Architecture and effective designs

Architecture and effective designs

Focusing on the production of elegant and effective designs and robust architectures
Focusing on the production of elegant and effective designs and robust architectures

Specifying design criteria for organizational architectures

The centralization or decentralization of power and authority is a key consideration in designing an organization's architecture. This determination needs to be influenced by the organization's strategies for coordination, as these will shape the organization's responsiveness and ability to evolve in response to emerging situations. Read more »

Filling in the white space in organizations

One of the most frequently adopted strategies for managing the multidimensional work inherent in complex organizations is to leverage the use of documented processes which describe how each unit is mechanically to interact with the others.

John Stearman describes the challenge and constraint this creates for organizational leaders:

For small organizations that are performing evolutionary development, the uncertainties of surviving through the upcoming fiscal quarter provides a focus to the workforce so they only work on the most immediate priorities. But as an organization increases its size and diversifies its locations, work groups, and products, it becomes much more difficult to strike a balance between short and long term perspectives, especially as this evolution continues over extended periods of time, and within contexts that may be unfamiliar to some work teams. As Tom DeMarco describes, some slack time is essential to investing for long-term improvement, and finding such slack may not be easy: Read more »

The elaboration of algorithms

Algorithms are an effective sequence of steps for solving a defined problem. Each step must be expressed in explicit instructions which can be followed by the agent responsible for carrying the steps out, and must lead to a reliable solution within an acceptable number of steps. Typically, these steps involve sequential or iterative processing, management of internal states necessary for the algorithm to function properly, and logic to determine which of several alternative paths should be chosen. 

Contrast Diagnose-plan-do-check-act with need to spell out details of each step.

Point to Donald Knuth

 

Confronting the constraints of synergy initiatives

ConstraintsGeneral Motors was first founded in 1908, and grew through mergers and acquisitions of separate Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Cadillac, Buick, GMC, and Chevrolet businesses. On Jan. 21, 1988, a senior General Motors executive, Elmer Johnson, wrote a memo which accurately anticipated GM's key challenge in transforming the company: “We have vastly underestimated how deeply ingrained are the organizational and cultural rigidities that hamper our ability to execute.” After 80 years, those businesses still struggled to work together. Read more »

A user-centered design approach

This book introduces a customer-centered approach to business by showing how data gathered from people while they work can drive the definition of a product or process while supporting the needs of teams and their organizations. This is a practical, hands-on guide for anyone trying to design systems that reflect the way customers want to do their work. The authors developed Contextual Design, the method discussed here, through their work with teams struggling to design products and internal systems. In this book, you'll find the underlying principles of the method and how to apply them to different problems, constraints, and organizational situations.

Contextual Design enables you to
+ gather detailed data about how people work and use systems
+ develop a coherent picture of a whole customer population
+ generate systems designs from a knowledge of customer work
+ diagram a set of existing systems, showing their relationships, inconsistencies, redundancies, and omissions