Strategic Planning | Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education

Forrester Top 15 Technology Trends – Webinar Notes

enterprise architecture, it governance, strategic planning 1 Response »

Jan 272011

Gene Leganza (@gleganza) VP and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research Inc discusses and presents on Technology Trends. Gene used the following criteria (Impact, Newness, Complexity) to help describe the trends. In Oct 2010, Gene wrote about the Top 15 Technology Trends on his Forrester blog. Gene published a table of the top trends here.

On Jan 26, 2011, Gene presented a webinar about his research. Here are some notes I took:

Theme 1 Empowered Technologies

SaaS and cloud based platforms become standard

Customer community platforms integerate with business applications
Apps and business processes go mobile
Collaboration moves from document centric to people centric

Theme 2 Process Centric Data and Intelligence

Next gen BI takes shape
IaaS finds a broader audience
Master data management matures
Analytics target text and social networks

Theme 3 Agile and Fit-to-Purpose Applications

Business rules processing move to mainstream
BPM will be Web 2.0 enabled
Event driven patterns demand attention

Theme 4 Smart Technology Management

Systems management enables continued virtualization
Client virtualization is ubiquitous
IT embraces planning and analytics tools

Recommendations

Craft your internal innovation process
Integrate your criteria with your business model and priorities
Use an annual scan as input to next year’s research agenda
Socialize and communicate – create your “technology watch annual report”

Thanks for the insights Gene. I will be looking at our enterprise architecture and see how your themes fit.

One area I would like to comment on in Theme 1 Empowered Technologies. There is still not enough research and policy work being done on privacy and security for cloud based services. Influencing governments particularly those outside the United States to modernize their thinking and laws will be a much longer road. In the meantime, those of us outside the US continue to struggle with the adoption of cloud based services due to things like the Patriot Act and our own privacy laws.

More on Toyota’s A3 Process …

enterprise architecture, strategic planning 1 Response »

Jan 262011

After my original post about Toyota’s A3 Process, I received several tweets and comments about the use of the A3 Process in organizations.

Redge posted a great comment:

Having worked in the automotive industry and as a supplier to Toyota, I can attest to the value of the A3 format for problem solving.

The objective is to create a standardized format and also to ensure that the focus remains with the problem at hand. I caution you not to be fooled by it’s relative simplicity.

Problem solving using this form can be difficult as it’s limited space is purposefully restricted to encourage a concise and definitive presentation.

I highly recommend reading Toyota Kata by Mike Rother where he discusses Toyota’s improvement process at length. Definitely worth the read if you really want to understand how improvements and problem solving are integrated into Toyota’s culture.

One of my colleagues Johan Lindberg (@johanlindberg) pointed me to the shmula site which had a very good post on the Toyota A3 Report. There are several links to other A3 resources, I listed them below (I will update this list over time):

Peter Abilla from shmula.com The Toyota A3 Report and A3 Sample Template
Dr Durward Sobek’s website A3 Process
Cindy Jimmerson’s article in Lean Directions A3 Problem Solving: simplicity at work
Lifecycle Engineering video Using A3 Proposal as a Problem-Solving Tool
Mark Graban from leanblog.org Toyota’s Training Center and LAPD Template
Jon Miller from gemba panta rei A3 Report Title 189 Apologies
John Shook “Toyota’s Secret: The A3 Report”

On Monday, I used the A3 template to work with our Director of Student Services and Director of Library to capture information about a request they had to expand services to our satellite campuses. I will write about this in a later post as we work through the process. Based on our first use of the A3 template, I expect great results from taking this disciplined approach.

Looking forward to your feedback.

Adding Toyota’s A3 Report Process to your EA Toolkit

enterprise architecture, strategic planning 7 Responses »

Jan 162011

Joe McKendrick (@joemckendrick) wrote about Lean IT on ZDNet on Dec 27, 2010 titled Eight steps to achieve lean IT.

In his set of steps, Joe mentioned the Toyota A3 Report approach to looking at problems and A3 Thinking. He refers to this site about the A3 Process. You can download a template here.

Here are the 7 steps to the process:

Identify a problem or need
Conduct research to understand the current situation
Conduct root cause analysis
Devise countermeasures to address root causes
Develop a target state
Create an implementation plan
Develop a follow-up plan with predicted outcomes

In my masters studies on Technology Change Management, we were introduced to Toyota’s A3 approach as a tool for structured, problem solving. John Shook wrote about “Toyota’s Secret: The A3 Report” in the MIT Sloan Management Review. The article explores:

“How Toyota solves problems, creates plans, and gets things done while developing an organization of thinking problem solvers”.

Shook describes Toyota’s use of a two page mechanism called the A3 Report for attacking problems. He found the following:

The A3′s constraints (just 2 pages) and its structure are the keys to the A3′s power
The A3 process can be used to effectively solve problems and plan initiatives, its greatest value may be how it fosters learning and it provides ideal opportunities for mentoring
The A3 report becomes the basis for collaboration

We constantly look for ways to show value using Enterprise Architecture and the A3 process should be another tool to add to an EA’s toolkit. I recommend reading the article I linked in this post and would be interested in hearing from any of you who have used this process.

Shook, J. (2009). Toyota’s Secret: The A3 Report. MIT Sloan Management Review, Summer 2009, Vol. 50 No. 4 P. 31-33.