Holistic inspiration of Enterprise Architecture

John Wu of Light EA, Tom Graves of Tetradian

Presentation Goals This presentation suggest a very different EA thought from the

traditional EA by getting into the , It takes the territory of holism, organisms and complex system.

Enterprise is organic, It is futile to EA as an enterprise wide solution architecture.

EA community to think outside the box of atomistic, mechanic and simple system approach.

Open a door to the different territory of holistic, organic and complex system.

Convince the audience that EA is the interaction between Atomism and Holism to support the organic enterprise which is a complex adaptive system.

EA can be the quantum theory in human scale.

EA is Atomistic and holistic EA is Atomistic and Holistic to know the parts and

see the whole. Atomistic and mechanical approach only knows

the parts and the orderly arrangement of the parts.

Holistic and Organic approach only see the whole without knowledge on the parts and how it work.

EA is the effort to see the whole and know the part.

It is the interaction of Atomism and Holism to support the organic enterprise.

Why incorporate Holism ?

An Atomistic and Holistic EA approach to support the organic enterprise.

Enable Enterprise to adopt change in time of need.

Seeking coherence to close the gaps between strategy and execution.

To know the parts and see the whole. Integrate the power of Left/Right Brain.

Enterprise is organic Enterprise is an organic whole.

19 century social theorist used the notion of organic wholes and the contrast between organic and mechanical in the treatment of societies.

Organism and Holism are basically the same doctrine. Though organism is applied primarily to biology.

It is futile to architect the organic enterprise with a mechanic, atomistic and simple system approach.

The tale of Holism and Atomism

Holism is the contrast to Atomism but interact With Atomism.

Atomism and Holism coexist in the early civilization. Western Culture evolved in bias of Atomism. Chinese Culture evolved in bias of Holism. However,  In early twenty century,  Atomism and Holism

become coexist in biology, medicine, Quantum Theory and modern physics.

EA to follow suit.

Atomism (Mechanism)

The popular image of modern science is atomic. The discovery of the atomic building blocks of

matter is believed to provide the firm foundation to our understanding of the physical world

and forms the basis of reduction thinking in the West.

Holism (Organism)

Holism is the ideal that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

It give the priority to the whole. and claiming the parts reflect or mirror the whole rather

than that the whole is constructed from its parts. (Macro and Microcosm)

Holism and Organism under the same doctrine. Organism is also mean the nature.

The Bias and rejection of Holism

Science is narrowly defined from the perception of atomism.

Scientific community hold the mode holistic thinking to be “primitive” and claims that it is replaced by a formal , logical, atomistic and mechanistic mode of thought in the modern era.

Much of the US public had not heard of holism at all. A small group of public heard of holism associated to holistic medicine and feng shui practice.

Atomism and Holism in system view

Cynafin framework classify system as the Simple, Complicated, Complex and Chaotic system.

Atomism and Mechanism for simple system.

Holism and Organism for are complex system.

The Holistic inspiration Val Dusek’ book on the

Holistic Inspiration of Physics said: “ The Western science have much to learn from

traditional , native American and sub-Sahran African knowledge of agriculture, medicines, craft, and survival techniques, as well as religious and philosophical attitudes toward nature.”

Jan Smut’s book “Holism and Evolution” said: Nineteenth century science went wrong mostly

because of the hard and narrow concept of causation which dominate it.

On the shoulder of Atomistic foundation

EA is Holistic and Atomistic to see the whole and know the parts.

Enterprise Architects to know the parts based on must be scientific and atomistic training.

Open mind to holistic concept enables the enterprise architects to see the whole and support the organic enterprise .

The holistic concept serve as the guidance principle as the direction in the effort of atomistic endeavor.

Holistic concept to take away Here are the holistic concept to take away from

this presentation. Abstractive thinking. Organic Whole. Yin-Yang Complex adaptive system Macro and Microcosm Field theory. Constant change with ticking time. EA is not only for IT. Coherence seeking.

Model and framework Model and Framework are useful to convey a complex concept in

simple Graphic form it consist of holistic framework, conceptual framework and executional framework.

The skill of abstractive thinking is essential. It is not a valid question to ask “What is the best EA

framework?” because it serve different purpose. For example: compare the Zachman framework to best practice frameworks, it is comparing apple and orange.

Best practice is relatively speaking, it depends on different line of business such as

Government (FEAF), Military (DODAF), Industry (TOGAF)

The different type of framework

The figure illustrate category of model and framework

Zachman framework is a holistic thinking tool.

EA model Conceptual

framework. Best Practice

framework,

Abstractive and concrete thinker

Abstraction the “key skill” in computing and it is more so for enterprise architect.

Enterprise Architect are both abstractive and concrete thinker in using analogy, model and framework.

The abstract thinker can conceptualize or generalize, understanding that each concept can have multiple meanings

The concrete thinking is limited to what’s in front of the face, and the here and now.

It is not sure that the abstractive think is born with or developed through the environment or learning to which children are exposed.

The Organic Whole the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

"Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole." (from Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young).

In the context of EA the word of “Enterprise” means the Organic whole. It is the synonym to the word of  “Cosmos”  or “Universe”. 

An organic whole is not necessary large. Amoeba Human body A planet A Galaxy A company

Yin Yang models the organic whole. Yin-Yang from Chinese philosophy model the

Organic Whole. It claims that everything has two sides or two

opposite, but reciprocal, poles or energies. and, how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

The interaction of Yin-Yan constitute organic to make a living thing.

Zhang, W.-R. in YinYang bipolar relativity elaborate YinYang bipolar relativity and a real world bipolar string theory are introduced as a unification of nature, agents, and life science.

The Binary of 0 and 1 Ying Yang is not a mystery as it is referred

in Chinese religion or Fen sui. It is in parallel to the binary of 0 and 1in the computer world. .

