Comments on: The Reason Enterprise Architects Should Study Economics http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144 Leading IT Innovation One Blog Entry At A Time Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:05:24 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Craig http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144&cpage=1#comment-1493 Craig Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:48:17 +0000 http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144#comment-1493 Aha - the more architects I believe shift their thinking into this paradigm the stronger our discipline gets. Economics is a classic systemic cause and effect discipline. This is the world that the EA occupies as well. The sooner we move out of the linear and methods driven world EA's currently occupy, the sooner EA will show its true value. Warning: Non-PC Paragraph: Freakonomics is a great book but I feel he also stopped his research a little too soon. I believe this might have been done intentionally since it touched on a highly charged subject. The cause of crime reduction was not the legalisation of abortion to start introducing wanted babies who felt more loved and hence did not turn to crime. Levitt should have gone a little further back and he might have arrived at some other causal elements such as a society that tolerates promiscuity. This is nowhere more evident than in the African nations where crime is rampant because of the very same causal factor that Levitt referred to. The scale of the problem is even greater and is only going to get worse if we follow Levitt’s causal loop. HIV and Aids has decimated entire communities. 7 year old children are raising 1 and 2 year olds and trying to provide for them because their moms, dads, uncles, aunts are all dead from aids. If we track back further to add another causal loop to this, it’s because of a society, in Africa and across the world, which sees nothing wrong with promiscuity. We can add yet another causal loop to this to take us further back and it’s because society has turned its back on God, favouring humanistic thinking, well that thinking is not working folks. Aha – the more architects I believe shift their thinking into this paradigm the stronger our discipline gets. Economics is a classic systemic cause and effect discipline. This is the world that the EA occupies as well. The sooner we move out of the linear and methods driven world EA’s currently occupy, the sooner EA will show its true value.

Warning: Non-PC Paragraph:
Freakonomics is a great book but I feel he also stopped his research a little too soon. I believe this might have been done intentionally since it touched on a highly charged subject. The cause of crime reduction was not the legalisation of abortion to start introducing wanted babies who felt more loved and hence did not turn to crime. Levitt should have gone a little further back and he might have arrived at some other causal elements such as a society that tolerates promiscuity.
This is nowhere more evident than in the African nations where crime is rampant because of the very same causal factor that Levitt referred to. The scale of the problem is even greater and is only going to get worse if we follow Levitt’s causal loop. HIV and Aids has decimated entire communities. 7 year old children are raising 1 and 2 year olds and trying to provide for them because their moms, dads, uncles, aunts are all dead from aids.

If we track back further to add another causal loop to this, it’s because of a society, in Africa and across the world, which sees nothing wrong with promiscuity. We can add yet another causal loop to this to take us further back and it’s because society has turned its back on God, favouring humanistic thinking, well that thinking is not working folks.

]]> By: shlomo dallal http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144&cpage=1#comment-1491 shlomo dallal Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:35:01 +0000 http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144#comment-1491 Nice mind intriguing reading. What we can learn from economics is the risk of oversimplifying complex systems. There are not too economics models that actually works. Once there is a model that can predict something, having it as a common knowledge can change it. We have a lot of experts today that explains the reason for the financial crisis, but very few models predicted it. As a first year student in Economics life seems easy, let’s isolate the parameters and see what’s the real impact of each parameter is and what’s the real reason for things to happen, but guess what life is more complicated. You can’t really understand how cat’s legs are working by isolating them from the cat … This is where I see the similarity to EA, you need to go with holistic approach, and you can’t isolate parameters. You need to understand the motives of the different stakeholders and difference perspective of the enterprise, and you can’t simply set priorities because once you set them they’ll change. You need to be ready to work in iterative approach and revisit previous decisions, and make small steps toward an “end-state vision” you set. You need to have good understanding of the legacy system and map it to business functions, and try to understand why things were done in a specific way – sometime you’ll find it wrong, sometimes you’ll see the reasons for it, and in some cases you’ll probably find it too late and you’ll have to go back few steps. But assuming that people that built the legacy (of economics or legacy systems) just oversaw the real simple reasons can be a fatal mistake. I agree SOA in its technical definition wasn’t implemented in many enterprises, and there are hypes and trends and you need to think if they are really necessary. I see SOA as a way of thinking, but also a potential for a great risk of making people oversimplify complex problems by breaking them to services. Nice mind intriguing reading.
What we can learn from economics is the risk of oversimplifying complex systems.
There are not too economics models that actually works. Once there is a model that can predict something, having it as a common knowledge can change it. We have a lot of experts today that explains the reason for the financial crisis, but very few models predicted it.
As a first year student in Economics life seems easy, let’s isolate the parameters and see what’s the real impact of each parameter is and what’s the real reason for things to happen, but guess what life is more complicated. You can’t really understand how cat’s legs are working by isolating them from the cat …
This is where I see the similarity to EA, you need to go with holistic approach, and you can’t isolate parameters. You need to understand the motives of the different stakeholders and difference perspective of the enterprise, and you can’t simply set priorities because once you set them they’ll change. You need to be ready to work in iterative approach and revisit previous decisions, and make small steps toward an “end-state vision” you set.
You need to have good understanding of the legacy system and map it to business functions, and try to understand why things were done in a specific way – sometime you’ll find it wrong, sometimes you’ll see the reasons for it, and in some cases you’ll probably find it too late and you’ll have to go back few steps. But assuming that people that built the legacy (of economics or legacy systems) just oversaw the real simple reasons can be a fatal mistake.
I agree SOA in its technical definition wasn’t implemented in many enterprises, and there are hypes and trends and you need to think if they are really necessary.
I see SOA as a way of thinking, but also a potential for a great risk of making people oversimplify complex problems by breaking them to services.

]]> By: T. Simpo http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144&cpage=1#comment-1340 T. Simpo Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:48:14 +0000 http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144#comment-1340 Excellent. Many business decisions are made based on emotion rather than fact and on correlations that in fact are not. EAs need to continue asking the right questions (even if at times if we are viewed as trouble makers!) and maintain the long-term focus. Freakonomics IS a terrific read. Excellent. Many business decisions are made based on emotion rather than fact and on correlations that in fact are not. EAs need to continue asking the right questions (even if at times if we are viewed as trouble makers!) and maintain the long-term focus. Freakonomics IS a terrific read.

]]> By: uberVU - social comments http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144&cpage=1#comment-1258 uberVU - social comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:37:16 +0000 http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144#comment-1258 <strong>Social comments and analytics for this post...</strong> This post was mentioned on Twitter by jpmorgenthal: The Reason Enterprise Architects Should Study Economics - http://shar.es/a0VUz... Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by jpmorgenthal: The Reason Enterprise Architects Should Study Economics – http://shar.es/a0VUz...

]]> By: Tweets that mention The Reason Enterprise Architects Should Study Economics « The Tech Evangelist -- Topsy.com http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144&cpage=1#comment-1257 Tweets that mention The Reason Enterprise Architects Should Study Economics « The Tech Evangelist -- Topsy.com Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:51:19 +0000 http://www.jpmorgenthal.com/morgenthal/?p=144#comment-1257 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mike Kavis, Aleks Buterman. Aleks Buterman said: RT @jpmorgenthal: The Reason Enterprise Architects Should Study Economics - http://shar.es/a0VUz <- i knew that econ degree would be useful! [...] [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mike Kavis, Aleks Buterman. Aleks Buterman said: RT @jpmorgenthal: The Reason Enterprise Architects Should Study Economics – http://shar.es/a0VUz <- i knew that econ degree would be useful! [...]

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