imagining ict-architecture

jeroen j van beele; versie 0; januari 2004

contents

• definitions, approaches and roles

• problems and solutions

• scoping and context

• my approach

• references

these are my personal images

• the first thing that strikes is the diversity in definitions approaches and roles available

• for an indication of this diversity see www.aim.nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_2003-2004.htm

• that’s why i sometimes experience ict-architecture as a magnet that attracts a whole bunch of problems

definitions

• ieee 1471 definition 3.5: the fundamental organization of a system embodied in its components, their relationships to each other, and to the environment, and the principles guiding its design and evolution

• chris verhoef: architectuur is dat wat moeilijk te veranderen is

from the first 6 papers of lac 2003

• architectuur is stadsvernieuwing, geen stedenbouw

• architectuur is stuurinstrument voor beheerst veranderen

• enterprise architecture wordt gedefinieerd als een proces en een product

approaches

• frameworks– ieee 1471– greefhorst, koning en van vliet in

www.cs.vu.nl/~hans/publications/dimensies.pdf mention 17 frameworks

• maturity models– meta group: acmm– ordina: amm

roles

• the genootschap van informatiearchitecten distinguishes 3 roles– informatie architect

• information from the production factor perspective

– it-architect• ict-infrastructure

– it-business architect• ict landscape within information landscape

magnetism

• the reason for this magnetism is that there are still quite a lot of and diverse unsolved problems around in the ict-discipline, especially problems not addressed by regular methods are passed on by the line to the ict-architect

• if you want to narrow down the scope of ict-architecture to the essential construction of information systems you will find that you can only put ict-architecture into practise by simultaneously solving problems you just scoped out

• sometimes an ict-architect feels like fostering a flock of monkeys

• i have to pay too much for something i dindn’t ask for and that is delivered too late• communication between business and ict• overview of all the systems and their interconnections• evolution of information systems - flexibility• reuse of code• spaghetti has risen from code to system level - interoperability• what should or can we do with our legacy?• methods and techniques• ict-knowledge management• choosing technologies and products• we need a supertechy• many technical problems turn out to be projections of

organisational problems

problems tackled

solutions provided

• ict-governance; tco; business case; outsourcing

• business-ict alignment

• frameworks (ieee 1471; zachman); esthetics: pictures and rules

• ordering and clustering: ontkoppeling (run vs build time)

• oo; cbd; webservices

• middleware

• open up legacy using agents; reverse engineering

• cmm

• knowledge management

• is ict-architecture a proces, a product or both?

• this list resembles amm’s

context

• the problems listed above are mainly the result of the incompleteness and inconsistency of separately well defined methods such as ict-governance (eg cobit), project management (eg prince ii), software engineering (eg dsdm) and maintenance (eg itil)

• a major paradigm within ict is scoping because of the many interconnections it embraces. the strength of scoping is also it’s weakness: by isolating a problem you solve the problem but create a new problem at the interface with the context

this might be a common denominator for the diverse problems listed: they all lack integration with their respective contexts

coping by scoping?

• the interconnection ever increases - this means that changes face ever more side effects

• by scoping the problem is shifted towards the scope-created boundaries

• scoping is part of the answer but also part of the problem

• so there is a central role in the solution to be expected for co- and adhesion

• technically connections can be understood as flow, this hints to the view that if-then-else constructions are far too rich to be used in a decent way

my approach

• the following should be in place

• not necessarily realised by ict-architects

• inert areas

• alignment chain

• entity - execution - event

inert areas

• definition: an inert area is a part of an organisation that is characterised by it’s dynamics such as goals, development and influences

• in the context of ict we find several inert areas:– business

– culture

– human resources

– organisation

– process

– ict

subareas of ict:

– data

– functionality

– flow

– technical infrastructure

alignment

business

strategy

policy

plan

ict-strategy

ict-policy

ict-plan

inert area

strategy

policy

plan

governance and alignment

• each area needs to be governed (who decides) and all of them need to be aligned together

• so with respect to ict we need:– ict-governance (tco, business cases, outsourcing, ict-

strategy)– business-ict alignment

• ict-governance is a condition sine qua non for ict-architecture

• ict-architecture is an ict-governance instrument

(governance) analysis frameworks

architecture

continuity time to value

projectmoney

time functionality ......quality attributes......

