Business Ecosystem Future –a look ahead

Had an interesting discussion yesterday morning with a colleague. Our discussions already are wide-range and free-wheeling.   This morning was no different. We discussed the nature and evolution of businesses. During that discussion, I brought up how information technology has changed from monolithic applications to small apps and my hypothesis as to why. Part of that rational I believe is due to two factors: First, the IT backlog and its increasing failure to address business needs. While many IT organizations have, or are switching over to “Agile” or “Addle” as several colleagues have called it due to many misfires, I look at Agile as one of many data points proving a change to the Business Ecosystem.

The days of monolithic anything is drawing to a close. Lean the precursor to Agile in manufacturing has been working its way upstream. What this suggests is that small and fast will been the dominate development and construction tactic of this age.

This then means that consulting firms will need to retool also not only learning fast production methods like agile but understanding how to address the complexities of many more loosely coupled components. Apps vs. Applications means that integration often happens between the ears rather than through the database or API.

The critical skills that Enterprise Architects and Consultants will need to develop are in opposition to their training:

·        Synthesis in addition to Analysis

·        Experimentation and tolerance for failure (often called learning)

·        Business Value Management

·        Complexity Management

·        Understanding of Options Theory planning

·        Business Lifecycle Management

This will mean a new type of consulting firm model as the nest in the shallows of a corporation as high priced contingency labor will be unacceptable to leadership, they’ll be looking for just-in-time consulting.