Time(s)
Description
Object models aren’t just for developers! They are also a simple and powerful BUSINESS TOOL for describing and designing complex systems in a way the whole organization–from developers to CEOs—can view together and understand.
Some modeling efforts assume years of work with an organization, but with object models a small team can do key high-level modeling in a week, and verify it with leadership in an afternoon!
What’s different about object models as compared to, say, an org chart, thesaurus, or system architecture, is the way that they describe things in an organization’s world and the relationships between them. The models help you gain real insight into what people in the organization REALLY mean when they describe what they want to build, and enduring alignment around that understanding as the project progresses.
In this presentation, we give an overview to this unique approach to modeling and share two case studies of successful object model creation to support IA projects.
Come learn how to use the incredible power of object modeling for alignment in IA Projects!
Key takeaways from the session:
Attendees will learn how object models work, both in theory and in practice. In doing so they will discover how object models:
– Provide a Simple, Common Language for Mapping an Organization and its Systems.
– Surface the Key “Things” in a System that will endure as ongoing concepts for long-term projects.
– Profoundly Facilitate Communication.
– Allow Organizations to Plan and Share the Future.
The biggest takeaway is that a simple but formal model of relationships between important concepts in a system, collectively reviewed and amended, can have a profound impact on the overall understanding of the nature of a problem in an organization.
About the speakers
Daniel O’Neil is a pure analyst. His greatest pleasure is teasing out core truths from complex systems, then developing patterns, principles, and metrics that help people manage those systems better.
After leaving graduate school, where he studied the evolution of language, Daniel entered the private sector, working in the publishing, mortgage, pharmaceutical, and online advertising industries. On this journey he’s helped companies with online marketing strategy, web analytics, business process modeling, strategic planning, and software development.
It was the introduction to Information Architecture that really changed his thinking about how things are made in the world. Daniel has spent the last six years trying to master and deepen his understanding of the transformative nature architectural thinking in the context of information systems websites, and software.
It’s been a fun ride, and he’s thrilled to be here!
Bob Royce is co-founder and President of The Understanding Group (TUG), an information architecture consulting practice based in Ann Arbor, MI. He has been working with digital services and products since the late 1980s serving in a variety of roles including marketing, product management, solution architect, and now president of a consultancy focused on making the complex clear with information architecture.
