Yu & Lapouchnian ACET workshop at CASCON 2013

1. Architecting the Enterprise
to Leverage a Confluence of
Emerging Technologies
Eric Yu &
Alexei Lapouchnian
Faculty of Information and
Department of Computer Science
University of Toronto
First Int’l Workshop on Advancement from Confluence of Emerging Technologies
(ACET 2013) – at CASCON 2013, Markham, Ontario, Canada
Nov 19, 2013

2. A Confluence of Emergent
Technologies
 Mobile and social network
 Low-cost sensor networks
 Cloud and service-oriented computing
 Big data & advance analytics
 How to leverage this confluence of emerging technologies?
[ACET workshop CfP, @CASCON’13]
E.Yu
2

3. 3

4. Relentless disruptive technological
advances
 [Manyika Dobbs Chui 2013 McKinsey Global Inst.]
E.Yu
4

5. IT-enabled business trends

E.Yu
[Chui Bughin 2013 Ten-IT enabled business trends for the decade ahead. McKinsey]
5

6. [HBR Oct 2012]
6

7. Momentous Shifts
 Dramatic rise of “sense & interpret” technologies
  The (even more) crucial role of data and software in
organizations
7
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

8. BDA is revolutionizing
“sense & interpret”
Minutes, Hours, Days
Human-scale
Act
Decide
Strategize
Interpret
Visualize
Data
Seconds
Machine-scale
8

9. Previous rounds of the Digital
Revolution gave us powerful
“execution” technologies
Act
Decide
Strategize
Conception
Weeks, months
Human-scale
Requirements
Design
Interpret
Visualize
Data
Construction
Operation
Seconds
Machine-scale
9

10. Closing the loop
Minutes, Hours, Days
Human-scale
Act
Conception
Decide
Weeks, months
Human-scale
Requirements
Strategize
Design
Interpret
Construction
Visualize
Data
Seconds
Machine-scale
Performance
monitoring
External
environment.
sensing
Operation
Seconds
Machine-scale
 Inevitable pressure for IT development/evolution/alignment to occur on same time
scale as BDA/BI sense-interpret-decide-act cycle.
 Increasing drive towards machine-scale
10

11. Momentous shifts
 Dramatic expansion of sense-&-interpret capabilities
 (Newly powerful) sense-&-interpret technologies + (already
powerful) execution technologies => more responsive,
adaptive organizations
 Adaptive loops will shift (from human-scale) towards
machine-scale, (from design-time) towards run-time.
11
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

12. What s/w architectures and s/w engineering
processes will enable much greater
adaptiveness?
 Legacy systems and traditional s/w engineering processes introduce many
rigidities (barriers to change)
 Many emerging s/w technologies enable greater flexibility and potential
machine-scale adaptation









Service-oriented computing
Cloud computing
BPMS
Process-aware IS
Context-aware IS
Self-adaptive software systems
Personalization, customization
Agent-based systems
…
 Software processes and software architectures are both critical for achieving
enterprise adaptiveness and responsiveness
 They need to be analyzed within same conceptual framework
12

13. What abstractions will help us conceptualize the adaptive
enterprise enabled by the confluence of emerging
technologies?
 current modeling techniques (e.g., BPMN) are inadequate
for dealing with
 ongoing change, multi-scale dynamics
 global scale, enterprise-wide complexity
E.Yu
13

14. Illustration: telecom
eTOM operations processes [Ronco 2002]
14

15. Illustration: insurance
IBM WebSphere Business Services Fabric industry content packs.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-cbsdev/
15

16. Enterprise Architecture Frameworks
rely on modeling
Zachman
TOGAF
Archimate
Roles and actors
Layered
Architecture
Business layer
Client
Insurant
ArchiSurance
Insurer
External business services
Customer
information
service
Claim
registration
service
Claims
payment
service
Damage claiming process
Registration
Valuation
Acceptance
Payment
External application services
Customer
administration
service
Claims
administration
service
Payment
service
Application components and services
Claim
information
service
Customer
information
service
Application layer
CRM
system
Policy
administration
Financial
application
External infrastructure services
Claim
files
service
Customer
files
service
Infrastructure
zSeries mainframe
Technology layer
DB2
database
Sun Blade
iPlanet
app server
21
Financial
application
EJBs
16

17. Desirable Modeling Framework
Features
 Modeling of feedback loop elements – sensing, interpreting,





17
decision making, action
Numerous dynamic, adaptive processes operating at different
time scales and scopes, w/ different rates of change
Design-time and run-time activities represented uniformly in
same model
Output of some process can be a design of another process
Barriers to change (rigidities) – representation and analysis
…
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

18. Research Agenda
Conceptual Modeling for a Complex and Dynamic World
 Expressiveness
 Causal relations – producing change; closed-loop adaptation
 Scoping – in space, time, granularity, design-time vs. run-time, …
 Architecture – stability and flexibility (vs. rigidity)
 Goals and intentionality
 Scenarios
 Agent-orientation – localized decision making, freedom & constraints
 Uncertainty, emergence, autonomy, alignment
 Dynamic-static (process-product) interplay
 Language, analysis and design techniques
 Usage methodology and tools
E.Yu
 Empirical grounding and evaluation
18

19. Intellectual sources
 From many disciplines and areas…
 Complex adaptive systems [Dooley]
 Dynamic capabilities [Teece]
 Organizational learning [Argyris]
 Sensemaking [Weick]
 Systems dynamics [Forrester] [Sterman]
 Control systems theory
 Adaptive software systems [Cheng]
 Timeline variability in software product lines [Svahnberg Gurp Bosch]
 …
19

20. Illustrative example:
Supply chain management
20
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

21. Supply Chain Management
 Supply Chain Management (SCM) Definitions
 SCM is the management of the flow of goods. It includes the movement and
storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from
point of origin to point of consumption. [Wikipedia]
 SCM encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in
sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities.
[Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals]
 Management of material and information flow in a supply chain to provide the
highest degree of customer satisfaction at the lowest possible cost.
[BusinessDictionary.com]
 SCM Components: Suppliers, distributors, transportation & logistics
companies, etc.
21
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

22. SCM Characteristics
 Extended Enterprise
 Suppliers, Distributors, Transport, Logistics, etc.
 Each company focuses on its core competencies
 Goal: Collection of best-in-class partners
 Growing Importance due to
 Competition, globalization, outsourcing, etc.
 Growing Complexity
 Extended geography, reduced control, offshoring, shorter product
lifecycles
 Desired Characteristics
 Reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, minimal cost, customer
satisfaction
22
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

23. Emerging Technologies for SCM
 Sensor Networks
 Track location, temperature, humidity, light exposure
 Transmit info in real-time
 Increase in sensing granularity (e.g., container → pallet)
 Everything-as-a-Service
 Dynamically recruit partners, assemble supply networks
 Easily replace suppliers and other partners
 Affordable per-use payments vs. acquisition of capacity
 Ability to rent out excess capacity
 Big Data Analytics
 Real-time visibility into the supply chain performance
 Ability to deal with the ever-growing data stream
23
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

24. Multiple Levels of SCM Processes
 Process A – Produce Sourcing & Delivery
24
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

25. Multiple Levels of SCM Processes
 Process A – Produce Sourcing & Delivery
 Limited variability for customization and to handle breakdowns,
emergencies
Limited Variability
25
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

26. Multiple Levels of SCM Processes
 Process A – Produce Sourcing & Delivery
 Limited variability for customization and to handle breakdowns,
emergencies
 Fixed context, boundary from higher-level processes
Context
Limited Variability
26
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

27. Multiple Levels of SCM Processes
 Process B – Monitors, Analyzes, and Redesigns produce
delivery Process A
 Monitors multiple instances of A, periodically redesigns it
 Improves effectiveness/efficiency of Process A
 Provides context/boundary for A
27
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

28. Multiple Levels of SCM Processes
 Process C – improves supply chain across many categories of
goods for a distributor company
 Controls B (and similar processes for other product categories) based on:
 Its current performance
 Available budget
 Relative priority of the produce delivery process
 Sets context for Process B
 E.g., budget limitations
28
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

29. Multiple Levels of SCM Processes
 Process C – improves supply chain across many categories of
goods for a distributor company
29
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

30. Handling Change – 1
 New way of supplying produce. Requirements:
 Real-time shipment tracking
 Fine-grained prediction of demand
 Using traditional technologies:
 Manual/sensor-based coarse-grained tracking
 In-house BI implementation
 Requires: time, money, training, managerial approval
 Potential barriers to change
30
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

31. Handling Change – 2
 Can this change be handled in Process A?
 I.e., Implement the new solution at runtime – per process instance
 Infeasible due to
 Long implementation time and prohibitive cost
 Required high-level manager approval
 Fixed, limited variability in Process A
 Can this change be handled in B?
 Implementation time – OK
 High-level manager approval – OK
 Cost increase – remains a change barrier
 Budget for produce delivery is set in Process C.
 Change must be handled in Process C!
31
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

32. Handling Change – 3
 Emerging technologies
 Sensor Networks
 More affordable, higher-granularity, network-connected
 Cloud-based business analytics
 Significantly cheaper, more flexible than in-house solutions
 Internet-based/cloud supply chain collaboration
 Increased variability: dynamically recruit/change supply chain partners for
improvement/recovery from failures
 Implementing these will lead to:
 Likely – ability to handle this change in Process B
 Avoids drastic budget increase
 Potentially – ability to handle it within Process A, at runtime
32
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013

33. Conceptual Modeling for a Complex and Dynamic World
Recent and ongoing work
 From BI Insights to Actions: Closing the Sense-and-Respond
Loop in Adaptive Enterprises

Soroosh Nalchigar & E.Yu [PoEM’13]
 Adapting to Uncertain & Evolving Requirements: the Case of
Business-Driven BI

E.Yu, Alexei Lapouchnian, Stephanie Deng [RCIS’13]
 System Dynamics & Intentional Modeling – Evolution of a
Software Organization

with Mahsa Sadi
 Analyzing Architectural Rigidity using Dynamic Capabilities
Theory

with Muhammad Danesh
 The Business Intelligence Model

E.Yu
John Mylopoulos, Daniele Barone, Jennifer Horkoff, Lei Jiang, Daniel
Amyot, Alex Borgida, E.Yu … [PoEM’10] … [SySoM’13]
33

34. Questions?
34
ACET 2013, Nov 19, 2013