21st Century Enterprise: A call for a new in-between blueprint

[Jeff Pendleton]

For those who worked with me in the early days of the SOA Alliance
(now SOA Consortium), I was always harping one two points -- none of
which had much to do with the technical architecture or technical
implementation of SOA. The first was, "what are key characteristics
of the 21st Century Enterprise" that will catalyze another massive
wave of IT investment (and innovation). Some may remember my Iceberg
metaphor, with the tip representing what LOB (line-of-business)
executives could see and care about, while that below the waterline
(e.g., SOA, BI, BPM Web 2.0, Virtualization, etc, etc, etc.) was how
IT would deliver (and was too complicated for LOB to understand or
care about -- although they should).

My second point was that IT is not an equal at the table at most
enterprises (duh) and that the problem stems from an arrogance on both
sides of the table (LOB and IT) that makes communication difficult, if
not impossible. Take for example this team's SOA Blueprint which has
become very popular within the IT-SOA community, but by all measures
is gibberish to most everyone on the business side-of-the-house. And
maybe that's okay, but I don't think so.

The reality is that IT - and in particular, Enterprise Architects --
need to develop a new, in-between language and blueprint that enables
IT and LOB to understand and work together on a common 21st century
investment/developmet plan. Terms like SOA, Virtualization,
Infrastructure Services, Rest, Web 2.0, BPM, EDA, Mobility, et al, can
and should be referenced, but framed like a bill of materials list
against the 21st century enterprise blueprint. I have been playing
around with a model to help me track key concepts, experiences and
innovations across the "four hot" technology domains and so as to
abstract them to a palette that IT and LOB can use together:
http://strategic-use-of-it.googlegroups.com/web/21st%20century%20enterprise%20technology%20quads.png?gda=DkHi410AAACHmHkX80Tg9PdM5zkuQIwFLTcsgBthOplM321lLr-KImG1qiJ7UbTIup-M2XPURDTwKWqqhZGPDN1Hnxw0OurM449GpSsoMNi3cd6uEu-yqoZnVBUK7nisODMMWyafb4U&hl=en

I'm kicking around ideas on what the in-between LOB/IT blueprint might
look like, but my gut tells me that it will have about four layers
(Three plus one is a powerful concept in LOB thinking and
communication):
- Layer One will be a classic UI level and will be defined by the
characteristics that are now emerging in the mobility domain (e.g.,
iPhone). We are trapped in our thinking of the UI, but we need only
look at kids in middle school to get a sense of what's going to be
demanded over the next 20+ years.

- Layer Two will be the collaboration level which includes many of the
characteristics evangelized by the Web 2.0 crowd - but more
specifically to the ideals described in the book Wikinomics. Having
spent a fair amount of time in Product Management, Marketing, Supply
Chain, etc, I agree that collaboration 2.0 is what will define this
century's enterprise business architecture.


- Layer Three is a blend of SOA (with BPM, BI, EDA, et al) and
Virtualization (and more) is probably best described by what we use to
call eService at HP. It might also be called virtual services, SaaS
2.0.

- Layer Four is all that other stuff in the bowels of IT (like data,
legacy apps, infrastructure) that is kinda boring, but important.

Clearly, I'm out on a limb here trying to talk architecture with this
group, but I think we have the experience and contacts to create this
"in-between" blueprint that can help bridge the IT and LOB divide,
help elevate and translate to LOB processes the important lessons
(e.g., governance, collaboration, security, etc) we're learning across
the various and oft competing technology domains, while also helping
to bring the 21st century enterprise into focus with an in-between
blueprint.

Your thoughts?

Jeff