Coevolving Innovations

Coevolving Innovations

… in Business Organizations and Information Technologies

Services methods in a process framework

December 15, 2019
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From the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, methods for organizing for service engagements at scale were developed at IBM. Although this investment in knowledge management was huge, changes in the organization by the late-2000s saw this rich body of intellectual capital practically disappear.  Appreciation for the framework remains in the memories of practitioners in the IBM Global Services organization — particularly the methodologists — immersed during that period. Some foundational historical artifacts can be rediscovered on the open Internet:

  • 1. Configurable Development Processes (2002)
  • 2. Method Adoption Workshops (2000)
  • 3. Eclipse Process Framework Composer (2007)

The resemblance to pattern language, as prescribed by Christoper Alexander, is not accidental. Excerpts from these three sources are provided here, to entice readers who might seek out the full articles.

1. Configurable Development Processes (2002)

The Work Product based methods started in IBM at the rise of object-oriented methods. With OO as a new paradigm, incompatibilities across the variety of approaches frustrated clients trying to get work done.  The end results seemed pretty much the same. The resolution for IBM came through centering on ends (work products) first, and means (techniques) second. The methods originating in software development became cross-appropriated into services engagement for other domain offerings (e.g. business strategy, organizational change).

Here’s an excerpt that shows the centrality of Work Product Descriptions (WPDs) from:

Work products cover the full range of project work including project management, business process design, organizational change, requirements, usability, architecture, design, construction, and testing.

… Read more (in a new tab)

IBM Advanced Business Institute (1989-2004), Palisades Executive Conference Center (1989-2016)

November 24, 2019
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One of my millennial sons has framed IBM as “the Google of my generation”.  My career path included assignments and visits to the IBM Advanced Business Institute, in Palisades, NY.  Mentions of that team, and the Palisades Executive Conference Center where it was located, have mostly disappeared from the Internet.  As one of the younger IBM professionals to have known the ABI, I can provide some history.  (If friends want to correct me, I welcome that!)

  • 1. The Palisades Executive Conference Center opened in 1989
  • 2. The Executive Consulting Institute from 1993 was instrumental in education for IBM Consulting Group
  • 3. The Advanced Business Institute offered courses for customer executives 1989-2004

While the Facebook page for the IBM Palisades Executive Conference Center has recent additions, the venue hasn’t had that title for some years.

1. The Palisades Executive Conference Center opened in 1989

IBM Palisades is not to be confused with the IBM Learning Centre in Armonk, that was opened in 1979, a facility primarily for the (internal) management development of IBM executives.  IBM Palisades is also not the Thornwood Conference Center in Westchester County, opened in 1985, that was more often used for customer technical briefings.

IBM Palisades was originally designated for customer executive education, i.e. CEOs and VPs on corporate retreats hosted by IBM.  The grounds are well-secluded, and easy to secure.  The site is on the west side of the Hudson River, which most people would presume as being in New Jersey. … Read more (in a new tab)

Systems Changes: Learning from the Christopher Alexander Legacy (ST-ON, 2019/02/11)

August 18, 2019
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One of the aims of the Systems Changes research program is to build on the pattern language approach.  This body of work stretches back into the 1960s, and has been cross-appropriated from built environments to software development (e.g. agile methods) and organizational change.  The February 2019 meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was an opportunity to bring some people not familiar with the territory up to speed.

Here is the abstract for the talk:

The 1977 book, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is prominent in public library collections around the world. It represents, however, only one stage of the many works by Christopher Alexander, from his first book published in 1964, to his final book released in 2012. In addition multiple international conferences continue his legacy, in architecture and urban design (PUARL, for 10 years), in software development (PLoP, for 25 years), and in social change (PURPLSOC, for 5 years). Alexander was a builder of environment structure — an architect — and other communities have aspired to adopt the approach that he championed.

This Systems Thinking Ontario session will review pattern languages in three parts:

  1. The Eishin School project (1985, published as a book in 2012);
  2. Multi-Service Centers (1968); and
  3. Beyond Built Environments, cross-appropriating the approach from architecture to other domains.

The pursuit of “systems generating systems” at the foundation of Christopher Alexander’s pattern language has generally not been appreciated, and deserves a deeper inquiry.

… Read more (in a new tab)

Narrating Wholeness: Pattern Language Generating Semi-Lattice(s), System(s), and/or Holon(s) (PUARL 2018/10/27)

August 17, 2019
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In what ways might the generation of wholeness through pattern language be strengthened, through an appreciation of advances in the systems sciences?  A workshop at the 2018 International PUARL Conference was an opportunity to review linkages and discuss some details.

An outline to frame the conversation was written in three parts.

