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Archives for August 2007

SOA Trough of Disillusionment: Sinkhole or Poser Filter?

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It looks like we are squarely, predictably, and self-fulfillingly in the SOA Trough of Disillusionment. Analysts and press are (enthusiastically) ringing the death knell for SOA as they redirect their short attention spans to the next silver bullet/victim.

I say good. Good riddance to the droves of hypesters, amplifiers and marketing managers that couldn’t stop themselves from slapping a $OA label on anything or one that recognized http or used an angle bracket.

As for the rest of us, those who “get” SOA and its true value proposition, it is time to reclaim SOA. To start, we need to remove the large obstacles on the SOA business value path. I’m thinking we (as an industry/community of communities) need to tackle the following:

1. Let’s once and for all, clearly, succinctly, and in business terms articulate the ‘what and why’ of SOA.

Hints:

2. Let’s identify (and act on) real business problems and opportunities SOA enables and use those as starting points to engage business folks in a value conversation.

3. Let’s create and use reasonable, integrated, methods to define and deliver solutions that actually represent the intent of business strategists and process owners.

4. Let’s break though the artificial constraints of vendor packaging and research taxonomies and connect the dots between SOA, BPM, EDA and Web 2.0 in the spirit of delivering business value.

5. Let’s figure out an Agile way to implement a SOA program that:

  • Delivers business value at each step
  • Grows skills, competencies, and buy-in of internal IT and business professionals
  • Builds out a SOA environment in an incremental, sustainable, scaleable and malleable manner
  • Deliberately accounts for SOA’s impact on IT Service Management

6. Let’s consider, plan, measure and report on SOA in the correct perspective, as a lifestyle change that encompasses people, process and technology.

Any takers?

Business-IT Integration Continued: IT Geeks on the Front Lines of Innovation

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Continuing on my business-IT integration theme, I want to share some excerpts from a BusinessWeek article, entitled IT’s Star Turn.  I found the article via Ben Worthen’s BizTech blog.  The article, written by Jeneanne Rae of Peer Insight talks about the importance, and yet dearth, of IT participation in corporate innovation.  Following the excerpts, I have a few questions.  The emphasis is mine.

First, the opportunity: the shift to a services economy, the innovation edge, and the tie to information technology:

“The fundamental shift of the U.S. economy from one based on industry to one based on services has been covered in this column and elsewhere. While some companies—and indeed industries—still resist the trend, the innovators have recognized that the production of value lies in the creation of services, and have adapted accordingly.

Even product-based companies have shifted their focus from the production of physical goods to the delivery of device-enabled services products. But here’s the related innovation trend that no one is talking about: Increasingly, those services are being driven by scalable technologies. The information technology departments once seen as back-room cost centers are becoming key players in the execution of innovation, and hence, the creation of value in the new marketplace.”

Next, the absence of information technology personnel in the innovation discussion:

“Where is IT in the innovation conversation? With IT being so essential to the innovation equation, and with so much riding on the IT department’s ability to build and maintain the systems that will drive customer delight, you’d think there would be more talk about the role of IT in innovation strategy.

But let me ask, how engaged are chief information officers in innovation initiatives? Are members of your IT department full-time members of innovation project teams? Or do they exhibit a “call me when you need me” approach? Or worse still, a “Put your request in the queue, I’ll get to it when I can” attitude?

Based on my research, the majority of IT departments sit on the sidelines of innovation discussions when they should be central players. Systems consultants as well as corporate representatives say that, typically, IT departments are tactical rather than strategic, reactive rather that proactive, and isolated rather than integrated. Few in the IT ranks speak “business model,” which is unfortunate given that so much customer and shareholder value is dependent on IT solutions to facilitate critical network connections.

…many corporate innovation executives I know no longer consult their IT departments. Despite the risk of exposing new business strategies to potentially untrustworthy third parties during the “fuzzy front end” stage, they simply go outside. “You get tired of hearing, ‘no, we can’t do that’ all the time,” said one practitioner at a Peer Insight forum recently.”

Lastly, a prescription, or continuation of the Business-IT Integration theme:

“In order to support the robust innovation pipelines that many corporations aim to build, we have to rethink how we integrate IT into our organizations, particularly as it relates to driving innovation. Start with the IT leadership team, where more executive bench strength will be needed. IT managers should be well-versed on managing cross-functional initiatives, and should understand the company’s business end-to-end. These managers will need to guide innovation teams in regular technology road mapping and system architecting sessions. Interaction design and rapid prototyping of customer touchpoints will be the standard, not the exception. Iteration and user testing of new software concepts will be a core capability. Likewise, IT must be engaged and mentored by business managers as the opportunities to learn and collaborate go both ways.”

Questions:

1. How does IT participate in Innovation at your company?  Are IT personnel at the Innovation table?  If so, which roles?  CIO, CTO, Chief Architect, Business Relationship Manager, other?

2. Are technology capabilities/advancements input to Business Innovation Ideation?  (how’s that for a management buzzword?)

3. How integrated are business and IT at your company?

(a) IT is an order taker

(b) IT aligns with business (IT takes and supports business lead)

(c) IT and Business are integrated: collaborate on Innovation, Strategy, Architecture and/or Portfolio Planning?

 

[Note: This post originally appeared on my Business Driven Architect blog on August 7, 2007, brought over to elemental links on June 7, 2008]

ebizQ: The Role of Event Processing in Modern Business

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Dr. K. Mani Chandy and Roy Schulte recently published an article on ebizQ entitled The Role of Event Processing in Modern Business. I liked this article because it focuses on event processing (EDA, ESP and CEP) in the context of business.

The article describes three capabilities of an adaptive enterprise: situational awareness, sense and respond and track and trace:

"Situational awareness implies having an up-to-the-minute understanding of all critical aspects of your internal operations and the external environment. It is "knowing what is going on so you can figure out what to do" (Adam 1993). Sense-and-respond has a similar flavor, and in fact, the term is sometimes used interchangeably with situational awareness. However sense-and-respond emphasizes timely reaction to specified opportunities and threats whereas situational awareness connotes having a holistic view of many factors.

Track-and-trace is a bit different. It focuses on recording the status of identified items as they move between physical locations or through the steps of a business process. For example, logistic systems track-and-trace movements of physical goods in supply chains. They tell users where a shipment has been and where it is now, predict when it will arrive at a destination and can prove that it was delivered. The idea of track-and-trace can also apply to the movement of insurance claims, customer orders and other information-based items as they go through their life cycles."

From this business context, the article proceeds to discuss event processing definitions, EDA design patterns, patterns of response and the relationship of event processing and business intelligence, via BAM.

I found the article largely consistent with my own views and writing. Of course, terminology varies. But, that is something the event processing community is working together to address.

The article is a precursor (promotion) for Gartner’s Event Processing Summit, but a good read nonetheless.

[Disclosures: Elemental Links has a business relationship with ebizQ, none with Gartner. Although I’d be happy to receive a press pass to the Event Processing Summit 🙂 ]

Brenda M. Michelson

Brenda Michelson

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