Category Archives: Uncategorized

Business Architecture course co-creation with ING

In 2019, I co-created a business architecture course with and for ING. I developed the course with Cyrille Cauchy (ING Business Architecture Guild Lead). It was a 3 days course. 5 ING Business Architects were trained and about 15 XPLUS consultants.

The course is was available via this xplus page:

https://portfolio.xplus.academy/en/xplus/business-architecture

The curriculum looks like this:

BusArch_training_introDownload
…

My 2 jArchi scripts

Last year I wrote 2 jArchi scrips. Those scripts allow to add functionality to the Archimate toolkit. (The Archimate toolkit is a a tool which allow Business and IT Architects to model the Business/Enterprise/IT architectutes using the Archimate notation.)

The scripts are tagged #jarchi on Github. (See also github/jfdeclercq)

I always need to search for my own scripts so I post them here also.

Script to add a note to a diagram:

/*
 * New Archi Script
 */
console.log("AddNote Started !");
//var date = new Date();
//console.log(date.toString());
//var note = archimateView.createObject("note", 10, 200, -1, -1);
//note.setText("This is a note.\n\nHello World!");
//var note = visualObject.createObject("note", 10, 200, -1, -1);


// Get the first view in the current selection
var view = selection.filter("archimate-diagram-model").first();
// Get current date
var currentDate = new Date();
// Create a new note and set its text
var note = view.createObject("note", 10, 10, 300, -1);
note.text = view.name + "\n" + currentDate.toString() +"\n" + "Jean-Francois Declercq";
note.fillColor = "#e2e2be";
console.log("Note added to " + view.name);

Script to export a diagram as picture with the name of the view as proposed image name:

//Export View as image (PNG)  with date and diagram name in filename.

// Get the first view in the model
//var view = $("view").first();
var view = selection.filter("archimate-diagram-model").first();
// Get the Base64 bytes of the view in PNG format. Can use "PNG", "BMP", "JPG" or "GIF"
// Options are scale (1 - 4) and margin (pixel value)
var bytes = $.model.renderViewAsBase64(view, "JPG", {scale: 1, margin: 20});

var date = new Date();


// Ask for a file name
var fileName = window.promptSaveFile( { title: "Save View", filterExtensions: [ "*.jpg" ], fileName: ""+ date.toISOString().replace(":","").replace("T","-").slice(0,15)+ "-" + view.name + ".jpg" } );
if(fileName) {
    // Write to file
    $.fs.writeFile(fileName, bytes, "BASE64");
}

…

Why I didn’t buy a new MacBook Pro

In 2010 I left IBM and I started as a freelancer.

I needed a new computer.

A friend of mine had a MacBook Pro. He has always been an excellent ITer so I decided to follow his advise and give Mac a try. I bought a MacBook Pro. The best one. The most expensive one.

Was it a better experience than Windows ? Not really. My Mac’s performance decreased with time just like it would with a windows PC.

I even had regression: very annoying crashes due to the GPU switches. I has to install freeware (GfxCardStatus – https://gfx.io/) to be able to use my mac.

When the MacBook pro disk gets full the performance gets really very bad making the computer unusable.

At the store they told me the only solution was to format and re-install… Last week I decided to re-install the OS from the original CD. I really hesitated to try Ubuntu on MacBook Pro. Before I upgraded to “El Captain” I checked if my GPU problem was still there and in fact it had disappeared ! I could connect to an external display which was impossible since years… So I decided to report to Apple.

Here is what I sent to Apple as a comment to the crash report:

GPU switch crashes my Macbook Pro 2010.  For example when connecting to external monitor.

This week I reinstalled with the original CD OSX 10.6.3 and I could extend my desktop to a second screen. After OSX updates it’s now crashing again.

I conclude that it’s a software problem and that Apple OSX suffers from regression for managing the GPU.

I’m obliged to play with GfxCardStatus to maintain my mac up and running in a decent way.

Many software that are initially designed on windows don’t work well or just don’t work on Mac : MS Office, Sparx EA, MAMP, Java, Flash…

So finally :

  • The overall MacBook experience is not better
  • I have much more freedom and choice on Android and Windows
  • You have less viruses on Mac Vs Windows but  can install Ubuntu or boot Linux on any PC.
  • Apple is 50% more expensive

In 2010 I had also bought an iPad 1. The hardware is still ok but it has also become unusable : impossible to update most of the apps.

Bye bye Apple.…

Engaging content

“consumers are choosing to engage only with content that is personally relevant to them, their purpose and their passions”…

Direction

Direction is so much more important than speed.  Many are going nowhere fast.…

Understanding Business Architecture

This slideshare presentation is great for explaining what is Business Architecture:

[Update : it seems the slideshare has moved here : http://www.slideshare.net/DavidOHara2/understanding-business-architecture-v32]

 

  • Motivation model
    • Influencers
    • Means
    • Ends
    • Assessments
  • Business Model (kind of business canvas)
    • Market Model
    • Product & Services Model
    • Operating Model
    • Operating/Capability model
      • People
      • Process
      • Information
      • Technology
    • Roadmap -> Means
    • Governance -> Control
…

Installed Bigdata.com on Tomcat

This morning I installed BigData on my mac… I mean the RDF database of bigdata.com.

It’s now up and running but empty.

The following query :

select * where { ?s ?p ?o } limit 1

returns 0 matches.

Next steps :

  • load it with sample rdf data
  • define a sample ontology (maybe something coming from protégé)
  • test the REST and Java APIs
…