Stories
December 18, 2008
What happens after we roll our applications into production? We are left with the stories?
It’s like raising a child, isn’t it? We spent so much time and pour our lives into the development of those much needed applications. As we trade hours for dollars as we watch them grow…
A problem turns into an opportunity.
That opportunity turns into a solution.
That solution gets a sponsor and a team.
The team raises that young solution.
Suddenly it blossoms into a application…a production application!
It may have taken us weeks, months or even years, but we were given guardianship over that child for a period of time. As it grew, and that production day came closer and closer, we felt the awkward anxiety of letting go. Yes, we know the dangers out there waiting for our young application; potentially low chance of adoption, push back, rejection, even the fear of death.
That young application is safest in the test environment. At least we can control its exposure and limit its risks. But in our heart of hearts, we know that the application was build for production. We know that it was designed to take on the hardest of situations and out perform expectations - that this application will make an impact in the business; making things better, faster, cheaper!
That day comes and we let it go and watch it fly. For a period of time, we watch it closely and ensure its safety. We anticipate the missteps and try to head them off. We add to it and extend its capabilities as new challenges are seen. We pour more and more of our time and energy into that application.
Soon, it grows mature and reaches the stage of life where it takes on its own personality. It reaches critical mass and there is no slowing it down. That application forms new relationships and makes new friends.
Then in a cruel twist of fate, it forgets about you. After all, you have other children to raise. While we may look back in pride, our jobs demand we look forward with a combination of power, agility and leveraged experiences to make an impact for the future.
Now the question remains; “What are we to do about this?” The answer is easy but it does draw against your heart. The answer, my friend, is that we are left with the stories, those fascinating stores of how we did it. Yes, some people call that experience, but who wants to hear about experience when they can listen to a story.
What are your favorite stories?
I’ll never forget leading a large government Oracle-based BI project back in 1998 when you couldn’t get an Oracle person for 100 lbs of gold. I brought in 4 network engineers - yeah you guessed it, they were Novel network managers. I trained one to be a DBA and the other three to be developers. What a time that was; gathering requirements, navigating the murky waters of government contracting, designing complex integration between the US Air Force and the US Navy, data architecture and applications development…and at the same time training four people in the art of Oracle! The point that I remember most was bringing that last person on board. You see, the contract stated that the person had to have a 4 year degree. Well, that last person had only an A.S. degree - well to be exact, she had two A.S. degrees. I remember it well; walking into the General’s office to get an exception. It had come down to that…asking a General! I walked into his office and after I gave my 2 minute context introduction, I said “Sir, this person has two 2-year degrees and the last time I checked…2 plus 2 equaled 4″. Then I shut my mouth and waited for what seemed to be a very long time and he looked me up and down and finally gave me the go ahead to move forward.
What attachment do I have with that application that is still in production today? My attachment is through those stories which make up the sum of my experiences. It is from these stories that I am forming who I am and amassing my worth.
Happy Story Telling!
~Scott Felten
A Secret from an Old Man
December 3, 2008
I graduated college in 1985 equipped with a B.S. in Mathematics and an excellent work ethic. My first position was working for Ross Perot at EDS. I was 21 years old, dressed in a suit and slung COBOL code and stacks of punch cards. I was nervous and insecure. Here is what went through my mind:
In the morning I thought to myself; “Everyone else was smarter than me.” And “Everyone else is doing a better job than me.”
Around lunch time I dwelled upon thoughts like; “They like everyone else better then me.” And “I have to keep this job.”
On the drive home I would usually think; “I wonder what’s happening” And “I wonder who is out to get who and then of course when and how does that affect me.”
Of course I’d stay awake and think dreadful thoughts; “What would I do if I was let go” And “Where could I get a job fast, very fast.” The last thought of the evening was usually something like this…”Man, I gotta get a handle on this because these thoughts are killing me.”
When we are young there is a lot to learn. If only I knew then that I’d be in my career for 24.5 years and never miss a single paycheck or be without a job for even a day. Even more solid than that, I’ve never been without a career for a moment. Not that I knew then or even now what I’d like to do when I grow up, but my career found me. My skills and talents and experiences guided me naturally to what I was good at and what I liked. Sometimes I strayed a bit off course, but was always lead back to my calling.
