systems architecting experience

Systems architecting experience

Alexander SAMARIN

• An enterprise architect

– from a programmer to a systems architect (systems of various sizes: company, corporate, canton, city, country, continent)

– have created production systems which work without me

• Some of my professional roles

– “cleaning lady” (usually in an IT department)

– “peacemaker” (between the IT and business)

– “swiss knife” (for solving any problem)

– “patterns detective” (seeing commonalities in “unique” cases)

– “assembler” (making unique things from commodities)

– “barriers breaker” (there is always a bigger system)

– “coordinator” (without any formal authority over components)

2017-05-24 Systems architecting experience, v1 2

About me

• I am involved in the system-level standardisation of Active Assisted Living for people with disabilities, Smart Cities, IoT and Smart Homes

• These systems are uber-complex, real-time, socio-technical systems of cyber-physical and IT systems with the following characteristics:– huge volume of digital data and information– software-intensive (“software is eating the world”)– distributed and decentralized– great influence on our society (including economy)– ability to interact with the physical world– security, privacy and safety by design– low cost of operations and short time-to-market

• Therefore these systems must be carefully architected to deliver their desired capabilities


WHY of this talk

• This presentation will discuss how several modern techniques and methodologies can be combined together

– systems approach and some architecture viewpoints

– digitalisation

– explicit security

– platform-based implementation

– microservices

• Some materials from my two previous eSummitpresentations will be reused (2017-04 about IoT and 2016-04 about Business Architecture)


HOW of this talk

• systems approach and some architecture viewpoints

• digitalisation

• explicit security

• platform-based implementation

• microservices


Techniques and methodologies

• systems approach

– holistic approach to understanding a system and its elements in the context of their behaviour and their relationships to one another and to their environment

– Note: Use of the systems approach makes explicit the structure of a system and the rules governing the behaviour and evolution of the system

• Four levels of architecting

– reference model

– reference architecture

– solution architectures

– implementations


Definitions (1)

Reference architecture


Levels of architecting

Reference model

Implementation A2

Solution architecture B

Solution architecture A

Implementation A1

Reference Implementation

Reference solution architecture

build and test

build and testdesign and experiment

field feedback

feasibility feedback

design and engineer

architect

extract essentials

constraints and opportunities

refinement

A few scenario reference architectures may be derived from the reference architecture. For example, Smart Cities: metropolis, city, village, island

Scenario 2 reference

architecture

Scenario 1 reference

architecture

constraints and opportunities

design and engineer

Problem space Solution space

Various needs

architect

extract

Not in the scope of standardisation

• Explain to any stakeholder how future implementations (which are based on the reference architecture) can address his/her concerns and change his/her personal, professional and social life for the better

– explicitly link needs (or high-level requirements) with the principles of reference architecture

• Provide a common methodology for architecting systems in the particular system domain

– different people in similar situations find similar solutions or propose innovations

• Help stakeholders, programmes and projects to collaborate and coordinate their efforts

– common agreements (i.e. standards) on various system elements (e.g. services, interfaces, data, etc.)


Purpose of reference architecture

Geometrical viewpoints of buildings are viewed side by side — as a composition

From ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010

View (system-in-focus dependent) vs viewpoint (system-in-focus dependent)

Multiple viewpoints are mandatory

Architecture viewpoints are often originated by different people — thus they must be aligned to be used together


Each model kind consists of artefacts (e.g. applications, servers, etc.) and relationships between them (those applications are deployed on this servers)


Use of views

View A

Model A1

Model A2

View B

Model B1

Techniques, patterns, guesses, magic, full traceability, etc.


Some standard viewpoints


http://www.slideshare.net/craigrmartin/design-of-business-in-an-age-of-

disruption/68

• Slide 6 from http://www.slideshare.net/TheDesignOfBusiness/introducing-the-open-group-it4it-

standard

• https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/04/how-salesforce-does-enterprise-architecture-.html

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/design-direct-monitor-enterprise-digital-using-sarath-chandran


Examples from various sources

http://www.slideshare.net/TheDesignOfBusiness/introducing-the-open-group-it4it-standard

https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/04/how-salesforce-does-enterprise-architecture-.html

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/design-direct-monitor-enterprise-digital-using-sarath-chandran

• motivation outline viewpoint

• big picture viewpoint

• capability map viewpoint

• design viewpoint– service map

– process map

– function map

– organigramme

– system (actually, technical components) model

• performance viewpoint

• security framework viewpoint

• privacy framework viewpoint

• safety framework viewpoint

• implementation framework viewpoint

• deployment framework viewpoint

• etc.


