When does a fair question about business become unfair? One answer: when the questioner expects to make money from an answer that they won’t pay for… I hate the money-economy with a passion, and I try to help others as …

Not playing this game any more Read more »

How do architectures fail? One way is that we make arbitrary and untested assumptions about constraints – so how do we avoid that trap? My recent webinar ‘How architecture fails, and what to do about it‘ (see slidedeck on Slideshare, and full …

How architectures fail – 3: Constraints Read more »

How do architectures fail? One way is that we start architecture too late or finish too early on the realisation-stack – so how do we avoid that trap? My recent webinar ‘How architecture fails, and what to do about it‘ …

How architectures fail – 2: Scope of action Read more »

How do architectures fail? One way is that key distinctions between architecture and design can get blurred – so how do we avoid that trap? My recent webinar ‘How architecture fails, and what to do about it‘ (see slidedeck on …

How architectures fail – 1: Architecture vs design Read more »

What’s the structure of a task? What do we need in a task to make sure that we do the right things right? It’s worth thinking about this in architectural terms – in terms of that tagline for enterprise effectiveness, …

Architecture basics: The structure of a task Read more »

How do we describe ‘service’ and ‘product’ in the same way for every scope and scale, every type of context and content? That’s the theme for this series of posts. In ‘Service, product, service, simplified‘, I aimed to simplify the relationship …

Service, product, service – summary and checklists Read more »

Are we selling services, products or both? The short-answer is ‘Yes’ – but what we’re really selling, every time, is a promise… The start-point for this was one of those ideas that arise first-thing-in-the-morning, seemingly without any warning: Idea: In sales, …

Service, product, service – promise and product Read more »

If service and product are different views into a continuous sequence of value-creation, what can we learn if we start the sequence from product rather than service? In the earlier parts of this series – such as ‘Service, product, service, …

Service, product, service – start with product Read more »

What’s the difference between products and services? One of the key differences, perhaps, is in how we view the respective responsibilities… The core theme in this series of posts on the relationships between product and service, and the follow-on implications …

Service, product, service – responsibilities Read more »

Are goods and services ‘products’ because they can be hired? Is ‘product’ a term that applies only to a commercial context? I’d intended that the next post in this series on the relationship between product and service would be about transfers of responsibility …

Service, product, service – everything for hire? Read more »