The Birth of Google

Larry thought Sergey was arrogant. Sergey thought Larry was obnoxious. But their obsession with backlinks just might be the start of something big.

This Wired Magazine article, entitled The Birth of Google, tells the wonderful story of BackRub -- the revolutionary approach to search based on taking into account both the number of links into a particular site and the number of links into each of the linking sites.

BackRub is one of those classic examples of a paradigm shift in which, indeed, out-of-the-box thinking was needed in order to solve an existing problem (i.e., SEARCH) in an entirely new and better way.

The human brain is physically constrained by the magic number seven (7), plus (+) or minus (-) two (2). That's the capacity of the brain's short-term memory buffer. Humans can only attend to 7, +/- 2, things at a time. Some people can track 9 things at a time. Other people can only track 5 things at a time. The average is 7 things (hence the magic number 7).

---

ASIDE:

The best predictor of a superstar programmer may be as simple as measuring a software developer's short-term memory. Many phenom programmers share a common trait of possessing great short-term memory skills.

---

The beauty of the brain is that each of those seven things you can attend to can be any chunk of information. It can be seven numbers, seven movie titles, seven chess moves, seven levels of subroutine calls, and so forth. This ability to abstract also means that the human brain imposes organization onto incoming information.

People are active -- NOT passive -- processors of information.

Paradigms SHAPE Perceptions

Look at the graphic below.

Do you see the Ducky? Quick, switch your perspective and look at the Bunny.

The human brain is incapable of seeing both the Ducky and the Bunny simultaneously.

The viewer imposes "context" onto whatever it is to be perceived.  Note: The picture doesn't change. Only the viewer's perspective changes.

Paradigms are the hallmark of computing.

• batch-to-online
• assemblers-to-compilers
• files-to-databases
• navigational-to-relational DBMS
• online-to-PC
• PC-to-client/server
• procedural-to-object-oriented
• plus many more...

Smart IT managers know how to ride a paradigm shift the same way surfers know how to catch the perfect spot just below the crest of an incoming wave.

Paradigms are literally what architecture is all about

People NEED paradigms. That's what defines meaningful chunks of information for attention, abstract reasoning, recall, etc.

People NEED paradigms about how to think about computing. That's what enterprise architecture is all about.

IT Portfolio Management

Bryan Maizlish and Robert Handler have written IT Portfolio Management: Unlocking the Business Value of Technology.

I haven't read this book. I've only looked at the sample portion that's posted on Amazon.com. Based on that short segment, I edited a few interesting and informative remarks which I've excerpted below.

• IT can have a significant impact on the quality of services and the performance of a company


• IT investments represent a profound hole within companies -- there are no other investments within a company that occupy such a large and growing expenditure yet lack disciplined management, processes, and performance measurements
  


• The primary focus on IT investments is on short-term projects and priorities with near-term benefits -- delaying and in many cases eliminating long-term strategic investments
  


• Concurrent with cutbacks in IT spending:
  
  
  • IT's role has been expanded from internally focused to customer facing applications -- customers are demanding more rapid, real-time, customized solutions
  
  
  • regulators are requiring new levels of accountability and traceability of corporate behavior (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
  
  


• IT is responding to cutbacks by:
  
  
  • simplifying, migrating, retiring, and/or consolidating legacy systems to decrease operations and maintenance costs and increase flexibility and agility
  
  
  • standardizing, reengineering, and utilizing commercial off-the-shelf technologies and open standards
  
  
  • externalizing processes through outsourcing and establishing value-network partner ecosystems and shared services
  
  


• Many companies are hemorrhaging in IT spending due to:
  
  
  • a prevalence of pet projects
  • a reluctance to kill projects and/or retire assets
  • too many active projects and a huge backlog of projects
  • a myopic focus on exotic and cool technologies
  • a lack of a detailed cataloged, organized, and aggregated view of critical versus immaterial assets
  • inconsistent and incomplete criteria to assess IT investments
  • underestimation of the total cost of ownership
  • inadequate governance
  • ad hoc program management process
  
  


• Many business and IT managers are unaware of the reason why IT investments were initiated or the criteria used to approve IT investments
  


• Hiding IT costs associated with pet projects, political power plays that override strategic objectives, and implementation and execution of rogue systems is easy and commonplace
  


• It is not unusual that accountability to initial assumptions made in IT investments is nearly impossible to trace, since roles, responsibilities, and ownership are vaguely defined
  


• It is impossible to effectively and efficiently manage IT resources without awareness and a detailed catalog of all IT investments, identifying who is accountable, and relevant metrics
  


• The ability to extend, migrate, refurbish, or retire systems or applications is very difficult as key dependencies, support, and constraints with other applications and systems are often unknown
  


• It is not surprising to find multiple and redundant enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, portals, customer relationship management, middleware, and operating systems consisting of undocumented ad hoc upgrades and patches analogous to a "spaghetti" architecture
  


• Technical, business, operating, system, logical, and physical views of the architecture are typically outdated or nonexistent
  


• Misalignment between IT and the strategic intent, inability to establish a common IT architecture, and a highly redundant and undocumented as-is architecture will result in high operations and maintenance costs
  

72% of IT projects are late, overbudget, lacking in functionality, or never delivered

Enterprise Architect’s Roles & Responsibilities

I'm a long-time fan of Ron Schmelzer and Jason Bloomberg over at Zapthink. The July 27, 2005, edition of their Zapflash newsletter, authored by Ron, is entitled So, Where are the Architects?

