Enterprise Architecture

Coming back to my original love..Enterprise Architecture and where exactly this field fits in the current scheme of things. Which role in a company is most suitable to handle this?CIO/CEO? Numerous companies big and small have tried to get their hands around this field and have still not got there..
Agreed that this strategy is going to be slightly different for different companies/fields but a basic framework more tighter than Zachman and TOGAF seems to be the need of the hr.
Despite governance software (read SOA),looks like companies like HP are still trying to figure how to get to the pinnacle...IBM has some ideas but aligning IT strategy and business goals remains a challenge even now..

Lets see who gets there first ..
More thoughts to follow...

Power in the interstices

As more and more R & D is being done in the innovation that lies in the interstices between disciplines/fields, the medici team is busy taking examples of practical applications in this area. Some of them include:
1. Volvo’s Vision for Collision Safety Based on the African Grasshopper’s Vision

2.Fighter aircrafts and cross-country skiing

3. Bionics and the how robots are getting influenced with cognition, regenerative medicine and bioengineering..

While majority of the people in the world continue to live in their own silos, it is people who think differently, think in the interstices that seem to be getting it right...
Interesting stuff..

Living a perfect day

One of Robin Sharma's best thoughts: (IMHO)

What was the best day you've had in the past 12 months? What made it so special - and unforgettable? What things were you doing that time that gave you those superior results? Once you know what works, you can set about doing them with greater consistency. And consistency is the generator of Mastery.

Here are 4 recommendations for a perfect day:

1. Get up early. Getting up early is a gift you give yourself - once you install the habit. Yes, that's hard at first but after a few weeks you'll have more time for yourself every morning - time to think/read/visualize/exercise and set yourself up for superb results.

2. Run a schedule. I write more about this in The Greatness Guide where I say: "The things that get scheduled are the things that get done." Success and happiness don't happen by accident. No, they occur through conscious choice. Schedule your priorities and the most important things in your life so you can get them done.

3. Stand in Gratitude. While there are so many things you could do to ensure a great/perfect day, I find spending even 5 minutes in gratitude reshapes the way I perceive my day. Please remember, stress and gratitude can't share the same room. And you'll see more of what you pay attention to. So focus on best and block out the rest.

4. Growth. Much as we resist change, the fact is human beings are happiest when we are growing. To live perfect days, do things that move you out of your comfort zone and into your Discomfort Zone. A day with zero growth is a day unfully lived. Fears faced die speedy deaths.

Steve Jobs 10 magical principles

About the 10 things Steve Job thinks:

#10. On Management

My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to pull things together from different parts of the company and clear the ways and get the resources for the key projects.

And to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.

#9. On Hiring

Recruiting is hard. It’s just finding the needles in the haystack. You can’t know enough in a one-hour interview.

So, in the end, it’s ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data.

#8. On Firing

We’ve had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren’t going to lay off people, that we’d taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place — the last thing we were going to do is lay them off.

#7. On a CEO succession Plan

I mean, some people say, ‘Oh, God, if [Jobs] got run over by a bus, Apple would be in trouble.’ And, you know, I think it wouldn’t be a party, but there are really capable people at Apple.

My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors, so that’s what I try to do.

#6. On Product Strategy

It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do.

We just want to make great products. (I think he means “insanely great products!“)

5 Leadership Mantras

#5. On Leadership

So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know – just explore things.

#4. On Evangelism

When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself.

They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else. (this actually reiterates my oft-repeated mantra of “ubiquitous evangelism” in companies)

#3. On Focus

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.

#2. On the User Experience

Our DNA is as a consumer company — for that individual customer who’s voting thumbs up or thumbs down. That’s who we think about. And we think that our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it’s not up to par, it’s our fault, plain and simply.

#1. On Creativity

That happens more than you think, because this is not just engineering and science. There is art, too. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of one of these crises, you’re not sure you’re going to make it to the other end. But we’ve always made it, and so we have a certain degree of confidence, although sometimes you wonder.

I think the key thing is that we’re not all terrified at the same time. I mean, we do put our heart and soul into these things.

NY NY...

Rched NY a week back and finally the jet lag is over. Will not walk like a zombie everywhere now..Planning to get my wife and kids here so that they can view the beautiful Manhattan skyline bang opposite my hotel room..Can't wait!

Oslo May CTP

I have been following Microsoft's modelling platform for some time...They have made a promising start with their Oslo initiative a CTP of which is available at :
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9648442
Obviously there have been some issues reported around the compatibility of the Jan and the May CTPs but overall a good initiative.
More to come in this space soon...

Swine flu epidemic

With the number of swine flu cases multiplying manifold throughout the world, there is a fear that this might turn out to be the worst pandemic the world has seen in a long time. Recent news reports are suggesting that we might see at least a third of the Indians get affected by it in the next 2 yrs...Scary!..
Meanwhile the Indian health ministry will have to have its work cut out fast...Time is running out.

