Dynamic Work : SOA

E-Lance Economy

brucelynn — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:51:07 GMT

The Microsoft Netherlands joint research piece with Erasmus University also cited the seminal work of Thomas W. Malone Robert J. Laubacher’s coining the term E-Lance Economy over 10 years ago in their Harvard Business Review article, ‘The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy.’

“The fundamental unit of the e-lance economy is not the corporation but the individual. Tasks are not assigned and controlled by a stable chain of management but rather are carried out by autonomous or independent contractors. E-lancers connect into fluid and temporary networks to produce and sell goods and services. When the job is done, the networks dissolve again, whereas the e-lancers start seeking for new assignments. Of course, this view still applies to a small portion of the economy yet it is clear that larger parts are moving in this direction.”

One of the aspects to the new world of work that first drew me into the subject was the parallels between the ‘modularization of the work system’ and the modularisation of computer systems. In particular, the parallels with the trend of Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). The slide below is taken from one of my standard decks on SOA. Change a few words and labels and the concepts mirror the Malone/Laubacher chart very closely.

People Oriented Architecture - Components

brucelynn — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:59:23 GMT

Admittedly, the adapted definition of SOA is a pretty high level, but a number of SOA architects have determined a more in depth delineation of what SOA is all about and what it includes. A number of different vendors sometimes put forward their own versions and variations and so for simplicity sake I offer up the Wikipedia version with its helpful outline of key components...

Service encapsulation - Many web services are consolidated to be used under the SOA. Often such services were not planned to be under SOA.
Service loose coupling - Services maintain a relationship that minimizes dependencies and only requires that they maintain an awareness of each other
Service contract - Services adhere to a communications agreement, as defined collectively by one or more service description documents
Service abstraction - Beyond what is described in the service contract, services hide logic from the outside world
Service reusability - Logic is divided into services with the intention of promoting reuse
Service composability - Collections of services can be coordinated and assembled to form composite services
Service autonomy – Services have control over the logic they encapsulate
Service optimization – All else equal, high-quality services are generally considered preferable to low-quality ones
Service discoverability – Services are designed to be outwardly descriptive so that they can be found and assessed via available discovery mechanisms
Service Relevance - Functionality is presented at a granularity recognized by the user as a meaningful service

Going forward, Dynamic Work blog will look at each of these in turn as describe how the principles which are transforming the systems world can and are also being applied in the human world as well.

People Oriented Architecture - Definition

brucelynn — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:29:31 GMT

As I introduced in ‘Virtual Parallels,’ one of the intriguing developments inspiring my examination in ‘Dynamic Work’ is the parallels between increasingly flexible approaches to resourcing both knowledge work and computer work. In the latter realm of systems, the new approaches are often referenced under the rubric of ‘Services Oriented Architecture.’ The key word – ‘Services’ – refers to an approach to developing computer systems that moves away from monolithic programmes designed and built to do one thing or set of things, to an approach that is more based on a ‘federation’ of ‘components’ being assembled to build the capability required.

Many definitions of ‘SOA’ abound. Microsoft has its own resources on the topic that include a handy definition:

“SOA is a standards-based design approach to creating an integrated IT infrastructure capable of rapidly responding to changing business needs. SOA provides the principles and guidance to transform a company's existing array of heterogeneous, distributed, complex and inflexible IT resources into integrated, simplified and highly flexible resources that can be changed and composed to more directly support business goals.”

One could easily hijack that definition for a description of ‘Dynamic Work’

“Dynamic Work is a standards-based design approach to creating an integrated workplace infrastructure capable of rapidly responding to changing business needs. Dynamic Work provides the principles and guidance to transform a company's existing array of heterogeneous, distributed, complex and inflexible organisation and human resources into integrated, simplified and highly flexible resources that can be changed and composed to more directly support business goals.”

Dynamic Operation

brucelynn — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:09:47 GMT

I recently spoke at a meeting of Microsoft Alliance Partner Hitachi Consulting on the topic of Dynamic Work and Andrew Barlow, Hitachi’s Head of Strategy, shared with me their whitepaper on ‘Building an Agile Response to Change’.

What I like most about the paper it’s reinforcement that ‘agility’ comes from a number of different perspective and dimensions. In ‘Dynamic Work,’ I have looked the parallels between increasing flexibility in computer systems (eg. SOA) and ‘human’ systems (eg. flexible working), but Andrew takes the concept even more broadly. At the outset, he proposes...

