Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Patrick C. Walsh

Patrick C. Walsh — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:17:47 GMT

Good article. Its nice to hear someone talking about EIA. I came to IA not from IT or web design but from being a Quality manager in the automotive sector for many years and came to IA through producing online quality manuals.
I find a lot in common between EIA and the Quality function. The skills/knowledge gained in document control, change management, negotiation etc from Quality I have found invaluable in my new career as an EIA.
EIA’s must also recognise that many organisations have now adopted various standards (ISO 9000, 14001, TS 16949 etc) that are important to their business. These standards must be subsumed and maintained as part of the enterprise’s information system. I think that information systems built around their internal policies and procedures may work better for some organisations but the traditional scope of the ‘Quality Manual’ must be expanded to include all areas/functions of the organisation. The scope of the information system must also reflect the organisation’s environment and ensure that all relevant external information is available and subsumed into the overall system.
Great to be having a debate on this!

Patrick C. Walsh — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:15 GMT

I feel that IA as practiced for the internet does not altogether map against what is required for Enterprise Inforamtion Achitecture (EIA). Perhaps EIA ought to become a specialty of its own?

Patrick C. Walsh — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:29 GMT

Couldn’t agree more. I work at creating and maintaining internal information systems and am employed long term to do this.
As each organisation is different so the problems, both human and technical, will inevitably differ. In order to attain an effective architecture as deep a knowledge as possible of the business and its processes is required before a single taxonomy is defined.
A further problem is that when the EIA finally gets a cogent overview she can often see problems/opportunities that are invisible to people within the organisation.
In organisations that have never had an information system I find some of the techniques such as card sorting of limited value at the start. Staff aren’t always aware of what is possible so asking their opinion of what an information system might look like or contain is often like the blind man trying to describe an elephant by feeling its trunk.
I think that a lot of the techniques may actually be of more use once a system has been in place for a while and the penny has dropped with the users.

Patrick C. Walsh — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:52 GMT

I think the list could go on and on. I am doing a small survey which asks EIAs for info on constraints, success factors and factors contributing to failures. If you would like me to send you the info once the survey is completed it would not be a problem.

Patrick C. Walsh — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 16:03:30 GMT

Masood,
tried the link but all I got was an error message. I have done some processing of the data and can send you the results straight away. If you post your e-mail address I will send them to you.

Patrick C. Walsh — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:55:24 GMT

I am a great fan of Darwin who is sadly misunderstood in some areas (haven’t read Kropotkin yet). His theory was hijacked to a certain extent by imperialists who thought it gave them carte blanche to oppress everyone else. ‘Survival of the fittest’ was coined by Darwin but put into another context by people like Andrew Carnegie.
Darwin argued that through variation of the species those with favourable traits would survive – natural selection. This does not imply that fittest=strongest or most ruthless. These traits include camouflage, being good at running away and, of course, the trait which led to human survival – teamwork. A team of hunters are more productive (can kill bigger animals) and ‘altruism’, looking after sick and old members of the group, is beneficial, its just insurance for your future and older people in many cultures were traditionally the keepers of valuable knowledge for the group.
I think that this is a great idea and I would love to see an article on this.

Patrick C. Walsh — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:20:19 GMT

I totally agree with your approach. In my experience the data required for a really effective EIA is rarely available unless you go out and get it. On many occasions when I have conducted research amongst staff members (for both quality and IA issues) they have commented that it had been the first time that anyone in the organisation had asked what they thought of anything.
Regarding ‘ethnography’, I’ve been doing it for years and didn’t know. That will look good on my CV!

Patrick C. Walsh — Wed, 09 May 2007 17:40:08 GMT

Nice to hear a reference to ‘5S’ and kaizen as I have worked in the auto industry for many years before ‘graduating’ to IA. I think that there are many concepts developed in this sector that are transferable to other areas e.g. agile development, concurrent engineering, 7 muda (wastes), poke-yoke (idiot proofing) processes etc.
Keeping stuff fairly minimal is important when I browse the web. I find that sites that have too much going on give me an instant mental headache and I tend to hit the back button immediately.
Thanks for the review…next stop Amazon

Patrick C. Walsh — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:45:15 GMT

Just finished my MSc based on how IT, IA and KM can be harnessed in the small business sector. I would be very interested to read an article on IA in small businesses

Patrick C. Walsh — Wed, 16 May 2007 12:08:18 GMT

Robert: Thanks. Your sales figures have just increased by one

Patrick C. Walsh — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 16:20:41 GMT

Austin,
I was interested in this when you raised this in your blog last January. As a Content Manager who is trying to become an IA I realised that only someone more or less in my position has a birds eye view of all of the information within an organisation. People still tend towards the siloing of information and I see it as part of my job to break down the silos and integrate the new information with existing information held in our intranet. This inevitably leads to the identification of gaps, conflicts and duplication of effort in our business processes.
Because of my overall knowledge I have gotten involved in trying to resolve many of these problems which has sometimes taken me away from my core role. However I see this as adding immense value to our business and well worth the effort. This has also made my position more high profile within my organisation and I feel some respect has been gained.

Patrick C. Walsh — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:13:03 GMT

Austin,
I’d be happy to contribute in any way. Please contact me at ‘patrick.walsh@hertshighways.org.uk’ when you’re ready

Patrick C. Walsh — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 09:39:52 GMT

Donna,
Looked up your article after finding you on p. 134 of ‘Designing the Obvious’. I am currently reorganising my company’s intranet and the 4 modes are a really simple and useful way of keeping user’s information seeking behaviour in the front of my mind while I carry this out.

Thanks

Patrick C. Walsh — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:01:50 GMT

I like this approach. Scoring is similar to Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) which is used to prioritise actions to prevent process failures in manufacturing etc. Like FMEAs it produce an overall numerical score which, in my experience, those with entrenched opinions or political axes to grind find difficult to argue with.
If done as a group it can lead to a consensus approach and ‘buy in’ from participants – even those who are somewhat sceptical.

Patrick C. Walsh — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:39:11 GMT

As I work in enterprise IA I find this of great interest. Making IA work well in the enterprise often involves having to change processes or structures ( and people’s minds).
However might this cover some of the same area as Austin Govella’s idea on alignment?
(http://www.boxesandarrows.com/idea/view/8348)
Not sure that I like the idea of ‘freeze, transition and unfreeze’ as I come from a culture where continual incremental improvement is considered the best option but I would still like to know more about it.