Critical Enterprise Architecture netcast

The Critical Enterprise Architecture netcast is a vendor neutral broadcast that focuses on best practices in Enterprise Architecture.

Episode 81: Demise of Enterprise Architecture

November 1st, 2009

Have you lately looked at job adds? If so you will see that there is less demand for enterprise architects. Why could that be?

Well I will try to tell you some of the pitfalls of enterprise architecture and how they can be avoided, but it really boils down to the fact that we as enterprise architects have not succeeded in one of our main tasks and that is to reduce costs and improve time of delivery. Actually some studies show that building up enterprise architecture groups have dramatically heightened costs and made deliveries of projects 60 % longer on average.

So will discuss some problematic areas (there are many more) more in details such as:

Reuse, Skills of EA, Frameworks, Message hubs, ESB or however you want to call it.

Neatness or clean is not cheap.

Missing TCO

Effectiveness Standardisation

If you do not like rants I properly suggest that you skip this one.

Cay Hasselmann

Anyone knows a sponsor for this show? Could you please contact me at cay@accent.li. Thanks

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Episode 80: NAC - A critical EA view

October 24th, 2009

NAC is certainly embedded in very many solution that we as enterprise architects work with I will give my view on the technology, the solution, requirements and run through some vendors from my very limited point of view.

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Episode 79: The dream of the paper less office

October 17th, 2009

Since we all lived with the the dream of a paper less office printer solutions where often not in the forefront of thoughts as enterprise architects, however the reality shows us that we need to look at them (print are still growing) as they really are a mayor cost driver that will not just go away.

So I will give you my view on printers (commonly known as MFP multifunctional printers) and the software print solutions called SMFP

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Episode 78: CRM- A critical EA view Part 3

October 14th, 2009

Today I will conclude this series by looking at the following CRM vendors:

Oracle (EBS)

Oracle (Siebel)

Pegasystems

RightNow

salesform.com

SAP

Sword Ciboodle

And finally I will conclude with my recomendation based on my views

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Episode 77: CRM- A critical EA view Part 2

October 10th, 2009

Today I will lock at some of the CRM products from the following vendors (yes I am doing it alphabetically):

Amdocs

Astute Solutions

Chordiant

eglue

Helpstream

Neocase

Jacada

Microsoft Dynamics

Next episode I will then look at the rest with some of the big ones.

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Episode 76: CRM- A critical EA view Part 1

September 26th, 2009

Today we start a 3 part series on CRM.

First I will discuss some fundamentals such as:

CRM’s are usually not used

CRM is not an island

CRM is usually more about fixing a business process not about a system

CRM data is more important than the system and the data is usually rubish

CRM’s halftime is short

CRM is politics

CRM is always anti security

Then I will talk about the challenges on CRMs or the new requirements.

As always this is just my own opinions and I am happy that you challenge me on this

Cay Hasselmann

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Episode 75: Business Standard Architecture – Part 26

September 24th, 2009

Today we will talk about the evil empire of internal auditing and the first part of taxation

Internal Audit

Internal Control Assessment Auditing of Financial Controls, Operational and Statutory Controls Review of Corporate Governance Structure Periodic Assessments Internal Checks

Taxation

Transfer Pricing Reporting Tax Calculations and Analysis Tax Filings Tax Accounting

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Episode 74: Business Standard Architecture – Part 25

September 19th, 2009

This episode it is all about reporting, but this time about the business level 1 process of

Financial overall reporting

Sales Reporting Cost Reporting Segment Reporting Competitor Analysis

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Episode 73: Business Standard Architecture – Part 24

September 11th, 2009

Yes it is back to standard business architecture as I have not yet even reached halftime with the introduction into all the standard business architecture I have personally worked in.

So for the next few episodes we will now look at the level ) process of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

So today we start with the first level 1 that we all suffered under and its level 2 processes

Budgeting/Forecasting

Preparation of Budgets Creation of Standard Models / Templates Trend Analysis Historical Data Analysis Budgeted vs Forecast Tracking the actual against the budget Assumptions validation

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Episode 72: Logical EA Integration Part 5

September 5th, 2009

Today I will add an episode on integration because of the many interest that the last 4 episodes have created

First I will show you the 3 ESB topologies that are in use and give you the Pro & Con argument:

1. Central ESB topology Pro: Easy to implement and administer & all parts in one place Con: Requires all systems to be message enabled, no central unified message protocol, little reuse and does not support universal encapsulation 2. Hub and spoke ESB topology Pro: Can integrate with all legacy systems even some that require very low latency, supports central unified message protocol, will only adjust abnormalities on local level and supports universal encapsulation Con: Additional ESBs require added maintenance and higher implementation costs

3. Distributed ESB topology Pro: All parts of the ESB run on instances, thus the solution is very scalable, new components can be deployed rapidly and extreme flexible ESB life cycle development Con: Extrema high administration overhead & difficulties with work flow, BPEL and RBMS

In the part I will then look at some of the market participant as reported by by analysts as there are

WebSphere Message Broker WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus (and WebSphere Process Server) WebSphere DataPower Integration Appliance XI50 IONA Artix IONA Fuse JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform, which includes JBoss ESB MS BizTalk Mule Enterprise Oracle Service Bus (OSB) Sonic ESB webMethods ESB Platform Sun Enterprise Service Bus Suite TIBCO Rendevouz

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Episode 71: Logical EA Testing

August 30th, 2009

This episode looks at what you as an enterprise architect need to be involved with in testing

Principles

consistent complete unambiguous quantitative verifiable

Feasibility

Controllable Observation able Isolated Separately Understandable Automate-able

General methodology

V-model Unit Test Code Integration test Design System Test Architecture Regression Test Existing operational model UAT Business Requirements NFR Test Business Requirements

Testing strategy chapters you will need to review and consult as an EA

Test plan Traceability matrix Test scope in terms of high level test case description Test script framework Test suite Test data Test execution Test reporting Test result analysis Test Closure

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Episode 70: Logical EA 7 SAP architecture misconceptions

August 24th, 2009

The 7 cardinal SAP architecture Sins

If the performance lack increase work processes SAP will always perform Archiving data will solve all data problems SAP will take care of data architecture itself SAP will auto optimised any queries SAP is always OS agnostic Reports are managed by the business only

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Episode 69: Logical EA SAP’s base architecture

August 18th, 2009

SAP ECC or R/3 base architecture

I will only discuss the basic principles of what SAP is calling their AS here that are common on all the releases and not go in the specifics

SAP is work process and not n-tier centric. The importance of the Dispatcher. I will also discuss the internal emphasis on RFC in its various forms. What is a central instance, ICM,  what is a enqueue, how do Java and ABAP come into the frame and what is JCo Why is a real benefit in using the software balancing “Web Dispatcher” rather than a hardware balancer like for most other architectures

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Episode 68: Logical EA Databases

August 16th, 2009

First I will discuss some questions how to choose a database as a EA

What do you want to use it for? What kind of model are you after? What is the development language(s) that you are using? What are the non functional requirements? What kind of robustness is required? On what device will the database need to run? Does your company have a strategic relationship with a vendor What is your budget for license and support (TCO)? Is there a restriction on the associated hardware and what is the infrastructure budget? Does your company want to further develop the product into their own IP and/or resell the solution {copyleft issue}? Does the DB require any added features (e.g. security, log shifting, SQL resource optimisation)?

Then I will discuss some DB that I have used myself to reflect the themes that we have just discussed.

ADABAS Adaptive Server Enterprise Advantage Database Server Apache Derby DB2 Informix Ingres LucidDB MaxDB Microsoft Access Microsoft Visual Foxpro Microsoft SQL Server MonetDB MySQL (+Infobright) Oracle PostgreSQL SQL Anywhere SQLBase SQLite 1010 data IMS file based (VSAM & ISAM)

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Episode 67: Logical EA Development Languages Part 2

August 13th, 2009

Today I will continue discussing the following in regards to development languages

Frameworks Security Interface compatibility Scalability Ease of use, ease to learn License Object-oriented vs. procedural

During this list I will then also mention some of the languages that spring to mind and explain why most languages always stay in a niche.

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Episode 66: Logical EA Development Languages Part 1

August 8th, 2009

There are certainly many of them and as enterprise architects we need to limit their use so what are the drivers to find the right one for your organisation:.

There are many programming paradigm that can be done by the same programming language so I will concentrate here on aspects of separation rather than of programming features such as recursion versus iterative or 4GL versus 5GL

There are a few categories where it will not be a either … or, these are:

Declarative (includes functional) Imperative Data-oriented

Then there the questions to eliminate some such as:

Existing resource pool Investment up to date Strategic decisions

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Episode 65: Logical EA Operational Platform Part 3

August 5th, 2009

What directories do you use (eDirectory (Novell), Red Hat Directory Server, Active Directory, Open Directory (Apple), Apache Directory Server, Oracle Internet Directory, CA Directory, Sun Java System Directory Server, IBM Tivoli Directory Server, Siemens DirX Directory Server, Critical Path Directory Server, OpenLDAP & Isode Limited just to name a few) and are they all really X.500 compatible, since it was never fully implemented? And what about DNS and why are directories that important?

What do you do towards BCP? Why only 2 DC’s why not three and what is with the paper! And if two is it active – active, active – restore or active – passive and what does that mean?

What about Firewalls, routers, NAT and proxies, are they really important for me as an enterprise architect

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Episode 65: Logical EA Operational Platform Part 2

August 1st, 2009

How do you plan to use a SAN, how do choose it? Or do you still use local disk?

How does your network look in terms of topology, MPLS vs. frame relay, fibre vs. copper, What vendor, managed vs. unmanaged switches, virtual (802.1Q) segmentation, How does security come in play and what is a QoS?

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Episode 64: Logical EA Operational Platform Part 1

July 29th, 2009

This is not really as much on OS as nowadays we are working on visualised environments, so for the core Server and Client platform this more about the CPU choice.

So there is a difference between client and servers.

Our first question will be if the applications you want to run are more on the imperative or the declarative side, why I will explain.

Then we will visit the scalability, interoperability and the security considerations.

Do your company have a strategic preference and who does this influence your decision as an enterprise architect? On desktop this usually leans to Windows (or maybe OS X). But on servers it is open for a bit more.

Why are the training issues on OS sometimes overrated.

Do you use or want to use Virtualization and is it on Intel or Power ? On Intel is it VMWare, Xen, MS own or something else?

But not enough on OS lets look in a first sweep what else are the EA trends in the entire platform area?

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Episode 63: Logical EA Integration Part 4

July 27th, 2009

To end the short overview on integration today I will talk about JBI more in detail. For this short episode please find the attached picture for illustration.

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Episode 62: Logical EA Integration Part 3

July 19th, 2009

Today we will discuss ,which one ESB is right for me? We will lock at the different options such as

• Support for Business Systems

• Scalability

• Security

• Support

• Adapter library

• Strategic direction of the company

• Rules based MS, Work flow and BPEL support

• Licences and Costs

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Episode 61: Logical EA Integration Part 2

July 16th, 2009

Today I will talk about the 3 big trends of integration and then talk abot the main aspects of an ESB.

• [JBI]

• Adapter/Proxy {POJO, file, WS, http, smtp, hessian, Corba, snmp, smpp, db conection, proprietary protocols,…)

• Binding

• Transaction Management

• Transformation

• Routing, Aggregation

• Orchestration, Correlation, BPEL, Work flow, Scheduling

• Rule based management

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Episode 60: Logical EA Integration Part 1

July 13th, 2009

Logical Architecture on Integration

Now when we talk about integration there are certain products such TIBCO, Biztalk, SAP XI or PI or even MII, WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus and WebSphere Process Server , VITRIA, Open ESB, Weblogic, Servicemix, Oracle Enterprise Service Bus, Oracle Fusion, Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite and many others that come to mind. Since I have worked with all of them I want to discuss where would you want to use which one and what are the generic questions you might to want to ask yourself before starting any integration.

Is the desired Integration point to point, data distribution or a distributed n:m pattern?

What are the security requirements? Are there different classifications?

Are there different integration layers?

What is the requirement regarding robustness? What are the other non functional requirements (e.g message throughput)?

Does the business architecture require a centralised, decentralised or a hybrid solution?

Are there all the locations that will need to be integrated on a reliable network WAN, MPLS, frame relay,..)

Are there any work flows, scheduled tasks or any time critical or mission critical transactional processes involved?

Does the integration require supporting any value added tasks such as business process integration, rule base system integration or other orchestration tasks?

Is the integration a business process integration, a business data integration or a pure binary data integration?

The three integration concept I will then talk about explicitly are:

Point to Point

Data distribution

Enterprise service bus or message broker

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Episode 59: New business ideas and how they affect EA

July 13th, 2009

In this episode I will lock at 3 business trends and see how they affect enterprise architecture.

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Episode 58: Advanced Business Architecture Part 2

July 11th, 2009

In this episode we will now apply the advanced business architecture against the first L2 process we talked about in our series on standard business architecture.

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Episode 57: The 5 deadly Sins of SOA

July 7th, 2009

The 5 deadly Sins of SOA

In this episode I am introducing the 5 deadly Sins of SOA as they are:

1. Start SOA with the technical layer

2. Create all functionality new

3. One Business service equal one technical service

4. Ignore State

5. BPEL and BPM-languages can solve all problems

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Episode 56: Business Standard Architecture – Part 23

July 6th, 2009

In this episode we will lock at the quote to cash process that many will also know as the order to cash, but I always like to point out that it often starts with the quote and not always direct with the order, as the quote Level 1 process certainly adda complexity.

Quote To Cash

Quotes & Proposals

• Lead Management

• Quoting

• Pricing

• Catalogue Management

Order Operations

• Order Entry and Scheduling

• Order Validation

• Credit Review and Management

• Order Booking

• On-hold Order Release

• Order Change/Expedite/Cancellations

• Contract Management

Customer Invoicing/Billing

• Collection of Billing Information

• Invoice Consolidation

• Invoice Presenting

• Revenue Assurance

Accounts Receivable/Collections Management

• Cash Application

• Collections

• Dispute Management

• Deductions Processing

• Credit Note Processing

• Account Reconciliation

• Cash Flow Forecasting

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Episode 55: Business Standard Architecture – Part 22

July 5th, 2009

Today we will finish the Supplier Management Process

Collaborative Procurement

• Self-Service Procurement Services

• Direct / Plan-Driven Procurement

• Catalogue Content Management

Supplier Collaboration

• Web-based Supplier Interaction

• Direct Document Exchange

• Supplier Network

Supply Base Management

• Supplier Identification & Onboarding

• Supplier Development & Performance Management

• Supplier Portfolio Management

Data Exchange & Legal Requirements

• Traceability and Environmental Compliance

• Global Data Synchronization

Time-to-Market

• New Product Development and Introduction

• Life-cycle Data Management

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Episode 54: Business Standard Architecture – Part 21

July 2nd, 2009

In this episode we will start with a new Level 0 process that may initself also be part of the previous Level 0 process dependent how you look at it.

Supplier Management

Purchasing Governance

• Global Spend Analysis

• Category Management

• Compliance Management

Sourcing

• Central Sourcing Hub

• RFx / Auctioning

• Bid Evaluation & Awarding

Contract Management

• Legal Contract Repository

• Contract Authoring

• Contract Negotiation

• Contract Execution

• Contract Monitoring

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Episode 53: Business Standard Architecture – Part 20

June 27th, 2009

In this episode we will conclude the Source to Pay business process

Vendor Management

• Vendor Master Updates

• Vendor Help desk

• Supplier Portal

• Vendor Statement Reconciliation

• P-Card/Corporate Card Administration

• Expense Reports Processing

• Expense Reports Audit

Invoice Processing

• GL Coding

• Approval Management & matching

• Resolving Match Exceptions

• Discrepancy Resolution

• Price Difference Reconciliation

Analytics & Miscellaneous

• MIS Reporting

• Spend Analytic’s

• Intercompany reconciliation’s

• VAT Reclaim

• Month-end AP-GL Reconciliations

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Recent Posts

• Episode 81: Demise of Enterprise Architecture
• Episode 80: NAC - A critical EA view
• Episode 79: The dream of the paper less office
• Episode 78: CRM- A critical EA view Part 3
• Episode 77: CRM- A critical EA view Part 2
• Episode 76: CRM- A critical EA view Part 1
• Episode 75: Business Standard Architecture – Part 26
• Episode 74: Business Standard Architecture – Part 25
• Episode 73: Business Standard Architecture – Part 24
• Episode 72: Logical EA Integration Part 5

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