Lesson 66 - Durable Interface Strategy of Enterprise Architecture

Summary

In this episode of Software Architecture Monday, Mark Richards explores the 'Durable Interface Strategy', the final strategy in a series on enterprise architecture. He explains how this decentralized approach delegates decisions and standards to individual business units, with enterprise architects defining only the interface standards between them. Richards uses the historical analogy of maritime flags to illustrate the importance of a common communication standard. He also discusses the strategy's benefits, such as promoting the right tools for the job and better user satisfaction, as well as its challenges, including high implementation and maintenance costs.

Takeaways

• 🏛 The Durable Interface Strategy is a decentralized approach in enterprise architecture where individual business units have autonomy over their standards with the central organization defining only the interface standards.
• 🔌 This strategy allows for a high degree of autonomy, with each business unit having its own enterprise architects to define specific standards, promoting the right tools for the right job.
• 🤝 The central organization's role is to ensure that all business units interface correctly with one another, typically through gateways, APIs, and integration architectures.
• 🚀 The Durable Interface Strategy is suitable for highly diversified companies that require synergy between departments without strict central control.
• 📚 The strategy's historical analogy is maritime communication during the late 1700s, where ships used flags as a standard interface for communication regardless of their mission.
• 🚫 The complexity of the Durable Interface Strategy is high, making it the most challenging enterprise architecture strategy to implement, especially when changes to the interface standards are required.
• ⚠️ The strategy involves significant trade-offs, including the difficulty and cost of maintaining interfaces, which can be error-prone and lack economies of scale.
• 💡 It promotes user and IT satisfaction by allowing business units to control their own destiny, but at the cost of potentially higher overall costs.
• 📈 The strategy is beneficial for companies that value departmental autonomy and can manage the complexities of decentralized standard setting.
• 📝 The upcoming lesson will involve case studies to apply the enterprise architecture strategies discussed, providing practical insights into their use.
• 🌐 Additional resources and training opportunities are available on Mark Richards' website, Developer to Architect, for those interested in further learning about software architecture.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the 'Software Architecture Monday' series by Mark Richards?

The series focuses on teaching various strategies and concepts related to enterprise architecture, with each lesson diving into a specific topic or strategy.

What is the durable interface strategy in enterprise architecture?

The durable interface strategy is a decentralized approach where decisions and standards are delegated to individual business units, with the enterprise only defining how these units interface with one another.

How does the durable interface strategy differ from other enterprise architecture strategies?

Unlike other strategies, the durable interface strategy emphasizes complete autonomy for business units in defining their standards, with a central focus only on how these units interact with each other.

What role do enterprise architects play in the durable interface strategy?

Enterprise architects in the durable interface strategy define the standard for how business units interface with one another, but they do not dictate the internal standards of each business unit.

Why is the durable interface strategy considered complex to implement?

The complexity arises from the difficulty in maintaining and updating the interface standards across all business units, which can lead to errors and high costs if not managed properly.

What are the advantages of the durable interface strategy?

The strategy promotes the use of the right tools for the right job, allowing business units to make decisions that best fit their needs, which can lead to better user and IT satisfaction.

What are the potential downsides of the durable interface strategy?

The downsides include the high cost of maintaining interfaces, the lack of economies of scale, and the difficulty in controlling costs due to the decentralized nature of the strategy.

How can the durable interface strategy be visualized using a historical analogy?

The strategy can be compared to maritime communication during the late 1700s, where ships used flags as a standard interface to communicate regardless of their mission, illustrating the importance of a common standard for interaction.

What is the significance of integration architecture in the durable interface strategy?

Integration architecture is crucial as it ensures that all business units, despite their autonomy, can communicate and interface effectively through gateways, APIs, and other integration tools.

How do the enterprise architects ensure that the interface standards are adhered to by all business units?

Enterprise architects establish and maintain the interface standards, and it is the responsibility of each business unit to adhere to these standards when interfacing with other units.