Below are edited excerpts:

We often blame today’s IT departments and their technology purchases for being responsible for the integration rats’ nests that are the cause of today’s inflexibility, and we frequently chastise the business folks for making expedient, short-sighted decisions that only make the problem worse.

So, is there a way out of this puzzle? Is there anyone in the organization that can hope to get the vision right, or is this all a hopeless struggle?

Fortunately, there is hope, and it comes in the form of enterprise architecture.

So, if there’s a need for architecture, then it figures that there’s a need for architects. After all, if we need an architect for something as relatively simple as a house or office building, then it makes sense we need someone in the corresponding role for designing systems as complex as today’s IT environments.

Companies need enterprise architects who can merge the worlds of business and IT. Such an architect should be able to perform the following functions in the organization:

• The Great Communicator
  
  
  • a key duty of the architect is the ability to keep one leg firmly planted in the business and its requirements so that IT can always be responsive to the business, and not vice-versa
    
  
  
  • the architect serves to intermediate the worlds of IT and business in much the same way that the human resources department isolates the business users from having to know all the intricacies and complexities of hiring and firing employees
    
  
  
  • in much the same way that we seek to simplify the IT world by abstracting its complexity, the architect helps to:
    1. create an abstraction of the IT organization to the business user
    2. provide a corresponding abstraction of the business to the IT organization
  
  
• The Simplifier
  
  
  • businesses are complex entities
    
  
  
  • IT is likewise a complex assortment of disparate technologies
    
  
  
  • there’s simply no way that any one individual can have an adequate understanding of all the intricacies of both the business and IT worlds
    
  
  
  • the enterprise architect has a key role in distilling the complexity of the business world into a set of more easily understood descriptions
    
  
  
  • the architect needs to simplify the complicated morass of IT technologies and infrastructure
    
  
  
• The Evolutionist
  
  
  • architects are responsible for not just meeting today’s requirements using today’s technologies, but managing change as well
    
  
  
  • you can think of business and IT users simply as the parties that engage in a contractual relationship with the architect serving in the role that helps define the terms of the contract and make sure that both parties abide by the terms they’ve agreed to
    
  
  
• Champion of Thrift
  
  
  • most companies simply don’t have enough understanding of architecture to make efficient use of existing investments
    
  
  
  • we can’t count on business users to think strategically about IT agility, since if it were up to them, they’d simply continue their practice of making decisions based on the most expedient, cost-effective solution to their problems of the day
    
  
  
  • likewise, we can’t depend on the IT rank and file to focus on thrift, since most developers and operational folks within IT would much rather implement the latest technologies and cutting-edge infrastructure than work with the hulking system that’s been chugging along for the past decade
    
  
  
  • it thus falls upon the shoulders of the enterprise architect to be the champion of thrift and extend the value of existing IT investments
    
  
  
  • architects must be able to find ways to reduce the need to invest in unnecessary technology and allow companies to build systems that can evolve with changing needs
    
  
  
• The Pragmatist
  
  
  • good architects must be more than great communicators, simplifiers, and economic magicians -- they must also be able to make realistic, step-wise improvements to the business use of IT
    
  
  
  • since business users and individuals within IT each see the elephant that is IT through their own perspectives, the architect must be able to see the elephant for what it is, maintaining a pragmatic mental picture for how the organization can evolve iteratively while still maintaining a single, cohesive vision of the organization’s architecture
    
  
  
• Master of Best Practices
  
  
  • rather than focusing simply on using the latest, greatest technologies or delving into the latest acronym or business fad, the architect is responsible for developing the best practices for architecture for the organization
    
  
  
  • whereas the IT developer and implementer was the innovator of yesterday, the architect is the innovator of the future
    

Simplifying EA

The following excerpt comes from an article I authored awhile back entitled Rows and Columns: Codd vs. Zachman.

EA, as it’s practiced today, is excruciatingly complex -- totally the opposite of relational’s remarkable simplicity. This painstaking complexity makes EA almost unapproachable. It reminds me of the old Maine farmer who, when asked for directions by the city slicker, responds (in a heavy down east accent) "you can’t get there from here." Organizations need to find a better way to get started with EA. The first thing a building architect does before designing a new home is to look at the "terrain" on which the structure will be situated. For EA, IT should do the same. Look at past technology investments. Define which characteristics of the existing terrain you want to keep, what you need to change, what should be discarded, and what needs to be developed. This topographical mapping of your terrain is the foundational blueprint that serves as the groundwork for all future EA initiatives.

What Enterprise Architecture?

It's discouraging how many American enterprises operate strictly from a short-term perspective. No one wants to spend money. Period. End of discussion. Investments are made only if they will immediately increase sales or decrease costs.

The disinclination to invest is particularly acute in IT.

