Yesterday evening, my new Whitebook about Agile Enterprise Architecture (see here, in Dutch) got published. In this Whitebook I pointed out that developing Enterprise Architecture is a Two Way process. And that it should be build Agile.

First of all, a Business Case should be leading in the choices that are made in the architecture. This is, simply, because we look at architecture from a project point of view. A project start architecture needs to be the beginning of a project, but measured against the organization. This is exactly the problem I encounter on a near daily basis: Enterprise Architecture made too big and becoming an ideal picture instead of an realistic and facilitating process.

Enterprise Architecture basically needs to describe the Business processes, the information demand, the applications overview and the technical grounds. This is the blueprint on which we can build our system. But how can we make sure we don’t overdo it? Simple: make it Agile.

Agile Enterprise Architecture works on the same principles as Agile Software Development: the Agile Manifesto. When we understand these principles, building an architecture for our project and organization is made a lot simpler: look at the stuff we actually need right now, don’t over document the process and let people be the basis of knowledge.

In other words: Agile Enterprise Architecture is a Two Way process in which the entire group of stakeholders is leading. Therefore it starts with the basics: why do we need it. (and what don’t we need, eliminating waste.) In Agile Enterprise Architecture there is room to learn and adjust, because we don’t do everything at once, but listen to what all stakeholders have to say: what can IT learn from Business, and the other way around.

It is confirmed; both Philips and Ricoh will present during our APEX and Productivity knowledge session on Thursday December 10th. They will show off what types of applications they build with Oracle Application Express using the Vision, Knowledge and Result approach and in what way this was achieved. CreativITy in real live.

During this knowledge session (register before it’s too late, there are still some seats available) Whitehorses, Philips and Ricoh will show, at the hand of two real projects we have done in the last few months, how to create something that seems complex and hard in a very short amount of time. Both projects are steered on a clear vision and with a defined deadline on delivery.

My colleagues and I will then show how this is done in APEX itself. What are the basics you will need to understand and how can you develop and deliver fast. Modular design and User Interface tweaking are some of the keywords we will use in this session. For both APEX developers who want to do more with their knowledge and managers who are looking for a fast solution to a seamlessly impossible problem this will be a useful and interesting session.

Finally a session on APEX and productivity with real customers and live situations!

In a few weeks we will host a special knowledge session on Oracle Application Express and the possibilities to do real, productive jet complex projects with this brilliant tooling. During this session, which is held at our office from 3 till 6 PM, we will see two sessions by our clients to demonstrate that cooperate, pragmatism, the right tooling and a hard deadline will create effective and efficient projects that can even tackle really complex problems in an extremely short amount of time.

At this knowledge session we will (try to) demonstrate that Oracle’s APEX beneficial qualities can be implemented on large scale and that it is possible to work with a complex challenge and APEX together. At the hand of the client cases, which are both live in production, we will show how project management, software design and development go hand in hand if you use the right approach and the right set of knowledge. The team will benefit from some best-practices and a vision on how to develop large and complex APEX projects.

The session is all Dutch and will be held at our office in Nieuwegein. There are not many seats to be given so register before it’s too late!

When we take a look at software development and the many different views on the subject, we tend to make the mistake that those cannot be combined. Either we try to have the ultimate control over our project en implement project management based on PRINCE2. Or we want to develop Agile, using steering mechanisms like Scrum. What a lot of us forget that the combination might possibly bring us a best of breeds situation where we are able to create results swiftly and still maintain control over our development project. (While we don’t create overhead and unnecessary, costly document trails).

PRINCE2 has the name of being pricy and a very official and constrained project management method. Generating document and supporting a bureaucratic manner of managing projects PRINCE2 has a bad name in the eyes of some. Despite these false accusations, PRINCE2 is very popular. Nearly every self respecting project manager works in one form of the PRINCE2 method. This isn’t very strange. PRINCE2 has given us the controls to learn from our mistakes and to monitor and support change in the ongoing process. Too bad this method is sometimes not implemented in the right way.
Agile Software Development. Entire libraries has been written about the subject (although I assume not as many books as there are on PRINCE2), but most of us are still struggling with the matter. What exactly is Agile Software Development? What is Scrum and how do I implement it in my current software development strategies? All these questions about a simple principle and an even simpler solution. When we take a further look at the assumptions there are about Agile, and the assumptions there are about PRINCE2 (PINO: PRINCE2 In Name Only, ring a bell?) we know that a lot of us think that the combination is not to be done.

This is a common mistake, but don’t worry, most of us tend to make it. When we take a look at the new definition of PRINCE2, in the PRINCE2 2009 manual, we learn that the combination of Scrum and PRINCE2 isn’t that strange at all. The jargon might be a bit different between the two approaches, but the need and result are the same. So we want to do Agile project, while keeping the control over our projects as we are used to in PRINCE2 projects.

