Here it is:

Open

For my contribution to the Office 2.0 Podcast Jam, I want share a simple idea that mixes “2.0” concepts with service-oriented architecture to solve a common and often contentious IT problem, that of end-user, excel based, computing.

The Problem

First, a little about the problem. As we all know, one of the most common tools used inside the enterprise for planning, analysis and information exchange is Excel.

Spreadsheets that start out as personal tools, get passed around, augmented, and quickly evolve into important applications containing business critical data.

During this evolution, local databases begin to emerge, as do requests for extracts and updates to enterprise information sources.

As the spreadsheet evolves from a simple tool to a vital business application, a variety of risks emerge. Some examples:

• Data isn’t consistent with enterprise systems.

• There are compliance exposures due to the lack of security and audit.

• In some cases, the local infrastructure is outgrown, or expensive to manage.

Because of these risks, sooner or later, every IT manager is faced with a difficult decision to take-over or shutdown an end-user evolved application.

In a “take-over” (either re-platformed or IT supported) the application gains stability, but the business user, the application’s creator, loses control. The business user is no longer free to add new information sources, manipulate the presentation, or vary calculations. The creator’s freedom tends to vanish as important operational controls are added.

What’s needed, is a solution that promotes “do-it-yourself” while still implementing necessary controls.

“2.0 Constructs and Concepts”

This brings me to the “2.0” technologies and concepts. In the “2.0” category I’m including: Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and Office 2.0.

Common across “2.0” technologies – are the concepts of networked access, everything (software, information, computing) as a service, collaboration, ease-of-use and the all important ability to compose (mix and match or mashup).

The two keys to composition are having resources to compose and tools to create the composition. Regarding composition, Andrew McAfee, in his insightful MIT Sloan Article: Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration, noted two enterprise 2.0 ground rules:

1. “Offerings should be easy to use”.

2. “Don’t impose preconceived notions about How work should be done… or How output should be categorized or structured. Build tools that let these aspects of knowledge work emerge.”

The second rule “build tools that lets the aspects of knowledge work emerge” is critical to the idea I want to share.

The Idea

So here it is. I’m suggesting that IT provides a “2.0” based toolkit that gives business professionals using Excel easy access to information through data-oriented services from a service-oriented architecture.

The toolkit should be an Excel plug-in that allows business users to search for services, and then drag and drop relevant data fields into their Excel worksheet. The toolkit should be open enough to access services from external sources.

The services, besides delivering the data, should have enterprise controls for user access, auditing, sensitive data handling, and in the case of an update, data quality checks.

This combination gives business users the power of do-it-yourself, in a tool they’ve mastered, without risking data integrity, breaking infrastructure or violating compliance rules.

As added benefits, the business users are now working with the freshest enterprise information, and IT has a quick, visible win, in demonstrating the power of a service-oriented architecture.

For an example of an easy to use Excel Web Services plug-in, check out StrikeIron’s OnDemand for Excel. You might start with that, or create your own.

Whatever you do, don’t offer a programmer’s toolkit to your business users. Make it easy, and make it successful.

Close

Anyway, that’s my, as promised, simple idea. I realize it isn’t exactly “Office 2.0” since I’m recommending a solution based on desktop resident Excel, but I think it is a good mix of “2.0” and SOA that offers business value today.

[Disclosure: StrikeIron is NOT a client of Elemental Links, Inc.]

Filed Under: office 2.0, services architecture, soa, social

Office 2.0 Podcast Jam: Interesting, Quick, and Free for All

October 11, 2006 By brenda michelson

Today is the third day of the Office 2.0 Podcast Jam.  So far, 8 podcasts are available.  All touch on different aspects of, as Cote says, "*2.0" (Office, Enterprise, Web).  Richard MacManus provided a great keynote on Office 2.0 as a paradigm shift.  He spoke of the importance of "Web native functionality" in "office" applications.  […]

Filed Under: circuit, office 2.0, services architecture, soa

SOA Governance Survey Results – ebizQ Webinar Thursday, 10.5.2006

October 4, 2006 By brenda michelson

[Update on October 16, 2006: The SOA Governance Survey Whitepaper is now available (free with registration)]

When I shared in my Elemental Links Inc. introductory post, there would likely be periods of ‘blog silence’ as I worked on client projects, I didn’t expect that to happen right away.  But, obviously it did.  One of the projects I’ve been working on – number crunching and analysis for ebizQ’s SOA Governance Survey – wraps up tomorrow at 12:00pm eastern time with a Webinar. 

Beth Gold-Bernstein will share the major survey findings, and Actional’s Mike Gero and I will participate on a panel discussion, and join Beth for audience Q&A: 

   

"You can’t afford to miss this webinar on SOA Governance when the results of a recent ebizQ on-line survey will be revealed. Tune in and find out what other companies are doing about SOA Governance, and what you might be missing. When it comes to SOA Governance, what you don’t know can indeed harm you. Additionally, all attendees will receive a free copy of a white paper which will contain the results of the survey."

Since I promised not to discuss the survey results until after the webinar, let me instead point to an example of adoption rate hype you won’t hear from us.  I think practitioners and technology providers will find the survey results interesting, and grounded in reality.  I know I did. 

[Disclosure: Elemental Links has a business relationship with ebizQ; Actional is not an Elemental Links customer.]

Filed Under: circuit, services architecture, soa

Brenda M. Michelson

Brenda Michelson

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