Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
her right ear. \That means time invested in capturing organizational detail
today is an investment in making it easier to introduce tomorrow's systems,"
he said. \Besides which, it helps promote understanding between business
types and systems designers | avoiding what the trendies would call the
cognitive dissonance."
She looked thoughtful. \But where do you stop? You could just go on
adding business rules and goals, and it would get harder and harder as you
tackled the less tangible aspects like legal and social responsibilities." \You
have to be pragmatic, of course, and look just a little bit further into the
future than the minimum, but think where we may be going. What will
you be doing in twenty-ve years time?" \Enjoying a world cruise on a fat
pension, I sincerely hope," she said. \But I see what you are getting at. And
the emphasis on roles in communities rather than individuals is for the same
reason?" \Yes," he said, \and on a quite short timescale, so that you end
up with a set of reusable building blocks, and can respond to organizational
change. This is helped, of course, by taking a model-driven approach, so that
changes to business models can be applied to the running systems with a
minimum of recoding."
There was a pause while she went up to the bar for more drinks. \Isn't
there a problem here?" she asked as she opened a packet of crisps, neatly
slitting the aluminized Mylar with one burgundy nail. \If we build everything
from business models, aren't the technical designers like us heading for a more
mundane job?" \I don't think so," he mused, selecting one of the few unbroken
crisps, \the way I see it, the really accurate enterprise models are going to be
the crown jewels of the organization; building and maintaining these models is
not easy and their custodians will have a central role in the business, probably
more so than at present."
\What about the architectural consultants, then?" she asked, with a chal-
lenging tilt of her head. \What does the future hold for them?" He grinned.
\Personally, I've always fancied myself as a jewel thief," he said, taking a deep
swallow of his warm, dark beer.
