Arctec Group: Strategic Technology Blueprints

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Arctec Views

February 17, 2005
In this issue:

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With this Arctec Views newsletter we aim to serve our clients, partners, and colleagues by providing our view on current issues and best practices in Enterprise Architecture as well as aggregating interesting news from the Enterprise Architecture landscape.

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LDA

Warning: this article is definitely tongue-in-cheek (but there is always some truth in humor).

OK, so people are familiar with many different architectural methodologies, but which do you think has the most traction in the real world? Which truly influences the technological direction and investment of your organization? Having consulted at several shops utilizing MDA (Model-driven architecture),TOGAF (The Open Group Architectural Framework), and those pitched by the various research and consulting organizations - I am wondering how many people are aware of LDA?

I am here to introduce the most commonly utilized and universally implemented architectural methodology - Lunch-driven Architecture. You may know it by one of its other monikers, such as Golf-driven Architecture or Perk-driven Architecture. The scientific name could be vendoris majora, or Vendor-driven Architecture.

Pros
Ah, the boondoggle. As a technology decision-maker, it is legitimately critical to stay in touch with the markets relevant for your business. Many vendor outings provide insight into product and company history and direction, and it is important to learn enough to continually have a feel for industry trend direction beyond individual vendors. It is within your control to manage how "boondogglish" this becomes.

Cons
As this topic is largely about vendor influence on product selection, I am certainly implying that evaluating and selecting large "heartbeat" products influences the organization's overall architectural platform (if not, that would lead me to a totally different discussion about cost-effectiveness to the business). Too many large vendor investment decisions consist of the following:

1) Product demos and negotiation (lunch, golf, perks) before understanding and scoping requirements.

2) Obsessive evaluation criteria filled in from techies with white paper knowledge only while negotiations are occurring on a "different track" through LDA. To add to the fun, the techies also sometimes slant the criteria and weightings while practicing RDA (Resume-driven Architecture), which is on the career path to mastering LDA.

3) Lack of understanding of "similar" products with differing background which provides insight into how they are best utilized.

The third is more of a technical risk in areas of convergence, such as the integration space, where vendors that have grown up as application servers, integration servers, EAI toolsets, BPM toolsets, CMS toolsets, and workflow packages are selling "similar" product features that are optimized to do widely differing things well.

Cursory vendor/product knowledge often does not help discern key differences that may have severe consequences on your overall architecture.

Strategies
Understand that denying this LDA phenomenon only prevents any opportunity in harnessing its power. At its core, there is an opportunity to gain additional resources to reach decisions that do benefit your company without compromising the integrity of leadership. As a key strategy, leverage the vendor attention and spending in areas that provide tangible payback. Beyond specific product directional sneak-peaks and demos, actual product proof-of-concepts completed on the vendor's tab are an underutilized strategy. Your techies can often learn more from a single real installation than from reams of white papers and literature. However, this cannot be done by thinking you will be able to perform a multi-month project of large scope - a thoughtful limited scope must be adhered to, and flexibility in location and environments will usually be necessary to allow the vendor to realistically scope their investment.

As an additional strategy, insure that your strategic vendor's accountability spans the key delivery timeframe, not just the round of golf. This can be accomplished both informally (through good discipline) as well as contractually.

LDA...it is happening. Leverage it to your organization's benefit!

- Patrick Christiansen

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Enterprise Architecture News

Grid Wars
Sun has been calling out IBM on its grid strategy
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan/20050202

CPU/hr
In addition Sun and Archipelago announced the world's first computing exchange, however this implementation plays out the idea of utility computing is sure to make an impact.
http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/news_story.cfm?id=51309

How secure do you want to be today?
Former Whitehouse adviser Richard Clarke lashes out at Microsoft's security track record
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/212437_rsaclarke17.html

7th Law of Identity
Attention Identity Management and Services wonks, Kim Cameron released the 7th and final law of Identity: The Law of Harmonious Contextual Autonomy
http://www.identityblog.com/2005/02/06.html

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Have your say
Agree? Disagree? Insufficient data to judge? Email us at views@arctecgroup.net, we want to hear from you.
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Arctec Group News

Software Security: What's Your Next Move?
Arctec Group is pleased to announce a new offering: Software Security Briefings. These sessions take a pragmatic focus on security aspects in software architecture and development. The sessions are available as full day and 1/2 day sessions on site. More information available at:
http://www.arctecgroup.net/briefings.htm

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