Author: sysop

Praxeme and… Data Architecture

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Content of the workshop

Public workshop by the Praxeme Institute, with Joël Bizingre  – Conix Consulting:

Linkedin maps data visualization

Linkedin maps data visualization

Not a day passes without a new Data term (Data broker, Data scientist, Big Data, Smart Data, Chief Data Officer, Data virtualization…), a new Data solution announcement… stick Data onto what you do and it becomes a buzz word.

A current trend, a set of issues as old as the world, a change of paradigm…, the objective of this Praxeme workshop on “Data Architecture” is to take a step back and debate what would a Data Architecture be and what guidance the Praxeme method could bring.

Agenda

First part: Data world

Second part: Data architecture

  • What value proposition?
  • What representation?

Debate and discussion on these questions and on what the methodological contribution can bring.

The workshop proposed is an initial discovery within this wave of data. Far from having all the answers, it is about sharing and shedding a first light on the topic and especially exchanging, reacting and contributing one’s viewpoint.

As the number of places is limited, please only register if you are certain to attend.

Speaker

Joël Bizingre, Conix Consulting
Workshop support [fr]

Workshop modalities

“Lettre Adeli 95”

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Publication of the Lettre Adeli 95 (in French) – The connected economy

  • The new eldorados of the connected economy – Alain Coulon
  • Shrinking world and broadening knowledge – Martine Otter
  • MOOCs: massive open online course – Nicolas Trèves, Véronique Pelletier
  • ADELI at the seminar “optimal IT production” – Laurent Hanaud
  • The bee and digital – Dominique Vauquier
  • E-commerce: supermarkets and shopping malls – Patrick Kineider
  • On the ADELI blogs – The members of ADELI

The articles can be consulted and downloaded by members. 
http://www.adeli.org/contenu/lettre95-printemps-2014-leconomie-connectee

Non-members can also purchase the digital version of the Lettre http://www.adeli.org/contenu/lettre-95 for 10 euros
Read more…
 http://www.adeli.org/contenu/parution-lettre-95-leconomie-connectee

PxKid on the horizon

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Work in progress

The Praxeme Institute has recently submitted a proposal to the European Commission in the context of the new Horizon 2020 program (the EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation). The project is entitled “PxKID” for “Praxeme Kit, integration and development”. The list of partners includes, notably: CNRS-13S, Fraunhofer (Germany), VTT (Finland) and the University of Latvia.

Here is the summary of the proposal, as included in the file.

The goal of the PxKID project is in line with a major need of most organisations and IS departments: restoring the modelling capabilities that are critical for enterprises to cope with IS complexity and to take up the challenges of innovation and performance. Such an ambition can now be achieved by combining existing standards and frameworks with the Praxeme methodology for enterprise architecture. Praxeme is indeed an open method that aims to cover every aspect of the enterprise, from strategy to organisation to technology to infrastructure, addressing the issue of complexity by implementing a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach. On the basis of all these elements, PxKID aims to specify the next generation of modelling tools with new capacities in accompanying the modeller’s decision-making process. The specifications will enable us to deliver a first version of the Praxeme kit, by integrating automated procedures around an existing UML tool. The project will extend the modelling capacities in order to embrace the entire scope of the Enterprise, linking together several fields of expertise related to Enterprise transformation and fostering collaboration in a worldwide distributed scheme. To achieve such an ambition, the consortium mobilises complementary profiles. As a Coordinator, the Praxeme Institute will work with four Research Centres to enrich the methodology, one Software Company to develop the new tool, one CIO leading the pilot phase and two IT Consulting Firms to assess the new solution in the context of a real IT system overhaul. In parallel, a firm dedicated to project management and dissemination will help the consortium to publicise its findings and increase its visibility among both Business and Academic communities. The dissemination plan will take advantage of the five nationalities of the ten Consortium members.

