2. DTAC Enterprise Architecture Story
6 blind men attempting to conceptualize “what is an elephant”
The whole truth is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve …
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3. Business Analogy
Scenario
1. Elephant is an animal on heaven that god would like the blinds
to build on earth; it runs around a lot and grows very quickly
2. The closer the elephant on earth matches the one on the
heaven, the bigger the reward
3. Each day the blinds have only 1 hour access to the elephant on
heaven when it sleeps in different postures
4. Understanding there is no perfection on earth, God does not
speak to the blind but pays out the reward based on his slowly
changing criteria everyday
5. There is a God servant who is good at guessing god’s
rewarding criteria
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4. Business Analogy
Initially …
The elephant was young and small, there was only 1
group of blinds working to receive God’s reward:
1. The blinds were able to use the 1 hour window to feel out the
elephant on heaven quite thoroughly
2. God’s evaluation criteria was simple and straight forward and
the God servant was able to communicate God’s wishes
effectively
3. They constructed earth’s version of the elephant very close to
the truth and received good rewards
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5. Business Analogy
Now …
The elephant is big and there are many groups of blinds
competing for God’s reward :
1. The blinds are having a lot of difficulties using the 1 hour
window to feel out the elephant on heaven due to its shear size
2. God’s evaluation criteria was getting more and more complex
due to the competition making it harder and harder for the God
servant to communicate God’s wishes effectively
3. The blinds start loosing touch of what their elephant on earth
look like
4. Coordinating work between the 6 blind builders is difficult as
each need more time to work on they own portion
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6. Business Analogy
A new game plan …
Build a common model elephant for all 6 blind builders:
1. Hire a new blind architect
• Good at sculpting clay models
• Good communication skill to interpret God servant’s complex
language
2. Tasks for the new blind architect
• Listen to the original 6 blinds describing how their elephant on
earth now looks like and build a clay model for all to use
• Consolidate all information gathered during the 1 hour access to
the elephant on heaven and use it to update the clay model
• Interpret God servant’s complex requirements and use it to
prioritize work items for the next day by showing it on the clay
model
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8. Moral of the Story
• Customer = God
• God servant = Commercial Team
• Blind team = Technology Group
• Architecture = Clay elephant model
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