Enterprises ought to be investing in architecture -- given the continuous, ongoing, exponentential explosion in technological innovation. Yet many enterprise architects live in fear of imminent job layoffs.

The whole Sourcing, Procurement, and Deployment (SPD) process has gone mad. All that matters nowadays is loyalty to the deal. Quality, capability, competency, elegance -- those properties are pretty much ignored.

Yet, Enterprise Architecture is vitally important. Unfortunately, the ever-expanding gulf between "haves" and "have-nots" is rapidly widening.

How much of Wal-Mart's success do you think depends on its information systems technology? Think about FedEx. In order to move "atoms" they first needed to know how to move "bits". You cannot make me believe these firms ignore architecture.

Enterprises need models that can effectively describe, inventory, simulate, etc., their business processes, business objects, business solutions (i.e., applications), and technology architecture.

Who needs enterprise architecture? It's as much for managers and businesspeople as it is for IT people. Enterprise architecture provides everybody with a single, shared, common perspective.

What kinds of organizations invest in enterprise architecture? Before answering that question, let me suggest you first look at your own org chart. Where does the CIO report? If it's the CFO, then you can pretty much assume IT is perceived as a cost center and will always be viewed as a cost center, forever.

There are enterprises -- both in industry as well as in government -- where IT provides a competitive edge. Where the CIO reports directly to the CEO, or to the COO, there's a higher probability that IT is involved in strategic planning and execution.

Puzzled and Confused

META, Gartner, Forrester, IDC, AMR -- have all written about the substantial cost savings that can be achieved through consolidation and standards -- usually between 20-30% reductions in technology portfolio costs.

Yet, CIOs have shown very little interest in wanting to collect and share information about their enterprise's technology portfolio.

My cynical side thinks that maybe there'd be too much embarrassment if businesspeople ever grasped how much waste, redundancy, and inefficiency revolves around and swirls within past software and infrastructure investments.

Standardize. Consolidate. Communicate.

What SEARCH Won't Find

The Web Hits the Stacks by Stephen Wildstrom


Edited excerpts appear below:

Popular wisdom holds that you can find anything on the Web. Not true. There is a vast body of knowledge that's hidden.

The bulk of human knowledge is represented by printed material -- especially the portion that is more than 25 years old -- does not exist in digital form. In addition, most books and other printed matter published in the last century are still under copyright, and rights owners want to know they'll be compensated for the use of their material.

Google Print (print.google.com) is an attempt to scan the contents of the world's books. One part, developed with publishers, lets people search the contents of current books -- an effort similar to Amazon.com's Search Inside. The more ambitious piece, an outgrowth of the National Science Foundation's digital-libraries initiative, aims to put leading research collections online.

This project has a long way to go, not least because publishers are already up in arms over copyright (see BW Online, 6/22/05, "A New Page in Google's Books Fight"). So far, relatively few books have been digitized. Among those are many copyrighted works that are in libraries but out of print. Google lets you search the contents of these works but only serves up snippets of text surrounding the search terms.

As useful as the Web is, Google Print shows how much is missing. It's good to see it gradually coming within clicking distance.

Knowledge Management (KM)

• The creation and application of knowledge can be the engine of organizational performance and growth.



• Once you've captured knowledge, the next challenge is to make it accessible to workers.




• An IDC study claims that "an organization with 1,000 knowledge workers loses a minimum of $6 million per year in time spent just searching for information."

Repairing the World

There's a wonderful Jewish traditional value known as tikkum olam that literally means repair the world.

• when you treat someone with kindness -- you help repair the world
• when you go out of our way to help another person -- you help repair the world
• when you act justly -- you help repair the world

The idea is that your action is outward, but your inward goal is to help fulfill God’s purpose. Hopefully, without sounding blasphemous, I feel as though the work of technology architecture and standardization & consolidation is helping to repair the world.

• adopting a simplified, streamlined, less complex, standardized computing environment will reduce inefficiencies and eliminate unnecessary replication



• organizing and simplifying technology portfolios into understandable categories will identify redundancies and enable consolidation of IT assets (cutting at least 10% of technology portfolio costs)



• better navigating and visualizing of current and future technology architecture at both the organizational level and for each business silo, will increase purchasing power, improve knowledge sharing, and enhance overall efficiencies



• communicating IT strategy and technology architecture -- to both management and IT people -- using easy-to-use and easy-to-understand navigation, graphics and colors -- will ensure better compliance with standards and provide the best return on investment

Is it not repairing the world by helping IT organizations leverage their existing portfolio of products, applications and services to effectively plan and implement forward looking strategies?

Is it not repairing the world by helping provide an architecture team with a robust, structured environment (a framework) in which to collect, organize and document IT products and corresponding vendors?

Is it not repairing the world by helping IT visually convey and explain, quickly and easily, architectural standards and requirements to all levels within their enterprise?

My company, Flashmap Systems, is about to start offering a new ASP product called ITguide^TM. While I wouldn't exactly describe ITguide as tikkum olam, I will say that it allows an architect to do what an architect does:

1. model
2. document

With ITguide, the models specify technology architectures that document IT standards.

Keep an eye out for the product's forthcoming introductory announcement that will revolve around repair the world themes -- like help for non-profits and amazingly affordable single-seat pricing for practitioners.

Standardization & consolidation does help repair the world.

BTW, it also saves money.

Simplifying Complexity

"Asset Managers May Untangle Complex Systems"
by Debra D'Agostino

Edited excerpt appears below:

Complexity in IT is like the national budget deficit. It just keeps growing. Every new project just adds to it.

According to CIO Insight, 81 percent of companies say reducing overall infrastructure complexity is a top priority.

Despite their efforts, IT shops are still wasting as much as one-third of their annual budgets on unnecessary IT equipment, maintenance fees and unused software licenses.

The reasons for all the complexity are, well, complicated:

1. First, the rampant pace of mergers and acquisitions has left many IT shops inundated with disparate, dysfunctional systems, cobbled together out of necessity.


2. Second, IT hardware -- which includes not just servers and desktops, but PDAs, mobile phones and laptops -- is getting cheaper, making items easier to acquire.


3. Third, Web-based technologies and software suites for CRM, supply chain and ERP are wonderful at addressing a wide range of business needs, but do nothing to simplify life in IT.

Complexity arises because of business demands. Some CIOs are terrified to open a Pandora's box and find out how bad things really are. But the first step is always going to be the same for any company: IT asset management.

When it comes to software and tools, IT asset management breaks into two basic categories. There are:

1. autodiscovery tools -- that probe for assets across IT systems and report key metrics such as storage availability and performance


2. data repositories -- that keep real-time inventories of systems and help CIOs understand how assets are connected to one another

For companies with an aggressive growth strategy through acquisitions, or for a company that is about to be acquired, asset management is a must.

Software maintenance and support just isn't being managed accurately. Some companies pay contracts -- some worth millions of dollars each year -- without first checking to make sure the software is still being used.

---

I see a missing piece in the above story. IT asset managers focus on tracking hardware, software and licenses. What's missing is a technology portfolio manager that communicates standards and technology architecture.

NOTE:

Technology Architecture is to IT Assets
as
Metadata is to Data

IT asset managers target bean counters and system managers responsible for Manageware activities, such as software installation, inventory management, configuration management, license management, etc.

Modeling technology architecture and communicating standards targets the widely diverse constituency of people who -- use, develop, operate, manage, support, purchase, etc., -- IT systems and services.

Technology architecture tools:

• describe technology portfolios
• communicate standards
• visually convey multi-dimensional context

Technology architecture helps people understand how the pieces of the technological puzzle fit together. The Germans have a word for it, Gestalt, which means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Architecture provides a cognitive roadmap that helps people better think about, and talk about, IT systems and services. Increased levels of comprehension leads to more strategic involvement, creative thinking, and overall consensus building.

People need simple and easy access to information about which tools to select from among a list of options, including:

• explanations describing why a tool was selected, or rejected
• how to handle allowable exceptions
• where to sign up for training classes
• where to find documentation
• how to access Web-based support facilities
• etc., etc., etc.

Talk or Drive. Don't Do Both

According to Associated Press:

Drivers using cellular phones are four times as likely to get into a crash that can cause injuries serious enough to send them to the hospital.

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

• Research found an overall fourfold increase in injury crashes when drivers were using cell phones.


• The study looked at cell phone records to examine phone usage within minutes before an actual crash.


• Using a hands-free device instead of a hand-held phone while behind the wheel does not improve safety.

RSS -- Part Three

In RSS -- Part One and RSS -- Part Two, I talked about Really Simple Syndication, and How to Subscribe to Blogs using Bloglines.

In Part Three, I had planned to show how easy it was to subscribe to a blog delivered directly into your email inbox. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake -- simple and quick. I'd write it up and then move on to something else. That was back on July 7, 2005. It's now July 12th.

---

The tagline that best describes computers is...

Nothing is as easy as it ought to be!

Ain't that the truth?

---

My search for a zero-cost, quick, simple RSS email subscriber began with a trip over to Google where I looked up Newsgator and You Subscribe. Unfortunately, the deeper down the knowledge paths I journeyed, the more confused I became. I never seemed to stumble upon a no cost answer for solving my simple request. Suddenly, I was being reminded of what a rookie blogger I still am. The terminology itself is so bewildering.

I got this perfectly reasonable request from someone who loves reading the ITscout Blog. But, as she explains, unless something shows up in her email inbox, she's just never going to remember to read it. At the moment, she can't be bothered to go off to Bloglines to see if there's been any updates to the ITscout Blog. She just wants to receive -- via email -- any new postings published to the ITscout Blog.

My investigation began. I was in search of a simple, quick, and most importantly, zero-cost solution. The ITscout Blog is provided at no charge by Blogger, a Google-owned company. I've grown accustomed to Blogger's price. It's what I charge for ITscout -- plus I promise a double-your-money-back guarantee -- such a deal!

Let me reiterate the requirement as precisely as possible:

Someone subscribes to a blog. Whenever a new posting is published, that person automatically receives, via email, a linkable copy of the posting.

Like I said, a very legitimate request.

I finally found Feednation which offers almost exactly what I was looking for. Only thing is, it's early beta software. If the thought of early beta sends a shiver down your spine, that's normal. Your only question is, should you read any further? That's something only you can decide. The answer depends on the strength of your natural tendancy to avert risk versus your willingness to try something new in a fragile environment.

Feednation is free. Registration requires a username and password, followed by a simple validation process. The username is your email address.

Note: email address is also what ITscout registration uses for its username

Being an early beta, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I experienced difficulty logging in. Don't forget your password. There's no facilities yet for managing beta tester accounts. Like I said, early beta... But the tool offers exactly what I'm looking for...

Let me walk you through the process of registering with Feednation.

1. click on the link: http://www.feednation.com/


2. scroll down to the bottom right-hand corner of the web page, and click on the link labeled New Account


3. Enter your email address as your username in the top line.


4. Re-enter your email address as your username in the second line.


5. In the third line, enter a password that you can remember (because at the moment, you can't change it).


6. Re-enter the password in the fourth line.


7. In the fifth line, enter that portion of your username that precedes the '@' (at sign) in your email address.


8. The final step on this page is to press the "Sign Up" button.

   Upon successful completion, you will receive the following message:

   Registration Successful
   Thank you for registering with Feednation. You will shortly receive a confirmation email.



9. The email you receive will look like the following

   
   ---- Original Message: ----
   From: info@feednation.com
   To: < your email address here >
   Subject: Welcome to Feednation
   Date: < timestamp here >
   
   Thanks for signing up to Feednation.
   Click here to activate your account:
   < hyperlink here >
   
   Best Wishes
   Feednation team
   
   



10. After clicking on the activation link, you'll view the following:

    Registration Confirmation
    Success



11. After seeing the above message, you need to again LOG IN by clicking on the text LOG IN at the top right corner of the page


12. Enter your email address for your username and the password you haven't forgotten


13. Notice the text box at the top left corner of the web page -- just below the feednation logo -- the text box labeled

    'Add New Feed'

    
    Enter the following exactly as it appears below:

    http://itscout.blogspot.com/atom.xml

    Note: The above link corresponds in value to the link that appears in the left sidebar of the ITscout Blog under the LINKS heading labeled
    

    
    Site Feed



14. Click the checkmark next to the textbox. That will add the link to New Feeds


15. Click on Feeds at the top of the page just to the right of the feednation logo. That's where you'll find ITscout Blog under Feed Name and New Feeds under Group.
    
    From there you can manage the feed, or delete the feed.

---

Good luck to anyone who decides to follow the above simple 15-step plan. Let me know how it works out.

If anyone knows of an easier or better way of subscribing to a blog via email notification, please let me know by posting a COMMENT that explains how...

Why I Blog?

I posted my first blog on May 4th, 2005 -- just over three months ago -- I've probably posted fifty more since.

I'm constantly amazed how little I know about blogging. Nevertheless, I keep plodding forward, one posting at a time. I'm learning while blogging.

I blog to hopefully share smart informative content and to sometimes be funny.

In my many and varied readings and cyber travels as ITscout, I run across an amazingly eclectic mix of all kinds of diverse and interesting information. When I find something especially worthwhile, I like to share it with the ITscout Blog audience.

Cyber Passionate

I'm a passionate person.

I'm passionate about computing. I'm passionate about cognitive psychology (i.e., how the meat between your ears processes information). I'm passionate about architecture -- whatever that is.

Plus, I've got a long history of being a natural-born cyber crusader.

• I worked side-by-side with the late Ted Codd (Dr. Edgar Codd), inventor of the relational model, and his partner, Chris Date, the famous author who literally wrote the very first database management textbook.
• I crusaded way back when -- helping introduce VAXes into DEC.
• I crusaded during the period while the software industry transitioned, first to client-server, then to object-oriented, and later to service-oriented.

My current crusade revolves around a very simple theme: Standardization & Consolidation SAVES MONEY!

Three key audiences need to be kept in mind when dealing with software:

• the worker who deals with information
• the developer who builds applications, or extensions to applications
• the IT department which needs to maintain directories, manage systems, or provide support

"There is a need for one architecture that addresses all these needs."

Architecture is always about two sets of activities:

1. modeling
2. documenting

Enterprise Architecture consists of four sets of models:

1. Business Architecture
2. Data Architecture
3. Application Architecture
4. Technology Architecture

---

Business Architecture models business processes

Data Architecture models business objects

Application Architecture models business solutions

Technology Architecture models technology portfolios

---

In order to standardize & consolidate, Technology Architecture models require:

• category trees (i.e., classification hierarchies)
• products organized by category
• related vendor information
• legend icons that visually cue multi-dimensional context

---

What's needed...

A repository and presentation tool to explain and mesh strategy (management's need) with operations (IT's need).

Having only individual silos familiar with what they have (which is more the norm than not), causes inflexibility in enterprises and is very costly. What companies need is to have a classification hierarchy so that people can easily navigate to the information they need.

It is critical that there be common content that is usable by all different levels. Management needs to see it at a strategic level. IT needs to see it at an operations level. Both need to see it as it changes, so that both areas are continually in synch with one another. Something must be there to hold everything together.

Strategy exists at the domain level. Management needs to see the categories in a very robust way with technology areas interdependent with other technology areas. This provides management with a framework from which to make investment decisions.

There needs to be clearly explained both the current and target states of each domain. Strategic decisions and purchase decisions are based on this information. It allows companies to explain what they are thinking, and the reasons why they are making certain decisions. It helps in "building the journey" to show people what they have and where they're going.

Investment decisions need to be based on strategy. That is a key aspect of what Enterprise Architecture is all about.

SEI's Capability Maturity Model

The Harvard Business Review recently published a piece by Thomas H. Davenport
entitled The Benefits of Business Process Standards.

"A business process is simply how an organization does its work -- the set of activities it pursues to accomplish a particular objective for a particular customer, either internal or external."

"Processes may be large and cross-functional, such as order management, or relatively narrow, like order entry (which could be considered a process in itself or a subprocess of order management)."

Below are edited excerpts:

---

Firms seek to standardize processes

Within a company, standardization can:

• facilitate communications about how the business operates
• enable smooth handoffs across process boundaries
• make possible comparative measures of performance

Across companies, standard processes can make commerce easier for the same reasons:

• better communications
• more efficient handoffs
• performance benchmarking

The variability in how organizations define processes makes it more difficult to contract for and communicate about them across companies.

Since information systems support processes, standardization allows uniform information systems within companies as well as standard systems interfaces among different firms.

Standard processes allow easier outsourcing of process capabilities.

In order to effectively outsource processes, organizations need a means of evaluating three things in addition to cost:

1. the external provider's set of activities and how they flow
   
   
   • since companies have not reached consensus, for example, on just what comprises cost accounting or HR benefits management, it remains ambiguous what services should be performed between buyers and providers
   
   
   
   • organizations need a set of standards for process activities so that they can communicate easily and efficiently when discussing outsourced processes
   
   
   
   • these process activity and flow standards are beginning to emerge in a variety of businesses and industries, such as:
     
     
     • the Supply-Chain Council
       
       
       
       • has more than 800 businesses as members
       
       
       • the Supply-Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model lays out a top-level supply chain process in five key steps:
         
         
         
         1. plan
         2. source
         3. make
         4. deliver
         5. return
       
       
       
       • the model also specifies typical activities for second-, third-, and fourth-level subprocesses with increasing levels of detail
       
       
       


2. process performance standards that specify process evaluation approaches

   Once companies in a particular industry achieve consensus about which activities and flows constitute a given process, they can begin to measure their own processes and compare their results with those of external providers. If there is agreement, for example, on what it means to "process a new employee," managers can analyze how much it costs the internal HR function to provide that service, on average, and how long it takes. They can also have an informed discussion with external service providers about their process performance measures.




3. process management standards that indicate how well their processes are managed and measured and whether they're on course for continuous improvement

   Because this third type of process standard doesn't require consensus on process activities and flows, it is the easiest to create and the most widely available today.
   
   Process management standards are based on the assumption that good process management will eventually result in good process flows and performance.
   
   In some domains such as information technology and manufacturing, these standards are already in wide use (via the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model and the ISO 9000 series, respectively). They are beginning to lead to the commoditization of capabilities that will eventually transform organizations.

Excerpted from "The Coming Commoditization of Processes," Harvard Business Review, Vol. 83, No. 6, June 2005.

Nuclear Power

ran a couple of terrific short articles related to nuclear power.

Thinking about nuclear power reminds me of Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof, always saying, "On the other hand..."

Tevya: A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask 'Why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?' Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!

Unlike burning fossil fuels, using nuclear fission to generate electricity produces no soot or greenhouse gases. This helps keep the skies clean and doesn't contribute to global warming. On the other hand... Nuclear waste is the spent nuclear fuel from a reactor. The waste is highly radioactive, so it must be stored in steel-lined concrete pools or in dry caskets. As of 2003, nuclear reactors in the United States had created about 49,000 tons of waste, according to the Department of Energy. On the other hand... The fuel used to power nuclear reactors is very compact in comparison to fossil fuels. For instance, one pound of uranium can supply the same energy as 3 million pounds of coal. On the other hand... The United States has not reprocessed nuclear waste since the 1970s. Instead, the country hopes eventually to bury all its waste deep in Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert, where officials believe the waste will not be able to leak into the environment. On the other hand...

Tevya: He loves her. Love, it's a new starting. On the other hand, our old ways were once new, weren't they? On the other hand, they decided without parents, without the matchmaker. On the other hand, did Adam and Eve have a matchmaker? Oh, yes they did. And it seems these two have the same Matchmaker.

How does a nuclear power plant produce electricity?

A nuclear power plant is basically a steam power plant that is fueled by a radioactive element, like uranium. The fuel is placed in a reactor and the individual atoms are allowed to split apart. The splitting process, known as fission, releases great amounts of energy. This energy is used to heat water until it turns to steam.

From here, the mechanics of a steam power plant take over. The steam pushes on turbines, which force coils of wire to interact with a magnetic field. This generates an electric current.

Why does splitting a uranium atom release energy? The answer has to do with Einstein's most famous equation -- E=mc^² -- which essentially says that energy is directly related to mass.

Under the right conditions, a uranium atom will split into two smaller atoms and throw off two or sometimes three neutrons in the process. (Neutrons are the glue that hold atoms together.)

The combined mass of these resulting particles tends to be roughly 99.9 percent of the mass of the original uranium atom. The other 0.1 percent of the original mass got converted to energy, as Einstein described. The energy is released in the form of gamma rays.

On the other hand... Gamma rays are similar to X-rays and can cause burns, cancer and genetic mutations in living things. They can be slowed or stopped with thick walls of concrete, lead or packed dirt.

On the other hand... When an atom splits, the extra neutrons go hit other atoms in the reactor core, starting a chain reaction. Initially, about 3 or 4 percent of the uranium atoms are uranium-235 -- the same as the first set of atoms that split. If these atoms are hit with neutrons, they split readily and throw off more energy and neutrons. But the other 96 or 97 percent of the uranium atoms in the core initially are of a type that is hard to split, known as uranium-238. If hit with a neutron, a uranium-238 atom will absorb the neutron and eventually turn into plutonium-239. It's not until these plutonium atoms are hit again with more neutrons that they finally split and release energy.

Nuclear fuel is considered spent when the fission byproducts -- the atoms left over from the splitting process -- prevent free neutrons from splitting more uranium or plutonium. It takes three or four years to get to this point in the process.

Tevya: As the good book says, when a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick.

Scientists are trying to perfect ways to use the element thorium to fuel reactors instead of uranium because it is three times more abundant in nature. Fueling nuclear reactors with the element thorium instead of uranium could produce half as much radioactive waste and reduce the availability of weapons-grade plutonium by as much as 80 percent.

Thorium Fuels Safer Reactor Hopes

Thorium reactors produce less waste because, in a nuclear chain reaction, thorium atoms break down into fewer unusable atoms than does uranium. A thorium-fueled reactor could actually eat up existing stockpiles of plutonium by using it as a "seed" fuel. A seed is necessary because it's harder to start a nuclear chain reaction with thorium than with uranium.

On the other hand...

Mensa Invitational

The Washington Post asks readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are my favorites:

Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid
people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.

Foreploy (n.): Any misrepresentation about yourself
for the purpose of getting laid.

Sarchasm (n.): The gulf between the author of
sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Dopeler effect (n.): The tendency of stupid ideas to
seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Ignoranus (n.): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house,
which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

Reintarnation (n.): Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Hipatitis (n.): Terminal coolness.

Glibido (n.): All talk and no action.

Where does Business Process fit?

According to Paul Harmon, Executive Editor/Analyst at Business Process Trends, it's not unusual for Six Sigma teams inside an enterprise to be using a different set of business process software tools than those used by business process redesign groups, architecture teams, or IT analysts. In fact, quite the contrary is often the case. As explained by Paul Harmon in his article Building Bridges for Interoperability, "It's common that a single IT group uses several different business process tools."

To help alleviate some of the confusion caused by a single enterprise using multiple products in the same functional space, the Object Management Group (OMG) has embarked on a comprehensive effort to create business process standards that would allow different tools from different vendors to share models that describe the key elements of any specific business process model as well as relationships among those elements. OMG is not only pursuing a generic business process metamodel, but also an organizational metamodel, an ontology metamodel, and a business rules metamodel. As you might suspect, it's probably going to take a fair amount of time before a bunch of vendors from all over the world are going to all agree on just what should be included in all these metamodels.

Meanwhile, Proforma, a leading business process modeling vendor, decided to go off on its own and work with a number of leading BPM Suite vendors to build an interoperability bridge that would enable users of different tools to easily exchange, or migrate, their models across multiple different products based on a Common Interchange Format (CIF). The consortium created by Proforma currently includes: Appian, CommerceQuest, Fuego, Fujitsu, Insession Technologies, Lombardi Software, Metastorm, Pegasystems, and Savvion.

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Let me digress for a moment...

What we have here is a classic example of why it's so vitally important to have an easy way to cluster similar products close together. How can someone look at a list of tools, like what's listed above, and determine that different products deliver overlapping functionality? It's certainly not possible to tell by just looking at the names. It's the job of technology architecture to indicate what tools are alike.

In Technology Architecture, 3-Layers, 4-Models, the category "BPM Suites" falls under the category "Application Integration" which itself fits under the category "Middleware" within the "IT Infrastructure" model.

[See IT Infrastructure.]

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Actually, Proforma's ProVision is not itself a BPM Suite. Rather, it's a business process modeling tool. As Paul Harmon points out, BP Modeling tools are relatively inexpensive software products used by business managers, Six Sigma, and BP redesign teams when they analyze and redesign business processes. BPM Suites, on the other hand, are relatively more expensive, and are used by IT groups to create systems that can manage the runtime execution of business processes that include both automated and manual activities.

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Digressing again...

If we look at Technology Architecture, 3-Layers, 4-Models, "Business Process Modeling" falls under the "Life Cycle" category called "Design" within the "Application Development" model.

[See Application Development.]

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BP Modeling tools have been around for many years now. BPM Suites, on the other hand, represent a relatively new class of software products. The heart of most business process modeling tools is providing, at design time, an easy-to-use, highly-visual, end-user-oriented method for graphically depicting a business process in such a way that a business manager can readily understand, and then confirm or correct, how a workflow is supposed to work. On the other hand, BPM engines which sit at the heart of BPM Suites, are responsible for managing workflow execution and application integration at runtime.

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One final comment...

You do NOT want to be comparing apples and oranges. BP Modeling Tools and BPM Suites respectively represent fundamentally different product categories. Make certain your technology architecture differentiates between them.

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Gates outlines the future of software

I love Bill Gates as a philanthropist. He deserves the knighthood bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth for the phenomenal deeds of the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation. I would guess, even when adjusted for inflation, that Bill Gates may well be the most generous rich person ever -- exceeding Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford. As a citizen of this planet, I thank you Bill Gates.

In the early years of the PC industry, I loved Bill Gates as a technologist. MS-DOS and Windows truly revolutionized the world in a very good way, especially after the emergence of WORD and EXCEL. In later years, I despised Bill Gates as a monopolist. I ernestly wished Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's bid to break up Microsoft had gone forward as originally ruled. I believe the software industry would be far healthier today with Office and Windows split into two different companies. But, alas, Microsoft did learn some valuable lessons from all their litigious experiences, such as the decision to license Microsoft's Office XML formats (see XML Uber Alles) using Laurence Lessig's Creative Commons alternative to traditional copyrights.

I tend to be a tad skeptical sometimes when it comes to buying into Bill Gates' predictions about the future of software. I haven't gone back and re-read his book, The Road Ahead, but I'll wager his prognostications weren't always spot on. On the other hand, Gates has the advantage of knowing precisely what's happening inside his own research labs where Microsoft invests a staggering $6 billion annually in R&D.

Years ago, the ruling author on all matters related to IT was a gentleman by the name of James Martin. He would visit the development labs at IBM and DEC, and the engineers there would throw open their kimono and show him everything they were working on. Then, James Martin would essentially preannounce what he saw by making bold predictions about the future of the software industry.


Problems arise with Bill Gates' predictions about the future of software when he's swayed by Microsoft's narrow, parochial interests. For instance, I'm quite sure you won't hear him speculate on the positive influences of open source software.

Recently, Bill Gates presented to an audience in Singapore where he predicted web services will have a "catalytic effect" on software development; speech recognition will go mainstream in three to four years; and search capabilities will feature richer, clearer interfaces. That's probably not a bad list, but I'd remind everyone that speech recognition has been going mainstream in three to four years for at least the past twenty years. It wouldn't surprise me if it's still going to be going mainstream in three to four years, twenty years from now. I also get edgy when I see a prediction that appears to be squarely aimed at a specific competitor, especially one touted as the next great hope for breaking Microsoft's monopolistic hold on the software industry. For the time being, I don't see Google following in the footsteps of Netscape into software oblivion. I'm quite sure the competition between Microsoft and Google may lead to more amazing new search capabilites, so predicting richer, cleaner interfaces seems like a pretty safe bet.

The most important message I discerned from Gates' analysis was his comment that three key audiences need to be kept in mind when dealing with software:

• the worker who deals with information
• the developer who builds applications, or extensions of applications
• the IT department which needs to maintain directories, manage the system, provide support, and generally improve productivity

I wholeheartedly agree with Bill Gates that "There is a need for one architecture that addresses all these needs."

The Joel Test

At the end of the day, after all is said and done, the most important aspect of software is the code.

It's utterly amazing how many IT people try, with all their might, to stay as far removed from the code as humanly possible. One individual, however, who advocates in favor of the importance of code is Joel Spolsky, author of Joel on Software.

To call Joel a former paratrooper would be accurate but misleading. He served in the Israeli army and co-founded a kibbutz, but he didn't jump out of airplanes, he was pushed. Joel and his family bought the first IBM PC in Israel, and when he moved back to the U.S. and completed college, he went to work on Microsoft's Excel development team, still a strong influence on his opinions on software development.

Below is an excerpt of one of his most-read essays:

12 Steps to Better Code
By Joel Spolsky
Wednesday, August 09, 2000

1. Do you use source control?
   
2. Can you make a build in one step?
   
3. Do you make daily builds?
   
4. Do you have a bug database?
   
5. Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
   
6. Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
   
7. Do you have a spec?
   
8. Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
   
9. Do you use the best tools money can buy?
   
10. Do you have testers?
    
11. Do new candidates write code during their interview?
    
12. Do you do hallway usability testing?

Technology Architecture 3-Layers 4-Models

The bottom layer, IT Infrastructure, provides the base platform for computing and communication -- two sides of the same coin.

See IT Infrastructure

The middle layer is Applications which can be built or bought.

See Application Development
See COTS Applications

The top layer, Data, enables business intelligence.

See Business Intelligence