REAL Talk With Sam Holcman

In this unique view of distance learning, we speak to 3 college students, from 3 universities, on their personal experiences with distance learning. School closures led institutions to move instruction to online. Proper planning has given way to crisis management & implementation. Questions include, education topics, food, housing, money, learning access, feedback, social interactions, & t...

If you're tuning in in the April 2020 timeframe, we are in a bit of a turmoil situation. Pressures are coming from a number of directions, & focus is easily lost and replaced by motions & actions that substitute for planned actions and strategies. Focus, consistency, coordinated actions, & efficiencies are more important “in the now”, yet we need explicit representations we can view &a...

The cloud is discussed as the potential for better technology & business agility, but moving computing resources has two sides. IT leaders are learning that running applications in the cloud costs more than doing so on-premises, & adds complexity & security concerns not fully appreciated in the “rush” to the cloud, leading them to rethink strategies, & bring applications back in-ho...

A new reality has been set- the global movement of people & goods provides a new set of opportunities and challenges, which cannot be predicted, but should be anticipated. Today's crisis is the disease, COVID-19 & the virus, SARS-CoV-2. The next could be another virus, or massive internet outage, or a terrorist attack. But, the reaction of most organizations is reactive & crisis driven...

Triggering my thoughts in developing this episode was YAF. What is YAF? YAF is Yet Another Framework! This is a consortium of academics, industry, & government people published YAF on enterprise architecture. My thoughts quickly moved to thinking about complexity and those that revel in it. Is there such a thing as “complexity bias”? Is it, for some, a measure of progress? In this episode, we...

We have all turned, to some degree, to a short-term focus in both our personal & business lives. We must deal with reality. How do you address both short & long term issues & opportunities? In the short term, identify areas for optimization, while understanding the effects in future operations. We outline a two-week Enterprise Architecture Immersion approach that identifies short-term...

We look at this Pandemic through the eyes of Enterprise & Business Architecture. A robust architecture methodology is a tool we can use to analyze things that are complex, and we are seeing significant complexity in this situation! We apply out-of-the-medical-box thinking to this crisis situation. Let us take a brief time-out from the media driven hype & hysteria-focused analysis & see...

What is an Enterprise Architecture (EA) Health Assessment? The “health” assessment of your Enterprise Architecture will provide you an informed, independent perspective of your strategic EA asset’s viability as a foundational resource. Your Enterprise Architecture is a strategic asset, and must offer strategic value in several aspects. Assess your existing information to determine how well your EA...

Make to Order, Provide from Stock, Assemble to Order. The three maturity levels that are understood and tried and true in the manufacturing community. In the IT community, most organizations reside in level one and are attempting to “speed things up” – all within maturity level one. Underlying maturity level three requires two concepts and underlying technologies. Change, displacement, new learnin...

In the age of digital transformation, big data, cloud computing, one fundamental fact remains. What we in organizations are doing is processing data. Technology departments have many names nowadays. But fundamentally, they process data. We outline our approach to understanding processes – Process Mining that leads to a Business Process Warehouse. We review benefits & challenges, & outline...

Luke is the President/CEO at Retail Band, where he aims to help businesses sell appliances through online channels and allow their market to grow and expand. He has extensive product development and entrepreneurial experience. Luke and his team are especially adept at creating product launch strategies at a wide variety of ecommerce sites. We will get an understanding of Luke’s approaches to manag...

The movement of applications to the cloud are well underway. With this movement, of course, comes observations both pro & con. We will cover the good stuff & gotchas - some obvious & some hidden. The upsides of the cloud are pretty well discussed, documented, debated, and advertised. The gotchas, not so much! We will provide you with a framework to think about both sides of the equatio...

Our EACOE Enterprise Architecture practice looked at security as part of Enterprise Architecture, not as a separate activity. Starting with this objective is key. In the physical world, look at the Ring doorbell – warn me before someone enters the house, rather than telling me someone is in the house. This comes from REAL Enterprise Architecture. Security is a Business Strategy first - not only an...

Have you looked at your “smart phone” and its “agility” – your ability to change what you see with a simple press on the screen, and compared it to your internal technology systems or those that you provide to your customers? This is a manufacturing concept called Mass Customization. We must realize in information technology solutions, that no matter how quickly we write software, it is handcrafti...

You want a roadmap to clearly define what needs to be done to enable your Mission Strategy. No one wants a series of endless “sprints” not knowing where the goal line is. You want to know what your end-state objective is, how to get there, & how to identify capabilities. No one really wants a set of intellectually entertaining models but to analyze potential mergers or acquisitions of a compet...

Major analyst & advisory firms recognize two distinct focus areas in Enterprise Architecture – (1) focus on technology enablement, & (2) focus on facilitating and creating deliverables that guide and inform business decision making – enabling Business Strategy. We outline what is required & the skill-sets required to bring Business Outcome Driven Enterprise Architecture to your organiz...

Being data driven, achieving digital transformation, developing effective marketing campaigns, making valid business decisions, & ensuring regulatory compliance, are just a few things businesses do, requiring good quality data. Studies show the low self-reported beliefs on how good the data actually is. Millions of dollars are spent each year on technologies to “clean up” the data organization...

What is Enterprise Architecture (EA)? How long has EA been around? How do you cost justify EA? Where should EA reside in the organization? Who is the audience for EA? When do I need to do EA? Why should an organization do EA? What is an EA Framework? What is an EA Methodology? What does EA certification actually mean? What is the background required for a great Enterprise Architect? How do I start...

Most agree that software are a fundamental requirement in today's digital focus & transformations. What do we really have to understand about software? What should business expectations be about engaging in developing software? Do we need to describe their needs, that are 'transformed' into their described requirements? We describe 10 things that demystify software development, the business' r...

We examine what search engines actually are and the possibilities of what will come next in the future of search. We draw on history for some ideas. Are the issues we are seeing because of bias, privacy, censorship, speed, or accuracy? Or is the real issue money? The short answer is – all of these and more.   Let's think about a library and library science. What makes libraries work? Three things:...

Artificial Intelligence was first coined by John McCarthy in 1956. We define what artificial intelligence is, then summarize both positive & negative developments in this field. We suggest there is madness that needs to be addressed, and with not much difficulty. We have decades of learning about artificial intelligence. But can machines really learn, & who & what are they learning fro...

Technical debt is a shortcut taken by technologists, & business personnel, to get the solution out the door. It's also used to justify different challenges faced. All facets – the business, associated technologists & solution developers, as well as human resources in & out of the enterprise are affected. We explore the phrase itself, & underlying meaning well beyond taking shortcut...

All businesses have an Architecture – the question is, if explicit or implicit. Various groups approach the concept & practice of Business & Enterprise Architecture from differing value points. We emphasize a documented, human consumable, prioritized, architecture which is evergreen, ever-robust, & evolves. Business & technology advantages arise, as solutions through these methodol...

A driving need for Enterprise & Business Architecture is to enable IT teams to quickly, accurately & iteratively deploy prioritized, stable & operationally excellent business solutions. Groups approach the concept & practice of these from differing value points. We emphasize a documented, human consumable, prioritized, architecture which is evergreen, ever-robust, & evolves. Bu...

The Business Technology Collaborator/Partner (BTP) understands business needs, possibilities of technology to address needs, & presents a business case that's suitable & understandable to the stakeholders, & transformable by technology specialists. A BTP is different from business analysis, technologists, or business/enterprise architects. They can rationally balance short & long t...