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 »

Those who denigrate architecture as ‘only theory’ are seriously missing the point, because the role of architecture is theory – theory to guide the practice of design. Without theory to guide practice, all that we’d have is design that’s built on untested …

Architecture is theory Read more »

What’s the minimum that we need as a base for a viable business-architecture? That’s a shorter summary for a multi-part question recently sent to me by Chilean business-architect Richard Moira Lupin: What should a company have, what maturity, what capacity, what …

Building-blocks for a viable business-architecture Read more »

What is power? Where does it come from? Where does it go? Who has it? Who doesn’t have it? Who should have it? Who shouldn’t have it? And why? – or why not, for that matter – to any of those questions…? Perennial questions indeed, in just about …

On power Read more »

At present, enterprise-architecture is most often used in mid- to larger-sized organisations, and still primarily focussed on IT. Yet what can we learn by applying the same methods to a one-person organisation and their enterprise, and to capabilities beyond IT …

EA in miniature – Part 4: Prototyping Read more »

At present, enterprise-architecture is most often used for mid- to larger-sized organisations. Yet what can we learn by applying the same methods at the smallest scale – a one-person organisation and their enterprise? For this series, I’m using my own …

EA in miniature – Part 3: Getting real Read more »

What does enterprise-architecture look like at the smallest scale – a one-person organisation and their enterprise? For this series, I’m using my own case as a worked-example. My work is in the enterprise of enterprise-architecture itself: so how do I …

EA in miniature – Part 2: First steps Read more »