What can we expect from the upcoming lesson 67 in the 'Software Architecture Monday' series?

Lesson 67 will involve a case study exercise that allows the audience to interactively decide which enterprise architecture strategies would fit specific scenarios, providing a practical application of the strategies discussed.

Outlines

00:00

🏛️ Durable Interface Strategy in Enterprise Architecture

In this segment, Mark Richards introduces the 'durable interface strategy' as the final strategy in the series on enterprise architecture. This strategy is characterized by a decentralized approach where individual business units have full autonomy over their standards, with the central enterprise architecture team only defining how these units interface with each other. The analogy of maritime flags in the late 1700s is used to illustrate how a common standard (like flags) enables communication and coordination among different units. Despite promoting autonomy and potentially better user and IT satisfaction, the strategy is noted for its complexity and the challenges in maintaining and distributing a common interface standard across the enterprise.

05:01

🚢 Challenges and Trade-offs of the Durable Interface Strategy

This paragraph delves into the difficulties and trade-offs associated with implementing the durable interface strategy. It emphasizes the challenge of changing a common interface standard, as illustrated by the hypothetical scenario of changing naval flags, which could lead to miscommunication and conflict. The strategy is acknowledged for promoting the right tools for the right job, allowing business units to choose their own standards, potentially leading to better user and IT satisfaction. However, it also comes with high costs and complexity due to the lack of economies of scale and the difficulty in maintaining and error-proofing interfaces. The segment concludes with a teaser for the next lesson, which will involve case studies to help apply these strategies in real-world scenarios.

Keywords

💡Software Architecture

Software architecture refers to the high-level design and structure of software systems. It encompasses the components, their relationships, and the principles guiding their design. In the video, Mark Richards discusses strategies within enterprise architecture, which is a subset of software architecture that focuses on the organization's overall IT infrastructure. The theme is relevant as it forms the basis for the discussion on enterprise architecture strategies.

💡Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architecture is a comprehensive framework that provides a blueprint for an organization's structure and processes. It includes the business, data, application, and technology domains. In the video, the focus is on the strategies that describe how enterprise architecture teams are structured and how standards are applied and governed. The durable interface strategy is one such strategy discussed in detail.

💡Durable Interface Strategy

The durable interface strategy is a decentralized approach in enterprise architecture where individual business units have autonomy over their standards, with enterprise standards only defining how these units interface with each other. This strategy is highlighted in the video as one that promotes flexibility but also introduces complexity in maintaining and updating interfaces.

💡Central Organization

In the context of the durable interface strategy, the central organization refers to the core group of enterprise architects who define the overarching standards for how business units interact. The video explains that while business units have autonomy, the central organization still plays a crucial role in setting the standard for interfaces.

💡Business Units

Business units are distinct segments within an organization that operate with a degree of autonomy. In the video, it is mentioned that under the durable interface strategy, each business unit has the freedom to define its own standards, such as security, topology, network, and hardware choices. This autonomy is a key feature of the strategy.

💡Integration Architecture

Integration architecture is the practice of designing and managing the integration of different systems and applications within an organization. The video discusses how the durable interface strategy relies on integration architecture to ensure that business units can communicate and interact effectively, often through gateways, APIs, and other integration mechanisms.

💡Gateways and APIs

Gateways and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are technical components used for system integration. In the video, they are mentioned as essential tools in the durable interface strategy, enabling different business units to communicate and exchange data. They serve as the standardized interfaces that all units must adhere to.

💡Admiralty

The Admiralty, in the historical context provided in the video, refers to the British naval authority responsible for the design and use of flags for communication among ships. This analogy is used to illustrate the concept of a durable interface strategy, where a common standard (flags) is crucial for communication and coordination.

💡Synergy

Synergy in the video refers to the collaboration and interaction between different business units or departments within an organization. The durable interface strategy is said to promote synergy by allowing units to communicate and work together, despite their autonomy, through standardized interfaces.

💡Cost and Complexity

The video discusses the trade-offs of the durable interface strategy, highlighting that while it provides flexibility and autonomy, it also introduces high costs and complexity. This is due to the lack of economies of scale and the difficulty in maintaining and updating interfaces across decentralized units.

💡Case Studies

Case studies are practical examples used to illustrate and analyze complex concepts or strategies. The video concludes with a mention of a future lesson that will use case studies to help the audience understand and apply enterprise architecture strategies, including the durable interface strategy, to real-world scenarios.

Highlights

Introduction to the 'durable interface strategy' as the final strategy of enterprise architecture discussed in the lesson.

Explanation of enterprise architecture strategies and their role in defining the structure and standards application across an organization.

Description of the four basic enterprise architecture strategies: prescriptive, classic district, classic alternative, distributed, and durable interface.

The durable interface strategy is a decentralized approach where business units have autonomy over their standards with enterprise defining only the interface standards.

Central organization of enterprise architects maintains a limited role in the durable interface strategy, focusing on defining interface standards.

Business units in the durable interface strategy have complete freedom to define their own standards, including security, topology, network, and hardware choices.

Integration architecture focus is emphasized in the durable interface strategy, requiring business units to communicate through standardized gateways and APIs.

The strategy is well-suited for highly autonomous and diversified companies that require synergy between departments.

Historical analogy of maritime communication through flags to illustrate the concept of a common interface standard in the durable interface strategy.

Complexity and difficulty in implementing and maintaining the durable interface strategy due to the decentralized nature of standards.

The durable interface strategy promotes the use of the right tools for the job by allowing business units to choose their own technologies and methodologies.

Challenges in maintaining interfaces and controlling costs in the durable interface strategy due to the lack of economies of scale.

Upcoming lesson 67 will involve use cases and case studies to interactively decide which enterprise architecture strategies fit real-world scenarios.

Information on where to find more lessons, private training, and upcoming events related to software architecture and enterprise strategies.

Conclusion of lesson 66 with an invitation to the next lesson for a wrap-up of enterprise architecture strategies using a case study approach.

Transcripts

hello and welcome to software

architecture Monday my name is Mark

Richards I'm a hands-on software

architect and also the founder of

developer to architect comm in today's

lesson number 66 we'll take a look at

the last strategy of enterprise

architecture something called the

durable interface strategy as we saw in

lesson 62 the strategies describe the

overall enterprise architecture team

structure whether it's centralized or

distributed and also how standards

whether they be technology architecture

methodology or process based are applied

and governed across the enterprise and

we saw that there were four basic

strategies of enterprise architecture

the prescriptive classic district

classic alternative the distributed and

the durable interface and prior lessons

we've seen details about each of those

in this lesson we're actually going to

take a look at the durable interface

strategy the durable of interface

strategy is one of those decentralized

strategies where decisions and standards

are delegated to individual business

units completely with the enterprise

standards only defining how those

business units interface with one

another and so for example to illustrate

this we still have a central

organization of enterprise architects

but they don't do a lot you see each

business unit has total autonomy on all

of the standards they want to define

within their teams and those could be

anything through security through

topology through network through

hardware they can make choices about

going to cloud-based infrastructure

zoran Prem every decision is delegated

to these individual business units

however the enterprise architects and

the central organization of the

companies still define one standard and

that standard is how each of the

business units into relate or interface

with one another now let's take a look

at the durable interface strategy as an

example because here there are no

enterprise standards just how each

business unit is is

interfaces or communicates with each

other so now each individual department

business unit whichever kind of segment

their division now can have its own set

of standards any one of those and like I

indicated in the distributed strategy

generally each business unit will have

its own Enterprise architects who

actually define those specific standards

within that particular business unit you

know this is all about integration

architecture focus you see we've got all

these departments or divisions or

business units within the company and

also kind of still a home office this is

really works well for kind of those

highly autonomous business units those

companies that are highly diversified

but do need synergy between the

departments see each department

necessarily needs to communicate with

one another

and these are usually done through

gateways and api's and such that's the

standard across which all departments

must adhere to as a matter of fact that

standard also implies that we may have

integration hubs or message buses or es

bees and a prayer service buses that the

home office uses to gather information

as well for maybe financial reporting or

other kinds of reporting and metrics

across the entire company you know a

good way to kind of really illustrate

this durable interface strategy is to go

back in history to the late 1700s let's

say 1790 where we had maritime Wars and

let's say two ships on the left-hand

side all of a sudden are sailing along

and they see this really large ship

that's on the right-hand side

the question is Friend or Foe is that an

enemy ship so maybe we should prepare

for battle or run away or is it a friend

in which case we can just continue to

say along in our direction or maybe meet

up with them to exchange news how in the

world can these two ships which are

these two groups of ships which are

doing entirely different things

communicate with one another well back

in the day and that communication was

done through flags and you see the flags

formed the standard for how all ships

regardless of what they were doing what

their mission was could communicate with

one another it's a great analogy because

that Admiralty was that enterprise

architecture team that built those flags

those standards now the interesting

thing here to describe the complexity of

the durable interface strategy and by

the way when I say complexity this is

the hardest enterprise architecture

strategy to implement

can you imagine ships all around the

world and you see that upper right hand

white flag with the red dot upper right

hand side well the Admiralty decides

that they don't like that flag and they

want to change it to a green flag with a

blue dot can you imagine how hard that

would be to change because now all of a

sudden the wrong response is done and

all of a sudden we start firing on our

own ships and so distributing that kind

of common interface standard is

extremely difficult it's also difficult

maintaining those as well as matter of

fact let's look at the trade-offs of the

durable interface strategy because this

really does promote the right tools for

the right job as a matter of fact if a

standard across our organization such as

the distributed says no we will use

on-prem certain business units may be

able to take advantage of cloud but it's

not a standard that has been defined by

the enterprise here each business unit

can do whatever it wants to do not only

from the software but also the hardware

methodology and also process

it's got entire this the entire business

unit control and therefore this does

promote that synergy between the

departments and so we get much better

user and IT satisfaction but notice here

the durable interface strategy does

provide that synergy between departments

business units or divisions however we

get better user all satisfaction but

maintaining those interfaces is

extremely difficult and error-prone as a

matter of fact it has very high overall

cost perhaps the highest cost out of any

strategy and that exists because now

there's no economies of scale and the

other thing that's really hard to

control cost within this durable

interface enterprise architecture

strategy so we've seen all four kinds of

strategies as a matter of fact going

back to lesson 62 which kind of started

this little series right here of

enterprise architecture strategies you

can go and kind of get the background of

each of these and then lesson 63 64 and

65 showing all the other ones now what

we are going to do everybody is this

we're gonna have one more lesson number

67 in enterprise architecture strategies

which is going to be use cases I'm going

to show you and introduce two different

case studies and have you as an audience

and be able to interactively decide

which enterprise architecture strategies

would be a fit and that would kind of

wrap this whole thing up in a bow to

really not only understand these but

also to apply them into real world

case studies you can get information

about all the other lessons I do and

software architecture Monday on my

website developer to architect comm

slash lessons I do have private training

that I offer and that is in areas of

software architecture micro services and

also analyzing architecture and I do

speak at a lot of conferences I do have

online training as well as public

training if you go to the upcoming

events portion of my website you can

find where all those events are and so

this has been lesson 66 the durable

interface strategy of enterprise

architecture again my name is Mark

Richards thank you so much for listening

and stay tuned in the next lesson for

the wrap-up of all of these strategies

of enterprise architecture with kind of

a case study exercise approach thank you

so much for listening