roger sessions

A High Value Approach to Business/IT Collaboration  

Roger SessionsCTO, ObjectWatch, Inc.

roger@objectwatch.comTwitter: @RSessions

Linked-In: Roger Sessions

roger@objectwatch.com

Who is Roger Sessions- The Father of IT Complexity Analytics- Author of seven books and many highly influential white papers, including

- IASA Fellow

The IT Complexity CrisisThe Mathematics of IT SimplificationRevamping Public Sector IT Procurement to Favor Success and Small Business

- Keynote speaker at many conferences including two Gartner Research Boards.

- Visiting Professor of IT Complexity Analytics at University of the Andes.

Roger Sessions 2

Roger Sessions 3roger@objectwatch.com

Audience Check

• Executives• Developers• Architects• Business Specialists• Students

Roger Sessions 4roger@objectwatch.com

Presentation Outline

- We don’t know how to build big IT Systems. 

- Big IT needs a radical transformation. 

- The starting point is The Snowman Architecture. 

- The Snowman Architecture is a radical improvement. 

Roger Sessions 5roger@objectwatch.com

What is Radical Transformation?IT Driven

Implementation Intensive

Business Driven

Private Platforms

Delivery FocusProcess Focus

Short Term ValueLong Term Value

SimpleComplex

SmallBig

Design Intensive

Public Cloud Platform

Business Centric ArchitectureIT Centric Architecture

Fast DeliverySlow Delivery

ThreeTenets ofTransformation

Roger Sessions 6roger@objectwatch.com

The State of Large IT

- (Standish) 2009 Chaos report published by the Standish Group 

- GAO Report 08-105IT.

- The IT Complexity Crisis by Roger Sessions

“An estimated 85% of government IT projects are late, over budget or both.”- The Pew Center on the States, “Focus on Performance”, 2010

“Projects over $10M have a statistically zero chance of being delivered on time, on budget, and with required functionality.”

“OMB and federal agencies have identified approximately 413 IT projects--totaling at least $25.2 billion in expenditures for fiscal year 2008--as being poorly planned, poorly performing, or both.”

“The world economy is losing over $500 Billion per month to IT failure.”

Roger Sessions 7roger@objectwatch.com

Two StudiesChanceofSuccess 50

25

75

Size Standish (2009) $1.9M 10M+<$750Klabor cost(USD)

(Standish) 2009 Chaos report published by the Standish Group 

effort (person months)

(Sauer) The Impact of Size and Volatility on IT Project Performance by Chris Sauer, Andrew Gemino, and Blaize Horner Reich, Comms of the ACM Nov 07

Sauer<= 24PM($360K)

750PM($11M)

1700PM($25M)

2400+PM($36M)

Roger Sessions 8roger@objectwatch.com

To Summarize Studies

Projects under $1M are almost always successful.

Projects over $10M are almost never successful.

Projects over $20M typically exceed their budgets by over 220% and cost an additional 400% in lost opportunity costs. 

Roger Sessions 9roger@objectwatch.com

Relationship Between Project Size and Complexity

ComplexityofProject

Size of Project

Roger Sessions 10roger@objectwatch.com

BusinessArchitecture

Technical/ServicesArchitecture

DataArchitecture

Standard Methodology Doesn’t ScaleYour Standard Business/IT Architecture

Roger Sessions 11roger@objectwatch.com

Why Don’t We Split It Up?

Too many dependencies!

Roger Sessions 12roger@objectwatch.com

Relationship Between Project Dependency and Complexity

ComplexityofProject

Number of Dependencies

Roger Sessions 13roger@objectwatch.com

So What Does WorkSmall Sub-Systems Few Dependencies

Roger Sessions 14roger@objectwatch.com

Two Major Problems

1. When you split up a system you INCREASE the dependencies.

2. You must split up the system BEFORE YOU KNOW the dependencies.

Roger Sessions 15roger@objectwatch.com

A New Approach

Business Architecture

Technical Architecture

Service Architecture

Data Architecture

The Snowman Architecture

Smaller Systems Fewer Dependencies

Roger Sessions 16roger@objectwatch.com

Why Do I Call this a Snowman?

Business Architecture

Technical Architecture

Service Architecture

Data Architecture

Roger Sessions 17roger@objectwatch.com

How To Build A SnowmanThe Head consists of business functions that are synergistically related to each other and nothing else.

The Torso consists of the technical systems that support the head and nothing else.

The Arms implement the dependencies between business capabilities and nothing else.

The Bottom consists of the data needed by the Torso and nothing else.

Business Led:  The Head controls everythingSmall:  Less than few million $Simple:  Autonomous with minimal connection points

MaxSize:FewMillion$

Roger Sessions 18roger@objectwatch.com

Putting Snowmen Together

Roger Sessions 19roger@objectwatch.com

This Scales Without Limit

Roger Sessions 20roger@objectwatch.com

Getting the Head Right

Understand mathematics of equivalence relationships.