Systems approach viewpoints and their model kinds

• Stakeholders, their roles and their concerns

• Needs (or high-level requirements)


Motivation outline viewpoint:stakeholders’ needs analysis

• Mission – a statement that describes the problem you are setting out to solve, typically including who you are solving it for

• Vision – an idealized solution that addresses the problem you’ve articulated in your mission


Motivation outline view:mission and vision


Big picture viewpoint:illustrative (example from AAL)

An informal description of a future system or organisation in its environment


Big picture view:illustrative (from Descriptive Framework)

• Based on the Business Model Canvas


Big picture viewpoint:business model canvas

• Essential characteristics of the solution

• Dependency matrix between needs and essential characteristics

• Architecture principles of the solution architecture

• Dependency matrix between essential characteristics and architecture principles


Big picture viewpoint:additional model kinds

• Leading capabilities

– Overall city governance, management and operations

• Core capabilities

– water, energy, waste, etc.

• Enabling capabilities (shared among CORE capabilities)

– geomatics, census, registries, etc.

• Supporting capabilities

– finance, legal, PMO, ICT, media, procurement, etc.


Capability map view: level 1 modularization (example from SC)

Structural decomposition of the mission into groups or domains or value streams.All organisations in the same industry sector have the same capability map (and different levels of maturity).


Capability map viewpoint:level 1 (example from IoT)


Capability map view:level 1 and level 2 (example from IoT)


Capability map view:examples from different industries

Accept Orders

Contact Customer

Manage the Business

Deliver Orders

Support the Business

Process Orders

Consolidate Orders

Manage Production

Management

Manage Licensee Outbound Operations

Manage Materials

Receipt and Verification

Manage Facility

Pre-Production Processing

Manage Container & Label Strategies

Manage VehiclesManage Equipment and Equipment-Strategies

Manage Facility

Property

Manage Relationship

with Licensees

Manage Asset

Service Providers

Manage Transport Sub-Contracts for

Delivery

Manage NCR-Code Configurations

Define Processing Strategies

Define Performance Management

Manage Production Systems Strategies

Design and Develop Facility Infrastructure

Manage Production-Planning Strategies

Manage Facility

Information

Manage Core Business

Manage Post-Production Operations

Setup for Contractor Delivery

Manage Equipment

Maintenance

Manage Production Operations

Accept from

Agency

Accept from

Contractor

Accept at Facility

Accept at Customer Location

Manage FinanceManage Human ResourcesManage Facility Administration

Manage Materials Strategies

Prepare Customer Transfer

Support Customer

Bulk Orders

Handle Customer

Complaints & Inquiries

Process Service

Requests

Fulfil Order

Prepare Fulfillment Transfer

Support Bulk Fulfillment

Orders

Handle Fulfillment Complaints & Inquiries

Process Fulfillment Requests

Customer

OutboundInbound

Support

Transport

Process

Check and prepare

vehicle

Road Transport Operations

Drop Off Orders &

empty containers

Handle vehicle

incidents (breakdowns,

re-fuel, etc.)

Capture transport run

events

Drive transport vehicle

between locations

Pick Up Orders &

empty containers

Complete preparation

of orders into

consignments

Commence carrier

service

Carrier staff verify

consignment details & hand

over consignment to

contractor

Lodge consignments

with carrier

Verify / accept

consignmentVisit "trans-ship" port

Complete carrier

serviceReceive & verify

consignments

Handle consignment

exceptions

Separate and store

containers etc. in preparation

for transport to facility

Domestic Carrier Transport Operations

Planning & Monitoring of Carrier Services

Determine required

lodgement &

handover times

Receive new/

updated schedules

from carriers

Develop & maintain

carrier lodgement

schedules

Monitor carrier

services & provide

corrective action

Assess disputed/

late consignments

Transport Facility Management

Time and

Attendance

Monitoring & Control

Review Facility

Performance & implement

improvements

Planning &

Scheduling

Staffing & Rostering

Manage

Stream orders into production

batches

Manage batch containers prior

to pick up

Consolidate Orders

Create & Maintain

Facility NCR-Code

Plans

Estimate Production

Volumes

Plan & Schedule

Production

Operations


Time and

Attendance

Monitor Order

Processing

Review Facility

Performance & imp.

