Boxing day, very slow 2011 with regards to blogging. Just thought about summarazing the year and missed my blog. I do like twitter but 140 chars, well you know.
Let's see what happens.
måndag 26 december 2011
fredag 25 mars 2011
Information Modeling
Currently working on a small side-assignment at SAAB with regards to how you can increase efficiency in business development by using information modeling as a tool.
Some of the components you get from working with information modeling are
Some of the components you get from working with information modeling are
- Deduce process models
- Corporate glossary and semantics
- Structure capital in the form of knowledge representation
The information model also is one of the cornerstone when developing systems to support your business logic, it can be used to
- Put requirements on systems
- Create systems
- Integrate systems
- Configure systems
Business Model instead of Business Plan
Very interesting topic, if you want the short explanation go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_model
Business Innovation
Today my colleagues in Gothenburg have a really interesting guest lecturer at the office talking about business innovation...
Fortunately, thanks to the IT-era, I am participating via webcast. Looking forward to a great hour and a half on the topic "Customer Development for Startups".
Fortunately, thanks to the IT-era, I am participating via webcast. Looking forward to a great hour and a half on the topic "Customer Development for Startups".
torsdag 20 januari 2011
New opportunities
2011 has gotten off to an exciting start. We began this year by transforming the Linköping Technology Management office to a legal entity as its own “AB” within the Know IT group. This means that we know also have our own CEO, Roland Almgren. I got to know Roland at an assignment at Scania a couple of years back and I really appreciate the opportunity to work with him again. He’s a really experienced technology management consultant and when it comes to improving businesses with aid of business modeling he is leading edge.
For me personally this means a great opportunity to help Roland shape our business areas, to get a lot of experience from the transition “division” to “legal entity”, i.e. the corporatization process. Additionally I have been asked to be a member of the board which will be a really interesting task. So 2011, here we go!
.
ModProd 2011
It's this time a year again... Modprod Linköping 2011 is coming up.
I think that we in the Modprod board have managed to put together a rather interesting program.
Hopefully we see each other during the two days or maybe at the evening dinner even?
More info and registration at http://www.modprod.liu.se/
I think that we in the Modprod board have managed to put together a rather interesting program.
Hopefully we see each other during the two days or maybe at the evening dinner even?
More info and registration at http://www.modprod.liu.se/
torsdag 30 december 2010
Coupling and cohesion
An old concept but still going strong, the important cracks in the MBSE wall to fix is what’s in between; in between the different domains, disciplines, methods and ideas.
måndag 27 december 2010
To the finish line
Actually worked some during both Christmas and Boxing Day, helping out a friend of mine I had to “re-learn” how to setup an Apache-server, use MySQL with PHP and how to make it all run smoothly together with Netbeans. After getting a friendly tip pointing towards XAMPP it all became a lot easier and some nifty “modeling” on a piece of paper later I took off coding. I’m actually a bit surprised with what I achieved in only two days… which is good since I don’t have a surplus of hours stacked away, but I promised my help and that’s that.
But today it’s Monday again and normal work-day. Been digging through a lot of reading material with regards to SysML and MARTE and the combination of the two without getting a real wow-experience… maybe it is experience, maybe it is cynicism… I don’t know. Well I need to stay positive anyhow, to give it a proper chance.
But today it’s Monday again and normal work-day. Been digging through a lot of reading material with regards to SysML and MARTE and the combination of the two without getting a real wow-experience… maybe it is experience, maybe it is cynicism… I don’t know. Well I need to stay positive anyhow, to give it a proper chance.
måndag 6 december 2010
Tiny can make big
Even though annoying, the small problems sometimes help you find the bigger issues. The last week has been a plethora of small breadcrumb sized mishaps, now the loaf has been found and the satisfaction can’t be denied.
söndag 5 december 2010
March in December
Later this year I will do a short guest appearance, again, in the Vinnova-funded VCC project March/DFEA2020 so today I’m doing a bit of reading, catching up if you will. One of my recurring concerns in the area of MBSE is that there’s really not that much to catch up to. It still seems as if the prevailing ideas are the top-down approach in some form where either method has their solution to achieve traceability and a “Russian doll” situation.