Understand functional dependencies.

Understand how the business contours project to lower layers.

Understand business capabilities.

Understand methodologies for early identification of synergies.

Understand tools to track synergistic relationships/dependencies.

Understand relationship between complexity and synergy.

SIP: Simple Iterative Partitions

Roger Sessions 21roger@objectwatch.com

SIP High Level

ProjectIdentification

DecompositionPreparation CapabilityAssignment

Sub-projectSpawning

CapabilityCompletion Requirements

MessageHarness

MessagingDetermination

DependencyDetermination

DataArchitecture

TechnicalArchitecture

BusinessArchitecture

IntegrationImple-mentation

SIP Preplanning Phase

Roger Sessions 22roger@objectwatch.com

Okay, so what does this buy me?

Roger Sessions 23roger@objectwatch.com

Complexity

ComplexityofProject

Size of Project

Zone of Death

Roger Sessions 24roger@objectwatch.com

Business/IT Alignment

Business

IT 

EnterpriseArchitecture

Poor Alignment Excellent Alignment

Roger Sessions 25roger@objectwatch.com

ROIExample: $20M Project

Traditional Approach Snowman Approach

Net: $2M investment yields $69M return

Budgeted 20 M$Average Overrun 228 %Expected Overrun 45.6 M$Lost Opp Costs 45.6 M$Total Cost 91.2 M$

Budget 20 M$Snowman Costs 2 M$Average Overrun 0 %Expected Overrun 0 M$Lost Opp Costs 0 M$Total Costs 22 M$Savings 69.2 M$

Roger Sessions 26roger@objectwatch.com

Auditing/Compliance

Very difficult to determine who changed data and why.

Easy to determine who changed data and why.

Roger Sessions 27roger@objectwatch.com

Security

Hard to Configure Easy to Configure

Roger Sessions 28roger@objectwatch.com

Flexibility

Hard to Change Easy to Change

Roger Sessions 29roger@objectwatch.com

Time to Failure

Frequent Catastrophic Failures Infrequent Local Failures

Roger Sessions 30roger@objectwatch.com

Time To Recovery

PrimarySnowman

BackupSnowman

Slow Recovery Fast Recovery

Roger Sessions 31roger@objectwatch.com

Cloud Effectiveness

$$$$$$$$

$

Expensive Cheap

Roger Sessions 32roger@objectwatch.com

Impact on Local Economy

Benefits Large Foreign Consulting Companies - Negative Impact on Local Economy.

Benefits Small Local Consulting Companies - Strong Positive Impact on Local Economy.

Roger Sessions 33roger@objectwatch.com

A Lot of BenefitsLower ComplexityBetter Business/IT AlignmentMore SecureMore FlexibleMore ReliableBetter for CloudGreat ROIStimulates Local Economy

Radical IT Transformation

Roger Sessions 34roger@objectwatch.com

Making the Transformation

Create a group to own the Snowman Architecture.

Choose a smallish project (~ 10M$).

Apply the principles.

Sell to the Business and IT.

Get Executive Buy-in.

Publicize the result, especially the ROI.

Start a  Radical Transformation of IT!

Roger Sessions 35roger@objectwatch.com

Summary- The Snowman Architecture delivers cheaper systems faster that better need the needs of the business.- The Snowman Architecture is based on three important ideas: 

- This is a tremendous value proposition for Enterprise Architecture with high ROI for business.

Business drivenSmall projectsSimple Systems

- These ideas can radically transform IT.

Roger Sessions 36roger@objectwatch.com

Suggested ReadingsA Fundamental Metric for Predicting IT Success by Roger Sessions (White Paper) at http://www.objectwatch.com/white_papers.htm#metric

The IT Complexity Crisis (White Paper) by Roger Sessions at http://www.objectwatch.com/white_papers.htm#ITComplexity

Radical IT Transformation (blog) by Roger Sessions at http://simplearchitectures.blogspot.com/2012/08/radical-it-transformation_14.html

Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises (Book) by Roger Sessions.

The Mathematics of IT Simplification by Roger Sessions (White Paper) at http://www.objectwatch.com/white_papers.htm#Math

The Equation Every Enterprise Architect Should Memorize (blog) by Roger Sessions athttp://simplearchitectures.blogspot.com/2012/03/equation-every-enterprise-architect.html

SIP: A Project Optimization Methodology (webshort) by Roger Sessions at http://simplearchitectures.blogspot.com/2012/01/web-short-sip-methodology-for-project.html

The Relationship Between IT Project Size and IT Failure Rate (webshort) by Roger Sessions athttp://simplearchitectures.blogspot.com/2012/01/web-short-relationship-between-it.html

Roger Sessions 37roger@objectwatch.com

Acknowledgements

The snowmen photos are all licensed under Creative Commons and taken from Flickr. They photographers are, in order of appearance:

- chris.corwin- The Year of Mud- Jason Alley- jcarwash31