improvements

Corrective Action for

Processing

Quality Control

Dock Management

Production Management

Corrective Action for

Transport &

Delivery

Materials Receipt and Verification

Inspection of

inbound materials

Process “Under

Bond” Materials

Process Hazardous

Materials

Handover Materials

to Warehouse

Licensee Outbound Operations

Inspection of outbound product

Prepare licensee consignment for

despatch

Capture outbound volumes and

events

Despatch outbound product via licensee

carrier

Receive Transfers

at Facility

Transfers Damage Check

Slotting /

Sequencing

Interleaving

Pre-Mould Verify

Slippage

Adjustment

Batch Alignment for

Moulding

Pre-Production Processing at

Facility

Capture Processing

Events

Prepare Customer Transfer

Plan Transfer Production

Prepare Transfer Data

Prepare Transfer Production

Prepare Transfer Documentation

Support Customer Bulk Orders

Advise customer of bulk-order

issues

Manage Customer Order

Quality

Support customer bulk orders

Handle Customer Complaints &

Inquiries

Receive & record notification of

problems

Investigate & resolve problems

Report Status of Order

Handle general inquiries

Process Service Requests

Process Requests

Process Other Requests

Process Payment for Service

Consumable Tools

Management

Specify Tools

requirements

Acquire & Locate

Consumable Tools

Maintain inventory of

Consumable Tools

Manage & perform

maintenance of

Consumable Tools

Container & Label Management

Specify container

requirements

Acquire & Supply

Containers

Manage & perform

maintenance of

containers


containers

Label Policy & Design

Manage Label Stock

Specify vehicle

requirements

Vehicle Management

Purchase or Lease

vehicles (&

accessories)