The interaction between Yin (0), the broken line, Yang (1), the solid line is the origin of the creation.

Yin-Yang use 3 bit and 4 bit binary combination to derive Ba-Gua 2000 years ago to explain all phenomenon or even predict future.

Computer use the binary in 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit and more to come to conquer every thing not only in automation but also in artificial intelligence.

101

011

110

001

010

100

111

000

Bagua and Binary code

Yin Yang and information age EA to be valuable for both business and technology community must take

human scale into consideration. Although technology evolved rapidly, the human specie has not evolved

much. The Miller’s law of magical number seven plus or minus two. It is often

interpreted to argue that the number of objects an average human can hold in working memory is 7 ± 2.

Ying Yang and Bagua is the origin for information age. The revisit of Yin Yang and Wu-Xing which still very popular in

business world in China can be useful in the future of Enterprise Architecture.

Yin Yang parallel Complex Adaptive system

The Yin Yang is in parallel to

complex adaptive system as shown on the right. (From wikipedia)

Both support the organic system of enterprise, financing, stock market and social system such as politic.

Complex Adaptive system for scientist and academic world.

Yin Yang is a the human scale version for every one to use.

Macrocosm and Microcosm

Macrocosm and Microcosm see the same pattern reproduced at all level of cosmos.

The pattern of Yin Yang reproduced at all level of organic whole.

For example: The federal government consist of departments

and agencies. Each organization reflect the image of the

administration and function as an organic whole Therefore, EA is not only for the entire

organization but also for all the departments and divisions.

Continuous change with ticking time EA take time dimension into account.

World change constantly with ticking time. The same old home town is not really the same old home

town as time fly by. The book of Change (I-Ching) classify three type of change:

rapid change ( 易變 ), gradual change( 簡變 ) and unchange ( 不變 )

Managing the constant change  by sticking to the fundamental ( 以不变應萬变 ).

Seeking coherence in adopting to change

Coherence describe the nature state during

process and change. It is not a static balance. Coherence is the nature. Chinese describe

via the Wu-Xing model. via the nature transition between basic nature elements.

EA to seek coherence to bridge the gaps between strategy and execution

How to make it happen ?

It all nice to be holistic inspired, now the challenge is how to make it happen? Instead of the atomistic approach, EA also need to incorporate holistic

philosophy to be have value. Use Zachman framework to think in whole. Visualize the whole with enterprise Map approach. Architect Business Architect the collaborative culture. Notional Architecture Executional Architecture. Daily Architecture. Seeking Coherence

Zachman framework as holistic thinking tool

Zachman framework as shown (Enterprise unified Process) is a Holistic thinking tool

Solution architecture is business process centric.

EA overcome redundancy in a well rounded thinking tool to analyze an enterprise:

From the columns of What, How, Who, Where, When and Why.

From the row of different roles. However, it is an atomistic

whole rather than a organic whole.

Visualize the whole Enterprise Map is develop for

every one to visualize the enterprise big picture.

It consist the common charts of : chain (Why) , Information (What)m Capability map (How), Organization (Who), Location (Where), Workload

The common pieces of information on the same page produced a powerful presentation of an enterprise.

A good example to show the whole is much grater than the sum of its parts.

Architect Business

EA is useful on to the business of Financing, Economy, International trade, Ecosystem, Politics and Homeland security.

Tom Grave book Real Enterprise-Architecture : beyond IT to the whole enterprise Analyze business in the aspect of :

Capabilities, Resources, Governance, Supply chain Service management.

Architect Enterprise Field Enterprise Architects are the “Glue” not the “Guru”.

Enterprise fields are established collaboratively. EA to facilitate collaborative culture via the collaborative

effort CommunicationEnterprise knowledge.GovernanceSecurity Collaboration

Adaptive IT Architecture

Enterprise is organic which change constantly.

The challenge is to adopting to change,

It is futile to design a enterprise solution architecture as a frozen enterprise blueprint.

Adapting to change in a 3X3 adaptive IT architecture method.

EA with three theoretical direction EA consist multiple architecture theory rather just in the vertical theory of top

down and bottom up. Align technology to business in vertical direction Service Oriented Architecture in horizontal direction to enable enterprise

agility. Circular architecture in seeking coherence via influence modeling. Business

community make decision based on influence diagram rather than the enterprise structure.

Adapting to change in three tiers Adapting to change

with Three tier EA approach:

Notional EA (unchange)Executional EA (Gradual change)Daily EA (Rapid Change)

Seeking Coherence EA is the coherence of Business EA,

Culture EA , Notional EA, Executable EA and Daily EA to have value in business world.

Currently, EA is very IT oriented, the EA community have focus on executional EA, it is in their comfortable zone but produce little value.

EAP, FEAF, DODAF, MODAF TOGAF are mainly the executional EA approach, it is a good start but we need to delivery business value.

Conclusion

Holistic concept can provide a very different view of the world. In the real life, Ying Yang co-exit on every living thing, there will be rich

and poor, war and peace, Democracy and dictatorship Management is “Coherence Seeking” between the contrast force rather

than pursuing or policing right or wrong. For example: Foreign policy is to manage the coherence between

democracy and dictatorship rather than imposing American value to police the world.

EA is an emerging paradigm, Solution architect does not automatically become an enterprise architect by designing enterprise wide solution architecture.

EA can be the Quantum theory in human scale.

References Val Dusek’ book on the Holistic Inspiration of Physics said:

Jan Smut’s book “Holism and Evolution” Zhang, W.-R. Book YinYang Bipolar Relativity - A Unifying Theory of

Nature, Agents and Life Science Tom Graves book Real Enterprise-Architecture : beyond IT to the whole

enterprise