Enterprise Systems Architecture

It is essential for those charged with the support, management and delivery of technology capabilities for an organisation to be fully conversant with its Business Operating Model (BOM). BOMs, as one would expect, are not standard across industries. They evolve when the organisation transitions and develops as is the case in dynamic service-based industries, such as professional services, where organisations are constantly looking to repeat and generate new revenue streams. The current state of BOMs for professional service firms, although dynamic in nature, do exhibit mutual patterns across industries and using the global law firm example we highlight how capabilities across these firms  are quite common . Law firms that have a global footprint can serve large global organisations that require advisory and legal services across multiple jurisdictions.   The Business Operating Model (BOM) for the majority of the global law firms is quite unique, primarily due to specia...

In keeping with the emerging phenomenon of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Enterprise Architects are discovering the need to consider influences from AI agents, AI workflows, Generative Tools, Large Language Models(LLM’s) and Retrieval Augmented Generators, all of which are driving both challenges and changes to organisational Business Operating Models (BOM). As AI technologies provisioned via Software as a Service platforms slowly creep into organisational use, as we found with shadow IT, there is an ever-increasing need for stronger oversight and guardrails to mitigate any risks. Recently, whilst reviewing a low-code AI agent Development Platform and conducting research for my new book, I found myself revisiting the ‘ Capability, Service and Enabler ’ (CSE) classifications. Whilst the demarcation of concerns for the CSE’s remains valid, with the advent of new AI capabilities, the gap between services and enablers is getting shorter and now it becomes apparent to revisit the original di...

  Today’s short blog, the first for 2024, derives from recent work in which I required a classic Table of Contents (TOC) for a Solution Design( SD ) Document/ Artefact. To create this TOC, I began by listing elements one would expect to see in the artefact i.e. primary section headers, which is challenging when you consider the ‘ purpose’ of the document, and  the target audience both of which impact the overall structure of the document. For most artefacts, it would be prudent to tailor the SD to meet the needs and challenges of the specific  problem. For example, a basic SD for a new in-house development may be very technical, especially when the target audience may be the Systems Community ( Developers, Testers, Service Management etc.) and resulting in an artefact with the content and focus on  Component Views(Building Module Blocks) , Deployment Views and the Runtime Operations .  So, when I considered the elements for the SD Artefact I wanted...

Thank you for visiting the blog. I would like to start by posting a short message / comment regarding the horizon of content creation and blogging stemming from an interesting question I came across on another channel. Which asked, “ Why create new content when one can simply do a google search and retrieve examples or ask the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) for a solution with some basic context?” The above is fast becoming a important question in today’s world of Generative AI and the wide array of search tools allowing one to simply ‘ rinse and repeat ’ other people’s work? A great comment which goes to the heart of content creation - For me using Generative AI Tools to create content could be classed as ‘cheating’ and like all cheats – they always get found out in the end. So as I start creating new content I will ensure it’s not ripped off and will always share the source of for any 3 rd party references  made    and I ask you do the same – If r...