Dispose of vehicles


vehicles

Manage contracts

with fuel suppliers

Monitor payments to

fuel suppliers

Manage allocation of

vehicles to facilities

Manage vehicle

registration &

insurance

Prepare claims for

diesel & alternative

fuel grant

Manage

maintenance of

vehicles

Design, Specify &

Evaluate New

Equipment

Purchase/Dispose

Equipment &

Spares

Install & Relocate

Equipment

Develop

Maintenance

Strategies

Monitor & Optimise

Performance &

Reliability

Equipment Management

Ensure Logistics &

OH&S Compliance

Manage Equipment

Configuration

Manage Technical

Documents &

Support Systems

Manage Inventory,

Repairs & Stores

Infrastructure

Property Management

Specify Property

Requirements

Acquire Property

Dispose of Property

Manage Building

Administration

Establish & Maintain Relationships with

Licensees

Manage Relationship with

Licensees

Calculate Revenue due from Licensees

Specify materials

requirements

Materials Management

Acquire & Locate

Materials

Maintain inventory

of Materials

Select & Manage Asset Maintenance Service Providers

Evaluate & select

Asset Maintenance

Service Providers

Establish & maintain

Asset Maintenance

Contracts

Monitor Service

Provider performance

Terminate Contract

Manage Transport Sub-Contractors

Maintain Contractor

Service Information

Evaluate & Select

Transport

Contractors

Establish & Maintain

Transport Contracts

Monitor Contractor

Performance

Manage Payments

to Contractors

Terminate Contract

Select & Manage Agencies

Evaluate & Select

Agencies

Establish & Maintain

Contracts with

Agencies

Monitor Agencies

Performance

Manage Payments

To/From Agencies

Terminate Contract

with Agency

NCR-Code Management

NCR-Data Strategy,

Policy &

Procedures

Maintain NCR

Information

Maintain Machine

Configuration Data

NCR Configuration

Improvement

Manage Machine-

Specific NCR

Configuration

NCR Code-Sharing Management &

Support

Processing Policy,

Procedures &

Governance

Processing Strategies

Sorting Strategy &

Design

Develop Processing

Plans

Measurement of

Service Quality

Measure Financial

Performance

Measurement of

Resource Utilisation

Performance

Analysis

Performance Management

Production Systems

Initiate Project

Evaluate Solutions

Finalise Project

Systems support & maintenance

Develop / Enhance System

Implement System

Determine business systems

strategies

Systems control & Administration

Specify Facility Requirements

Model Proposed Solutions

Select & Design Preferred Solution

Plan & Schedule Facility

Development

Implement Facility Changes

Construct Facilities & Equipment

Facility / Infrastructure Design & Development

Production Planning

Determine prod’n strategy & direction

Capacity Planning

Investment Planning

Determine prod’n principles &

policies

Legislative Compliance

Develop & maintain Dangerous Goods

policies & procedures

Production Capability Analysis

Manage Facility Information

Define Costing

Reference Data

Maintain Prod’n

Structure

Information

Define terminology,

& codes

Manage barcoding

standards, formats

& characteristics

Manage central

storage of event

information

Manage inventory of

scanners

Manage central storage of production

volumes

International CarrierTransport Operations

Receive inbound

containers at origin

port

Handover outbound

containers at

destination port

Transport bond

containers from origin

port to destination port

Manage Core Business

Develop Business Strategies

Manage business performance &

operations

Co-ordinate Projects

Develop Business Plans

Manage Projects

Develop business perf. measures

& targets

Receive Container

from Contractor

Drop-Off

Setup forContractorDelivery

Receive Misdirected

Container from

Contractor

Deliver Container

via Contractor

Record errors &

notify customer

Store articles

Verify Customer

Pick-up

Handle

Undeliverables

(including missorts)

Calculate Priority

Delivery Charge

Capture Contractor

Delivery Events

Despatch Container

for Contractor

Pick-Up

Handle delivery

vehicle incidents

Check & Prepare

Delivery Vehicles

Document Handover

to Transport

Driver

Capture

Non-Contractor

Delivery Events

Setup forNon-Contractor

Delivery

Handle Customer

Returns

Deliver Container to

Customer

Operate Vehicle for

Transport Runs

Drop Off / Pick Up at

Facility Depot

Establish

Production Volumes

Time and

Attendance

Monitor Post-

Production

Operations

Corrective Action

Review Facility

Performance &

Implement

Improvements

Manage Post-Production Operations


Plan & Schedule

Operations

NCR-Code Updates

Capture Machine

Configuration

Changes

Capture Tool

Changes

Capture Machine

Changes

Capture and Notify

NCR-Code Changes

Equipment Maintenance

Plan & Schedule

Equipment

Maintenance

Perform & Reord

Equipment

Maintenance

Correct & Record

Equipment Faults &

Parts Usage

Monitor & Report

Maintenance

Compliance

Modify Equipment

Optimise

Equipment

Performance &

Reliability

Handle Non-Valid Orders

Machine Preparation

Moulding

Capture volumes & machine statistics

Prepare agency consignments

Prepare product for road transport

Production Operations

Capture production events

Inward Dock Operations

Initial Preparation

Move Product between

processing steps

Order Configuration

Machine Production

Manual Preparation

Capture Order

Assemble Order

Prepare order documentation

Accept from Contractor

Accept Agency Order

Capture inbound

order events

Receive inbound order

from agency

Print & apply

agency identifier

labels

Reconciliation of

agency bills &

orders

Record agency

order violations

Handover order documentation to transport driver

Receive Order Lodgement

Accept at Facility

Receive electronic order via internet

Process electronic order via email

Verify Order

Preparation & Streaming

Handle Rejected Orders

Capture Order information

Process Payment for Order

Handover Order to Transport

Driver

Capture actual acceptance

events

Verify Order

Accept at Customer Location

Finance

Provide Financial

Analysis & Direction

Support Business

Cases

Produce budgets &

forecasts

Manage Financial

Policy & Procedures

Record & monitor

expenditure

Human Resources

Succession

PlanningRecruitment

Maintain employee

records

Occupational Health

& SafetyOperational Training

Leave

AdministrationStaff Development Industrial Relations

Facility Administration

General Administration

Perform & Manage

Stores Function

Manage Technical

Documents

Maintain Technical

Help Desk

Capture Consolidation

Events

Accept Inbound Requests

• capability, <systems approach>

– ability of a system or a system element to do something at a required level of performance

• Capability is a concept that captures – “what” an organisation must do to achieve its mission and – “how well” (or “wow”) an organisation must doing that “what” to

achieve its mission

• Think football – a lot people can play football, but only some of them can play football at the level required to win EURO 2016


About the concept `capability’ (1)

• Capability is independent from “how” we do it, “where” we do it, “who” does it, “which tools” are used

– The concept “capability” is more generic than technical components, data, interfaces, functions, services, applications, processes, roles and organisations

– But to provide a capability, several technical components, data, interfaces, functions, services, applications, processes, roles and organisations are, usually, required

• There are two major sides of the concept ‘capability’:

– capability as a discrete-unit-of-purpose (or discrete-unit-of-mission)

– capability as a measure-of-performance (maybe in respect to some maturity matrix)



• How to use a capability map

– analyse a comprehensive and well-structured set of capabilities

– benchmark the particular organisation via the maturity levels of its capabilities (also known as “heat map”)