Well, back to the late 1980’s and my insecure thoughts. It was then that I met a man in his 70s. He sold encyclopedias door to door. He was smooth and conversation flowed from him effortlessly. He was gentle and kind and my wife and I were enamored by his seemingly command of life. I bought (and still have) a set of those encyclopedias and we spent an evening with him and his wife. Of course we went to pick the books up and we stayed for 6 hours. He shared with me something that I will never forget and it changed my life. As a matter of fact, I share this nugget of wisdom from time to time when I see someone struggling with the same insecurity. You see, when he was 18 years old he broke 100k in commissions selling door to door and he never looked back. He told me about how he dresses in the morning to engage with people, how he gets their interest and holds their attention. How he genuinely cares for his ‘clients’ and how he wants to get them happily involved with his encyclopedias (not just sell them). He went on and on and we were riveted.
He asked about our plans and future, what we desired and worked for. We shared with him our dreams and our fears. I shared with him about my insecure thoughts and how most of the time I could handle them but at times I felt paralyzed by them. But it was what he said next that changed my life. It wasn’t anything magical or spiritual. It was simple. He said, “Well Scotty, you are only as secure as your ability to handle your insecurity. So, decide this minute that you are secure and there you go.”
You know, I didn’t like to feel insecure. It really played out in so many ways that was destructive; from caving in during negotiations, to acting subserviently, to holding back when you really could have done it, not taking risks, gossip and so forth. The simple truth is that we really are only as secure as our ability to handle our insecurity. Decide that you are secure. Be confident. Take risks, work hard and never give up. For me, this was a transforming time. This position change was noticeable. I went from leaning backwards to leaning forwards. When those feelings of insecurity raise their heads, just stare them down with guts and say to them that you have mastered the ability to be secure.
~ Scott Felten
LUCRUM Radio: Episode 13, Mike Kurtz
October 29, 2008
In this episode of LUCRUM radio, I spend time with Mike Kurtz from the University of Dayton’s Media Production Group. Mike and his team do exceptional work for numerous clients, stretching far beyond the University of Dayton itself. Listen as Mike describes how the organization began and how it has evolved over the years to become a leading provider of multi-media production services. From commercial video to interactive applications, Mike and his team have embraced technology and are using it to drive continued revenue growth.
My thanks to Mike for taking the time to share his story.
When You Have Trust
October 28, 2008
The other day we had a technical team meeting where we were discussing access rights for a global solution that we have begun to implement but have a need to extend some functionality. Well, it gets complicated pretty quickly. To be honest, I started drawing out all the potential combinations of variables that can occur and I’m trying to lead the group through this thought.
Well, this one “rogue” guy (I think to myself) keeps bringing up an idea. I hear it but it doesn’t seem to make sense to me. So, I discount it and try to get the group to move on. He keeps bringing it up and won’t let it go. We all tell him that he sometimes has listening problems and to hang it up for a bit.
Does he do this? No. Not because he is really a “rogue” guy or because he enjoys making things difficult (I have encountered my share of these people), rather, James knows that he can trust the group. James feels the trust and sees it played out over time. James knows that the environment is mature enough to handle the truth. Remember that line, “You can’t handle the truth” from the movie A Few Good Men. There was no trust in that relationship - that is for sure!
James sticks to his guns and won’t let it go. He did so in an encouraging way, but forceful. Finally, it dawned on us that he was right. Had James not felt the trust, he would avoid the conflict by either shutting down and ceasing to contribute or becoming defensive; and we would not have the proper solution to the problem. Way to go James (you know who you are)!
By the way, I called him later that day and said thanks and that I appreciated the way he handled himself. I thanked him for putting the needs of the group ahead of the need for him to avoid unpleasant conflict. This was a highlight for both of us that day. We saved a few days time and money and walked away with a better solution for less money.
In a recent blog post I wrote “This is a key point (gaining trust) because without trust the team is guarded and people don’t share. A solid foundation of trust is necessary for any team that wants to be highly successful.” Conflict is a necessary part of a team. But healthy conflict doesn’t focus on people, rather it focuses on the topic at hand.
Did you ever experience a team that had conflict and someone when historical? Not hysterical, historical! You know; “…yeah, but remember when you did this and you said that and he said… and she said…” This is because there was a lack of trust. When this happens, people focus on defense and of course sometimes a good defense is a good offense. Other times they shutdown and withdraw. Either way, that conflict is not healthy.
