Showing posts with label Insight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Insight. Show all posts

September 16, 2020

Take Me To Your Leader

Is there a leader in the house?

Anyone, anyone a leader here...

I need to find a leader.

Someone who I can look up to.

Who feels deeply, compassionately, and honestly cares about others. 

With faith and integrity, and who does the right thing, regardless. 

They inspire, rarely tire, and seek to make us all more than we otherwise are. 

Imbued with discerning insight and an ageless wisdom. 

Carrying forth a great vision, and a path and passion to get us there. 

They bring unity, and stand alongside each and every one of us. 

Never an autocrat, a bureaucrat, or a stinkin' rat. 

Just someone who is a genuine leader.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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October 17, 2018

Trump's Uncanny Ability To Call A Horse A Horse

So President Trump has an uncanny ability to call something what it is and literally brand it that way. 

After Stormy Daniels lost a recent lawsuit against Trump, he called her "Horseface."

Not a nice term about people and things he doesn't like.

But you know what when I looked at her, I could see what he saw.

And you know what, she will go down in the history books as Horseface. 

Similarly, with many other brands Trump has bestowed on others:

"Crooked Hillary (Clinton)"

"Failing New York Times"

"Crazy Joe (Biden)"

"Criminal Enterprise (Clinton Foundation)"

"Save Your Energy Rex (Tillerson)"

"Countries That Rip Us Off (NATO)"

"Worst Deal Ever (Iran Nuclear Deal)"

"Losers, Thugs (Islamic State)"

"Fake News (CNN)"

"Pocahontas (Elizabeth Warren)"

"Cryin Chuck (Schumer)"

"Will Make America Weak Again (Nancy Pelosi)"

"Crazy Rants (Maxine Waters)"

"Rocket Man (Kim Jong-Un)"

"Doing Many Bad Things Behind Our Back (Iran)"

Again, I'm not condoning name-calling of any kind.

And words certainly do hurt. 

However, Trump does seem to see things that are like, "Oh yeah!"

And once, he coins a term, it sticks!

Not that it's right, but he has a genius to brand people and things.  

What he sees and what he calls it, just like a branding iron, will stick with them forever. 

Why?  Because a horse is a horse, especially once it gets called out. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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November 26, 2012

Autocomplete: Do Zombies (What)?

The autocomplete feature in search engines can tell us a lot about what people are thinking and asking about.

According to the New York Times (21 November 2012) "sites like Google and Bing are showing the precise questions that are most frequently asked."

Autocomplete suggests the rest of your search term based on the most popular things that others have asked for, so it speeds up your search selection by anticipating what you are looking for and by reducing spelling errors in your search terms.

Another advantage to seeing popular searches is to understand what the larger population is thinking about and looking for--this gives us insight into culture, norms, values, and issues of the time. 

I did a simple google search of "do zombies" and as you can see the most popular searches are about whether zombies: poop, exist, sleep, "really exist," and have brains. 

Even more disappointing than people asking whether zombies really exist is that the #1 search on zombies is about whether they poop--what does that say about our lagging educational system?

I would at least have imagined that the preppers--those infatuated with the end of the world and with preparation for survival--would at least be searching for terms like:

Do zombies...

pose a real threat to human survival?

have (certain) vulnerabilities?

ever die?

have feelings?

have children?

beat vampires (or vice versa)?

I suppose autocomplete is good at crowdsourcing search terms of what others are thinking about, but it is only as good as those doing the ultimate searching--our collection intelligence at work. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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February 7, 2008

Adding Value and Enterprise Architecture

What is the value-add of enterprise architecture?

In Architecture and Governance Magazine, Volume 4 Issue 1, an article entitled, “Architecture Planning” addresses this issue.

The author proposes that EA must find a balance between the necessity to “build and populate an EA framework with the effort to provide effective project support.”

With the wrong balance of these, the author, states: “you end up with an ivory tower [initiative] that delivers no value, or with a project support service that makes project-level architecture decisions rather than taking into account the enterprise perspective.”

The article sums up: “to reiterate, the architecture plan needs to meet two objectives. One, deliver an EA; two, deliver value to projects.”

From my perspective, the two objectives presented are not accurate. It is not a choice or balance between building EA or adding project value—never! Rather, it is always about adding value.

EA is never done for EA’s sake. That is not an objective.

Everything that EA does is to add value—either by fulfilling insight or oversight needs of the organization.

  1. Insight—EA provides valuable information products to end-users in terms of business and technical information. EA captures, analyzes, catalogues, and provides findings and recommendation, which is used to aid IT planning and governance, and decision-making.
  2. Oversight—EA provides valuable governance services by conducting architectural reviews of IT projects, products, and standards, thereby enabling sound IT investment decisions and more successful project delivery.

The article proposes that the organization should “initiate two streams of work. One identifies the framework within which enterprise-level information will be captured and shared, and the second focuses on identifying the key areas of need for projects…[i.e.] the need to provide real value to projects”

However, I would suggest that the two streams of work are not developing the EA framework and the need to provide “real value” to projects, but rather that the EA program develop both information products and governance services--simultaneously, both of which benefit the end-users and add value to the enterprise.

Further, the information products and governance services are mutually reinforcing. Technical reviews, conducted as part of the governance services, feed valuable information to the EA information products. And information products are used to conduct the architectural reviews by providing the basis for aligning to and complying with the EA baseline, target, and transition plan.
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December 7, 2007

Boeing and Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture is a combination of developing and using organizational insight and managing sound oversight.

Boeing Company’s recently announced six-month delay of its new 787 Dreamliner jet shows defects in both their EA insight and oversight.

The Wall Street Journal, 7 December 2007 reports that “layers of outsourcing slow 787 production…a look inside the project reveals that the mess stems from one its main selling points to investors—global outsourcing.”

How did global outsourcing reveal the breaks in both effective insight and oversight at Boeing?

  • INSIGHT—EA is the synthesis of business and technology to improve organizational decision-making. EA develops information products, so that the organization has the information it needs to improve mission execution, and so that business is driving technology. In the case of Boeing, they were so focused on getting the technology of the new jet right, that they overlooked the underlying business problems. “It figured the chief risk lay in perfecting a process to build much of the plane from carbon-fiber plastic instead of aluminum. Boeing focused so hard on getting the science right that it didn’t grasp the significance of another big change; the 787 is the first jet in Boeing’s history designed largely by other companies,” and this has been plagued with problems ranging from language barriers to their contractors subcontracting out key tasks, such as engineering. Boeing’s focus on the technology led them to ignore important aspects of the business of designing and producing the new planes. Boeing did not have sufficient insight into the business side (versus the technology) of managing this tremendous endeavor.
  • OVERSIGHT—EA involves IT governance, so that IT investments are made based on sound principles of business alignment, return on investment, risk management, and technical compliance. Generally, the Investment Review Board, the EA Board, and the Program Management Office sees to it that IT projects are reviewed and managed in terms of cost, schedule, and performance parameters. In the case of Boeing, they did not ensure adequate EA oversight for the 787 jet. “Boeing overestimated the ability of suppliers to handle tasks that its own designers and engineers know how to do almost intuitively after decades of building jets. Program managers thought they had adequate oversight of suppliers but learned later that the company was in the dark when it came to many under-the-radar details.” Boeing’s general expertise in project oversight was outsourced along with the engineering and production tasks, and this led to, what an executive of one major supplier has called, chaos.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner may well end up being a true “dreamy” jet plane, but from a User-centric EA perspective, the 787 has been a real nightmare and a example of ineffective EA insight and oversight!


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