– take an informed (and depending on the unique situation with the particular organisation) decision about each capability

1. to implement it at a particular level of maturity as one or many functions

2. to obtain it from business-to-business partners (outsource or insource)

3. to obtain it from commodity markets

4. to ignore it for now



• process map

• service map

• functional map

• organigramme

• system (actually, technical components) model


Design viewpoint:additional model kinds


• digitalisation



• microservices



• Business artefacts are available in digital formats (thus formal and machine-executable)

• Digital is the master media for business artefacts

• Business artefacts can be moved between digital, analogue and physical medias (e.g. with 3D printing and capturing techniques)

• Organisation, ecosystem and society “understand” the digital formats for business artefacts

• Organisation can transmit, protect, validate, enrich, interpret and manipulate digital business artefacts at their whole life cycle

• Organisation knows all the dependencies between its digital business artefacts

• Organisation can generate new knowledge from digital business artefacts

• Organisation can adapt digital business artefacts (extract, combine, change presentation, convert, etc.) to fit the current needs of a particular customer

• People can delegate to "things" (i.e. computers, sensors, actuators, robots, etc.) some routine activities with their business artefacts (e.g. with the use of IoT)

• With the progress of IoT, "things" become more capable actors of digital business processes ("things" may form temporary groups to carry out a particular activity)


A digital manifesto

• For a man-made object, a digital twin comes first

• For a nature-made object, a digital twin comes second

• Versioning, versioning, versioning and configuration management

• Versioning of atomic objects

• Versioning of compound objects


Some recommendations




• digitalisation



• microservices


How to satisfy the requirement “security by design”

Attack

Vulnerability

Technical asset

Risk

can exploit

causes harm

Threat

provokes

Security

define the level of

undermines

leads

Adverse impact

Likelihood

Predisposing conditions

Processes

Services

Outcomes

Objectives

slows down

underperforming

missing

exposing toArchitecture

Organisation

occurs with

Risk management

• Threats and vulnerabilities are universal

• There is a registry for publicly known information-security vulnerabilities and exposures https://cve.mitre.org/

• The level of adverse impact from an attack depends on the architecture of the system-of-interest

• Security and risk can be objectively link by architecture


Improving security (1)

https://cve.mitre.org/

• Architecture must know all the relationships between all the artefacts (technical assets, services, processes, etc.) to statically evaluate risks

• If the implementation of a system is based on business processes then it can dynamically evaluate risks

• Knowing the level of risk, one can implement a set of changes to reduce this level to acceptable one


Improving security (2)

security measureResidual risk

Widely acceptable risk Acceptable risk Unacceptable risk

• Each system element (tangible assets, intangible assets, peoples) must be explicitly protected

– for its confidentiality, integrity and availability

– in rest, in transit and in use

– throughout its life cycle (within the system-of-interest life cycle)

• Relationships between system elements are used to know how changes in one system element effects other system elements

– those relationships must be protected as well

– ideally, those relationships are explicit and machine-executable


Systems approach to security

• The best, so far, privacy regulation is EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to be applied from May 2018

• Challenges of the GDPR

– privacy by design and by default

– EU citizen is the new data owner

– explicit confidentiality and sensitive data protection

– very process-driven

– data protection officer

• In general, no problems with the GDPR compliance:– Use of explicit and machine-executable business processes– Request GDPR compliance from all partners – Use digital contracts (to be discussed later)


How to satisfy the “privacy” requirement

• At present, many devices from the IoT “world” act as wild animals thus being dangerous in the our world

• As in our world, we, people, follow contracts, let us consider rules / regulations / laws for IoT as cyber-physical systems to tame IoT

• But we need something more simple and more concrete than the famous “The three laws of robotics”

• Let us consider “digital contracts”

• Each digital contract is a set of explicit and machine-executableprocesses between Things, Services and Persons


How to satisfy the “group functioning of IoT devices” requirement

– with Persons who are living in a particular household

– with a producer of this Fridge

– with a service company for maintenance of this Fridge

– with some online shops to order various food

– with some other Things within a particular household to achieve together some goals of energy consumption

• Note: The in-house network Router knowsthat this Fridge has rights to connect only to a few external sites; any other contacts will be blocked by the Router

• More info http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.ch/2016/07/digital-contract-as-process-enables.html


Example: Smart Fridge’s digital contracts

http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.ch/2016/07/digital-contract-as-process-enables.html