Conflict + Trust is healthy debate and leads to innovation!
Conflict w/o Trust leads to murder (of at least one’s character).
Go find someone to Trust.
~ Scott
The Data Governance Color Palette
September 24, 2008
It is no secret that people are different. My wife loves process and order. She is disciplined and pays attention to detail. I, on the other hand, love chaos and new things. I like to create and invent.
Then there are those accountant/analyst folks who love details and facts. Finally, there are those who are people people - the ones who pay careful attention to others and their feelings. True, these are simply attributes that we all have in varying degrees. But, it is no secret that we have some in big doses while others are very small.
So, what happens when governance groups are out of balance? What if we have a data governance group that is made up of ten people like me…loving new things and big visions with little to no attention to detail? Or, there are ten folks like my wife - loving processes and steps to implement. Not a whole lot of new out of the box thinking - but truly skilled in the art of process.
Also, imagine ten folks sitting on the data governance group that are those people people - they think of relationships and peoples feelings. Are these people going to be ‘enforcers’ of the rules and standards? Finally, how about those factual lovers? Can they implement?
We need to have a well balanced governance team that has the right amount of visionary ability plus the people needed to validate those ideas against facts and figures plus those important people people who can tell you how to craft that message and how to reach people plus those implementers, those who can frame the plan in all its glory!
Well, if you have been around governance groups at all, you have seen cases where the team is not well-rounded. There are just too many of the same type of people in the group - or one ‘attribute’ exists in a dominate individual which infects the entire team.
Consider the following:
Where the yellow are the folks who are visionaries, always thinking up new things, but don’t have much skill at details, working with people or process.
Where the blue are the folks who are based in facts and figures.
Where the red are the folks who are those people people.
Where the green are the folks who are highly skilled in the art of process.
I was thinking about these different attributes and what happens when we have an imbalanced group. What are the warning signs, what can we expect when we are unbalanced. In the above diagram, I list the three roles of governance at the top and the different attributes in the color bands. Crossing them are the things that seem to happen when that group is out of balance.
For example, I have seen this many times…a team that is unbalanced and mostly blue (based in facts and figures) spends lots of time to produce the “10 Commandments”, then they post them on the world for all to see. These are the folks who develop principles and standards with complete definitions and taxonomies. These become artifacts or works of art to hang up and be proud. But nothing happens after this? Why, because they needed the greenies!
Or take the unbalanced team in the yellow zone… lots of big ideas come from this team. We often see a tremendous amount of momentum out of the gate because they sold senior leadership who moved mountains to take advantage of these ‘game changing’ ideas. But, very soon their progress stops, more than stops - we simply never hear from those folks again. Why, because those ideas were not tested by the blue folks!
Another example is an unbalanced green team… they spend tons of time to put together standard operating procedures which stream line operations. But this group misses the mark because they didn’t have that spark that a yellow brings!
Finally, when those red folks who are so needed in the group are in the majority - we have to be careful that we don’t approach the governance from the touchy feeling perspective, where we may be more interested who’s feet we may step on.
I have only touched on four cells - there are twelve to consider. Think it through. We need all these attributes and need to have them in a balanced manner. Look for those warning signs and think about who is in your group. Do you need to bring about change? Start by knowing where you are, looking at where you have been, so that you can make those adjustments to take you where you want to go!
Happy Balancing!
~Scott Felten
LUCRUM Does Business Intelligence
September 23, 2008
LUCRUM does Business Intelligence
Well, what does that mean? What do we provide for our clients? What makes LUCRUM different that other companies who “do BI”? Why should someone call LUCRUM in the first place? What value does LUCRUM focus on? If I was on an elevator and someone asked what we do for BI, what would I say?
Well, depending upon the elevator ride…here is one paragraph for every three floors of a ride about what we at LUCRUM do in the business intelligence space.
We have a proven track record of creating and providing value to our clients because we are highly skilled in both the art of aligning senior leadership around a game-changing passionate vision - a vision that takes their organization to the next level - and the science of synthesizing systems and data from disparate data sources into a focused and leveraged answer to the organization’s most important questions.
We never stop asking how and why. We find that the true questions are often 5 levels deep. We operate at this level - at the most intimate levels, where answers cause real action that changes the course of the organization. And then we never stop asking where. We unhide the data throughout the organization by liberating, assembling and bringing it together in the right manner, at the right time, delivering it to the right people.
