From Architectures to Ecosystems
Slow Leadership has an interesting article about the competition within the workplace. It is worth a read on its own merits, but I think it has some interesting applications to the world of information architecture. In a dynamic, data-centric organization, it is very common to have two (or more) systems that have some kind of overlap. While some would consider this to be a virtual heresy, it is something that can easily occur when there are acquisitions, mergers, or if systems simply evolve (or devolve) over time.
The thing that strikes me is that right now virtually every expert pushes for an extremely competitive environment, at least according to SL’s criteria (although Rick Sherman’s concept of shadow systems is the notable exception). It is kill or be killed, only the fittest systems survive. Total integration. The problem is that these type of purely competitive systems rarely exist outside the textbooks.
In reality, the architecture we end up with is almost always an ecosystem filled with a heterogeneous population that can only thrive through cooperation and diversity. This is true with people, processes, systems, data, and reporting. Every architect wants a coherent architecture, and a huge part of our work is focused on integrating and unifiying. At the same time, we also need to be OK the fact that we will probably never achieve this lofty goal.
