EA Update

Is EA a waste of time ??? .. I'm not sure ... I do believe that the ability to "Raise a concept to the managment level" is great ... and "HARD" ... I love the phase "Details are Easy .. a good Summery is Genius" .. I don't have the ability to create the "Targeted Summary" it really hard! .. Somehow, you need to connect at the "emotion level" .. Without going to deep to confuse, and not too shallow to seem pretentious .. That is a tough balance . . .

So after hours of EA work, and talking with the OMB .. I finally met with the CIO who said "Lets skip EA this year" . . . She was right, since the OMB does not demand it from a small agency, and the Federal EA is fairly worthless to us (We fall in only 2 BRM categories) . .

So I talked to OMB, and told them, they need to devise a "Small Agency FEA Model" ... They agreed, and said "No Money" ...

EA seems to be only for the rich agencies .. or the ones that have lots and lots of moving parts ...

lulu and phprunner

Every once in a while, I make minor breakthroughs ... To many, these seem so minor .. that they may think I'm an ant screeming that I found a grain of suger ...

Well , if live is made up of small successes, then this is a good thing ... O.K. Let rolls a few off ..

1. I finally made a giant net, so Ellie can pratice serving in volleyball, and get the ball back.
2. I finally made an"private" outdoor dressing room (Chest Down), so I can get into my swim trunks, and jump in the hot tub ... Without going inside ... and More importantly, I can get back in my shorts, with tronching through the house all wet (and cold).
3. I made a rack to hold the Hot Tub Supports
4. I made hot tub supports
5. I fixed the hot tub lid (From 150 lbs to 20lbs)
6. Built a web system to track computer flaws (and got it in production)
7. I designed a new system for conservation using PHP
8. I started painting the living room
9. I lost 20 pounds
10. I dug out a creek blockage, that drained a Misiiquito swamp

Not bad for a few weeks ...


LuLu is a site to publish your own book ..
PHPRunner is a RAD web development tool ...

Things to pursue ...
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EA or not to EA

Ahh, the last post never got to the crux of the issue ... to EA or not ... EA (or Enterprise Architecture), is a interesting phenomnum. It seem to be focusing on abstracting one big smorgaboard of an enterprise environment into a set of basic meals, that people can try and eat if it taste nasty.

Then, try and decide what to put on the plate, what to take out of the smorgusboard, and what to add in.

The federal EA, defines the meals in numerous ways .. The Business Meals (The BRM), the Service Model (SRM), the Data Model (DRM), ....

The problem is .. That we have a real small smorgasboard ... So this model may not work for us ... We need to think about a model that does work, and then link that into the FEA model ... A "Small Agency FEA Model" is what we want ....

EA or not to EA

I have not posted for a few days ... and maybe that’s a good things. I've had a few nice breakthroughs in different.. Just enough to keep me confused and Guessing...

I tested out the simple "RAD" development tool (PHPRunner), and had a little luck .. It seems nice, and I can generate quick Web based applications that work cross browser to a relational database backend, in a few minutes...

I now need to figure out how to inject the "Data Quality" components into the design,,, This is basically the idea, that data is replicated from authoritative sources, but not dependent. Dependences can be a nightmare, in the case of a deleted record, or restoration of the primary system. However, replication is a pain, in the even that you’re out of sync. The general idea, is to replicate "Relationships" and not code .... Half the relationship is local (Local Employee id) and half is remote (Remote Employee ID) ... Neither system knows of the existence of the primary data, only the linkage. In the event that the linkage breaks ... (e.g. Primary User Deleted), then the local version is not effected.. Except to say "Broken Link" ..

Now, we need to have system assurance reports that record "Broken Links" and ask the users what action to take ... (Mark to deleted, Mark to Accepts as orphan, Mark to refresh, ... ) and then clean it up nightly (or real time).

Data Strategy

I called Greg today about the DCL project - It seems that the project has many initaitive that are data related .. However, he felt that I did not have time .. Since I did not have a "Data Strategy" written. This is tough, I've started many papers along this route .. and all have died on the vine ... Why .. Good question ... I think they are good .. But there is a disconnect between the Detail and Summary version .... I need to look back at my governace papers ...

Boy, I wish I had a mentor on some of this stuff. . . Someone just to say "Yea - I thing that looks right" ...

Next

Just got the PCD out of the way ... It took a long time .. Mostly getting the DFD and ERD in shape .. As soon as i would publish it , I would think of another change ... At this time I think that the design may be too complex for PHPRunner. I'll see where the next step takes us, and then see if I should drop it on Neals lap ...


Greg make a "Offhand" commnet about the Data Strategy ... First I'll knock out the PAtch reporting and AI (ANd configurations) .. (Three in one), and then I'll go back ...

and ..

Blackbaud fix (1)
Blackbaud fix (2) ...

I think I need to proiritize