3. Preamble 2
Describing both EA and ST as practices
A body of knowledge
A community of
practitioners
A discourse (way of
talking)
Practice
A professional service
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A tool or instrument
for achieving some
defined goals.
4. Preamble 3
On the Unreliability of Labels
• Labels like EA and ST are almost impossible to pin down. People waste
much effort squabbling about definitions. Extreme precision doesn’t
always make any sense.
• In this talk, I shall refer to “Enterprise Architecture” and “Systems
Thinking” as if these were reasonably well-defined (but possibly
overlapping) regions of practice.
• There are many different schools of EA and ST, and the internet is
awash with squabbles between rival schools. (Especially on Linked-In).
• There is also a significant gap between what people think practitioners
OUGHT to be doing and what practitioners ACTUALLY DO.
• So please take my use of the labels “Enterprise Architecture” and
“Systems Thinking” with caution.
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5. Schools of EA
• Modernist, Engineering
(James Martin, John
Zachman, TOGAF)
• Classical, NeoClassical
(Christopher Alexander)
• Baroque, Complexity, H
ybrid (Nick Gall)
• Post-Modern (VPEC-T)
• Pragmatic (CapabilityLed Planning)
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6. Schools of Systems Thinking
• Systems Dynamics
(Forrester, Meadows)
• Soft Systems
Methodology
(Checkland)
• Quality and Process
(Deming, Seddon)
• Cybernetics (Beer)
• Organic
(Bateson, Maturana)
• Ethical
(Vickers, Churchman)
with apologies to Kandinsky
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7. Is that it?
“But that’s not what I call
systems thinking!”
“But that’s not what enterprise
architects really do!”
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8. Three Questions
• What do EA and ST have in common?
– Common Goals?
– Common Ground?
– Shared Frustrations?
• What can EA and ST learn from each other?
– Stance
– Style
• What opportunities are there for practical collaboration between EA
and ST?
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9. Shared Frustrations
who is WE?
• We can clearly see some major
problems with the structure and
behaviour of large enterprises
and public sector ecosystems.
• We can also see why current
initiatives are likely to fail.
• But the people in charge of these
systems don’t appreciate the
valuable contribution we could
make.
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• We are often unable to get
access to working at “the
right level”.
• We are forced to work on
fragments of the problem
rather than the whole.
10. Common Self-Belief
• “We are better than
anyone else at
abstraction and
generalization.”
• “We are better than
anyone else at big
picture, joined-up
thinking.”
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• Abstraction
ungrounded
metaspeculation?
• Big picture thinking
infinite escalation.
11. Common Ground
Similarities
Enterprise architecture and systems
thinking share some important
characteristics.
• Overlapping range of concepts and
techniques for tackling difficult
business problems.
• Practitioners face similar challenges
when working with large and
complex business organizations and
ecosystems,
• Similar difficulties and frustrations
in trying to engage stakeholders in
joined-up “big picture” thinking.
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Differences
There are also some significant
differences, which create a real
opportunity for collaboration and
exchange.
• Different techniques
• Different perspective
• Different strengths
12. Are EA and ST the same thing?
• We have a concept of “system”.
• We consider the whole enterprise “as a
system”.
• We consider human activity systems as
well as mechanical systems (such as
software).
• We are good at abstraction and
generalization.
• We are good at “big picture”, joined-up
thinking.
BUT
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A human icon
makes a system
into a human
system!
13. What does “enterprise-as-a-system” mean?
• Enterprise as an open or
closed system?
• Enterprise as a human
activity or sociotechnical
system?
• Enterprise as a
dynamic, complex
adaptive or viable system?
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What is an enterprise?
Are humans inside or
outside the system?
Which notion of
dynamic?
Which notion of
complexity?
14. Different Notions of System?
ST (sometimes)
EA (sometimes)
• “System” is part of the problem • “System” is part of the solution
space.
space.
• We try to understand the
• We explore why the existing
structure and behaviour of
solutions aren’t performing
complex systems.
(AS-IS).
• We then intervene to improve
• We create blueprints for
their structure and behaviour.
improved solutions (TO-BE)
Both EA and ST practitioners should be
alert to the possibility that different people
may use words in different ways.
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15. Different Notions of System Thinking?
And what about third-order
cybernetics?
First Order Cybernetics
• Systems thinking gives us a
model of what is going on …
• … from the viewpoint of a
neutral and all-seeing observer.
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What things should we be
looking at? (“Ontology”)
Second Order Cybernetics
• Systems thinking helps us to
make sense of what is going on
…
• … from the viewpoint of an
engaged participant.
