People Oriented Architecture – Components

Posted on 3rd October 200930th November -0001 by DWAdmin

Admittedly, the adapted definition of SOA is a pretty high level, but a number of SOA architects have determined a more in depth delineation of what SOA is all about and what it includes. A number of different vendors sometimes put forward their own versions and variations and so for simplicity sake I offer up the Wikipedia version with its helpful outline of key components…

· Service encapsulation – Many web services are consolidated to be used under the SOA. Often such services were not planned to be under SOA.

· Service loose coupling – Services maintain a relationship that minimizes dependencies and only requires that they maintain an awareness of each other

· Service contract – Services adhere to a communications agreement, as defined collectively by one or more service description documents

· Service abstraction – Beyond what is described in the service contract, services hide logic from the outside world

· Service reusability – Logic is divided into services with the intention of promoting reuse

· Service composability – Collections of services can be coordinated and assembled to form composite services

· Service autonomy – Services have control over the logic they encapsulate

· Service optimization – All else equal, high-quality services are generally considered preferable to low-quality ones

· Service discoverability – Services are designed to be outwardly descriptive so that they can be found and assessed via available discovery mechanisms

· Service Relevance – Functionality is presented at a granularity recognized by the user as a meaningful service

Going forward, Dynamic Work blog will look at each of these in turn as describe how the principles which are transforming the systems world can and are also being applied in the human world as well.

Technorati Tags: Service Oriented Architecture

People Oriented Architecture – Definition

Posted on 2nd October 200930th November -0001 by DWAdmin

As I introduced in ‘Virtual Parallels,’ one of the intriguing developments inspiring my examination in ‘Dynamic Work’ is the parallels between increasingly flexible approaches to resourcing both knowledge work and computer work. In the latter realm of systems, the new approaches are often referenced under the rubric of ‘Services Oriented Architecture.’ The key word – ‘Services’ – refers to an approach to developing computer systems that moves away from monolithic programmes designed and built to do one thing or set of things, to an approach that is more based on a ‘federation’ of ‘components’ being assembled to build the capability required.

Many definitions of ‘SOA’ abound. Microsoft has its own resources on the topic that include a handy definition:

“SOA is a standards-based design approach to creating an integrated IT infrastructure capable of rapidly responding to changing business needs. SOA provides the principles and guidance to transform a company's existing array of heterogeneous, distributed, complex and inflexible IT resources into integrated, simplified and highly flexible resources that can be changed and composed to more directly support business goals.”

One could easily hijack that definition for a description of ‘Dynamic Work’

“Dynamic Work is a standards-based design approach to creating an integrated workplace infrastructure capable of rapidly responding to changing business needs. Dynamic Work provides the principles and guidance to transform a company's existing array of heterogeneous, distributed, complex and inflexible organisation and human resources into integrated, simplified and highly flexible resources that can be changed and composed to more directly support business goals.”

Technorati Tags: SOA,Microsoft

Tomorrow’s Leaders: Managing Teams Remotely

Posted on 29th September 200930th November -0001 by DWAdmin

The Institute of Leadership and Management (an organisation after my other blog’s own heart) on the demands and opportunities for a new generation leadership in an era of Dynamic Work. The report is titled ‘Tomorrow’s Leaders: Managing Teams Remotely’ with the sub-title of “20th Century Bosses Hold Back 21st Century Working Practices”. It features both survey statistics on UK organisations as well as a number of case studies (BDO Stoy Hayward, South West Water, Circle Anglia) and tips for aspiring trailblazers. The abstract summarises:

“The ‘Tomorrow’s Leaders’ study, undertaken by Henley Management College, shows that managers are struggling to reinvent their working patterns to get the best from a growing army of remote workers, with visibility and presenteeism still used to judge performance.

According to today’s findings, remote working is on the rise. Three quarters (73%) of managers say flexible working is common in their organisation, and, more strikingly, 37% of all managers now look after teams who are either entirely or predominantly based away from the office.

However, although the majority of managers are working with teams that include remote workers, nearly half (44%) of respondents say managers are unprepared for the supervision of remote teams, and only 25% had received any training on how to manage such a team.”

