Provinence of AM
Somewhere in the mid 00s Richard experienced an itch to find a better way than the tower-of-babel in methodologies for enterprise architecture, business models(both kinds), and technology implementation. Then he felt that the essence of business was the transaction, usually a contract, but also an accounting transaction. He applied his modeling and programming skills to explore this and built some ‘transactor’ software.
Early in the 10s he had an inkling that thinking of business as ‘doing’ stuff was clouding and confusing all the efforts to automate it. And the business/IT divide was as wide as ever. Somewhere at that time he began to think of the business persons handshake and the business persons word. It was all about veracity; and information. So the idea of the business statement was born, an event where someone states a set of information with a common meaning to another participant.
By the 20s He was refining the concepts, and building software to proof the concepts. It was obvious that the flow of information was the key to business. And when it was clear that the concept was completely independent of computers, he began to get excited. And when it was clear that it could be structured in a way that could be automated it was even better. So he started building models(and automating how to build them).
Then, seeing the models was an epiphany in understanding business. Financial reporting slotted into place. Accountability, channels, security, implementation, agile; they were all ways of looking at the same thing. Now, the prospect of drawing business and its automation together with a common language drives Richard forward.
With Assertion Modelling I have built the tool I would like to have, if I were starting out again.
About Richard Lay
Richard is a graduate mechanical engineer who embraced scientific computing early in his career. When data and process modeling burst onto the scene in the 80s he moved into data administration roles while keeping up his research with object oriented programming. In the 90s he moved into information and business architecture consulting. The 00s saw enterprise architecture and supporting repositories as the focus. And in the 10s, transformation planning. Now, semi-retired he has embarked on research in better ways to describe and automate business efforts.
In those decades slide rules and sextants have disappeared. Maybe the swarm of awkward methodologies will go the same way.
Richard Lay can be contacted at richard.lay@admin
Influences
Studying and working with the following has shaped Richards perspectives:
- Engineering and control theory
- Predicate logic and group theory
- Microcomputer architecture
- Relational data models
- Object oriented programming
- Declarative languages
- Enterprise architecture modeling tools and methodologies
- Subject matter experts in diverse businesses.
- Family, friends, colleagues in engineering, government and consulting