As we post a lot of articles about Cloud Computing recently, I want to get all readers on track and share a Youtube clip that explains the basics of the Cloud concept in a very graphic way.
If you have problems with the embedded video, watch it directly on Youtube.
Business and IT don’t understand what each other do. And they don’t care. In a recent paper McKinsey suggests to produce a written »annual report of IT« to deal with the problem.
Like others before me I don’t think another bunch of paper comes even close to the badly needed answer.
What about a quick litmus test for this one: Are you an IT guy? Have you ever read the annual report of your company to understand what business is up to? Did you ever want to? If you said »No.« my bet is that you are on the safe 99.9% side of the majority. I’d suspect the same holding true for the business side: Who cares about 80 pages of non-understandable tech-speak? SOA anyone?
OK then: What is the answer? My conviction is that the misunderstandings and resentiments between both sides can only be overcome by direct personal and continuous communication. Whether one key building block in this effort comes in form of regular »board-style« meetings or by installing matrix functions reporting to both sides doesn’t really matter. I’ve seen both types working. But the premise of all working solutions has been the same: Business and IT have to become one in the minds of the people in the organization. No report will ever solve this one.
Once installed the next challenge becomes to find a common language to use during communication. How can we relate business and IT goals into a big picture that everyone in the organization can understand and commit to? More a transformation than a single answer.
No quick wins in sight, I’m sorry.
One of my favorite metaphors to aid in the creative search for sustainable systems and architectures is the ecosystem. Although much is written nowadays about organizational ecosystems, SOA ecosystems, ecosystems of webservices etc. the most important part is missing in almost every buzz cascade: the answer to the question »What the heck is an ecosystem?«.
The thoughts of Fritjof Capra provided the desperately needed de-buzzing for my part. Although having absolutely nothing to do with IT or business systems, his basic principles of ecology provided what I was looking for.
Capra assigns five basic attributes to ecosystems:
All principles together culminate in a sustainable system of cooperating but essentially independent (sub-)systems.
To get the most out of this metaphor we have to interpret it for the context at hand.
What does principle number 4 e. g. mean for the field of enterprise architecture? One interpretation could be that there is no need searching for the one technology to serve them all. Treat the separate units and divisions as the individual organisms they are and specify just the interfaces and cross-cutting concerns (web of life, no waste) connecting them. If you interpret the sun as an orientation point towards the single organisms can navigate by, the governance bodies and the sponsorship needed to organize such a web of life bring principles 3 and 2 to life.
The interpretations and possibilities of these principles are seemingly endless and powerful. As with every powerful thing the danger of misusing (misinterpreting?) them are there, too and can’t be denied. As a tool to break out of internalized mindsets and (in this case) transfer knowledge between different domains, metaphors are essential.
What are your favorite metaphors?
Read Capras original paper here. Get the slides on the subject from OOP2009.
Update:
[1] It always seemed to me that a sort of »proof« was needed for this statement:
»In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned
to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed«
Charles Darwin
