Part II of 2019 IT-University guest lecture by Mikkel Brahm on a multi-perspective and complexity inspired approach to Enterprise Architecture

1. A Complexity inspired approach to
Leading Technology Enabled
Business Transformation
Doctor of Management (Ph.D) Mikkel H Brahm
Head of Architecture, Nordea | Digital Banking

2. Mikkel H. Brahm
Head of Architecture
Nordea | Digital Banking
25+ years of experience in the fields of
Software Engineering and
Enterprise Architecture
Slides available at SlideShare
https://www.slideshare.net/mikkelbrahm
Doctoral (PhD) Thesis available at UH
Seeking to Control Enterprise with Architecture
the limits and value of an engineering approach
from the perspective of an Enterprise Architect
http://uhra.herts.ac.uk/handle/2299/17596
ENTERPRISE
Intentional process of doing and organizing business
emerging from enabling/constraining figurations of relationships always in flux
ARCHITECTURE
Guiding organisation of structuring structures
including human conventions and mechanisms

3. Intro
Organization
as a Game

7. How can EA help?

8. Our roots in natural sciences
General Systems Theory

9. - 4 =

10. - 4 = It depends…
… on which assumptions we make

11. - 4 =
- 1 4*
i 2*
2i
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number

12. Orthodox EA
What characterizes this thought style?

13. 1 Orthodox EA presumes autonomy (and rationality)
Individual is primary and apart from other individuals

14. 2 Orthodox EA presumes determinacy
Spontaneity and improvisation is absent or insignificant

15. 3 Orthodox EA presumes openness
Everything can (and should) be shared and modelled

16. 4 Orthodox EA presumes enterprise intentionality
Enterprise treated as Entity with own strategy and goals

17. 5 Orthodox EA presumes agreement
Not aligned individual goals are illegitimate / selfish

18. Assumptions that characterise orthodox EA
(and Systems Theory)
1. Autonomy
2. Determinacy
3. Openness
4. Intentionality
5. Agreement
• The individual is primary, makes meaning of experiences,
and makes rational decisions about which course of action to take
• Knowable set of stimuli-response; If we know what factors into a situation,
then we can predict what will happen in that situation
• Information is assumed to be shared openly and hence freely available,
so that everything can (and should) be modelled and documented
• The Enterprise is treated as an entity with intentionality,
and conflicting individual intentionality is made illegitimate
• People are assumed to agree on goals and means,
or at least architecture cannot begin until agreement is reached

19. Complexity I
What characterizes this thought style?

21. people have function for each other
we are born into relationships to people upon whom we depend
Elias, Norbert (1991).
The Society of Individuals.
Basil Blackwell.

22. 1 Interdependence enable and constrain our actions
Socially unacceptable behavior can damage relationships

23. 2 We often act habitually / acceptably to garner support.
Provocative actions can lead to renegotiation of norms.

24. Phronesis: Wisdom / Practical Judgment – experience based
Knowing what it is right to do = being a virtuous person
Episteme: Theory and Basic assumptions – pure knowledge
Techne: Craftmanship / Method – can be taught

25. 3 Power dynamics enable and constrain what it is prudent
to say both for subordinates and for the power holders
5 times “Why?” => Socially acceptable rationalization
Scott, John C (1990).
Domination and the Arts of
Resistance - Hidden transcripts.
Yale University Press.

26. 4 Power is never equally distributed. Any leverage can be
used to further one’s interests in any other area.
Jackall, Robert (2010).
Moral Mazes –
The World of Corporate Managers.
Oxford University Press.

27. Linear causality
Culture forms Behaviour OR Behaviour forms Culture
Circular or Transformative causality
Culture forms Behaviour AND Behaviour forms Culture

28. 5 Collaborative innovation hinges on mutual trust
that others can contribute what we ourselves cannot

29. Assumptions underpinning my approach
(contrasted with assumptions underpinning Systems Theory)
1. Autonomy
2. Determinacy
3. Openness
4. Intentionality
5. Agreement
1. Mutual interdependence
2. Self-disciplining and Spontaneity
3. Hidden Transcript and Public Transcript
4. Figuration of relationships with power-differentials
5. Web of Intentionality - Collaboration and Competition

30. Individual
Group
Relationship
Figuration
= Patterns of Relationships in Flux

31. Mechanism
Scripted
ActionTranscription
(or Inscription
or Encoding)
Author (Developer) Actor (User)
Prescription
Actor-Network Theory “primer”
(https://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/papers/Latour_Mixing.pdf)
Actor
Techne can be taught, Phronesis cannot – perhaps we can only transcribe Techne?