We strive to hide complexities and present the answers to those truly valuable questions in a way that enables executives make the most use of their time by pinpointing the problem (or success) quickly. This early warning gives them the competitive edge and allows them to adjust strategy and tactics before their competitors have a chance to react.
In essence - we deliver value in the form of time to our clients. In action this translates as an increase in the critical response time that our clients leverage to act correctly before their competitors, who then are left in the position of reaction.
My closing statements would be:
- Business Intelligence is 100% art and 100% science.
- Truth is never at the surface, its usually pretty deep - but worth the trip.
- Simplicity implies that complexity and intricacy are under control.
- Time is the most precious non-renewable resource on the planet!
Putting all this together - Your organization has very expensive data sitting around decaying as time goes by. What are the most important questions that when answered sheds light on actions that reduce risk, promote change or brings about exponential growth? Align these at the highest levels and don’t rest until you unhide the right data, connect the information and present to the right person at the right time!
BI - Business Intelligence or Bringing Innovation, Better Information, Best Ideas, Big Imaginations, Bold Image… Whatever it means to you, will either help you or your competition.
You decide!
~ Scott Felten
PC?
September 22, 2008
Microsoft recently launched the second phase of it’s new “Windows Not Walls” ad campaign. The first phase, featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates engaging in strange conversations, was wisely pulled from the air waves early. It was widely panned for its high price tag, being difficult to understand, and not mentioning a product. It did get people talking, but not really in the way one would hope spending 300 Million Dollars would.
Now, Phase 2 is much different, and in my opinion much more effective. These ads take the “I’m A PC” theme that Apple has so brilliantly created, and turn it upside down. They feature real people - some of them famous and some just regular folks - stating “I am a PC, and I _____” (fill in the blank with some trait or task associated with the speaker.)
I found the ads to be pretty engaging. I am a big believer in story telling as a vehicle for Marketing, and each speaker conveys a concise and unique story about themselves and their relationship to Microsoft. As a viewer, I was intrigued to see who was next and what they did? I was interested. The ad did a great job of making the point that Microsoft has relevance to real people doing real things. It was sort of the antithesis of the Seinfeld ads.
Another positive feature of the ads was the focus on the user. The ads don’t speak to features and functions, but rather to the real world applications and desired outcomes and of using technology. It is a shift in tone, and one that Microsoft should embrace wholeheartedly . This should go way beyond ads, and should be at the heart of every action the company takes. “How does this help make people’s lives better?” This should be the mantra that the firm embraces in all its decisions and actions.
It will be interesting to see if the story told in the ads matches the real world story that people experience with Microsoft. With competition coming from every angle, ads alone will not suffice. Still, the campaign is a step in the right direction.
For the record… I’m a Mac / PC / Ubuntu Linux Mutt who views the OS as increasingly irrelevant in a web based world - all good and well until a hurricane blows through Ohio, knocks out power, renders the web inaccessible, and makes television ads unavailable, at which time I am a human being.
What do you think of the new ads?
Loading ...Data Governance Overview
September 19, 2008
I love the word ‘data’ but that ‘governance’ part is scary. What do you think about when you hear the word governance…I hear government. Then I think; big, impersonal, political, expensive, complicated, overbearing, and the list goes on.
Of course, we should break that term down a bit and drill into it. The root word for governance is govern and our founding fathers really got it right when they defined our government – which is an organization that governs.
So, a governance structure breaks down to three functions. A data governance group must be well balanced and provide the following ‘services’:
Create rules about data. Ensure that these rules are followed. And finally, deciding what to do when they are broken. Sound familiar – these three services are in fact the pillars of our government.
Legislative service – Creating laws . Another way to put this is… publishing policy that consists of best practices. These best practices are built upon standards which were developed from principles that grew from the data governance group.
Executive service – Developing an implementation plan. This plan puts into action the laws. This action is outlined in a roadmap that contains a strategy. This is socialized to gain traction and momentum and the trek begins.
Judicial service – Dealing with rule breakers. Soon, laws will be broken. When they are, it is the responsibility of the data governance group to decide the course of action.
