Staging the story: a people-oriented view of enterprise-architecture

Staging the story
a people-oriented view of EA
Tom Graves, Tetradian Consulting
Unicom EA Conference, London, September 2013
the futures of business

Hi.
I’m Tom.
(That’s all of the PR stuff out of the way...)

Yes, this is EA…
(well, part of it, anyway…)
CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr

…but where are the people
in this story?
(…because ‘enterprise’ is people…)
CC-BY-SA MysteryBee via Flickr

“The world is made of stories”
• The enterprise itself is a story –an overarching theme
• Enterprise as ongoing story of relations between people
– the actors of the story
• Enterprise-story comprised of smaller stories – the
scenes or story-lines (aka ‘processes’)
• Enterprise-story takes place in a setting – the stage and
its context (technology), location, props (artefacts) etc
• Stories thrive on conflict, tension and uncertainty – in
contrast to machines, which generally don’t…

Technology
CC-BY-SA xdxd_vs_xdxd via Flickr
Process
People

Stage
CC-BY-SA xdxd_vs_xdxd via Flickr
Scene
Actor
ActorStage
Stage
Stage
Stage
Stage
Scene
Scene

“Process is the use of structure
(the organisation view)
Plot is the unfolding of story
(the enterprise view)”
Tom Graves, The Enterprise As Story, Tetradian, 2012
Plot and process

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

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?

Whose story?
If the organisation says it ‘is’ the enterprise,
there’s 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.

A stakeholder
in the story
is anyone
who can wield
a sharp-pointed
stake
in your direction…
CC-BY-NC-SA evilpeacock via Flickr
Whose story?
(Hint: there are a lot
more of them than you
might at first think…)

Perspectives on the story
• Outside-out: Big-picture ‘world’, beyond even the market
• Outside-in: View from ‘outside’ into organisation
• Journey: Touchpoints between ‘outsider’ and organisation
• Inside-out: View from the organisation’s perspective
• Inside-in: View of the organisation to inside itself

Inside-in…
CC-BY Myrmi via Flickr
always
at risk of
drowning in
the detail…

Inside-out…
CC-BY – Paul – via Flickr
We create an architecture
for an organisation,
but about a broader enterprise.

Outside-in…
CC-BY Fretro via Flickr
“Customers
do not appear
in our processes,
we appear in
their experiences.”
Chris Potts, recrEAtion, Technics, 2010

CC-BY Matt Brown via Flickr
Outside-out…
There’s always a larger scope…

“What’s the story?”
“A cast of thousands!”

Who are the actors?
CC-BY Mike Babcock via Flickr

Actors – the IT-view?
CC-BY jurvetson via Flickr

“Computer stole my face…”
CC-BY justin pickard via Flickr

A human view
CC-BY andré luís via Flickr

Actors – the human view?
CC-BY-SA izzard via Flickr

How we really think…
CC-BY Brett Jordan via Flickr

The structure of the story
CC-BY-SA Neil Cumming via Flickr

What kind of story?
SCRIPTED
(simple rules and checklists)
CC-BY The-Vikkodamus via Flickr CC-BY-SA seeminglee via Flickr
IMPROVISED
(guidelines and principles)
ANALYSED
(complicated algorithms)
ADAPTED
(complex patterns)

“Each traverse through
a business-process
is a self-contained story
with its own actors, actions
and events”
Tom Graves, The Enterprise As Story, Tetradian, 2012
Process as story

Scenes in the story
Split story into identifiable scenes, with begin, middle, end
CC-BY TheArches via Flickr

Scenes in the story
Process-story as identifiable scenes, with begin, middle, end

Show, don’t tell
Each line of action drives the story forward

Show, don’t tell
Each line of action drives the story forward
CC-BY-ND Kecko via Flickr

The role of props
Each item has its place, and drives the story onward

Each item has its place, and drives the story onward
CC-BY-ND Kecko via Flickr
The role of props

“What’s the stage
for the story?”

Staging the story
CC-BY-SA passer-by via Flickr
Infrastructure and systems etc as the stage

Staging the story
Infrastructure and systems etc as the stage
CC-BY-ND Costa Rica’s Call Center via Flickr

Visible and invisible
What needs to be behind the curtain? What in front?
CC-BY Mickey Thurman via Flickr

What state is that infrastructure in, behind the curtain?
CC-BY Princess Theatre via Flickr

What state is that infrastructure in, behind the curtain?
CC-BY-SA LanSmash via Flickr

Where is the story?
How does the stage describe the location of each scene?
CC-BY-SA Tim Evanson via Flickr

Where is the story?
CC-BY-SA Intel Free Press via Flickr

Where is the story?
CC-BY-SA Tomas Caspers via Flickr

Where is the story?
CC-BY-SA conskeptical via Flickr

Setting the mood
How does the stage-set itself drive the story forward?
CC-BY-SA Eva Rinaldi via Flickr

Setting the mood
How does the stage-set itself drive the story forward?
CC-BY State Farm via Flickr

Maintain the mood
Computers may not have feelings, but people do:
how does the stage-set support the mood we need?
CC-BY-ND alanclarkdesign via Flickr

Framing the picture
In what ways does the frame itself constrain the action?
CC-BY aleutia via Flickr

Framing the picture
CC-BY Vlima.com via Flickr
In what ways does the frame itself constrain the action?

Transmedia stories
Different scenes and sub-stories can take place on
different media – but it’s the same overall story
CC-BY-SA tStoryteller via Flickr

Transmedia stories
Different scenes and sub-stories can take place on
different media – but it’s the same overall story
CC-BY-ND Christoph Mueller-Girod via Flickr

Transmedia stories
Different scenes can take place on different media:
still the same overall story – if maybe with a new twist…
CC-BY Gulltaggen via Flickr

A challenge of continuity
How is continuity maintained across all those different media?
CC-BY OpenPlaques via Flickr

A challenge of continuity
Who has the choices to switch between media?
CC-BY-SA tStoryteller via Flickr

It’s all about the experience
A well-executed story creates delight in the audience –
especially when there’s an unexpected good ending!

A final word…
It’s the ‘small stories’ that often help us
to highlight hidden assumptions
and expectations…
…the kind of assumptions and expectations
that can bring a system to a grinding halt…

Wise advice…
CC-BY-SA Tim Samoff via Flickr

“What’s the story?”“What’s the story?”“What’s the story
for your enterprise?”

Contact: Tom Graves
Company: Tetradian Consulting
Email: tom@tetradian.com
Twitter: @tetradian ( http://twitter.com/tetradian )
Weblog: http://weblog.tetradian.com
Slidedecks: http://www.slideshare.net/tetradian
Publications: http://tetradianbooks.com
Books: • The enterprise as story: the role of narrative in enterprise-
architecture (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)
Further information:

Staging the story: a people-oriented view of enterprise-architecture

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Staging the story: a people-oriented view of enterprise-architecture