Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Enterprise Architecture and Uniformity Uber Alles
Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated that foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds...
Far too many practitioners, who ought to know better, have a tendency to fall in love with a particular technology, architecture, or implementation technique and then loudly insist that it is the only appropriate solution to a wide range of problems. Other solutions may be permissible in this world-view, but only if they can be implemented in terms of the "preferred" solution.--even when it's a clear abstraction inversion. Competing paradigms are regarded as demons to be cast out. Uniformity is trumpeted as a comprehensive and all-encompassing requirement in any system that could ever be built--thus hybrid or multi-paradigm systems are also despised. The ultimate in terms of immaturity may be our savage desire to pursue CMMI as championed by Indian outsourcing firms.
When a preferred technology and/or methodology is shown to have shortcomings, they are dismissed as implementation details, to be solved later, even if the solution is years of research from being practical; if possible at all. Any fatal flaw which cannot be worked around is derided. Usually immature technologies and methodologies are championed and advocated as being new where examples such as CMMI, Business Rules, SOA and others where reality states they are mature and their limitations are well-chronicled.
| | View blog reactionsFar too many practitioners, who ought to know better, have a tendency to fall in love with a particular technology, architecture, or implementation technique and then loudly insist that it is the only appropriate solution to a wide range of problems. Other solutions may be permissible in this world-view, but only if they can be implemented in terms of the "preferred" solution.--even when it's a clear abstraction inversion. Competing paradigms are regarded as demons to be cast out. Uniformity is trumpeted as a comprehensive and all-encompassing requirement in any system that could ever be built--thus hybrid or multi-paradigm systems are also despised. The ultimate in terms of immaturity may be our savage desire to pursue CMMI as championed by Indian outsourcing firms.
When a preferred technology and/or methodology is shown to have shortcomings, they are dismissed as implementation details, to be solved later, even if the solution is years of research from being practical; if possible at all. Any fatal flaw which cannot be worked around is derided. Usually immature technologies and methodologies are championed and advocated as being new where examples such as CMMI, Business Rules, SOA and others where reality states they are mature and their limitations are well-chronicled.
