From software complexity to information system complexity

1. Club Qualimétrie
15 Jan 2008
CEISAR www.ceisar.org
Centre of Excellence for enterprISe Architecture
Pierre-Frédéric Rouberties
From software complexity to Information System complexity

2. Agenda
• A word about Enterprise Architecture
• A word about the CEISAR
• A word about Enterprise Complexity
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• A word about Enterprise Complexity
• CEISAR’s view on Enterprise Architecture
• From software complexity to Information System Complexity

3. “How to structure the Information System
to help company transformation »
Main challenge for the CIOs in the coming years
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to help company transformation »
No longer be a constraint, become an enabler

4. A word about Enterprise Architecture
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A word about Enterprise Architecture

5. Why EA became necessary ?
• After 20 years of existence of IT (70’s and 80’s), the
observation was made that :
– Information systems had become increasingly complex and costly
• One of the cause being (too) many technologies had flourished and the pace of
apparition/disparition of technologies was still high
– Many projects had failed to deliver the expected benefits
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– CEOs had started wondering about the return on investment of Information
Technology
– IT systems were hindering the organization's ability to respond to current, and
future, market conditions in a timely and cost-effective manner
– A culture of distrust between the business and technology sides of the organization
had developped

6. EA expected benefits
• EA aims at delivering:
– Alignment : Closing the gap between technology and business
– Agility : Reducing complexity of the business and IT systems
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7. History of Enterprise Architecture
• In France : EA is called “Urbanisme”, born in the banking
industry during the 90’s
– Urbanisation des systèmes d’information [Jacques Sassoon –1998- édition Hermès]
– Urbanisation du business et des systèmes d’information [Gérard Jean 1999 - Hermès]
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– Le projet d’urbanisation [Christophe Longépé 2001 - Dunod]
– Club Urba EA
• Pratique de l’urbanisme des SI en entreprises - 2003
• Urbanisme des SI et Gouvernance – 2006 - Dunod

8. Main concepts of « Urbanisme »
• Global view of the IS
• Layer Approach
• « City planning » metaphor
• Concepts of Zones
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• Principle of subsidiarity
• « Urbanisation » process

9. History of Enterprise Architecture
• American point of view :
– Birthday : 1987
• Zachman, J.A. "A Framework for Information Systems Architecture." IBM Systems
Journal, Volume 26, Number 3, 1987.
• Emphasizes the need for a “holistic” [global] approach to systems architecture
– EA was created to address two problems :
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• System complexity—Organizations were spending more and more money building IT
systems; and
• Poor business alignment—Organizations were finding it more and more difficult to keep
those increasingly expensive IT systems aligned with business need.
– US Government pushing to enforce EA in its agencies
• Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996

10. Some key features of EA
• Enterprise Architecture focuses on :
– A global awareness of the entire system (Business + IT) : adding a block next to the
other in an inconsistent way is no longer possible
– A set of multiple views to take all points of view into account
– A line of continuity between the various views to enforce alignement
– A planning approach, aiming at convergence toward a preferred future state of the
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– A planning approach, aiming at convergence toward a preferred future state of the
system
– Incremental implementation : step by step convergence towards the target

11. EA involves two major practices
• Engineering
– Modelling
• Creating a model of the current
state of your system (as is)
• Designing a model of the desired
future state of your system (to be)
• In all areas of the enterprise system
• To achieve
• Management
– Communicating
• Selling EA
• Driving change (many people
impacted)
– Deciding
• Choosing an EA approach
• Enforcing it
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• To achieve
- reusability,
- maintanability,
- cost efficiency,
- scalability, …
– Implemeting
• Developping, testing, operating
• Enforcing it
– Planning
• Designing implementation plan
and cycles
– Measuring/Controlling
• Making sure EA is used and
delivers benefits
In this respect, EA transforms
IS/IT Governance
Good system engineering practices
can be extended to the enterprise

12. A word about the CEISAR :
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A word about the CEISAR :
An Initiative from Ecole Centrale Paris

13. Many fields exist like Process reengineering, Application Blue print, Component,
SOA, OO, Open Source, ... All help to organize and simplfy the Enterprise
System.
But there is no International Center which unifies all these good approaches and
present them as a new consistent, strategic and International domain.
ECP decided to create an original organization, the CEISAR, to be as close as
possible from Companies Concerns
Initiative
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• A strategic and international domain: Enterprise Architecture
• The best experts from companies
• A federation of several large user companies and provider companies,
working together for a common project, and financing it
• To deliver a set of useful products: White Papers, and training

