Читать книгу Smarter Data Science - Cole Stryker - Страница 40

One of the problems that arises in an information architecture is that the data can act as a binding agent and slow down IT's ability to rapidly respond to needed changes. For example, a common practice for instantiating data is to take a real-world concept and represent that concept in a literal and binding manner. In our changing world, many real-world concepts are often just anchored to a point in time and may be susceptible to change or interpretation. Any concept that is stored is typically used, verbatim, in a program or an application and potentially on a user's screen.

Another example: a person's gender might be tagged/named as “gender” in a database, referred to as “gender” in program code, and then labeled “gender” on a screen. The data is now serving to tightly bind various components of an information architecture together. Moreover, the tight coupling is extended to the business.

Gender is a term that has changed in popular meaning and use. Formerly, gender was popularly considered an immutable designation as to a person being either male or female. Society has moved away from that binary. The binding aspects attributed to instantiating data can make it difficult for systems to adapt to a new use without a rippling effect that requires a system to go through a significant rewrite or modification.

To replace the historical use of gender, at least two concepts are needed: one to represent a biological interpretation and one to represent a mutable societal preference that can be updated to reflect any needs changes.

As indicated, a tightly coupled alignment between the business and IT may result in an inability to fully leverage data in a meaningful manner beyond the point in time that the alignment was established. Intrinsically, alignment is the result of a cognitive desire to satisfy a specific point-in-time requirement or need.

The futurist Alvin Toffler described how the speed of change forces decisions to be made at “a faster and faster pace” and reveals how waves of change are not just isolated instances but have intertwined correlations across “business, family life, technology, markets, politics, and personal life” (The Third Wave, New York: Bantam Books, 1981). If a system is too tightly coupled to a point in time, alterations that are made to a system can lag behind the necessary business decisions that need to be taken, resulting in poor decision-making or missed opportunities simply because the system cannot be revised at the speed of business.

Influences or mandates for change to an organization can be externally driven or internally driven. External influences such as competition, government regulation, the environment, the arrival of new technology, suppliers, vendors, and partners are a few different types of stimuli that can result in the need to define a new, potentially immediate point in time. Internal influencers such as new senior management or a shift in corporate values, the execution of a management prerogative, and the availability or unavailability of resources or skillsets may create new types of demand. An information technology solution backboned on alignment (e.g., tightly coupled) with the business is likely to result in a current solution being misused and potentially damaging to the quality of the corporate digital knowledge base. A test of an information architecture is its inherent ability to facilitate the winds of change.