With The Flowers

When I was a kid, I came home from school for lunch. I sat in front of the TV with my sandwich and a bag of M&Ms. Even at 8 years old- one could see I had the characteristics of being an enterprise architect.

My daily process was as follows. I would open my bag of M&Ms and pour them all out on the table. Next, I would group the M&Ms by color. I would then create a vision and decide my strategy for this small bag of M&Ms.

Would I eat them by color?

At eight years old, I saw the value of organizing both the M&Ms and the process before eating them. I also enjoyed envisioning how to attack all those tasty colored chocolates. Sure, I could have just poured the bag of M&Ms into my хэнд or mouth without separating them by color. That would be quick but no way as much fun. It was limiting and allowed no imagination. No exploration. No flexibility. I would have eliminated the fun of thinking first and being creative.

To me, every day I had options. Once I had organized the M&Ms into colors, only after then did I have the freedom and flexibility to do whatever I wanted. If I had left them in the mess, I just didn't feel I had options because options weren't as easy to see.

When I was eight years old, neither orange nor blue M&Ms were part of the mix. Orange was added in 1976 and blue in 1995. Gosh, what would I do with the new orange and blue today? Well, I would have more options... if I first separated by color. If all I did was open the bag and pour them in my mouth...I wouldn't have even noticed the additional variety. Now that would have been a shame. The additional colors allowed me to visualize new designs as well as design new strategies.

Red M&M's were discontinued for 11 years from 1976 to 1985 after the FDA banned Red Dye No. 2, even though M&M's did not contain this dye. If all I did was eat my M&Ms from the bag, it would not have been noticed. After all, don't all the colors taste the same? The color doesn't add analytical value...it adds emotional value. The real reason people buy M&Ms (or any product) is the emotional value it conveys to the purchaser.

Sometimes I had a friend over for lunch. Of course, I would share my pile of M&Ms. If we each had our own bag, we would trade for our favorite color (she liked green, I liked yellow)...making sure one did not get more M&Ms than the other (a rule of conduct). We were able to do this because we both separated our M&Ms by color, and we had different preferences on which M&Ms to eat and how. Sometimes we worked together to make a big design like a huge rainbow. Sometimes, we мейд compromises so we could both get what we really wanted. Sometimes our taste changed and we wanted a different color.

Peanut M&Ms were around when I was 8 years old, but I never mixed them with plain M&Ms. Sure, they had the same colors and I could have мейд a pile of yellow's and used the same processes to act on them as I did with plain M&Ms. To me, I could not mix the two...they were still different. To me, they were always handled separately. They were mine, and I мейд that strategic decision based upon my belief to never combine them.

What the heck does all this have to do with architecture? Well...

M&Ms (information) are just M&Ms if all you do is standard quick processes. Nothing is learned- nothing innovative will ever come out of it. Information is data waiting to be explored. Processes help you to be creative. You limit your options if you do not organize the M&Ms (information). You miss the (orange & blue) addition or elimination (red) of key trends if you don't look for patterns. If you don't know what your customers, business partners, or shareholders value (green M&Ms), how can you build a relationship? How can you have a conversation without a basic knowledge of what is important to them and what they are talking about in the social world. Strategies set the direction (the M&M eating order).Strategies (eating yellows before reds) can change (not recommended on a daily basis) as long as you keep to your values (don't mix peanut and plain M&Ms). The same strategy can be in place for years, as long as you keep an eye on changing trends (orange added, red eliminated), your values (don't mix peanut and plain M&Ms), and the needs or wants of your customers (she now likes blue M&Ms).

The key activity of enterprise architects is to listen and account for the values, vision, strategy, products, processes within the boundaries of the enterprise (which extends beyond that of a corporation). The key to enterprise architecture is to organize everything for flexibility so it can evaluate new information and react to trends and remain profitable.

This involves understanding all the components of the enterprise (business, support, organization, technology, external and internal influences, etc.). This includes but not limited to the information, the business processes, the organizational departments, the business models. Enterprise architecture organizes everything the enterprise uses to operate. In order to accomplish this, an architect needs to be creative and innovative while keeping to the values, vision, and strategy set by the executive committee. On top of that, the information must be organized and flexible to meet the needs of everyone within the organization.

This is not an easy job because the enterprise architect must talk with people who may not think or act likes him or her. It involves herding those involved in different business units, owners of specific systems, while keeping accountable to the executives. Some of them may not be willing to share what they know or may be placing little mines to destroy the process. It involves digging deep and around such roadblocks for that lost piece of the puzzle (the M&M that rolled under your chair).

Yet it is so important and valuable... as valuable as all the different colors of M&Ms. Without knowing what you have, what is available, what the potential impact of what is going on outside the corporate walls, you are just ripping open the bag of M&Ms and eating them without the appreciation of all the color options available.

"The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your хэнд."A delicious enterprise architecture is organized to allow the flexibility for exploration, imagination, innovation and relationship building...eliminating a mess in the executives hands.

Pat Ferdinandi, Chief Thought Translator & Business Architect Improving the communication experience between business & technologists. Strategic Business Decisions, inc. website: twitter: thoughttrans