Seeking to controlEnterprise with

Architecturethe limits and value of an engineering

approachfrom the perspective of an Enterprise

Architect

Family father

Married to a lovely wifewho got me into sailing and

with whom I have two fantastic kids,a small sailing boat and a house in

Jyllinge.

Head of

Domain ArchitectureNordea | Digital Banking

25+ years of experience in the fields ofSoftware Engineering and

Enterprise Architecture

Doctoral (PhD) Researcher at University of Hertfordshire

Conducting an exploratory reflective narrative research project into my practice,my habitual ways of thinking about my practice,

and implications of taking experience seriously and re-evaluating my taken-for-granted assumptions.

Mikkel Haugsted Brahm

Preliminary findings from my PhD• Human conduct and how we organize what we do

together

• Differences between humanity and materiality

• An all-encompassing theory of Enterprise Architecture?

Human conduct – the game

Little league vs. pro players

Public vs. hidden transcript

Idealisation – Functionalisation

Nordea

Easy to deal with ...... relevant and competent ...... anywhere and anytime ...... where the personal and digital relationshipmakes Nordea my safe and trusted partner

A real introduction: Douglas Griffin (2002). The Emergence of Leadership. Linking self-organization and ethics.

Gesture and Response

Function & Interdependence

Enabled and Constrained

Causality in social interactions

DeterminacyA given stimuli (always) leads to a given response(Watson, 1913, Psychology as the behaviorist views it)

Social behaviourismWe mutually adjust to what we take to be acceptable behaviour(Mead, 1934, Mind, Self, & Society)

Awkward

Transformative causalityNorms (opposite of awkward), Values (often taken-for-granted)

People form norms and valuesNorms and values form people

Norbert Elias (1991): There is no I-identity without we-identity.

Meaning emerges

Acting into that which is becoming

Thought ActionCausality

Analysis ExecutionDesign

ThoughtAction

Understanding

SCRUM

Lean

Predictability - RepeatabilityBy acting into an emerging figuration

we learn something about itwhich we cannot know before we act

Stability is in real life not like a re-run on TV,but repetitive re-iteration of a recognizable pattern

Patterns are often recognizable - but not repeatable

A real introduction: Ralph Stacey (2012). Tools and Techniques of Leadership and Management.

This is not a…

Figuration

Position

René Magritte

PowerWe must cease once and for all to describe the effects of power in negative terms:it ‘excludes’, it ‘represses’, it ‘censors’, it ‘abstracts’, it ‘masks’, it ‘conceals’.In fact power produces; it produces reality; it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth. The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belong to this production.Michel Foucault (1991:194). Discipline and Punish.

Operating Profit 449 284 288 175Q3 2016 €m -48

Journey Map: 3 meter long posters becomes a focal point

as we struggle to fit everything into one simplified model

Some theoretical concepts in practice• Business Architecture• Processes and Capabilities

• Information Architecture• Entities and Relationships

• Application Architecture• Applications and

Integrations• Technical Architecture• Platforms and Networks

Complicated, but not complex

• Business = Profitable exchange• Process context is

emergent• Data often has poor

quality• Good integration = poor

agility• No integration = not

efficient• Technical debt emerges• Many agendas and

alliances

Complex, not just complicated

Humanity and materialityResponsive People• Can act spontaneously

but often acts habitually• A particular response

cannot be pre-determined• Figuration is always in

flux• We always make ethical

judgment in situ when acting

Mechanical Mechanisms• Can only act out a repertoire

of transcribed scripted action• All responses can be

predicted• Stable configuration

(until we change it)• All judgments are pre-

determined by programmers

Assumptions underlyingOrthodox Enterprise Architecture• An organisation is in a (stable) state until we apply

power• Knowledge is a trait of the organisation or at least

freely available• The organisation as an entity has legitimate

intentionality• Individual members of an organisation have

illegitimate intentions• Managers can control the realisation of a desired state• If we loose control, we will have chaos and waste

Example: The Open Group (2013). TOGAF® Version 9.1.

Assumptions underlyingComplex responsive processes• Organising is recognisable patterns of collaboration and

competition• We can only ever have partial knowledge• People with intentionality form figurations• Power is related to inter-dependence and is always in

flux• Managers cannot control the realisation of a desired

state• Without control we have socially enabled and

constrained conductTextbook: Ralph Stacey & Chris Mowles (2016). Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics.

Enterprise• Intentional human activity conducted in a power figuration• Neither predictable, nor controllable, nor chaotic• Emergence of both intended and unintended is enabled

and constrained

Architecture• Mechanical mechanisms can perform some action efficiently• Determining which action to transcribe is a highly political choice• Enterprise Architects can contribute something useful to this game

Warranted assertability: Mikkel H. Brahm (2017). Seeking to control Enterprise with Architecture (provisional title).

Stacey, Ralph D & Mowles, Chris (2016).Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: The Challenge of Complexity. 7th ed.Pearson Education Limited.

Stacey, Ralph D (2012).Tools & Techniquesof Leadership and Management.Routledge.

Jackall, Robert (2010).Moral Mazes –The World of Corporate Managers.Oxford University Press.

Scott, John C (1990).Domination and the Arts of Resistance - Hidden transcripts.Yale University Press.

Elias, Norbert (1978).What is Sociology?Columbia University Press.

Elias, Norbert (1991).The Society of Individuals.Basil Blackwell.

Latour, Bruno (2005).Reassembling the Social –An introduction to Actor-Network-Theory.Oxford University Press.Mead, George Herbert (1934).Mind, Self, & Society.The University of Chicago Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre (1977)Outline of a Theory of Practice.Cambridge University Press

Scott, John C (1999).Seeing like a State.Yale University Press.

Key literature

Griffin, Douglas (2002).The Emergence of Leadership –

Linking self-organization and ethics.Routledge.

Gadamer, Hans-Georg (1975).Truth and Method.Bloomsbury Academic.

Fleck, Ludwik (1935/1979). Genesis and development of a scientific fact.University of Chicago Press.Foucault, Michel (1975/1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.Pantheon Books.

Pickering, Andrew (1993).The Mangle of Practice.American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 99, No. 3, 559-589.

Contact details: mikkel@brahm.dk https://dk.linkedin.com/in/mbrahm @mikkelbrahm