I’m more interested in what aspects of modeling and systems engineering that will benefit your organization and constantly improve performance. To me most of the large MBSE initiatives/methods are very bulky and impose a clear and present risk of putting a lid on engineering and innovation.
Some random questions I find interesting:
How do you move focus from verification to validation? The ability to do trial and error, short prototyping loops etc. are vital, what do you need to support this?
How do you push “decision power” closer to the problem? With an over-weight top-down approach this is impossible. How about creating a more loosely coupled architecture based on patterns and some well-placed poles in the ground designed to keep the solution within acceptable boundaries compared to important attributes?
If you product is multi-faceted you will be using different tools and languages to describe it (don’t try to dig with a fork if you have spoon), how can you provide aid to minimize hand-offs, or at least confusion in hand-offs? Instead of attacking traceability you might need to start in a different end, to really understand the information need and information structure in your organization.
If you are implementing parts of the system in-house you want to give the SW-department the best possible pre-requisites in order to do their job, how can we do the same for those parts developed by suppliers? Can models help us increase transparency where needed in our supplier communication?
Models instead of documents push towards construction and engineering, if our organization has started to lose touch with those disciplines we are in danger of applying Models Based Systems Drawing instead. How can we mitigate that imminent risk?
And why is it that it is so rare to find the notion of a lean or agile mindset in conjunction with MBSE? If we want to run our implementation according to agile principles we need to understand the implications and changes in approach needed when it comes to architecture, integration, systems engineering etc.
I’m more interested in what aspects of modeling and systems engineering that will benefit your organization and constantly improve performance. To me most of the large MBSE initiatives/methods are very bulky and impose a clear and present risk of putting a lid on engineering and innovation.
Some random questions I find interesting:
How do you move focus from verification to validation? The ability to do trial and error, short prototyping loops etc. are vital, what do you need to support this?
How do you push “decision power” closer to the problem? With an over-weight top-down approach this is impossible. How about creating a more loosely coupled architecture based on patterns and some well-placed poles in the ground designed to keep the solution within acceptable boundaries compared to important attributes?
If you product is multi-faceted you will be using different tools and languages to describe it (don’t try to dig with a fork if you have spoon), how can you provide aid to minimize hand-offs, or at least confusion in hand-offs? Instead of attacking traceability you might need to start in a different end, to really understand the information need and information structure in your organization.
If you are implementing parts of the system in-house you want to give the SW-department the best possible pre-requisites in order to do their job, how can we do the same for those parts developed by suppliers? Can models help us increase transparency where needed in our supplier communication?
Models instead of documents push towards construction and engineering, if our organization has started to lose touch with those disciplines we are in danger of applying Models Based Systems Drawing instead. How can we mitigate that imminent risk?
And why is it that it is so rare to find the notion of a lean or agile mindset in conjunction with MBSE? If we want to run our implementation according to agile principles we need to understand the implications and changes in approach needed when it comes to architecture, integration, systems engineering etc.
onsdag 24 november 2010
Sometimes you miss the strangest...
... last week it was Canoe.
Of all things?
Wireshark in all it's glory...
Of all things?
Wireshark in all it's glory...
This. That.
Had a busy day today, the board meeting at the University went well and the speaker-list for Modprod 2011 is getting really close to release. From that straight back to SAAB and host a section in a training program. It’s always difficult to talk about a large subject in a very short slot but at least they know who to contact now. And then back to business which was semi-successful, but there’s always a tomorrow.
It’s interesting to observe how different personalities tackle a large scale development project. Some projects can be like inventing a new sport while playing it, without a referee. Some people go full throttle and play and try to learn as they go along, realize that without a rule-book short-cuts and quick uninformed decisions can sometimes be necessary to achieve the goal and win. Some people just sit on the ground and refuse to play until someone shows them all rules, nuances and a referee. Of course there’s a grey area in between all that black and white but sometimes I don’t really understand the person tapping out before the game even start.
