“…the interconnectedness of all things.”
Douglas Adams had amazing foresight when in 1987 he wrote stories about Dirk Gently and his Holistic Detective Agency.
Clearly a metaphor for an architecture practice, where detectives (business designers) investigate situations (discovery activities), assemble evidence (business capability maps, information models, cultural diagnostics) and build the case (conceptual designs, roadmaps).
Adams also understood enterprises and ecosystems, setting down the foundational principle of architecture – the “interconnectedness of all things“, literary speak for the Internet of Everything, the next-gen IOT.
Where does that take us?
IOT was hyped by marketeers through the naughties, taking earlier research on connected, autonomous devices. We’ve heard about fridges ordering milk when it’s running low and the current hot topic of self-driving vehicles. Specific use cases may be more or less appealing to businesses and consumers, numerous examples have entered daily life.
Try asking Alexa “what is the internet of things?”. While you’re there and wondering where this blog is going ask Alexa “is Siri better than Alexa?”. It seems that all AIs are already quietly conspiring.
Back to the Internet of Everything. IOT has a system boundary that just includes devices. Assuming we still regard Alexa as a device, IOT doesn’t include biological entities. Human-in-the-loop is crucial since the behaviours of the person interacting with devices is generally what matters most. Or Cat-in-the-Loop for those of us that way inclined.
Business design is about systems with people, generally working in an organisation, dealing with information that is handled using applications, all orchestrated to achieve an outcome. Ideally the outcome that was initially conceived to be of value.
Good business design runs from Concept to Delivery and joins the dots – interconnectedness. That’s what we like doing. Come and talk with Café Associates.
Thank you Douglas Adams for your foresight.
Image by Andreas Göllner from Pixabay