Technorati Tags: Institute for Leadership and Management,Henley Management College,remote teams,City & Guilds

Community Productivity

Posted on 27th September 200930th November -0001 by DWAdmin

Microsoft has been talking about the ‘New World of Work’ for several years now and as time and conditions have progressed so has the vision. An updated presentation came from Katherine Randolph, Josh Henretig and Nicole Brown in a partner blogcast called ‘Enabling Telework Through Unified Communications. Good for Business. Better for the Earth’.

I particularly liked Katherine’s opening line, “The office is no longer a physical place, but more an environment where they can collaborate whether they are face to face or whether they are remote.”

For me the NWOW represents a natural progression in Microsoft’s ‘productivity’ vision. At the outset, Microsoft was all about ‘personal productivity’ and the cornerstone product was Office. But the ‘XP’ generation introduced capabilities that were less about the tool itself and how an individual user used it and more about how the software was used in a context of a team or organisation. At this point, the vision of ‘productivity’ really expanded to one of ‘organisational’ productivity and paralleled the rise of Microsoft tools as an Enterprise standard not just on the desktop, but also on the server with products like Exchange, Sharepoint and SQL Server.

Now I think Microsoft’s vision is expanding even beyond the walls of the organistion. The benefits to the new approaches to work accrue not just to the bottom line of the P&L, but also to the broader social welfare, environment and economy. Sort of a ‘Community Productivity’ if you will.

Above are a few of my favourite slides from the presentation (click on the slide graphic to see expanded, easier to read version)…

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,New World of Work,environment,Exchange,Sharepoint,SQL Server

The Apprenticeship Problem

Posted on 26th September 200930th November -0001 by DWAdmin

One of the most prevalent obstacles I hear in terms of highly skilled knowledge workers adopting more flexible working practices is what I would refer to as the ‘apprenticeship problem’. At a Working Families event, a partner at a London law firm explained to me the dynamics of senior partners passing on their expertise no quite through osmosis but the physical proximity plays a huge role in involving the more junior associate in conversations that pass on specialised knowledge.

I have heard the issue raised a number of time since, most recently in a discussion at Dow Jones were we were discussing concepts in dynamic working. Gren Manuel, Editor Spot News, referred to it as the ‘kitchen issue’. That so much expertise is passed along informally during breaks in the kitchen where people share perspectives on work. Sort of a derivation of the ‘water cooler’ problem. But while the ‘water cooler’ issue alludes to the downside to the employee that by being out of the office they miss out on the fun of impromptu social interaction as well as entertaining and useful office gossip. The ‘kitchen’ problem refers more to the corporate loss from impromptu and informal knowledge transfer.

The matter of geographic proximity enabling subtle knowledge transfer is a very important matter. I do not think it need stand in the way to more flexible working. First, flexible working does is not an either-or, black-and-white matter. Rather it is a shaded gradient of how much flexibility is appropriate for a given role, company, context, etc. My premise in this blog is that modern technologies and practices can enable a greater degree of flexibility across all scenarios. So, in companies and jobs where this ‘apprenticeship’ dynamic is central, a strong degree of ‘face to face’ time will likely be key, but that does not have to mean 100% face-to-face time is the ideal blend.

Second, the ‘kitchen’ may be a key catalyst to knowledge transfer, but that doesn’t have to mean that there aren’t better ‘kitchens’ than the one stuck in the office space. It might be that dynamic work introduces new ‘kitchens’ outside the workplace that inspire similar if not better conversations and skills transfer.

Finally, I think the matter represents a challenge to these industries and new leaders in these fields will find ways to innovate around new approaches and techniques to knowledge transfer that just the time honoured impromptu face-to-face coaching.

Technorati Tags: Dow Jones,apprentice

Dynamic Management

Posted on 25th September 200930th November -0001 by DWAdmin

Gary Hamel, renowned author of ‘Leading the Revolution’, has just come out with a new work, ‘Management 2.0’. If any one think that I am being a bit radical in my proposals for changing the modern day workstyle, then they should have a read of this book. I had the pleasure of hearing Gary present on the topic at the recent Leaders in London event, and the extremity of his thinking made me feeling conservative and tentative.