14. Which deliverables ?
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Which deliverables ?

15. • For each Architecture topic: Best Practices in White Paper
– From user case studies
– From providers
– From our own experience
– Using a common language
• New Topics every 6 months
– Define a common vocabulary (Entreprise Meta-Model)
– Approach to define Business Entities (zoom on « Actors »)
Deliverables
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– Approach to define Business Entities (zoom on « Actors »)
– Approach to simplify Legacy Systems (zoom pn « rule engine »)
– Training requirements for Architects
– Business Process Management
– Gouvernance and Entreprise Architecture
• A web site which includes all white papers, and connect members
• Training sessions for students
• Training sessions and coaching for companies (management, business, IS)

16. • Global approach
– Architecture is more an answer to business than a collection of technologies
• Simplicity
Do not « reinvent the wheel », but
– Consistency, complementarity between topics which belong to different schools
• Business Process school
• Urbanism school
Our Challenge
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• Urbanism school
• Component school
• SOA school
• OO school
• ...
– Make it understandable by the majority of actors involved in Architecture
– Reduce the number of concepts
– Apply Architecture approach to CEISAR work: reuse, urbanism

17. A word about Enterprise Complexity
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A word about Enterprise Complexity

18. Enterprise and
Number of business domains
to computerize
Sharing dataIS extends to partners,
customers, prospects
Information System Complexity
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Enterprise and
Information System
Complexity increases !
Number of technologies which coexist
InternationalSophisticated Functions:
Rule Engine, Workflow

19. Flexibility decreases
Slow evolutions
High cost and
Maintenance workload
User Specialization
And fragmented processes
Information System Flexibility
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Flexibility decreases
when
complexity increases
Difficulties to integrate
New technologies
Difficulties to share
(merge, partners, international)
Accessibility
The CIO sees himself more like a plumber than an Architect.

20. IS Complexity
Company Total Headcount IS headcount
AXA 120.000 10.000
BNPP 155.000 13.000
Michelin 116.000 2.000
Total 95.000 4.000
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Total 95.000 4.000
•500.000 IT objects are managed in production by BNP Paribas
•See AXA France Cartography
A noble engineer job:
How to structure
an Enterprise System
And provide Agility?

21. How does complexity impact the Enterprise?
• Decrease of agility (from end of requirement to end of deployment)
– On Business System like time to launch a new Product or « time to market »
– On Organization System like time to adapt an Organization Process
– On IT System like time to deliver a new Software Service
• Increase of costs
– Organization Costs: number of people (internal or external) and all other related
costs (equipment, offices, …)
– IT costs: IT productivity
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– IT costs: IT productivity
• Decrease of IT Service quality
– Reliability: defect ratio
– performance
• Decrease Ease of use
– No standard user interface
– Process discontinuity
• Lack of Knowledge: team and documentation

22. Diversity versus Standardization
• Diversity means:
– Creativity, innovation
– Freedom to create
– Momentum and energy
• But also:
– Uncontrolled development leading
• Standardization means:
– Reducing diversity
– Reducing freedom
– Creating new constraints
• But also:
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– Uncontrolled development leading
to Chaos
– Duplication of efforts
– Costs
– Reducing complexity
– Reducing costs
– Maximizing good practices reuse
Each company has to find the right balance depending on its stage of
maturity and own culture

23. CEISAR’s view on Enterprise Architecture:
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CEISAR’s view on Enterprise Architecture:
Towards a unifying meta-model of the enterprise

24. Core
Business
Enterprise Model = (Business + Organization + IT) Models
Defines what are the Business Entities
and the Business Processes
Functional
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Organization
IT
Defines who (the Actors) executes and when are executed
the Business Processes.
For the same Business, several Organizations may exist.
How a set of Hardware, Software, Data automate
all or part of Business and Organization
Functional

25. Function
Business Function
Organization Function
Software Service
Business Entity
Business Actor
*
*
Business Process
Activity Class
Block
Core
Business
IT
Business Process
Domain
Business Entity
Domain
*
*
* *
** *
*
Block
cartography
The Global View of the Enterprise Model
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Organization Function
Organization Process
Procedure
Operation
Organization Entity
Organization Actor
Organization
Function
Domain
*
*
*
*
Development Model Operation Model
*
*