• The “point-to-point” pattern can be implemented by simple processes

– master-slave processes

– co-processes

• The “majordomo” pattern is about interactions between one master (major-domo, castellan, concierge, chamberlain, seneschal, mayor of the palace, maître d'hôtel, head butler and chief steward) and many servants; several coordination techniques are mandatory:

– shared calendars

– event-processing

– resource allocation, levelling and balancing

– processes and cases


A couple of group functioning patterns

• Because group functioning depends on sharing data and information (including certificates, ID, etc.) their security must be enhanced by a solid records management

• Blockchain-based implementations may be considered for more secure records management


Improving security for group functioning


• digitalisation



• microservices



• Certainly, various Smart Cities systems are similar and different at the same time. Platforms can synergize diversity and uniformity to reduce the cost and time:

– The platform frees up resource to focus on new opportunities

– Successful agile innovations are rapidly scaled up when incorporated into the platform

– An agile approach requires coordination at a system level

– To minimise duplication of effort in solving the same problems, there needs to be system-wide transparency of agile initiatives

– Existing elements of the platform also need periodic challenge


How to satisfy “low cost of operations” and “short time-to-market”

Solution 1

…

Platform

Security management

Business process management

Operational and analytical data

Decision management

Master and reference data

Reporting management

Analytics management

Drivers…

Solution 2

Domain specific layer

Service management

Event management


Implementation framework viewpoint:platform-based


Example: City Unified Business Execution (CUBE) Platform

Platforms combine:- diversity - uniformity

More info about platforms http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.ch/search/label/%23platform

http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.ch/search/label/#platform


• digitalisation



• microservices



• MicroService Architecture (MSA) is an architectural style for implementing applications as a coherent set of microservices

• Microservice is a service with the same boundaries as

– a unit-of-functionality (for Biz)

– a unit-of-deployment (for Dev)

– a unit-of-execution (for Ops)

• Microservices are dependent at the design-time

• Microservices are independent at the deployment-time

• Microservices are interdependent at the run-time


Go back to basics

• Some experts in SOA consider MSA as a set of technical solutions; MSA is neither architecture nor a variant of SOA - see https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6266622261210411008/

• Technical people consider that REST over HTTP is mandatory for MSA; actually no https://blog.poki.com/from-monolith-to-microservices-b16bae1d6c9d

• Some IT executives consider that MSA forces to rewrite everything (i.e. only the option “build” in “build/buy/rent”)- see comments to https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beauty-

microservices-maturity-model-alexander-samarin

– Fortunately, microservices allow the fourth option – “assemble”

• Some architects consider that microservices are only atomic – no, a microservice with “wide” responsibility can be assembled from a set of microservices with “narrow” responsibilities


There are many misunderstandings about MSA

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6266622261210411008/

https://blog.poki.com/from-monolith-to-microservices-b16bae1d6c9d

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beauty-microservices-maturity-model-alexander-samarin


Process-centric and microservice-based solutions via MSA

MSA is enabling BizDevOps culture

• Any application comprises 10+ artefacts: event, role, rule, data, service, coordination, audit trail, report, etc.

• Ideally, each artefact must be handled

– Explicitly

– As a set of microservices

– Via APIs

– With versioning

– By a specialized COTS tool, e.g. data structures are handled by a database, processes are handled by a BPM-suite tool

– In a Domain Specific Language (DSL), e.g. BPMN for processes, DMN for rules

– Over its whole life cycle


How to transform a monolith (1)

• Externalise various artefacts

– rules via a decision management tool

– coordination as explicit and machine-executable processes via a BPM-suite tool

– roles via an access management tool

– documents via an ECM tools

– automation fragments as scripts in an interpretive language and execution robots

– reports view a BI tools


How to transform a monolith (2)


Transformation initial planning

• The proposed use of architecture, digital contracts, explicit processes, microservices and blockchain can make an impression that they will increase the complexity of the system-of-interest

• In accordance with the Cynefin framework, the explicit linking allows progressing

– from “Complex” situation (in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance)

– to “Complicated” situation (in which the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert knowledge)

• Thus, “complicated” systems can evolve must faster than “complex” systems


Conclusions

• Personal website: http://www.samarin.biz

• Blog http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.com

• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandersamarin

• E-mail: [email protected]

• Twitter: @samarin

• Mobile: +41 76 573 40 61

• Book: www.samarin.biz/book


Questions?

http://www.samarin.biz/

http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandersamarin

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.twitter.com/samarin

http://www.samarin.biz/book

systems architecting experience

Technology