Terrorist incidents in India

A couple of serious bomb blasts ripped 2 of the fastest growing Indian cities over the past weekend. The blame game between state and union govt has started as to who was responsible for the security lapse and a "report" will be tabled soon about how this happened. Meanwhile, IT companies are gearing themselves for additional security checks and the Union govt has mooted providing CISF cover for IT Professionals. More info to follow...

Innovation - ideas, ideas, ideas

With so much noise around innovating....I think it would be a good idea to have at least 3-5 links in each of my posts talkin about some innovative ideas that people might have thought about every 2 weeks...So here's the link for today..

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB121158255162818565.html?mod=yahoobarrons&ru=yahoo&page=1

http://www.futurist.com/2007/12/13/beyond-web-20/

HP takes over EDS

There have been several articles written on this subject. Some of them as follows:

Can HP Whip EDS into Shape?at BusinessWeek (Thu, May 15)
Therese Poletti's Tech Tales: H-P's takeover of EDS will test Hurd's management chopsat MarketWatch (Thu, May 15)
HP and EDS Try a Tieupat BusinessWeek (Wed, May 14)
Hewlett-Packard Gets a Tummy Acheat Motley Fool (Wed, May 14)
HP and EDS: A chat with CEOs Mark Hurd and Ron Rittenmeyerat Fortune (Wed, May 14)
If HP Gets EDS, Smaller Rivals Can't Even It Up

I would like to put my take on this takeover in a separate article.

Performance and Domain Frameworks

Been busy reading up, understanding and implementing performance improvement kind of features for highly scalable enterprise systems. Especially lowering the time it takes to get responses back to the users from the server and client ends has been interesting..
Also, working on some Architectural framework for domain-specific areas.
Microsoft has published its take on some domains like Finance(Capital markets and Banking), Insurance and Financial information protection.

Microsoft BPM

Now that other vendors have been hot and heavy on BPM SOA convergence, obviously Microsoft does not want to be left behind...Some analysts have debated viewing MS as a BPM vendor..Here's David Chappell's take on it
http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/1/f/e1f30631-482e-43b5-a69f-036e31df0c81/Microsoft%20and%20BPM%20-%20Technical%20Overview.pdf

SOA BPM

These days I am concentrating on this space..More soon...

Stefan Thomke ...On Innovation...

Stefan Thomke of Harvard Business School has written a definitive book on the importance of experimentation. "Experimentation Matters" argues that every company’s ability to innovate depends on a series of experiments (successful or not), that help create new products and services or improve old ones. That period between the earliest point in the design cycle and the final release should be filled with experimentation, failure, analysis, and yet another round of experimentation. “Lather, rinse, repeat,” Thomke says. Unfortunately, uncertainty often causes the most able innovators to bypass the experimental stage.
In his book, Thomke outlines six principles companies can follow to unlock their innovative potential.

1. Anticipate and Exploit Early Information Through ‘Front-Loaded’ Innovation Processes
2. Experiment Frequently but Do Not Overload Your Organization.
3. Integrate New and Traditional Technologies to Unlock Performance.
4. Organize for Rapid Experimentation.
5. Fail Early and Often but Avoid ‘Mistakes’.
6. Manage Projects as Experiments.

Thomke further explores what would happen if the principles outlined above were used beyond the confines of the individual organization. For instance, in the state of Rhode Island, innovators are collaboratively leveraging the state's compact geography, economic and demographic diversity and close-knit networks to quickly and cost-effectively test new business models through a real-world experimentation lab.

Innovation and research

With so much focus being on innovation for increasing productivity and success, companies are finding more efficient ways to nurture innovative ideas and try to convert as many random creative thoughts into structure innovation vehicles. Obviously, thoughts, processes and technologies that break our existing norm need to be welcome and channeled correctly. There are some interesting thoughts around this which I plan to read upon in the coming days.

First entry from India

Its been a while since I last wrote...Moved to India and things been hectic since the last 1.5-2 months...Saw an interesting article today :
http://www.founderblog.com/

Virtual Labs

I have been working on a bunch of Virtual Labs for MOSS 2007 and BTS 2006...

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/traincert/virtuallab/office.mspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/aa740373.aspx

ESB

Since this has become the new buzzword, I decided to read up some of the stuff on the internet that has been published in this sphere...I liked the way Wikipedia defines ESB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_service_bus While trying to see what Microsoft thinks is a good way to implement the ESB, I cam across the following article http://blogs.msdn.com/mikewalker/archive/2007/06/19/looking-for-microsoft-esb-guidance.aspx something I have been wanting to read in a long time...Thanks Mike Walker for the great insight

Synnovation...

Since I have been looking around for magazines, articles that talk about Innovation..another very good series I found was at :

http://www.eds.com/services/alliances/agility/synnovation/index.aspx

Some of these writers have given an indepth analysis of ways to innovate..Found some very nice info in these..

Innovations

Found an interesting book on innovation
http://www.themedicieffect.com/index.html

Frans Johansson has done a great job in explaining innovation. Good read!