1.
Exploring business-architecture
Tom Graves, Tetradian Consulting
IASA ITARC, London, November 2016

2.
No thanks…
Endless PR intro-slides…?
so let’s do the intro another way…

3.
Hi.
(Yeah, it’s been a while
since I looked like this...)
I’m Tom.

4.
…enough of an intro?
Okay, let’s get on with the show!

5.
what’s that…?
Business-architecture?

6.
- b-o-o-o-r-ing…
It’s the architecture of
‘stuff what business does’

7.
…yawn…

8.
…“can I go to sleep now, please?”…

9.
Nah, c’mon, let’s have
a bit of fun
with this!

10.
…though before that,
we are gonna have to be
just a little bit boring…
(sorry…)

11.
Meet this guy…
(He’s named Charles Hoy Fort.)
(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fort for more about him)

12.
…famed for collecting records and facts
about the anomalous and the weird…
…such as rains of fishes and frogs…

13.
“Whatever theory you have,
there’ll always be something
that doesn’t fit”
and as a journalist and researcher,
his basic principle was…
- sounds kinda familiar, maybe?

14.
What name in your system?
Typical UK-style name-structure for database:
•Title (mandatory: select from picklist)
•Forename (mandatory: 30 characters max)
•Middle-name (optional: 30 characters max)
•Surname (mandatory: 30 characters max)
•Suffix (optional: select from picklist)
Easy, right? – well, let’s take a real example…

15.
What name in your system?
UK-style name:
•Mr Pablo Diego Ruiz

16.
What name in your system?
UK-style name:
•Mr Pablo Diego Ruiz
Full legal birth-name:
•Pablo Diego José Francisco de
Paula Juan Nepomuceno María
de los Remedios Cipriano de la
Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y
Picasso

17.
What name in your system?
UK-style name:
•Mr Pablo Diego Ruiz
Full legal birth-name:
•Pablo Diego José Francisco de
Paula Juan Nepomuceno María
de los Remedios Cipriano de la
Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y
Picasso
You probably know him as:

18.
…oops…
Okay, how’s about we try
something simpler?
Driver’s licence, maybe?

19.
Driver’s licence, please?
Real simple, right?
Hmm… maybe
not so simple
after all?
The same for
everyone, surely?
Hensel twins’ driver-licences >>

20.
Driver’s licence, please?
On the flight: One ticket, one seat,
two passengers, two passports
In the car: Two drivers behind
the wheel, each legally liable

21.
…which kinda messes up
our nice so-certain
system-design…
- rats…

22.
“Whatever theory you have,
there’ll always be something
that doesn’t fit”

23.
So how do we find these
‘things that don’t fit’?
- and how do we design for them, too…

24.
Short answer:
Raid the kids’ toy-box!

25.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viga-Wooden-Train-Set-49-Piece/dp/B00486QD0S/

26.
Toy-train as
service-metaphor…

27.
…who or what are the various
uses / users of the service?

28.
…how do those uses intersect?

29.
…how might those uses conflict?

30.
…what decisions
need to be made?

31.
…what scheduling /
prioritisation do you need?

32.
…what infrastructure
tolerances do you need?

33.
…how does it interconnect
with other services?

34.
…what disruptions
could careless
users cause?

35.
…what disruptions could the
service cause for others?

36.
…how, where, with what must it
intersect without connecting?

37.
…how might others impact
your infrastructure?

38.
…what impacts could that
have on service-delivery?

39.
…what are the hazards,
potential sources of disruption?

40.
…what happens
when
external risks
eventuate?

41.
…what happens when
the service itself fails?

42.
…what disruptions
could failures cause?

43.
…or, in other words…

44.
…context, context,
context!

45.
But where does
context come from?
- and why does anything happen?
(in business, anyway…)

46.
A tension exists between what is, and what we want.
The vision describes the desired-ends for action;
values guide action, describing how success would feel.
Why anything happens

47.
A service represents a means toward an end
– ultimately, the desired-ends of the enterprise-vision.
The nature of service

48.
Services exchange value with each other, to help each
service reach toward their respective vision and outcome.
Relations between services

49.
“We create an architecture
for an organisation,
but about an enterprise.”
“We create an architecture
for an organisation,
but about an enterprise.”
Tom Graves, Mapping the Enterprise, Tetradian, 2010
Why architecture?
Organisation aligns with structure, enterprise with story.
We need a balance of both for the architecture to work.

50.
“An organisation is bounded by
rules, roles and responsibilities;
an enterprise is bounded by
vision, values and commitments.”
“An organisation is bounded by
rules, roles and responsibilities;
an enterprise is bounded by
vision, values and commitments.”
Tom Graves, Mapping the Enterprise, Tetradian,
2010
What architecture?
Organisation aligns with structure, enterprise with story.
We need a balance of both for the architecture to work.

