Category: Methodology

Strategy, Architecture & Problem-Solving

Objectives Download

Downloadable template in Excel and pdf for use with the forthcoming book Running with Knickers on Your Head covering change and service improvement in front-line services. Objectives PDF Objectives Excel Template

RigourAndCreativity

Art requires rigour, science requires creativity

I heard this quote the other day, but I didn’t catch who originally said it. Art requires rigour, science requires creativity The first point is that it’s contrary to the standard view. The second point is that both perspectives are valid and that there shouldn’t be that much of a difference. It then made me…
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A Fabricated Example of Using OKRs with Archimate

Using Archimate to model OKRs for Business Motivation

Following the theme of moulding different modelling languages, methodologies and toolsets together, I want to take a look at how to model OKRs in Archimate. Once again, I’m using Archi (or ArchimateTool) with the Archimate modelling language. OKRs do not cascade Just because the diagram depicts a hierarchy, doesn’t mean that the objectives cascade down…
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Mint tea

Collaboration or Contract: A Decision of Flow

Ask anyone who’s been involved in any significant implementation and they’ll have come across the waterfall approach. It typically leads to a contractual relationship between one team who are working on artefacts that are then handed over to a subsequent team. While the flaws of waterfall have been well-documented, this concept of contract versus collaboration…
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signature

Look at the Evidence – the Spike and Delay Pattern in Social Care

A number of years ago, I was transforming a city’s social care directorate and, as part of that transformation, we aimed to reduce the time it took to do anything when interacting with the service. The transformation was based on a more fundamental need to free up workers to be able to do the work…
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Checkout Till

Finding a balance between the needs of the organisation and the needs of the customer

Some companies are immature in their approach to customer relationship management (CRM), but at the heart is a desire to get something for free. And that’s wrong. The scenario You look around a shop, you pick something up, take it to the checkout, wait in a queue. You notice that the queue is moving slowly,…
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Business Architecture and Service Design

How Might We Apply Service Design to the Enterprise?

I simplistically take the view that Service Design is the concepts and methods of Design Thinking applied to making services work better for their customers. It’s a definition that works in the circles I most commonly move in, i.e. directors, programme directors, etc. It allows me to set the stage in which service design and…
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The Washroom Principle - Revised

The Washroom Principle – The Easiest Way to Evaluate a Company

There are plenty of methods for conducting due diligence, whether for partners, customers, suppliers or mergers. They’re lengthy and they’re expensive. There are times for adopting principles of formal Business Architecture, such as capability matching in M&A situations. But no matter what the deliverables indicate, there’s a useful and quick check to perform as a…
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Capability Components

Pardon, which sector? – Xtech and Why I’m Fed Up with Tech part 3

I’ve written previously about the issues with xtech that arise from applying -tech to the end of a sector such as healthtech, fintech, etc. And I introduced (and revoked) the idea of a -value suffix. Earlier this week, a conversation earlier made me think more about this and I want to explore the concepts of…
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Capability Vision 0_04

Using Archimate for Business Motivation Model and MSP – Part 6: Capabilities and Org Units

Taking the model defined so far and introducing the concept of capability changes and the effect on the organisation units. Recap In the first article, I introduced the standards and the tools that are in scope of this series of articles. To recap, the chosen tools/standards/methods are: Archimate – The open source enterprise architecture modelling…
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