26. « Architecture »
or what is « sharable »
in the Enterprise System
(business, organization, IT)
-
How to simplify?
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-
The foundation
-
The backbone for the sustainable development of
the Enterprise

27. • Common definitions for main Business concepts
• Common Business Processes or Business Process Models
• Common User Functions
• Shared Data (like customer, organization, products, …)
• Application Blue Print
Enterprise Architecture: defined as what can be shared (to
be aligned on Enterprise Strategy)
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• Application Blue Print
• Common applications
• Shared components
• Common development environment
• Common deployment architecture: OS, DBMS, middleware, tools and
approach

28. Enterprise Model includes: Solutions and Architecture.
Architecture is defined as what is shared between Solutions.
Business
Architecture
Business
Model
WHAT
Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Model
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Organization
Architecture
IT
Architecture
Organization
Model
IT
Model
HOW IS IT
AUTOMATED
WHO

29. Enterprise Model includes: Solutions and Architecture.
Architecture is defined as what is shared between Solutions.
Enterprise Model
Business Model
(What)
IT Model
(How is it automated)
Business
Architecture
IT
Architecture
Business
Solutions
IT
Solutions
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Organization Model
(Who)
Organization
Architecture
Organization
Solutions

30. Simplify: but where does Complexity come from?
Complexity may come from the 3 Systems:
• Business System
– Too many Business Entities like many Products
– Many Functions because no shared Functions like « Price Contract »
• Organization System
– Too many different Organization Processes
– Too many Organization Functions, compared to Business Functions
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– Too many Organization Functions, compared to Business Functions
• IT System
– No reuse
– Many different deployment technologies
– Many different development technologies

31. Measure complexity of Enterprise System
Measure complexity of
Enterprise System
Measure complexity of
Business System
Measure complexity of
Organization System
Measure complexity of
IT System
Number and complexity of
•Business Entities (1)
•Nb of Org.Proc/BusProc
•Nb of Operations/Process
•Nb of hardware
•Nb, size of Blocks (LOC)
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•Business Entities (1)
•Business Processes
•Business Functions
•User Interfaces
Volumes for
•data and
•process instances
•Nb of Operations/Process
•Nb of Actor Types
•Org.Functions/Bus.Funct.
•Volumes for nb of Actors
•Nb, size of Blocks (LOC)
•Nb of Interfaces
•Nb of Tables + Attributes
•Nb of Operation techno.
•Nb of Development techno
•Pertinence of Block Carto.
•Quality of the code
•Quality of data
•Techno. Obsolescence
•Productivity ratios
1-Focus on Products and Services

32. Measure Architecture Level which decreases unnecessary
complexity
Measure Architecture
level
Measure
Business Architecture
Measure
Organization Arch.
Measure
IT System Arch.
•Common Business Entities •Shared Block cartography•Common Org. Description
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•Common Business Entities
•Common Process Models
•Common Bus. Functions
•Shared Block cartography
•Common Soft. Services
•Common Blocks
•Common Classes
•Common Data
•Common Dev. Environment
•Common Operation Envirt
•Level of customization
done by parameters and
rule engine (1)
•Common Org. Description
•Common Org. Functions
(like Rights and Duties)
•Consistent User interface
1-Customization for Product, Organization Processes, Security, … thanks to parameters and Rule engine

33. What is Software Quality Management ?
• Main objective is to control software complexity
– To optimize its performance
– To make it simpler, easier to maintain, reuse, upgrade …
– Faster to market and less expensive
• Acting on
– Software development processes (CMMI)
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– Software development tools
– Software modeling techniques
– Sharing best practices (patterns) and training
• Based on
– Best practices
– Standard and ad hoc Metrics

34. Enterprise Architecture as the next playground for
Software Quality experts …
• Long experience
– Software Engineering has defined many metrics to measure system complexity
• Transposition is possible
– Many concepts can be reused from software quality management at the level of
information systems
• Example of the « functional complexity »
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– Some companies are starting to manage Application portfolio Complexity
• See Axa APR index
– Software Quality expertise can be reused and extended …
Source : Qualixo/Air France 2007

35. Your point of view ?
Questions & Answers
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Questions & Answers
you can contact me at: pierre-frederic.rouberties@ecp.fr