About this subject we are organizing a knowledge session at our offices in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands, on the 26th of November. We will learn, from actual situations, that this combination is doable and how this is done. During some interactive sessions we show that this combination is a best of breeds and we will tell you how you can achieve this. Look on the Whitehorses website for more information and registration for this event.

I have the pleasure of working together with some of the coolest people in the world of software development. My colleagues, or most of them, share their knowledge to others on the web, and one of them is Martin van Borselaer. Martin knows projects. That’s it. And he shares his vision on how to develop software and how we best can manage our projects in a Lean and Agile approach. Of course, Prince2 is king (or do I need to say prince?) in project management, especially when it comes to software development projects. The counterpart is that Prince2 has the bad name of being too big. Too much overhead creates an enormous project, even if the idea was to have an Agile approach to the project itself. In the field, Martin has shown us that Prince2 has a lot of good stuff in it that we can use in order to manage a concrete Agile IT project. But how? Martin has a Lean vision, a thought on how to implement good project management even in situation we need to eliminate waste in. He explains that the wrong thing to do is to go PINO (Prince2 in Name Only) but to understand the elimination of waste in every process, and apply that to the Prince2 principles. When I took the Prince2 foundation exam, there were some questions about which document comes when, but do we really need this? Not if we work on an Agile way in a Prince2 environment.

In his new Whitebook (sorry guy’s, Dutch only) Martin van Borselaer explains that in the new Prince2 handbook (the old one was from 2005, so this version is called Prince2 2009) there’s more room for an Agile approach to Prince2 and project management. Prince2 2009 explains to us how we can do better by “not living by the book”. Prince2, the 2009 approach, gives us some insights in the way we can do real live projects. Martin, you were right.

On tuesday the 29th I will be hosting a special theme meeting for the Oracle Gebruikersclub Holland (OGh) at the headquarters of Oracle The Netherlands in De Meern about Oracle Forms to APEX conversion. The central question we will try to answer during this evening-session is ‘How can I successfully do an Oracle Forms to Application Express Conversion project?’.

This means that I will not only discuss and show how the Forms Converter in APEX 3.2 works, but that we will also discuss and look into ways to do these kinds of projects successfully. What does it take to do a project? What are the problems and challenges we will face during such a project and how can we overcome them. In which ways can we make sure we do the right thing and don’t overlook anything. How can we make these projects small and understandable and how can we create the right balance between conversion and redesign?

As a member of the OGh you can enroll for this session on their website.

Mijn zeer gewaardeerde collega Marco Heerebout, senior consultant Business and IT, heeft een zeer interessant artikel geschreven over de mogelijkheden die er zijn om op een snelle manier, succesvolle projecten uit te voeren. Dit Whitebook beschrijft de noodzaak om juist op een andere manier te kijken naar de projecten die wij doen. We zijn gewent om projecten uit te voeren door eerst van tevoren uitgebreid na te denken over de gewenste functionaliteiten, toch betekend dit vaak dat hierdoor een project juist onsuccesvol wordt. De requirements die opgesteld zijn, zijn altijd aan verandering en interpretatie hevig. Hierdoor komt het voor dat een zeer gestructureerd opgesteld project een verlies blijkt te zijn. Immers: waarom voeren we eigenlijk het project uit? Alle situaties zijn namelijk veranderlijk. Op de momenten dat we deze verandering als eerder als regel beschouwen dan uitzondering komen we pas verder. Het artikel van Marco Heerebout beschrijft de manier op projecten aan te pakken met Scrum. Hierdoor zijn we in staat van veranderingen te leren in plaats van ze tegen te werken. Lees het Whitebook hier.

Nu mijn boek gepubliceerd is bij Packt Publishing was het natuurlijk hoog tijd dat ook mijn eerste Whitebook uitgebracht wordt. Een aantal minuten geleden is dat ook gebeurd! Doordat ik in het boek uitgebreid beschrijf op welke manier we een conversieproject van Oracle Forms naar APEX moeten uitvoeren heb ik ervoor gekozen welke middelen er in de converter in APEX 3.2 zitten om er juist voor te zorgen dat het ook met succes uitgevoerd wordt. Oftewel: hoe ondersteunen we met de convertertool optimaal de projectaansturen en op welke manier bewaken we de voortgang? Deze vragen, ben ik inmiddels achter, zijn immers het belangrijkste tijdens een complex conversieproject. Want: als we weten wat we allemaal moeten doen voor ons project kunnen we pas inschatten wat de impact zal zijn en welke inspanning het zal kosten. Hiervoor zitten er in APEX 3.2 een aantal zeer handige onderdelen gebouwd die ervoor kunnen zorgen dat we een stuk verder komen dan voorheen. Met zekerheid een conversieproject uitvoeren! Leed het Whitebook hier.