Serving the story

how BPM and EA work together in the enterprise

Tom Graves, Tetradian Consulting BPMCP Conference, Lisbon, April 2013

Hi.

Im Tom.

(Thats all of the PR stuff out of the way...) (...so lets go straight into practice?)

Practice-sections
Practice-sections look like this slide:
work in pairs, if possible work fast 3-5mins for each item record as you go, with notes or sketches

Get pen-and-paper or tablet ready now

(There are four practice-sections in this session.)

Overture
Process, structure, story

Current EA emphasises structure...

So, heres a structure...

Its called the Sambadromo... Which doesnt really tell us anything. To make sense of a structure, and the processes that use it, we need the story...

CC-BY Avodrocc via Flickr

here, the story of Carnaval.

CC-BY Boban021 via Flickr

its one huge city-wide party

CC-BY sfmission via Flickr

and yes, it really is city-wide

CC-BY-SA adriagarcia via Flickr

But when the partys over, and its time to head home...

CC-BY sfmission via Flickr

Someone must be there to clean up... - because thats part of the story too.

CC-BY otubo via Flickr

Process, assets, data, locations.... - all the usual stuff of EA and BPM... ...all those necessary details of organisation.

CC-BY jorgeBRAZIL via Flickr

Organisation focusses on structure and process

CC-BY Avodrocc via Flickr

yet the enterprise is the story.

CC-BY Boban021 via Flickr

Structure and process exist because of the story.

A key task here, for EA and BPM is to remember and design for that fact, maintaining the balance between structure, process and story.

CC-BY SheilaTostes via Flickr

What we do is about structure, and process. What its for is about the purpose, the story. What, how, why; structure, process, story. We need them all, to make it all happen.
CC-BY SheilaTostes via Flickr

#1
Inside-out and outside-in

Whose architecture?
We create an architecture for an organisation, but about an enterprise.
Tom Graves, Mapping the Enterprise, Tetradian, 2010

Organisation aligns with structure, enterprise with story. We need a balance of both for the architecture to work.

Which architecture?
A useful guideline: The enterprise in scope should be three steps larger than the organisation in scope.

Tom Graves, Mapping the Enterprise, Tetradian, 2010

Whose story?

If the organisation says it is the enterprise, theres no shared-story - and often, no story at all.

Whose story?

The minimum real enterprise is the supply-chain - a story of shared transactions.

Whose story?

The organisation and enterprise of the supply-chain take place within a broader organisation of the market.

Whose story?

The market itself exists within a context of intangible interactions with the broader shared-enterprise story.

Inside-in

always at risk of drowning in the detail

CC-BY Myrmi via Flickr

Inside-out
We create an architecture for an organisation, but about a broader enterprise.

CC-BY Paul via Flickr

Outside-in

Customers do not appear in our processes, we appear in their experiences.

Chris Potts, recrEAtion, Technics, 2010
CC-BY Fretro via Flickr

Outside-out

Theres always a larger scope

CC-BY Matt Brown via Flickr

Practice: Perspective
What changes as you change perspective?

Inside-in Inside-out Outside-in Outside-out

What do these differences imply? To whom?

#2
Purpose as story

What architecture?
An organisation is bounded by rules, roles and responsibilities; an enterprise is bounded by vision, values and commitments.
Tom Graves, Mapping the Enterprise, Tetradian, 2010

Organisation aligns with structure, enterprise with story. We need a balance of both for the architecture to work.

A myriad of guiding stars out there

choose one that looks right to you.

Example (TED conferences): Ideas worth spreading

Use it as your guiding-star. Everywhere.

Why architecture?
An architecture describes structure to support a shared-story.
Tom Graves, The Enterprise As Story, Tetradian, 2012

Organisation aligns with structure, enterprise with story. We need a balance of both for the architecture to work.

That guiding star or vision - the core for the enterprise story has a distinctive three-part format: Concern. Action. Qualifier.

Ideas worth spreading

Concern: the focus of interest to everyone in the shared-enterprise

CC-BY UK DFID via Flickr

Action: what is being done to or with or about the concern

Ideas worth spreading

CC-BY US Army Africa via Flickr

Qualifier: the emotive driver for action on the concern

Ideas worth spreading

CC-BY HDTPCAR via Flickr

(Note: making money is not a meaningful vision in this sense. Its a measurement, not a vision at best, a desirable side-effect. Dont get misled by that mistake!)

Practice: Purpose
What guiding-star for the enterprise?

Concern Action Qualifier

How to link organisation with enterprise? How to use it as your enterprise-story?

Interlude
Service and story

Product
Product is static

CC-BY Kiran Kodoru via Flickr

Service
Service implies action action implies service

CC-BY Igor Schwarzmann via Flickr

Its also always about people service means that someones needs are served
CC-BY AllBrazilian via Wikimedia

Assertion: Everything in the enterprise is or represents a service.