 

 

 

The manifesto

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ETM

The Enterprise Transformation Manifesto summarizes the golden rules for improving enterprises, respecting the values and fundamental interests of society. It is aimed at decision-makers and offers them a summary of the main topics that prepare the enterprise of the future.

This manifesto seeks to be a guide for corporate citizenship. It presents the principles that guide the enterprise transformation, in compliance with its values and the values of society.

Target

It concerns every function in the enterprise, starting with:

  • executive management, who will find in it a unified discourse and a list of principles to guide their transformation programs;
  • communication and marketing departments, for whom the signing of the manifesto is an opportunity to affirm certain values of their enterprise;
  • transversal functions (strategy, transformation management…) which will appreciate the repositioning of enterprise architecture.

The manifesto will also be of interest to academia, called upon to favor an interdisciplinary approach, around which teaching content can be organized (see, in particular, chapter 7).

Summary

The chapters of the ETM

The chapters of the ETM

 

Focus

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The writing of Praxeme version 2 is in progress.

The philosophy

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This painting by Raphael was long used as the logo of the Praxeme Institute. It was chosen, of course, for the reference to Ancient Greece and because it evokes the patronage of some of the most brilliant minds of humanity. But we can also find in it a magnificent symbol of the methodology.

In the center, Raphael has positioned Plato, who has been given Leonardo de Vinci’s features and Aristotle who, so it is said, has borrowed Michelangelo’s face. Plato is pointing his index finger towards the sky, revealing thus the source of truth that resides in the ethereal sky of ideas. Aristotle, on the contrary, his hand outstretched towards the floor, indicates that the truth is to be found from facts that have been observed, analyzed and sorted. We know today that no science, no body of knowledge would know how to constitute itself without input from both approaches. The same is true of the methodology:

  • on the one hand, it seeks in the theory the fundamentals on which it can safely build itself (contemplation, in Greek)
  • on the other hand, it continually seeks the confrontation between the facts and what happens in practice (the action).
L'Ecole d'Athènes

The School of Athens, by Raphael (the Vatican)

The Praxeme Institute

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The Praxeme Institute is a not-for-profit and state-approved association, pursuant to French law (known as July 1901).

Aim

The Praxeme Institute’s aim is to develop and promote the Praxeme open method.

It is:

  • the depository for the Praxeme corpus, including the method, communication material as well as the generic models and reusable components;
  • the guarantor of the spirit of openness and freely available resources;
  • the coordinator of all work around the method.

For more information: see the statutes of the association.

joinusTo follow the activities, make a contribution or join: the different ways (distribution list, LinkedIn group, association…).

Some key facts

  • Founded in October, 2006.
  • General assembly every year in December, as part of the Symposium (which is open, in part, to the public at no charge).
  • The College of contributors brings together, once a year, the decision-makers who support the initiative for an open method.
  • The products developed by the association or in partnership are available free of charge, under a creative commons license, on the wiki.
  • Members, contributors and partners: see the logos in the right-hand column. For more information about the actors of the initiative: see the Chorus section of the wiki.

The work

The Praxeme Institute’s main mission, as defined in the statutes of the association, is the development and promotion of the Praxeme open method. To better reach this goal, we are led to provide other material and services. Thus, our activity is organized according to the Organum structure, the method’s proposal for managing project-related material. The sections of the Organum have been given Latin names, used in several European languages, facilitating thus their use in international projects.

Organum

The Organum: the main structure

The Organum structures the wiki.

Enterprise transformation

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This “TransOp” diagram superimposes three structures to deal with a critical subject: the continuum between operations and transformation. The agile enterprise must seek better integration between everyday activities (the operations) and transformation activities, which are seen to be more exceptional.

This schema brings several traditions together:

  • that of quality, with the Deming wheel (or PDCA for Plan-Do-Check-Act);
  • that of methodology, with the opposition analysis-design completed by execution;
  • the current discourse on transformation.