“Agility is derived from two core enterprise-wide competencies:

· the physical ability to act quickly and appropriately (what we call ‘response ability’)

· the intellectual ability to find appropriate things to act on (what we call ‘business insight’)”

He goes on to explore four ‘pillars’ (see diagram above) of which the ‘Reconfigurable Structures’ piece particularly evokes the principles of flexibility in both system and organisational design...

Accenture’s ‘Green IT – Beyond the Data Centre’

brucelynn — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:07:45 GMT

Accenture, one of Microsoft’s top partners, has long distinguished itself in Business Process Re-engineering as a foundation to IT innovation and with that expertise have been a leading proponent of Service Oriented Architectures. So it is not surprising to see Accenture leading the way with a ‘Green IT’ message that goes far beyond the basics of saving a bit of electricity. Their ‘holistic’ perspective is laid out very effectively in their crisp whitepaper ‘Green IT – Beyond the Data Centre’.

“Think how pervasive IT's influence across the organization has become. Today, IT can shape and ultimately determine where and how people work, how much they travel, and how they behave when they get there. All of which translates not only into how much energy they consume, but also how much other costly resources they use ranging from paper to petroleum fuels. IT's impact can extend still further. The workplace environment, the procurement methodology and the sourcing supply chain are all within its sphere of influence. As are the automation and efficiency of the organization's compliance with environmental regulations such as WEEE and emissions.”

A great roadmap to Getting Greener with IT.

Virtual Parallel

brucelynn — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:41:36 GMT

Curiously, and perhaps not coincidentally, the same dynamics moving towards distributed working in the flesh-and-blood, bricks-and-mortar workplaces is also taking place in the bits-and-bytes of digital world.

One of the hottest concepts or trends in computing right now is ‘Service Oriented Architecture’ (SOA). At its heart, SOA is a collection of principles, guidelines and concepts (ie. the ‘architecture’ bit) that one needs to consider or adopt in order to exploit the flexibility that ‘service’ delivered software introduces. Traditional or conventional software implies a more centralised command-and-control structure where the computing is installed on the device where it is going to be consumed (sort of like a worker who is going to do work in the workplace where they are based) A ‘service’ orientation implies a results-delivery structure where the results of the computing are delivered to the user but the computing itself might be done on some computer where the use as not installed anything, the user just consumes the output of the computation.

What to call it...

brucelynn — Sat, 17 May 2008 15:32:00 GMT

Welcome to the 'Dynamic Work' blog set up to explore the issues and opportunities around increasingly flexible workplaces driven by the confluence of business needs and technological empowerment.

But beings as a I work in marketing, the first thing we need to do is the 't-shirt'. It ain't a campaign without a t-shirt and it an a crusade without a buzzword.

In all seriousness, the label here 'Dynamic Work' is woolly enough. And the thinking in this area is meant to cover a number issues and even disciplines. Terms like 'mobile working' really just describe one part or dimension.

To illustrate the challenge the descriptive challenge, I offer some leading contenders...

Flexible Working - Probably comes the closest to the spirit, but seems to focus primarily on work issues, while think both work and home areas are affected.
Distributed Work - Possibly the most semantically elegant term, especially with the parallel between distribution of work content and lifestyle paralleling a similar ‘n-tier’ distribution of increasingly componentised compute processing (Service Oriented Architecture applied to human affairs). But it’s a bit long winded and dry. Which brings us to...
Service Oriented Workforce - A more direct play on ‘Service Oriented Architecture’ buzzword which is all the rage in IT circles these days for the same sort of flexibility within systems that the new ways of work offer to the workforce.
Mobile Working - A term prevalent in Microsoft given our mobile device offerings, but really just confined one dimension.
Moofing - A buzzword the Windows Mobile guys coined to ‘verb-alise’ the mobile workstyle. Its etymology comes from the acronym for ‘Mobile Out Of Facility.’ Funky term, but limited focus.
New World of Work – Microsoft's term more generically term referring to a range of workplace impacts on ‘digital nervous systems’ emerging in business.
Digaspora: My own neologism combining ‘digital’ with ‘diaspora’ (‘any group that has been dispersed outside its traditional homeland’). Cute, but incomplete and a bit overly clever.
WorkLife 2.0 - Smacks of hip and trendy techno buzzword to parallel ‘Web 2.0’ which is the bold technology term of imminent shifts into new ways of distributing computing power across the Internet.