It’s interesting to observe how different personalities tackle a large scale development project. Some projects can be like inventing a new sport while playing it, without a referee. Some people go full throttle and play and try to learn as they go along, realize that without a rule-book short-cuts and quick uninformed decisions can sometimes be necessary to achieve the goal and win. Some people just sit on the ground and refuse to play until someone shows them all rules, nuances and a referee. Of course there’s a grey area in between all that black and white but sometimes I don’t really understand the person tapping out before the game even start.
måndag 22 november 2010
Think Talk
A while back I bounced a couple of mails back and forth with Tomas Sandén from our Göteborg office. I was planning to submit the outcome to a conference; I still might but not sure when.
Anyhow, I thought I’d share some of the key questions or statements we formulated. I could feed you with how I would answer them and build up a speech, but it is more interesting if you contemplate yourself. If you feel the urge to discuss them there’s always the comment box.
So the talk was going to be around team organization and improving “speed” in companies developing some type of product(s), or “industrial scrum” as I sometimes refer to it when I’m sloppy (which is a somewhat bad term since scrum per se doesn’t hold the complete answer and since industrial can give you a very incorrect mental picture).
Tomas summed up the bullets that we were sort of coming back to all the time, so here are those questions for you:
Anyhow, I thought I’d share some of the key questions or statements we formulated. I could feed you with how I would answer them and build up a speech, but it is more interesting if you contemplate yourself. If you feel the urge to discuss them there’s always the comment box.
So the talk was going to be around team organization and improving “speed” in companies developing some type of product(s), or “industrial scrum” as I sometimes refer to it when I’m sloppy (which is a somewhat bad term since scrum per se doesn’t hold the complete answer and since industrial can give you a very incorrect mental picture).
Tomas summed up the bullets that we were sort of coming back to all the time, so here are those questions for you:
- Can you regard scrum as an organizational pattern for teams, and as such is it strong?
- Can you gain focus and drive in a large PD-organization by relentlessly shortening the feedback-loops and lead-times?
- How do you balance the focus on external customer value with the need to appreciate internal ditto?
- Is the transparency provided by Scrum enough when the development is distributed in several teams and over a longer period in time?
- How do you balance product management - development - pre-development with minimized over-head?
- Should the focus really be to have better control mechanism, development methods etc. than your competitors, or should it be to be able to learn faster?
- Which have precedence and why; Quality or velocity?
That will have to be enough for today.
Sands of time
Been difficult to find time to blog during the last couple of months, maybe it has something to do with priorities.
Last week we arranged an interesting seminar on lean and agile here in Linköping, Göteborg is still to come so go ahead and sign up on www.knowit.se/lean and be sure to ask some tricky questions.
So far the assignment at SAAB Aeronautics has been a really interesting journey. I’ve gained a lot of insight with regards to Scrum for larger industrial projects, and I’ve gained some confirmations on theories I’ve been juggling with before. Having worked with organizations and “processes” all over the scale I have to say that so far Scrum has proven, at least, to be the most fun. And when it comes to building teams and creating momentum for delivery it hasn’t really disappointed yet. Or maybe it’s because there are a lot of quite awesome engineers at SAAB?
On Wednesday it’s time for another board meeting with Modprod, http://www.modprod.liu.se/ , at Linköping University. February and conference time is closing in pretty fast so it’s time to dig in and execute all actions to bring it home.
In January we are turning a page here at Know IT Technology Management in Linköping. It will be really interesting to see how 2011 pans out, after the board of directors meeting we had together with the Göteborg and Stockholm office last week I feel a bit rejuvenated though, a slice of energy was well-needed during this exceptionally gray November.
Last week we arranged an interesting seminar on lean and agile here in Linköping, Göteborg is still to come so go ahead and sign up on www.knowit.se/lean and be sure to ask some tricky questions.