sourceconcernconcerngremium gremium

targetconcernconcern

concerndecision has impact onrepresented inobstructsserves

concerngremium

decision

talk; kleppen

type; kloppen

finish

fasterearlier

earlier expectation management

informationsystems

informationsystems

transition

wants then

start

ict-architecture process

• make ict-architecture products together with all relevant stakeholders– business; ict: strategy, development, maintenance; others like users

– decision makers should understand all relevant concerns

– communicate using archetypes

• implement– pictures and rules

– training

– reviews

– acceptance tests

– change to archiculture

along the software life cycle– definition

– design

– build

– integration

– test

– acceptance

ict-architecture products

• strategy– the value that ict-architecture adds is

maintaining the organisation’s long term concerns

• policy

• plan

• concern web

• architecture to be

• as is - migration - to be

concern web

• quality attributes• quint model• interoperability• separation

(independance)• agility

– a system is agile if the amount of resources needed for changing it is correlated to te functional change realised

marktaanslui ting

vendoronafhankelijkplatformonafhankeli jk

pakketbeschikbaarmigreerbaar

converteerbaarsaneerbaar

consolideerbaarin-/outsourcebaar

schaalbaar

optimaal

elegantintuitief

begri jpelijkoplossingsvri jheid

onafhankel ijk(=ontkoppeling)

non-complexnon-redundant

real timecompleet

generiek

uniformopen

ondersteunbaar

upgradableextendible

verplaatsbaarcontroleerbaar

voorspelbaarreproduceerbaar

veranderbaar

installeerbaarintegreerbaar

configureerbaargestandaardiseerd

vervangbaar

nu werken

beheersbaar

straks werken

methode wijzigbaar

kennisbehoud al veel klaar

anders werken

toepasseli jk

accuraatinteroperabel

compliantveilig

traceerbaar

begri jpelijk

leerbaarbedienbaar

explicietinstelbaar

aantrekkel ijkduidelijk

behulpzaamgebruiksvriendelijk

ti jdsgedrag

resourcegedrag

analyseerbaar

veranderbaarstabiel

testbaarmanageable

herbruikbaar

functionaliteit

betrouwbaarefficient

bruikbaar

bouwbaar

onderhoudbaar portable

informatievoorziening

procesbesturing

volwassen

robuustrecovery

beschikbaarafbouwbaar

viewpoints

• concerns - ieee 1471 - viewpoints• core viewpoints for the ict-architect to

document strategy, policy and plan– process– functionality– data– technical infrastructure

• other viewpoints derived from core

viewpoints in context

strategypolicyplan

costtime

returnrisk

finance

strategyrequirements

processfunctionality

datainfrastructure

business ict

busi

ness

ict

inert area

stak

ehol

der

3e

isolate the flow

• here i want to present a model suited for capturing the dynamics of ict

• the model is constructed looking at organisms

• organisms grow and evolve at different levels

organism metaphor

mutation level

cell growth

organism reproduction

species evolution

cycle

short

longer

long

dna

unchanged

changes

restructure

change

restricted

more

complete

execution

3e-model: entity - execution - event3f-model: fact - function - flow

3g-model: gegeven - gedrag - gebeurtenis

relation

entity

event

customer order line

checkstock

checkcredit

no

no

okissueorder

order

yes

yes

1

N N1

N

1

product

1 1

example

1

1

(possible) applications

• basis for the vocabulary of the core viewpoints

• implementation paradigm

• maintain legacy

• restructure (refactore, reengineer) software

• eai

• architectural conformance

implementation: molecules

wf da

... ...

maintain legacy (after verhoef)

informationsystems

moleculeview

repartitioned

modifiedchangerecipe

evolutedinformation

systems

trans

formation

inverse

modification

.......

evolution

references

• www.aim.nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_2003-2004.htm

• www.cs.vu.nl/~hans/publications/dimensies.pdf

• www.idi.ntnu.no/~letizia/swarchi/IEEE1471.pdf

• www.serc.nl/lac/2003/papers/archicultuur.pdf

• www.serc.nl/lac/docs/Papers/xaosorde.pdf