The continuum between operations and transformation

 

Seeking agility

The classic analysis-design dichotomy alone is not enough to cover the whole transformation chain and provide an account of enterprise life. It emphasizes study activities to the detriment of everyday activities. We therefore have to complete it with a third type of activity: execution, which is far more important in terms of volume. This is all the more necessary, as we now have to think about a closer linkage between operations and transformation, so as to increase enterprise agility, that is to say its capacity to rapidly adapt itself.

Put in place the improvement loop

This tripartition of Analysis-Design-Execution enables us to cover the complete scope, which can also be analyzed using the Deming wheel (PDCA). This schema allows us to draw a parallel with the quality approach.

The analysis encroaches on the “check” part. This means that there are two levels of verification or, more likely, two levels for the observation results to be taken into account:

  • one, common, with the decision made by the producers (or the ones who execute);
  • the other, more exceptional, which lies within the improvement loop for practices.

Mobilizing all the actors with a view to continuous improvement

On a larger scale and to clarify the roles involved in the transformation, we can position the separation between the transformation activities and the execution ones (the operations) on these templates. The transformation begins with a particular level of analysis: the “meta” analysis – if we can call it that – which exploits internal and external observations, takes a step back from the existing practices and raises questions about the running of the enterprise. This data is then used in the design phase, which consists in imagining new ways of working.

The diagram shows that operational managers have to understand the broader scope of their role: not only are they responsible for the day-to-day operations, as designed and stipulated (the execution, including verification), but they must also consider things in such a way that makes them actors in the transformation.

This philosophy can be summed up in one watchword: “We are all actors of the transformation!”

For further details:

Enterprise concerns

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The enterprise is a complex object. It cannot be approached without an analytical framework that organizes the subject matter. This is the role of the reference framework or methodological framework (conceptual framework). Thus, all the enterprise concerns, whether they be strategic or tactical, when they concern the organization, the performance or the logistics, are included in a full and rigorously structured description. In this way, every piece of information or decision is given one, and only one, place in the enterprise description Repository. We thus avoid wasting time and effort and can take advantage of the expertise of all concerned.

The Enterprise System Topology identifies and articulates seven aspects which enable us to apprehend the full reality of the enterprise. Contrary to “views”, these aspects are defined independently of points of view and are isolated using the internal logic of the Enterprise System. The method links them carefully together, so as to create a harmonious transformation chain. All along this chain, information and decision elements are expressed, formalized and progressively transformed into concrete solutions.

For more information: see the “Product” page on the wiki.

The new value chain

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The value chain can no longer be simply linear. It has to integrate information gathering, retroactions and transformation decisions. Innovation, enterprise agility and the capacity of an enterprise to quickly adjust itself to a changing environment come at this cost. The value chain becomes “looped”, integrating feedback at all levels of the enterprise and encouraging collaboration. Furthermore, it becomes more complex by mobilizing partners.

These two characteristics, looping and complexity, call for a new approach to the enterprise and another model.

The new value chain

The value chain, such as the one drawn by Michael Porter, is often seen as linear: the enterprise gets its supplies, manufactures, sells and provides after-sales services. Yet, at each point of this “chain”, precious information appears. Who better than the sales representative to get a feeling for what prospects expect? How can the designer come up with the idea that is guaranteed to appeal to the public? Are the marketing or communication departments told when there is a serious malfunction or persistent problem?

The value chain really must be “looped”, that is to say that systematic and rapid retroactions must be put in place. The schema proposed here shows:

  • the seven generic actions that make up all value chains;
  • the relations between these actions, including the required retroactions.

This schema serves as a guide to revise the enterprise processes. Such an action concerns what Praxeme calls the pragmatic aspect of the Enterprise System.

The recommended approach starts from the semantic aspect, that is to say the “business” objects which express the business fundamentals. It is by studying their lifecycle that we can best anticipate any disruptions and prepare the enterprise to react to them.

For further information, please see the following documents: