Author Archives: Ian

Why is Enterprise Architecture failing?

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Ian

First of all I am not talking about the chief architect, application architect, solution architect or technical architects. These are well-defined roles that have specific deliverables and have been in existence for many, many years. The EA however is a … Continue reading →

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Disposable Software – What happened to the idea?

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Ian

In the early 1990’s end-user software development tools had become so sophisticated there was a rumor afoot that all software would soon become disposable. I am of course talking about tools like Access, Excel, Lotus Notes etc. that allowed a … Continue reading →

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Finding that last bit of extra energy to get the job done

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Ian

I am sure that most of us remember University all-nighters before the major exams, pushing ourselves well beyond normally available energy limits to make sure that we did our best. We tapped into an invisible pool of reserve energy and … Continue reading →

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What’s your GQ?

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Ian

No I am not referring to a subscription to Gentlemen’s Quarterly. Like an IQ or the softer EQ, the GQ is the Governance Quotient. Specifically how much complexity is an organization capable of governing before it falls over and becomes … Continue reading →

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Everything you need to know about the CLOUD in one short blog post…

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Ian

Everyone is talking about the CLOUD but it is really not a cloud but CLOUDS. If you want to take an application from your datacenter and have someone else run it you need an IaaS Cloud. Infrastructure as a Service, … Continue reading →

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Learning from Other’s Mistakes– The Power of the Anti-Pattern

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Ian

Definition An Anti-Pattern describes a commonly occurring solution to a problem that generates decidedly negative consequences. You would think that an IT book written in 1998 would be grossly out of date by now. The book Anti-Patterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, … Continue reading →

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People with ODSS–What’s the cure?

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Ian

ODSS. Despite significant diagnosis and study, it appears that no one has yet determined what causes the on-set of ODSS. It has been postulated that  it is a genetic pre-disposition to ODSS, however there is no scientific evidence to support … Continue reading →

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“Blackbox” Flight Recorder for IT Projects

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Ian

“Heathrow approach, this is Charlie Delta Bravo Foxtrot on final. Advising you of a major architectural change in-flight.” It was the last words recorded on the IT Project “Blackbox” recorder before the project slammed into the ground at 200 MPH. … Continue reading →

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Why I am voting Conservative instead of the other 20 options

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Ian

(My apologies in advance for my consulting excellence blog readers for this side-bar post) Last election only 59% of registered Canadian electors bothered to vote. As a % of eligible voters the number is even smaller as many more are … Continue reading →

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The waning world of the Individual Meritocracy, eclipsed by the NETocracy.

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Ian

There is an old saying “it’s not what you know, but who you know”  that was used to explain the nepotistic hiring practices of some organizations.  Today a new hiring paradigm could be restated as “it’s not what you know, … Continue reading →

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