Showing posts with label Forest and the Trees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forest and the Trees. Show all posts

February 14, 2009

The Stimulus Plan and User-Centric Enterprise Architecture

Just something I am thinking about...

Per Wall Street Journal, 14-15 February 2008, Stimulus Plan = 1,073 pages.

Imagine this...alternative stimulus plan--one sentence: Give everyone a debit card for $2500 that is good for 3 months.

(That's per every man, women, and child in this country!)

Result: spending will be pervasive and immediate, jump-starting the stalled economy.

(This can still be supplemented by long-term infrastructure projects and national investments as appropriate.)


This point is that the enemy of problem-solving is over-complexity.

We start with a problem that is so complex almost no one can understand it. For example, the financial market melt-down was tied in large part to dizzyingly constructed financial instruments that confounded and some say manipulated, even the most sophisticated investors.

And the answer was developed to respond to the problem. Sure, a complex problem may deserve a multi-faceted and even a thousand page answer.

But, perhaps it is time to step out of the trees and look at the forest. Is it time for a little simplicity?

Even if the answer is ok, maybe it needs to be communicated simply and straightforwardly--it's got to be user-centric!

Obviously, the point is not to over-simplify and miss the mark, but do be direct and to draw a clear relationship between problem and solution. Have we done that?


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