So far the assignment at SAAB Aeronautics has been a really interesting journey. I’ve gained a lot of insight with regards to Scrum for larger industrial projects, and I’ve gained some confirmations on theories I’ve been juggling with before. Having worked with organizations and “processes” all over the scale I have to say that so far Scrum has proven, at least, to be the most fun. And when it comes to building teams and creating momentum for delivery it hasn’t really disappointed yet. Or maybe it’s because there are a lot of quite awesome engineers at SAAB?
On Wednesday it’s time for another board meeting with Modprod, http://www.modprod.liu.se/ , at Linköping University. February and conference time is closing in pretty fast so it’s time to dig in and execute all actions to bring it home.
In January we are turning a page here at Know IT Technology Management in Linköping. It will be really interesting to see how 2011 pans out, after the board of directors meeting we had together with the Göteborg and Stockholm office last week I feel a bit rejuvenated though, a slice of energy was well-needed during this exceptionally gray November.
tisdag 5 oktober 2010
The power is fought and the pendulum swings again
Few posts back I embedded the Grandaddy video made by Stewart Smith. The video he directed for Tomas Halberstad is now released and Mr Smith continues to be a genius of simplicity.... and Tomas makes great music.
Triad of complexity
I really like Gunillas discussion around complexity, it is really simple but somehow it just gives me a new perspective.
Next time you are discussing a complex issue, think about what's complex about it...
Is is functional, dynamic or computational complexity?
Often you simplify by just stating it is complex ending up trying to solve a e.g. functionally complex issue by using a "dynamic approach"... or actually the most common case is that you have a complex dynamic problem that gets even worse when you apply a tool designed for functional issues.
Next time you are discussing a complex issue, think about what's complex about it...
Is is functional, dynamic or computational complexity?
Often you simplify by just stating it is complex ending up trying to solve a e.g. functionally complex issue by using a "dynamic approach"... or actually the most common case is that you have a complex dynamic problem that gets even worse when you apply a tool designed for functional issues.
The vampire's gaze
Why is it that models seems to entice us engineers to use a means for simplification and just make things more complicated? Too often we forget the most important part of modelling - the Why! Instead we get caught up in discussions such as:
- Tools
- Model structure
- More tools!
- Process and roles
... and in the end we seem to crank as much information we can into one big model and hope for the "one size fits all" wonder.
But really we should just repeat why why why and try to use models to fit that purpose.
Say you work with the electrical system of a car, how would you apply modelling to:
- Vizualise dependencies between components?
- Analyze power consumption?
- Structure the software of your engine controller?
Would you use the same model? Would you use the same modelling language and technique? Would you consider a table/matrix to be a model? It all depends on the why.
Being interested in software/system architecture I seem to be forgetting the why a lot myself, or at least in the past. The most common pitfall I've seen in different industries is architects becoming "trigger happy" in models and get caught up in details that really shouldn't be their concern.
Don't get me wrong and think that I blame the models, I do believe MBSE is necessary in order to keep a competitive edge but we need to be a bit less amazed with the beautiful "pictures" we draw and a bit more focused on... Why.
- Tools
- Model structure
- More tools!
- Process and roles
... and in the end we seem to crank as much information we can into one big model and hope for the "one size fits all" wonder.
But really we should just repeat why why why and try to use models to fit that purpose.
Say you work with the electrical system of a car, how would you apply modelling to:
- Vizualise dependencies between components?
- Analyze power consumption?
- Structure the software of your engine controller?
Would you use the same model? Would you use the same modelling language and technique? Would you consider a table/matrix to be a model? It all depends on the why.
Being interested in software/system architecture I seem to be forgetting the why a lot myself, or at least in the past. The most common pitfall I've seen in different industries is architects becoming "trigger happy" in models and get caught up in details that really shouldn't be their concern.
