icehusk blog

A famous sculptor was asked how he makes such realistic sculptures. He said 'I do not make them I merely remove the unnecessary pieces from the rock'.  Design is often looked upon as an innovation that was created without any constraints. It seldom is the case. Where there is a good design there is bound to be a set of constraints imposed on the system.  When traversing the design approach as an architect I find business operating model lays the first level system constraint followed by the data that is required to effectively run the business processes associated with the operating model. The data needs determine the applications that need to be put in place. The applications determine the infrastructure requirements. So, the design constraints imposed by the business, process, data and application define the design of IT systems and infrastructure. It might also happen that infrastructure puts constrains on the business model. This is when business design is constrained by

A well-thought-out idea, a powerful marketing message, an informative info-graphic, a restaurant menu card, a movie poster, a cheat sheet, London tube map.  What is common in all of the above? The title of this post is a hint.  They are all something on a page. Anything that fits a page is a  well articulated viewpoint of a customer.  Anything on a page is an amazing vehicle to reach the information to the right audience at the right place and time. Three principles to bear in mind:  1. Focus on the outcome of the process (why) 2. Take the viewpoint of the audience (who, when, where) 3. Apply sophistication to the tools yet keep the output simple (how)

A blueprint for Digital Ecosystem Graphic A Digital Ecosystem is a conglomeration of  Internet of Things (IoT) , Machine-to-Machine (M2M), Big Data Analytics, Hybrid compute platform that enable new business models banking on the currency of data that is mostly real-time in nature hence more valuable to the users.  This is an opportunity for businesses to create value out of through investment in digital technologies.  The  Digital Ecosystem  value-chain should cover sourcing, analyzing and consuming digitized engineering data and information.  Digitize: source engineering data into IT systems Analyze and Automate: process data and control devices Consume: share and use information that is of value to business Each element in the value chain is currently at a different stage of maturity.  Digitize . For years, the field of engineering has advanced and adopted automation yet largely in silos partly due to proprietary technologies. Now is a ripe time to tap into

Three foundational attributes for  crowdsourcing within enterprises 1. Culture of cross BU collaboration measurable and encouraged at all levels 2. Flexible bandwidth of 20% of people's time that can be spent on unassigned projects backed with rewards and recognition 3. Playpen Cloud environment for exploration of cross-BU and partner solution portfolio leading to an enterprise app store of sorts Organisations look outside for talent and seldom recognise the importance of bringing about an internal mindshift. Enterprise Social have now entered and are making new friends as extensions to the work life we knew thus far. Not to mention these networks are able to provide people easy access on mobile devices. This is an amazing opportunity for business leaders with a captive talent pool. Some ideas icehusk is exploring include: Idea generation Solution factories Employee engagement Intrapreneurship Knowledge pooling Cross LOB collaboration

An interesting interplay of Constraints and Decisions occur when an Enterprise Architect navigates through the Business, Data, Application and Technology architecture domains.  Picture this: While there is plenty of options, business wants to bet on a certain horse for competitive advantage. A Decision and an initial Constraint are created. This is a decision articulated by a Business Architect. (the suffix is optional. it could be your business head making this decision). E.g., Go Public cloud for B2B processes The Business Architecture (BA) decision acts as a 'constraint' for the data architect who then makes business Data decisions within this boundary without compromising architectural viewpoints. E.g., Public and Transaction data goes on the public cloud; Private and Sensitive data in a Private cloud. Likewise, an Application Architect (AA) ensures alignment to constraints above and makes decisions among the business application options without compromising on a

AaaS (Anything as a Service) models in my experience do not currently have a one size fits all to the operating model choices and decisions. Typically it transforms all current management processes: capex to opex change to start with. People, process, data and tools are the major classifications I'd look at. Clients are dealing with a lot of choices just as it is with choosing between 100's of choices in cereals at the super market. For the time being though I expect they enjoy the abundance but likely they are making their future lives harder. Complexity, risk and redundancy are building rapidly in their hybrid environments. For technologists it's both an opportunity and a challenge.