Power, Process, Project, People - Force Three

I will now continue with my series about Power, Process, Project and People. After touching Power and Process. The next thing I will now explore is Project and to once again repeat the definition of the Oxford Dictionaries: An individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim. There is plenty of material available in various forms defining and framing project management and project as such, but for the moment I stick to this very simple definition.

To change and move one organization from one state into another projects are the most common approach to achieve that transition. In most cases they have a more or less well defined goal which the project aims for. Each and every project is constrained by various aspects (the most famous representation of these constraints is the iron project triangle, which I might return to). Besides the positive effect of moving the organization any given project also carries some negative side effects, because the organizational change the projects cause are changing the basis for the people who are used to work in that context. Professional Change Management approaches try to cover up for that, but it is not always the most easy thing to be successful with.

So how do I utilize GLUE with respect to this? First of all I use the GLUE Divisions:

 

1. Destinations looks at To-Be
2. Discovery looks at the Transition between As-Is and To-Be
3. Defence looks at As-Is

Then I use an adaption of Tom Graves SCAN Framework:

1. EPIC SCAN for Defence
2. WISE SCAN for Destination
3. PACE SCAN for Discovery

And then I analyze the flow of information through the GLUE SPACE with a special focus on the information flow between the GLUE Divisions by adding the GLUE Disciplines and GLUE Decks.

Actually all information which is floating through the GLUE circulatory system belongs to at least one project with the aim to somehow transform the organization. Being a part of the project in one way or the other, somehow related to and working myself deeply inside some of them does to the trick. Getting engaged and walking the talking helps to secure that a given project is moving from As-Is to To-Be in the right speed. The closer I stay to the project the more easy I achieve the goal, but of course there is also ways in securing that others can fulfil the very same role. This is also achieved by transforming them via the GLUE Divisions from one architectural (mental) state to the other. And again the easiest and most successful way for me always was to walk the talk and lead by example and not by documents and orders.

Power, Process, Project, People

I keep writing about People, because I strongly believe that in the end the only thing which really matters is people, like in the Agile Manifesto: Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools.

In the past days I have seen plenty of interesting posts putting various concepts in the focus. One caught my attention and is very much worth to read:

RT @davidsprott: The shape of the next generation EA framework. t.co/dolaKQtb #CIO #ecosystem #services #entarch
— Tom Graves (@tetradian) 18. Februar 2013

This post followed some back and forth twittering and it was a very enjoyable discussion. It triggered some thinking I wanted to reflect already for a while, because every now and then I see an interesting tendency to market something as the one and only way on how to look at the world or solutions, be it IT or non IT.

Coming back to people I want to reflect on three forces especially which I observe every day and what I do to work with them or what I see in the typical Enterprise Architecture approaches. The three forces are (for each one definition from Oxford Dictionaries):

• Power - The ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority.
• Project - An individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.
• Process - A systematic series of mechanized or chemical operations that are performed in order to produce something. 

The definition of process and project is sometimes confusing if compared, so for simplification I typically differentiate by using project in the context of unique deliveries and process if the deliveries are repeatable. These three forces have a different effect on people, and each and every person has a different opinion what type of force he prefers, but in typical organizations all three forces exist in co-existence and influence each other. The key to all these three powers in the end is the People though and interesting enough they get quite often forgotten.

This is only the first post in a series, otherwise it is getting too long. The next post will be about power. If you have any input to give straight away then I am happy to read or hear from you.