51.
If the organisation says it ‘is’ the enterprise,
there’s no shared-story - and often, no story at all.
Whose story?

52.
The minimum real enterprise is the supply-chain
- a story of shared interactions and transactions.
Whose story?

53.
The organisation and enterprise of the supply-chain take
place within a broader organisation of the market.
Whose story?

54.
The market itself exists within a context of ‘intangible’
interactions with the broader shared-enterprise story.
Whose story?

55.
The story is not solely at the whole-of-business level
- we can generalise it to any type or level of context
Whose story?

56.
Stories within stories…

57.
enacted in any way we need…

58.
Services link together in chains or webs, as
structured and/or unstructured processes, to deliver
more complex and versatile services or stories
Supply-chain or value-web

59.
…which brings us to…
a matter
of perspective!
- yeah, which way we look at things does kinda matter here…

60.
Perspectives and journeys
Service-delivery is a journey of interactions
where ‘inside-out’ (the organisation’s perspective)
touches ‘outside-in’ (the customer’s / supplier’s perspective)

61.
Outside-in…
CC-BY Fretro via Flickr
“Customers
do not appear
in our processes,
we appear in
their experiences”
Chris Potts, recrEAtion, Technics, 2010

62.
Every service has its own myriad of stakeholders
Whose story?

63.
A stakeholder
is anyone
who can wield
a sharp-pointed
stake
in our direction…
CC-BY-NC-SA evilpeacock via Flickr
Who are the stakeholders?
(Hint: there are a lot
more of them than we
might at first think…)

64.
Narrative and story
help us to identify
what needs to happen
- including the exceptions
and uniquenesses…
The role of narrative:

65.
Alan Klement: Replacing ‘User-Story’ with ‘Job-Story’
Structuring a story-fragment…
http://alanklement.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/replacing-user-story-with-job-story.html

66.
What kind of story?
SCRIPTED
(simple rules and checklists)
CC-BY The-Vikkodamus via Flickr CC-BY-SA seeminglee via Flickr
IMPROVISED
(guidelines and principles)
ANALYSED
(complicated algorithms)
ADAPTED
(complex patterns)
PREDICTABLE UNPREDICTABLE

67.
“All the world’s a stage”…
Stories underpin every action…

68.
Stories are fractal…
…recursion and fractality within systems and stories
CC-BY-NC-SA gjshepherd via Flickr

69.
Stories within stories, everywhere…

70.
…will User-Story or Job-Story
be enough for all of this?
Short-answer:
useful, no doubt, but probably
not enough on their own
- we’re going to need a broader approach…

71.
Technology
CC-BY-SA xdxd_vs_xdxd via Flickr
Process
People
The usual architecture view

72.
Stage
CC-BY-SA xdxd_vs_xdxd via Flickr
Scene
Actor
ActorStage
Stage
Stage
A narrative-oriented view
Scene
Scene
Stage

73.
So how to explore all this
with execs and others?

74.
Short answer:
Back to the toy-box!

75.
http://www.pollocks-coventgarden.co.uk/index.php/pantomime-theatre-with-cinderella.html

76.
“and here’s one I made
earlier…”

77.
http://www.pollocks-coventgarden.co.uk/index.php/pantomime-theatre-with-cinderella.html

78.
…the architect as hero?

79.
Let’s use
a visual cheat-sheet
to help us…
- you could call it a Canvas, if you like…

80.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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theatre-context
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front-of-stage
backstage
audience
scene
actor / agent

81.
NOTES-H ?
- what the heck’s that?
“Narrative Oriented Transformation
of Enterprise Services
- Holomap version”
- yeah, it’s kinda cumbersome, I know…
- but it’s just a name, don’t worry about it, okay?

82.
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theatre-context
theatre management
stage / setting
front-of-stage
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audience
scene
actor / agent

83.
…who are the actors?

84.
…who are the actors? – everyone!
CC-BY Mike Babcock via Flickr

85.
Machines may be actors (agents)…
CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr

86.
…though remember, your users…
CC-BY justin pickard via Flickr

87.
…are people,
not machines!
CC-BY andré luís via Flickr

88.
…and also, why these actors?

89.
…what changes if we change actor?

90.
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actor / agent / extras

91.
Extras are kind of
‘active scenery’…
- they’re not part of the story as such,
but the scene won’t work well
without them…

92.
…scene without extras…

93.
…what do extras add to the scene?

94.
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95.
“Each traverse through
a business-process
is a self-contained story
with its own actors, actions
and events”
“Each traverse through
a business-process
is a self-contained story
with its own actors, actions
and events”
Process as story
Tom Graves, The Enterprise As Story, Tetradian, 2012

96.
Each segment of a story
is a scene…
- each scene should have
a distinct begin, middle, end
and outcome…

97.
…what’s the story in the scene?

98.
Scenes in the story
Split story into identifiable scenes, with begin, middle, end
CC-BY TheArches via Flickr

99.
Scenes in the story
Process-story as identifiable scenes, with begin, middle, end

100.
Show, don’t tell
Each line of action drives the story forward
CC-BY TheArches via Flickr

101.
Show, don’t tell
Each line of action drives the story forward
CC-BY-ND Kecko via Flickr

102.
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theatre management
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front-of-stage
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audience
scene / props
actor / agent

103.
…what props do we need?

104.
The role of props
Each item has its place, and drives the story onward
CC-BY TheArches via Flickr

105.
Each item has its place, and drives the story onward
CC-BY-ND Kecko via Flickr
The role of props

106.
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107.
…what difference with scenery?

108.
…what difference with scenery?

109.
…what difference with lighting?

110.
Staging the story
CC-BY-SA passer-by via Flickr
…infrastructure, systems etc as the stage

111.
Staging the story
…infrastructure, systems etc as the stage
CC-BY-ND Costa Rica’s Call Center via Flickr

112.
Setting the mood
…how does the stage-set itself drive the story forward?
CC-BY-SA Eva Rinaldi via Flickr

113.
Setting the mood
…how does the stage-set itself drive the story forward?
CC-BY State Farm via Flickr

114.
Maintain the mood
Computers may not have feelings, but people do:
how does the stage-set support the mood we need?
CC-BY-ND alanclarkdesign via Flickr

115.
Maintain the mood
Computers may not have feelings, but people do:
how does the stage-set support the mood we need?
CC-BY-ND alanclarkdesign via Flickr

116.
Framing the action
CC-BY Vlima.com via Flickr
…in what ways does the frame itself constrain the story?

117.
Framing the action
…in what ways does the frame itself constrain the story?
CC-BY aleutia via Flickr

118.
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119.
…what music should play?

120.
Visible and invisible
…what else should be in front of the curtain? – what behind?
CC-BY Mickey Thurman via Flickr

121.
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122.
Visible and invisible
…what state is that infrastructure in, behind the curtain?
CC-BY Princess Theatre via Flickr

123.
Visible and invisible
…what state is that infrastructure in, behind the curtain?
CC-BY-SA LanSmash via Flickr

124.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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125.
…who are the audience?

126.
…what are audience expectations?

127.
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128.
…who manages the theatre?

129.
…how will you promote your identity?
CC-BY markhillary via Flickr

130.
…how will others find your story?

131.
…who would you want as clientele?
CC-BY-SA indigoprime via Flickr

132.
…how will you keep it busy?CC-BY-SA wm2014 via Flickr

133.
…how will you keep it running?CC-BY jimwinstead via Flickr

134.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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135.
…who is an anticlient for theatre?

136.
…what is social context for theatre?

137.
…what else could
close your theatre?

138.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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theatre management
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actor / agent / extras

139.
http://www.pollocks-coventgarden.co.uk/index.php/pantomime-theatre-with-cinderella.html

140.
In short…
…we must pay attention
to the story as a whole!
- not just the easy bits…
Context, context, context…

141.
Practical:
Use the NOTES checklist
to assess the story
and its context
What are the respective
needs, trade-offs, drivers?
Identify what is needed to balance the
relations and priorities of all stakeholders.

142.
http://www.pollocks-coventgarden.co.uk/index.php/pantomime-theatre-with-cinderella.html

143.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Tetradian www.tetradian.com
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theatre-context
theatre management
stage / setting
front-of-stage
backstage
audience
scene / props
actor / agent / extras

144.
“The world* is made of stories”
• The enterprise is a story – an overarching theme
• Enterprise as an ongoing story of relations
between people – the actors of the story
• Enterprise-story comprised of many smaller stories
– the scenes or story-lines (aka ‘processes’)
• Enterprise-story takes place in a setting – the stage
and its context, location, props etc
• Stories thrive on tension, conflict and uncertainty
– whereas machines generally don’t…
*‘the world’ including – perhaps especially – the business-world…

145.
It’s easier to engage people
in the architecture
if they can have fun
whilst they’re doing it!
The real punchline for this story:

146.
Thank you!

147.
Contact: Tom Graves
Company: Tetradian Consulting
Email: tom@tetradian.com
Twitter: @tetradian ( http://twitter.com/tetradian )
Weblog: http://weblog.tetradian.com
Slidedecks: http://www.slideshare.net/tetradian
Publications: http://tetradianbooks.com and http://leanpub.com/u/tetradian
Books: • The enterprise as story: the role of narrative in enterprise-
architecture (2012)
• Mapping the enterprise: modelling the enterprise as
services with the Enterprise Canvas (2010)
• Everyday enterprise-architecture: sensemaking, strategy,
structures and solutions (2010)
• Doing enterprise-architecture: process and practice in the
real enterprise (2009)
Further information: