[Archive] Terms I'm using ...
Thought I'd write a note on the general terms that I use.
- Activities are what we do.
- Activities evolve through discrete states - genesis, custom built, product & rental services, commodity & utility services.
- Practices are how we do it.
- Practice evolve through discrete states - novel, emerging, good and best.
- The evolution of an activity can cause the co-evolution of a practice i.e. the shift of computing infrastructure from from product to utility services has caused the development and evolution of a new set of architectural practices.
- Both activity and practice states can be characterised into common phases which have common properties - chaotic, transitional and linear.
- For activities these phases are
- Genesis is chaotic
- Custom, Product & Rental Services are transitional
- Commodity & utility services are linear.
- For practices these phases are
- Novel is chaotic
- Emerging and Good are transitional
- Best is linear.
- The largest inertia barriers to change are found in the evolution of activities from the transitional to the linear phase i.e. the shift from product & rental services to commodity & utility services.
- Inertia barriers are instrumental in controlling the shift between different economic eras - known as the peace, war and build era.
- The eras make up a repeating cycle of change which maybe specific to an industry or have wider economic effect.
- The largest of these cycles of change are known as Ages.
Originally published on blog.gardeviance.org.