  • 1. Communicative Framing
    • 1.1 Form and synthesis
    • 1.2 Organization as semi-lattice
    • 1.3 Systems generating systems
    • 1.4 Generative patterns and non-generative patterns in software development
    •  1.5 System-A and system-B, as two ways of shaping and building living environments
    • 1.6 Holons (from systems ecology)
  • 2. Dialectical Sensemaking
    • 2.1 Types of systems and models
    • 2.2 Autopoiesis and allopoiesis
    • 2.3 Economies as agricultural, industrial and services (coproduction)
  • 3. Narrative Synthesizing

In full, the abstract read:

Does a pattern language generate into (a) whole(s)? This workshop will discuss the meaning of architecting a system, complemented with recent research from the systems sciences.

In 1967, at the formation for Center for Environmental Structure, Pattern Manual specified that (sub)systems are fewer in number (and implicitly larger) than patterns:

The environmental pattern language will contain hundreds of subsystems and tens of thousands of individual patterns. Every conceivable kind of building, every part of every kind of building, and every piece of the larger environment will be specified by one or more subsystems of the environmental pattern language.

In summary: An environmental pattern language is a coordinated body of design solutions capable of generating the complete physical structure of a city.

… Read more (in a new tab)

Evolving Pattern Language towards an Affordance Language (Almaden, 2018/05/09)

August 15, 2019
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With a visit of one week at IBM Research Almaden with @rarar and @jimspohrer , I was invited to give a talk.  As an IBM alumnus who was active in pattern language community from the mid-1990s, this was an occasion to surface some history of science about activities inside the company that is otherwise opaque.  This history shapes my aspirations and predispositions towards continuing the development of pattern language in new domains.

The high-level agenda aimed to cover three parts:

  • 1. 1964 → 1999 → 2012:
    Synthesis of Form→OOPSLA 1996→Battle (Eishin)
  • 2. 1993 →2002→2006→2010:
    Hillside Group→IGS Method→AWB→Eclipse
  • 3. 2014 → … :
    Wicked Messes→Service Systems Thinking

Here’s the abstract sent in advance of my arrival:

Pattern language has its origins from architects of built physical environments. The approach was cross-appropriated into software development methods at the rise of object-oriented design, and was influential in the emerging styles with agile practices. The idea has been extended into social change. Are the philosophical foundations from the 1960s-1970s appropriate for the 21st century era of service science, and innovations in augmented intelligence?

The communities of interest on pattern language are coming together (i.e. PLoP and PUARL-Purplsoc are colocating in Portland, OR, in October 2018), coming from three historical subgroups.

The PUARL subgroup is led by former students of Christopher Alexander from the Center for Environmental Structure at Berkeley in the 1970s. They continue to work on “towns, buildings and construction”, with recent interests in large scale incidents (e.g.

… Read more (in a new tab)

Innovation Learning for Sustainability (SCUD, 2018/04/21)

August 11, 2019
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An invitation as a keynote presenter at the 2018 International Conference on Smart Cities and Urban Design (SCUD) was initiated on a recommendation by Susu Nousala to the program chair WU Jing.  Blending the conference theme with my recent doctoral research, I proposed the topic “Innovation Learning for Sustainability: What’s smarter for urban systems”? For a 30-minute slot, the agenda was covered in three sections:

    • 1. Smarter Systems
    • 2. Sustainability + Service Systems Science
    • 3. Innovation Learning

The first section derived from the history of smarter cities and the cognitive era from IBM, blended with the co-respondence of Tim Ingold.  The second section considered sustainability from an ecological anthropology approach, then service systems and commitments.  The third section drew in the normative framework from Open Innovation Learning.

For streaming, the video is accessible on Youtube.

For offline devices, downloadable audio is available, including a digitally boosted volume version.

Audio
April 21
(28m44s)		 [20180421_SCUD_Ing InnovationLearning.mp3]
(26MB)
[20180421_SCUD_Ing InnovationLearning_3db.mp3]
(volume boosted 3db, 26MB)

For offline viewing, the video files are also downloadable.

Video H.264 MP4 WebM
April 21
(28m44s)		 [20180421_SCUD_Ing HD m4v]
(HD 2680Kbps 594MB)
[on the Internet Archive]
[20180421_SCUD_Ing nHD m4v]
(nHD 65Kkps 43MB)		 [20180421_SCUD_Ing HD webm]
(HD 381Kbps 125MB)

[20180421_SCUD_Ing nHD webm]
(nHD VP9 121MB)

As a keynote speaker to an international conference — especially for an audience where the majority is listening with English as a Second Language — the style of this presentation aims to pace slower than for academic audiences. … Read more (in a new tab)

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