Don't get me wrong and think that I blame the models, I do believe MBSE is necessary in order to keep a competitive edge but we need to be a bit less amazed with the beautiful "pictures" we draw and a bit more focused on... Why.
söndag 12 september 2010
Fight the power
And in my context, the power is time. Been a while since the last proper update, is it because my days are uneventful? On the contrary, it’s quite the opposite.
Met with Scania last week, had an interesting 2-hour session with a team there discussing MBSE together with two colleagues of mine. I can’t help myself to be impressed with their relentless focus on the customer. -In-every-context-. Of course one could argue that sometimes it gets too much, but I think it is in their consistency and endurance to keep that focus you’ll find the explanation to their edge. Anyhow the discussion was really pleasant, they have a lot of ideas and the people there like to twist and turn the arguments which make for a fruitful dialogue.
Have to comment on my SAAB assignment as well, passed the 6-month mark now and by then you are starting to get settled in. In the beginning I liked the assignment a lot, and I have to say that it only keeps getting better. Guess that’s easy though when you are working with great people, interesting technology, new challenges and opportunities almost daily, and all in an environment moving towards agile. For me it has been extra rewarding so far since it’s been a while since I got to work the full scope down to the smallest bit and byte, something that definitely improves my ability to work with the bigger picture.
Outside the scope of SAAB there’s a lot going on. Since 1st of July I’m standing in for a colleague in Gothenburg as Business Area Manager. We have great people working with architecture and MBSE and I try to help them channel all that knowledge. There are a lot of great ideas and with all those talented consultants it will be really interesting to see what we have achieved given some time. Next big check-point is our conference coming up soon. Let creativity flow.
Funny, when I read through the post I notice how positive it is… I guess when I stop and contemplate over “now” for a second I realize that life’s really good at the moment. Uppåt! Framåt!
Just text makes for a boring post… so why not a clip from Grandaddy. No matter how much money you have nothing beats a good idea, I love the simplicity of this video. It will be really interesting to see what the guy behind it come up with making a video for Tomas Halberstad.
Oh, and reading a book from Jim Coplien on Lean Architecture at the moment (will probably share some thoughts here later). He quoted someone (who I apparently forgot the name of). Think about it.
"Live simple, be complicated."
Met with Scania last week, had an interesting 2-hour session with a team there discussing MBSE together with two colleagues of mine. I can’t help myself to be impressed with their relentless focus on the customer. -In-every-context-. Of course one could argue that sometimes it gets too much, but I think it is in their consistency and endurance to keep that focus you’ll find the explanation to their edge. Anyhow the discussion was really pleasant, they have a lot of ideas and the people there like to twist and turn the arguments which make for a fruitful dialogue.
Have to comment on my SAAB assignment as well, passed the 6-month mark now and by then you are starting to get settled in. In the beginning I liked the assignment a lot, and I have to say that it only keeps getting better. Guess that’s easy though when you are working with great people, interesting technology, new challenges and opportunities almost daily, and all in an environment moving towards agile. For me it has been extra rewarding so far since it’s been a while since I got to work the full scope down to the smallest bit and byte, something that definitely improves my ability to work with the bigger picture.
Outside the scope of SAAB there’s a lot going on. Since 1st of July I’m standing in for a colleague in Gothenburg as Business Area Manager. We have great people working with architecture and MBSE and I try to help them channel all that knowledge. There are a lot of great ideas and with all those talented consultants it will be really interesting to see what we have achieved given some time. Next big check-point is our conference coming up soon. Let creativity flow.
Funny, when I read through the post I notice how positive it is… I guess when I stop and contemplate over “now” for a second I realize that life’s really good at the moment. Uppåt! Framåt!
Just text makes for a boring post… so why not a clip from Grandaddy. No matter how much money you have nothing beats a good idea, I love the simplicity of this video. It will be really interesting to see what the guy behind it come up with making a video for Tomas Halberstad.
Oh, and reading a book from Jim Coplien on Lean Architecture at the moment (will probably share some thoughts here later). He quoted someone (who I apparently forgot the name of). Think about it.
"Live simple, be complicated."
torsdag 19 augusti 2010
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