32. Technology and Mechanisms
1. Autonomy
2. Determinacy
3. Openness
4. Intentionality
5. Agreement
1. Interdependence
2. Self-disciplining
3. Hidden Transcript
4. Power Figuration
5. Collaborate/compete
1. Transcription
2. Turing machines
3. Knowable but complicated
4. Scripted Action & Prescription
5. No responsiveness
(Bruno Latour)

33. No Universal Theory
Systems Theory explains
systems e.g. mechanical
Process Theory explains
humans organizing

34. Intermezzo
Organization
as a Multi-tier Game

35. Elias, Norbert (1978).
What is Sociology?
Columbia University Press.
Multi-tiered game
representatives • delegates
leaders • government
court • elite
We tend to personify the source
of the constraints which we feel
compelled to obey

36. Complexity II
What characterizes this thought style?

37. Society is a figuration, and status etc. is not evenly distributed
=> Everyone cannot win at the same time
A subset of society has similar properties e.g. a market
=> There is no formula that will allow everyone to win

38. Gossiping has the social function to re-iterate norms and values
in light of particular (or imaginary) situations

39. Norms what it is normal to do aka customs
+ Values how we make value judgements
culture eats strategy for breakfast
Peter Drucker
Culture the way of life / living / organizing

40. If our individual behavior is not socially acceptable
we risk exclusion i.e. others cease to have function for us
In an organizational setting exclusion can mean being fired, but
can also just mean that you do not participate in the fun stuff

41. Enforcement – example
Boss instructs EA to focus on modelling and documentation
Social convention – example
EA is overly critical towards senior managers’ ideas and desires

42. One of the most crucial questions for a player is
when to play – and when to pass

43. Baboons do not use Baboon-made technology
Social order is re-enacted and re-negotiated every day

44. Prescription = what the script presupposes
from its transcribed actors and authors
Transcription = action hitherto played out by human or
nonhuman actors is translated to a more durable repertoire

45. We use physical constructs to symbolize social convention

46. Scripted-action lends durability to social conventions
since scripted enactment is not as such a renegotiation
Materiality can have function for people in the sense that the
scripted action and prescription can enable and constrain

47. An early well-known ”Industrial transformation”
into the Hunter-Gatherer Society
Technologies that enable hunter-gatherer-society:
• Hunting tools e.g. spear, spear thrower
• Enables efficient procurement of meat, skins etc.
• Gathering tools e.g. wicker basket
• Enables efficient gathering of roots, herbs etc.
• Fire
• Enables cooking of food
• Restricts movement
• Leads to tribal gathering point
• Leads to communal meal
• Language / speech
• Enables expression of needs and fears etc.
• Enables co-cordination and colaboration
• Division of Labour – hunter, gatherer, tool-maker
• Adam Smith (1776) ”An Inquiry into the Nature
and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”
• Xenophon (4th century BC) ”Cyropaedia”

48. Dichotomy & idealization tends to constrain available options
• Good
• Agreement
• Control
• Transparent
• Bad
• Disagreement
• Freedom, Autonomy or
Empowerment
• Opaque
• Useful for some, less for others
• Negotiation,
Collaboration & Competition
• Enabling & Constraining,
Self-disciplining
• Public & Hidden Transcripts +
Ruptures

49. We 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.
Michel Foucault

50. It entails a refusal to use intellectual resources
outside a narrow and ‘safe’ terrain
Functional stupidity is organizationally-supported lack of
reflexivity, substantive reasoning, and justification
Source: Alvesson & Spicer, A stupidity-based theory of organizations

51. • Customer’s devices
• Customer’s systems e.g. ERP
• Search Engines
• Public Infrastructure
• Market places
• Laws and norms
• Standards of doing business
• Labour unions
• Taboos
Architecture, both as-is and to-be, is also outside the company
This can be a source of both some stability and some change

52. James Lapalme, l’École de Technologie Supérieure
Enterprise Architecture is many things to many people…

53. Our product sells  how can we produce it cheaper or faster  Inside-in
Our product does not sell, but should  how can we market it better  Inside-out
Our product does not seem to work  what is it that customers do need  Outside-in
Our product would work in a different market  who can augment our product  Outside-out
Figuration has no in-/outside, but we can take the perspective of
the other e.g. the customer, the regulator, the partner etc.

54. Not only Architects feel competent (and want) to direct change,
so be prepared for a political struggle if you seek influence

55. Practical implications
What difference does it make how I think?

56. Practical examples of Orthodoxy
Outcome
Mean /
Objective
Mean /
Objective
Mean Mean MeanMean
Linear
Causality
=>
Predictable

57. Practical examples of Orthodoxy
Mean Mean
Mean
Mean
Outcome
Organisation / needs in t0 = organisation / needs in t1
i.e. we control when the organization does and does not change
t0 t1

58. Practical examples of Orthodoxy
Elias: Idealization of stable states
Process-reduced language
Analyze Design Execute
Unfreeze Change Refreeze
(Kurt Lewin)

59. The v-model assumes that you can hand over
the entire outcome of your work
Practical examples of Orthodoxy

60. Practical examples of Orthodoxy
AS-IS LOGICAL
AS-IS PHYSICAL
TO-BE LOGICAL
TO-BE PHYSICAL

61. STRATEGY
SOURCE:
McKinsey Organization Design Service Line,
McKinsey 9 Golden Rules report
2013
SOURCE:
Leavitt, Harold J.
“Applied Organizational Change in Industry”
in Handbook of Organizations pp 1144-70
1965
5 decades of improvements …
… without progress

62. Taking the attitude of the other is what allows us
to understand their perception of us – and allows us to “fit in”
Rather than pursuing an unattainable level of predictability,
why not improve instead our ability to observe and understand?

63. George Herbert Mead describes “the attitude of the engineer”
as an enlarged sense of social self and attitudes of others

64. To engineer something helpful, we must understand both
the person we are trying to help and their journey (fulfil need)

66. Summary
Different ways of thinking about change

67. We need a multi-disciplinary approach
Complex Responsive
Processes of Relating
Systems Theory
people technology
action
structure
?
ANT is first of all a negative argument

68. ENTERPRISE
Intentional process of doing and organizing business
emerging from enabling/constraining figurations of relationships always in flux
ARCHITECTURE
Organisation of structuring structures
including human conventions and mechanisms

69. So far, we are mainly modelling “as sketch”.
We maintain very few coherent enterprise models.
UmlAsBlueprint is a UmlMode that focuses on completene
The essence of (UmlAsSketch) sketching is selectivity
The promise of (UmlAsProgrammingLanguage
as) a higher level language (is that it is) … more
productive than current programming languages.Martin Fowler

70. Take different perspectives
i-i, i-o, o-i, o-o
Team, Company, Market, Society are all just subsets of
organizing = patterning of relationships always in flux
Consider carefully when you
need more or less stability
Conversations – and action in general – can take
more fluid or more formalized forms
Choose carefully when to
play or pass
Trust (social capital) can be built up (not given) over time,
but it can be lost very quickly and dramatically
Small incremental changes
are less difficult to validate
Changing structuring structures can have unpredictable
effects, and can be dificult to recover from
Choose carefully whom to
oppose and whom to back
Many people want to influence the organization
in similar ways to Enterprise Architects
Some observations and ideas

71. • Find out what you are architecting
• Find out who is building / making decisions on what you are architecting
• Find out which questions the builders / decision-makers have
• E.g. how to build in a desirable, viable, feasible (, …) way
• Find out who also wants to supply such answers
• Find out which of these could be allies and which are opponents
• Do whatever it takes to provide the needed answers / guidance
Universal Architecture Method

72. Stacey, Ralph D. and Mowles, Chris (2016).
Strategic management and Organisational Dynamics: The
Challenge of Complexity to Ways of Thinking About
Organisations. 7th ed. United Kingdom: Pearson Education.
Stacey, Ralph D (2012).
Tools & Techniques
of 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 (1998).
Seeing like a State – How Certain Schemes to Improve
the Human Condition Have Failed.
Yale University Press.
Guenther, Milan (2013).
Intersection – How Enterprise Design bridges the gap
between Business, technology and People.
Elsevier.
Ries, Eric (2013).
The Lean Startup – How today’s Entrepreneurs use Continuous
Innovation to create radically successful Businesses.
Crown Business.