More to come…
~ Scott Felten
My Definition of Architecture
September 17, 2008
What is an architecture? Well, let’s dissect that and see what we come up with. For starters, it is needed before we solve business problems, before we design and build systems and applications and before we put ‘things’ into production. If you build and deploy applications without an architecture, prepare for a long entrenched battle that threads through the realms of data, information, technology, and infrastructure. Saying that, I realize that most organizations do not have a formal architecture, but rather have general principles, standards and practices. This is one reason that IT is so challenging. Meeting agile business needs requires a dependable foundation of decisions.
An architecture is something that is addressed at the enterprise level. It is something that exists across the organization that enables an infrastructure (be it data, information, technology or infrastructure) to work together. So, in simple terms, an architecture is an enterprise wide agreed upon set of standards or direction. This implies that there is an overarching group that has responsibility across business and technical domains. And in turn this is enabled and actualized because someone, somewhere both understood and was able to sell the value of having a solid foundation.
Drilling down a bit further, the ‘agreed upon set of standards or direction’ really boils down to be a set of decisions. These decisions are made at all architectural levels; data, infrastructure, technology and information (to name a few important ones). These standards are in fact agreed upon rules of engagement that must exist. Further, these rules are derived only after a decomposition of systems (existing and non-existing) into its individual units. This decomposition is complete when each design orientation is at its most granular level. This is different for the different architectures.
The idea of an architecture is to break systems down to the specialist levels, so that these specialists can address the system (application) within their specific domain. Meaning, developers can receive requirements and think them through in the context of their specific architecture. And data folks can work from a common set of dependable rules of engagement that when followed across the enterprise provides them with a solid foundation on which to build, knowing that integration points, naming standards, metadata nomenclatures, taxonomies, etc. are there to rely on. The application folks can depend upon the architecture for proper building techniques, technology strategy, supporting documentation and so on. The information folks rely on the horizontal assurance that the right levels of metadata is in place and they anticipate the use of data to be consistent and so on.
So, an architecture is really a set of decisions that must be made across the enterprise, hopefully before the release of chaos (in the form of applications and system) at the most granular of forms so that it helps to manage this chaos from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. Managing from the bottom up is done via principles and standards, methodologies and best practices, governance and stewardship. Managing top down is just that, a downward spiral that is manifested by political infighting, protectionism, stagnation and a complete stoppage of the value chain (IT no longer can meet scope, costs, and schedules).
Happy architecting!
~ Scott Felten
Architect’s Outline
September 11, 2008
Someone asks, “What do you do for a living?”
You respond, “I’m an architect.”
They reply, “Really, what buildings have you built?”
You reply, “I’m in IT. We build systems.”
They respond, either “Oh, my brother in law fixes computers too!” or “Oh, my friend is a computer programmer.”
I have had many of these types of conversations. Of course, I look at them as a learning situation, a chance to teach someone the finer points of IT and to introduce some of those concepts. But, in the end, they mostly still don’t get it.
They really need to have a dozen years of war wounds, they need to get their hands involved and develop a thick gnarly skin, grizzled by years of scratching and scrapping to get things done. This level of understanding is best learned by participation.
To know the intricacies of this field, one must be driven to understand how things work and why things break. Why can’t we segment our customers this way or that way? We have the data! Why are we not able to align hard project costs, labor, revenue and customer attributes to get a 360 degree view of our business – our competitors do? It’s not until you are faced with these big challenges that you pick up your weapons and go to battle.
Well, I could go one with these stories, but my real point is that even dealing with IT managers that have 10 or 20+ years of experience, they often times still don’t get it. In this blog, I’ll introduce the role of the architect, or better said, to lay the foundation for some other blogs by outlining the architecture role.
Here is an outline of architecture. Please feel free to remind me if I am missing any, as I am writing this on the bus on my way to work.
Architects
• Solutions Architect (Business Solutions Architect)
• Data Architect (Integration Architect, Data Warehouse Architect)
• Information Architect (Reporting Architect, Metadata Architect)
• Infrastructure Architect (Technology Architect, Systems Architect)
• Applications Architect (Software Architect)
• Strategic Architect (Enterprise Data Architect, Chief Architect, Business Architect)
Next post “What is an architecture?”
Near future posts will contain the role, value or services provided by each architect. Stay tuned and hopefully we can have some great discussions!
Happy Building!
~ Scott Felten
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