How we can know about these
things? (“Epistemology”)
17. Asset-Specificity
Delegating a capability always introduces an additional capability –
namely governance.
outsourced
services
noncore
procurement
of …
shared
services
procurement
of green
coffee beans
core
…green
coffee beans
assetspecific
services
Decomposing a capability into smaller capabilities always introduces
an additional capability – namely that of coordinating multiple
capabilities to produce coherent outcomes.
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18. Simple Capability Dependency (Weak)
Actual Supply
Procurement
Logistics
Agreed Supply
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What is the nature of
this dependency?
Tight/loose coupling?
Procurement
Negotiation
Required Supply
19. Three Levels of Capability
Capability
Type of Risk
Type of Error
(Root-Cause
Analysis)
Pricing
Typical
Service Type
Execution
Capability
Operation /
Transaction
Performance Risk
A component
service will not
work as specified
Error of Execution
The failure of a
planned action to
be completed as
specified
Input-Based
Factory
Service
Coordination
& Control
Capability
First-Order
Learning
Composition Risk
The component
services will not
work together as a
whole as intended
Error of Planning
The use of a wrong
plan to achieve an
aim
OutputBased
Information
Mapping
Service
Strategic
Capability
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Scope
SecondOrder
Learning
Implementation
Risk
The proposition will
not work in its
context-of-use
Error of Intention
The supplier
adopting an aim
that is unwanted by
the user
ValueBased
Business
Management
Service
21. Warning of the doorknob - escalation
Design a doorknob
Is a door the best
way of controlling
access to your
office?
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Do you really need a
traditional office with
four walls?
…
Source J.P. Eberhard
Is a doorknob the
best way of opening
and closing a door?
Is capitalist
democracy the best
way to organize our
economy?
22. Warning of the doorknob - regression
Design a
doorknob
Technologies for
fitting metal
objects to hands.
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Metallurgy
Atomic physics
Source J.P. Eberhard
Study the shape
of a man’s hand
Subatomic
physics
23. Different Stance?
(tongue in cheek)
Based on: Albert Hirschman
ST as realist, reactionary?
EA as progressive, visionary?
• Purposive action to improve some
feature of the political, social, or
economic order may only serve to
exacerbate the condition one wishes to
remedy. ("perversity thesis").
• Attempts at social transformation are
often unavailing, that they will simply
fail to "make a dent." ("futility thesis")
• The cost of the proposed change or
reform is often too high, especially if it
endangers some previous, precious
accomplishment. ("jeopardy thesis")
• Urgent action is necessary to avoid
imminent danger ("The Imminent
Danger")
• All reforms work together and reinforce
each other, rather than being
competing ("The Synergy Illusion")
• History Is on Our Side.
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24. Why New Systems Don’t Work
(Possibly)
Errors of Execution
• Passive adoption
(resistance)
• Poor
implementation
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Errors of Planning
• System as designed
system in use
• Poor choice of
technology
(technology fetish)
Errors of Intention
• Changing
requirements
• Local global
• Short-term
longer-term
• User customer
25. Why Old Systems Don’t Work
(Possibly)
• Complexity
• Changing requirements
• Attempts to eliminate
complexity
• Hidden agenda
• Cybernetic Entropy
• Enterprise Ferality
– management controls
becoming less effective over
time
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– POSIWID (Stafford Beer)
– “an autocatalytic
phenomenon that is selfperpetuating” (Steve Brewis)
26. Collaboration
• Ability of large teams to • Different people
address large and
working on different
complex problems
scales
– EA
– ST
– EA + ST
– One scale isn’t
automatically better than
any other scale
• Multiple viewpoints and • Interoperability
between different
perspectives
scales and viewpoints
– ISO 42010
– Lenscraft
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Compare and contrast how EAs
work in teams with how STs work
in teams?
27. References
• C. West Churchman, The Systems Approach and its Enemies (1979)
• J.P. Eberhard, “We Ought to Know the Difference” in Gary T. Moore (ed)
Emerging Methods in Environmental Design and Planning (MIT
Press, 1970) pp 364-365
• John Gøtze and Anders Jensen-Waud (eds), Beyond Alignment: Applying
Systems Thinking in Architecting Enterprises (College Publications 2013)
• Albert Hirschman, The Rhetoric of Reaction (1991)
• Richard Sennett, Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of
Cooperation (2012)
• Richard Veryard, Towards Next Practice Enterprise Architecture
(LeanPub 2013)
• Geoffrey Vickers, Human Systems are Different (1983)
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