He started with the slide of the following points…

Can You imagine…

· Having employees rate their bosses, and then publishing the results online

· Allowing employees to say no to any order or request

· Inviting thousands of outsiders to help your company develop its strategy

· Giving managers 60 direct reports

· Abolishing all titles and ranks

· Publishing the details of every employee’s salary and compensation package

He then went to explain that every one of those practices liste technology h d were currently in place in companies. He talks extensively about how “Bureaucracy is failing us” and “Management as essentially stopped evolving.” But what he is constantly driving at is how to break down the conventional inflexibility and drive greater innovation in how companies operate which is at the core of Dynamic Work. While this blog focuses on the day to day work of the modern day workplace, Gary presents a vision for the management approaches that make such work possible if not necessary.

Technorati Tags: Gary Hamel,Management 2.0,MLab,Leaders in London

Dynamic Operations

Posted on 23rd September 200930th November -0001 by DWAdmin

I recently spoke at a meeting of Microsoft Alliance Partner Hitachi Consulting on the topic of Dynamic Work and Andrew Barlow, Hitachi’s Head of Strategy, shared with me their whitepaper on ‘Building an Agile Response to Change’.

What I like most about the paper it’s reinforcement that ‘agility’ comes from a number of different perspective and dimensions. In ‘Dynamic Work,’ I have looked the parallels between increasing flexibility in computer systems (eg. SOA) and ‘human’ systems (eg. flexible working), but Andrew takes the concept even more broadly. At the outset, he proposes…

“Agility is derived from two core enterprise-wide competencies:

· the physical ability to act quickly and appropriately (what we call ‘response ability’)

· the intellectual ability to find appropriate things to act on (what we call ‘business insight’)”

He goes on to explore four ‘pillars’ (see diagram above) of which the ‘Reconfigurable Structures’ piece particularly evokes the principles of flexibility in both system and organisational design…

Technorati Tags: Hitachi,operations,Andrew Barlow,agility

Dynamic Cities

Posted on 23rd September 200930th November -0001 by DWAdmin

Microsoft UK recently released a study done by The Future Laboratory’ called ‘Microsoft: Work and Mobile Cities’ which looked at how the trend in mobile and remote working would impact the actual landscape around us.

Bill Gates used to quote the line ‘people always over estimate the impact of technology shifts over a two year period, but under-estimate them over a ten year period’. My explanation of this syndrome is that people often lose sight of the broader ‘ecosystem’ dependencies and obstacles. They see a demo of some nifty technology fresh from the lab and expect to see it in people’s hands across the land overnight, but they forget the dependencies on producing at scale, distributing the product, training people how to use it, often the contributory components like connectivity. Conversely, once those elements have sorted themselves out over a bit longer period of a few years, people can see the direct uses and impacts, but often neglect to consider the secondary and tertiary effects that those uses then foster.

The ‘Microsoft: Work and Mobile Cities’ report attempts to look out beyond the current trends and gadgetry and try to extrapolate to this ‘beyond ten year’ horizon. One of the notable longer term effects anticipated is how the work practices interplay with the environment. Not the carbon footprint and saving the planet environment. But the cityscape environment in which we live and work. The study actually has crafted artist visualisations of London, Brighton, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth and Birmingham.

In much the same way that Service Oriented Architecture is changing the topology of the conventional IT’s spaghetti of static and complex systems. Dynamic work is similarly rewriting the inner working and layout of the urban schematic and Future Laboratory has laid out an intriguing sketch of how this might evolve.

Technorati Tags: London,Brighton,Cardiff,Edinburgh,Manchester,Newcastle,Plymouth,Birmingham,mobile,future,Future Laboratory

Credit Crunching

Posted on 21st September 200930th November -0001 by DWAdmin

Some compelling numbers on the economic imperative for dynamic work in the imposing economic conditions from insurance company RSA highlighted by Katie Ledger in her Portfolio Working blog.

“When asked about the prospects for their businesses during this economic downturn, one third (34%) of respondents thought they would definitely be able to grow or maintain their level of business…A possible reason for self-employed home workers not feeling the effects of the current financial climate might be the advantages they have over larger corporations. Respondents felt the top two advantages are being able to provide a more flexible service to accommodate client needs and clients knowing that the owner-manager is the single point of contact.”

The respondents cited both flexibility on how they work as well as the economic, social and ecological benefits of less commuting as two of the top benefits to working outside the traditional office.

Technorati Tags: Portfoliot Working,Katie Ledger,RSA

Dynamic Work

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Author: DWAdmin