This document discusses using a narrative perspective to view enterprise architecture. It introduces concepts like actors, scenes, stages, and context to think about an organization's architecture and processes as an ongoing story. Various analogies are used, like thinking of services as toy trains or an organization as a theater, to expose assumptions and find missing perspectives. The goal is to help architects think holistically about an organization by focusing on relationships and interactions between people rather than just technology.
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shared-enterprise / indirect-context
includes community, government, non-clients, anticlients, others
includes investors, beneficiaries
market / direct-context
includes competitors, regulators, recruiters, trainers, journals, others
transactional-context
includes suppliers / providers, customers / consumers, transactional partners
prospect prospectsupplier / provider
partner
client / consumer
partner
organisation
service-in-focus
…such as this…
15. The Architect’s Mantra…
I don’t know…
(but I know someone who does, or how to find out)
It depends…
(and I know what it depends on, and why)
Just enough detail…
(and I know what the right level of detail would be)
16. Everyone wants to sell us
ready-made answers...
...yet the real challenge is
to find the right questions
...“solutions!”
17. Finding the right questions
can be even more important
than finding the right answers
(in part because questions
tend to stay the same,
whereas answers will change
with time and context)
62. …which brings us back to…
a matter
of perspective!
- yeah, which way we look at things does kinda matter here…
63. Perspectives and journeys
Service-delivery is a journey of interactions
where ‘inside-out’ (the organisation’s perspective)
touches ‘outside-in’ (the customer’s / supplier’s perspective)
64. Outside-in…
CC-BY Fretro via Flickr
“Customers
do not appear
in our processes,
we appear in
their experiences”
Chris Potts, recrEAtion, Technics, 2010
66. A stakeholder
is anyone
who can wield
a sharp-pointed
stake
in our direction…
CC-BY-NC-SA evilpeacock via Flickr
Who are the stakeholders?
(Hint: there are a lot
more of them than we
might at first think…)
68. All kinds of stories...
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)
PREDICTABLE UNPREDICTABLE
80. Let’s use
a visual cheat-sheet
to help us…
- you could call it a Canvas, if you like…
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theatre-context
theatre management
stage / setting
front-of-stage
backstage
audience
scene
actor / agent
“Actor, scene, stage...”
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theatre-context
theatre management
stage / setting
front-of-stage
backstage
audience
scene
actor / agent
“Actor, scene, stage...”
83. Who are your actors? – everyone!
Machines too can be actors (‘agents’)
- though remember that your users
are people, not machines!
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theatre-context
theatre management
stage / setting
front-of-stage
backstage
audience
scene
actor / agent / extras
“Actor, scene, stage...”
88. Extras are kind of
‘active scenery’…
- they’re not part of the story as such,
but the scene won’t work well
without them…
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theatre-context
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stage / setting
front-of-stage
backstage
audience
scene
actor / agent
“Actor, scene, stage...”
92. Each segment of a story
is a scene…
- each scene should have
a distinct begin, middle, end
and outcome…
94. Process as story
Tom Graves, The Enterprise As Story, Tetradian, 2012
“Each traverse through
a business-process
is a self-contained story
with its own actors,
actions and events”
95. Scenes in the story
Process-story as identifiable scenes, with begin, middle, end
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stage / setting
front-of-stage
backstage
audience
scene / props
actor / agent
“Actor, scene, stage...”
98. The role of props:
Each item has a place in the story,
and drives the story onward
(In a business context,
another term for ‘prop’ is ‘asset’)
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stage / setting
front-of-stage
backstage
audience
scene
actor / agent
“Actor, scene, stage...”
101. Scenery provides a backdrop
for the story…
- if we change the scenery
or the lighting,
we may change the ‘feel’
or the sense of the whole story…
105. Staging the story:
infrastructure, systems etc as the stage
Setting the mood:
how does stage-set itself drive story forward?
People have feelings:
how does stage-set support the mood we need?
Framing the action:
in what ways does frame itself constrain the story?
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“Actor, scene, stage...”
107. Framing the stage:
What do people see
that surrounds the stage?
What support is there for other senses?
- sound, scent, texture, taste?
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“Actor, scene, stage...”
112. Visible and invisible
…what state is that infrastructure in, behind the curtain?
CC-BY Princess Theatre via Flickr
113. …what state is that infrastructure in, behind the curtain?
CC-BY-SA LanSmash via Flickr
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“Actor, scene, stage...”
115. The audience observe the story
- they are not in the story...
…that’s an important distinction!
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“Actor, scene, stage...”
119. We need management to guide:
running (operation) of the story
changing the story
overall purpose of the story
121. How will you promote your identity?
How will others find your story?
Who would you want
(or not-want) as clientele?
How will you keep it busy?
How will you keep it running?
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“Actor, scene, stage...”
123. What risks exist beyond the theatre?
- activities of anticlients?
- changes in social context?
- what else?
And also: what opportunities exist out there?
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“Actor, scene, stage...”
127. In short…
…we must pay attention
to the story as a whole!
- not just the easy bits…
Context, context, context…
128. “The world* is made of stories”
• The enterprise is a story – an overarching theme
• Enterprise as an ongoing story of relations
between people – the actors of the story
• Enterprise-story comprised of many smaller stories
– the scenes or story-lines (aka ‘processes’)
• Enterprise-story takes place in a setting – the stage
and its context, location, props etc
• Stories thrive on tension, conflict and uncertainty
– whereas machines generally don’t…
*‘the world’ including – perhaps especially – the business-world…
130. It’s easier to engage people
in exploring perspectives
of the architecture
if they can have fun
whilst they’re doing it!
The real punchline for this story:
132. 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 and http://leanpub.com/u/tetradian
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)
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