(If so, we can describe everything in the same consistent way.)

Why anything happens

A tension exists between what is, and what we want.

The vision describes the desired-ends for action; values guide action, describing how success would feel.

The nature of service

A service represents a means toward an end ultimately, the desired-ends of the enterprise-vision.

Relations between services

Services exchange value with each other, to help each service reach toward their respective vision and outcome.

Services serve.
(Thats why theyre called services)

What they serve is the story, via exchange of value.

(And if we get that right, they can sometimes make money, too.)

Values and value

Each service sits at an intersection of values (vertical) and exchanges of value (horizontal)

In more detail
supplierfacing value-add (self) customerfacing

Interactions during the main-transactions are preceded by set-up interactions (before), and typically followed by other wrap-up interactions such as payment (after). We can describe child-services to support each of these.

Supply-chain or value-web

Services link together in chains or webs, as structured and/or unstructured processes, to deliver more complex and versatile composite-services.

Keeping on track

Use the Viable System Model (direction, coordination, validation) to describe service-relationships to keep this service on track to purpose and in sync with the whole.

Investor and beneficiary

These flows (of which only some types are monetary) are separate and distinct from the main value-flows.

Values, value-flow, money

values
(why)

value-flow
(how, with-what)

money

These are distinct flows dont mix them up!

Always start from values, not money.

If we focus on money, we lose track of value. If we focus on the how of value, we lose track of the why of values. Always start from the values. (Not the money.)

#3
Same and different

Making sense for action

Lets do a quick SCAN of this

Take control! Impose order!

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results
(Albert Einstein)

ORDER
(rules do work here)

Order and unorder

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results
(Albert Einstein)

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting the same results
(not Albert Einstein)

ORDER
(rules do work here)

UNORDER
(rules dont work here)

Same and different

A quest for certainty: analysis, algorithms, identicality, efficiency, business-rule engines, executable models, Six Sigma... An acceptance of uncertainty: experiment, patterns, probabilities, designthinking, unstructured process...

SAMENESS
(IT-systems do work well here)

UNIQUENESS
(IT-systems dont work well here)

Theory and practice

THEORY
What we plan to do, in the expected conditions

What we actually do, in the actual conditions

PRACTICE

Making sense with SCAN

algorithm guideline

rule

principle

Sensemaking creates clarity for action

Practice: Order and unorder

What parts of each service are:
Simple and straightforward? Complicated but controllable? Ambiguous but actionable? Not-known always unique or unknowable? How to ensure using the right methods for each? How to switch appropriately between methods?

#4
Backbone and edge

A spectrum of uncertainty

ORDER
(a sense of the known)

UNORDER
(a sense of the unknown)

We need to adapt to work with the full spectrum.

One of the hardest parts of working with uncertainty is to build the right balance between known and unknown - between backbone and edge.

Backbone and edge

order
(rules do work here)

unorder
(rules dont work here)

fail-safe
(high-dependency)

safe-fail
(low-dependency)

analysis
(knowable result)

experiment
(unknowable result)

Waterfall
(controlled change)

Agile
(iterative change)

BACKBONE

EDGE

A spectrum of services

Choices: everything we place in the backbone is a constraint on agility; anything we omit from the backbone may not be dependable. Its not an easy trade-off

Vision and values are always part of the backbone: values as shared-services.

A spectrum of services also implies a spectrum of governance: governance of governance itself.

Whether backbone or edge, every service needs to maintain its connection with the story.

Practice: Design for change

Where would each type of service belong?
What needs to be in the backbone (core)? What needs to be in domains (complexity)? What needs to be at the edge (change)? What interfaces does each service need?

What governance do you need for each? What governance of governance itself?

Afterword
Share the story

Nice view of structure, but

where are the people?

wheres the story?

Start with structure, or process...

but include the people-story!

Practice: Your insights

What did you discover in doing this?

Perspective (Inside-out and outside-in) Purpose (Concern, action, qualifier) Design for uncertainty (Same and different) Design for change (Backbone and edge)
What will you do different on Monday morning?

Obrigado!

Further information: Contact: Company: Email: Twitter: Weblog: Slidedecks: Tom Graves Tetradian Consulting tom@tetradian.com @tetradian ( http://twitter.com/tetradian ) http://weblog.tetradian.com http://www.slideshare.net/tetradian

Publications: http://tetradianbooks.com and http://leanpub.com/u/tetradian Books: The enterprise as story: the role of narrative in enterprisearchitecture (2012) Mapping the enterprise: modelling the enterprise as services with the Enterprise Canvas (2010) Everyday enterprise-architecture: sensemaking, strategy, structures and solutions (2010) Doing enterprise-architecture: process and practice in the real enterprise (2009)