tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88390925356449444822024-02-20T18:49:26.328-08:00Unde-r-WritingBrain Dump of an Insurance Technologist
<br><br><i>Underwriting - The term is derived from Lloyd's of london insurance market, where insurers will literally write their names under the risk information slips. The term indicates careful evaluation and ownership.</i>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-78805706483562476832020-12-31T13:12:00.005-08:002020-12-31T13:12:55.266-08:005 Decisions impacting ‘Data on Cloud’ strategy for insurersInsurance companies are doubling down on their data, analytics and A.I investments to be ready to compete in a ‘Post-Covid’ digital economy. In the last couple of years, multiple cloud-based technology platforms have emerged and Insurers are actively exploring ways to take advantage of this technology ecosystem.
It is not an easy decision as technology is rapidly evolving and there are many strategic questions to ponder -
· How do you ensure that you have an ability to pivot in future in response to evolving technology and business needs ?
· Should you redefine your data model or continue with the same ?
· What should be your data integration strategy?
· What kind of A.I/ML capabilities you need to provide ?
· How do you provide a self-service data visualization augmented by A.I ?
I have explored these aspects in my ‘Point of View’ article - 5 Decisions impacting ‘Data on Cloud’ strategy for insurers - <a href="https://www.lntinfotech.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/POV-5-Decisions-Impacting-Data-on-Cloud-Strategy-of-Insurance-Enterprise.pdf?pdf=download" target="_blank">https://www.lntinfotech.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/POV-5-Decisions-Impacting-Data-on-Cloud-Strategy-of-Insurance-Enterprise.pdf?pdf=download</a>
Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-43433076659682075222019-01-04T10:17:00.000-08:002019-01-04T10:17:23.992-08:00AI driven Knowledge ManagementI have been working with a large insurance company to define its knowledge management strategy and solution architecture. As I dug deeper into business scenarios, I realized that ‘Knowledge Management’ is the key area where A.I technologies will have immediate and significant impact on insurer’s bottom line.
.... click here for more ->
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-driven-knowledge-management-amit-unde/">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-driven-knowledge-management-amit-unde/ </a>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-10573161800935148832018-07-16T04:45:00.000-07:002018-07-16T04:45:50.182-07:00Applying AI in InsurancePlease check this out -
<a href="https://www.lntinfotech.com/blogs/applying-ai-in-insurance/">https://www.lntinfotech.com/blogs/applying-ai-in-insurance/
</a>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-27399227091757284512016-10-22T09:06:00.000-07:002016-10-22T09:06:37.063-07:00Connected Insurance – How will it be in 10 Years from now?
Read it at - <a href="https://www.lntinfotech.com/Blogs/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=98">https://www.lntinfotech.com/Blogs/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=98</a>
Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-89584482059269425822016-01-26T10:49:00.003-08:002016-01-26T10:50:45.533-08:00Coming down from the Ivory Tower of Enterprise ArchitectureRead it at - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coming-down-from-ivory-tower-enterprise-architecture-amit-unde?trk=prof-post">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coming-down-from-ivory-tower-enterprise-architecture-amit-unde?trk=prof-post</a>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-1893731058331124332014-12-19T07:34:00.000-08:002014-12-19T11:38:12.510-08:00End of Insurance as we know it<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140611210542-13152455-end-of-insurance-as-we-know-it?trk=prof-post"> Click here to read the blog published on LinkedIn </a>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140611210542-13152455-end-of-insurance-as-we-know-it?trk=prof-post"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Tqui6twW9V6e1y7I_La5rSBzk0xLNNnX3HPzgYbL8RUAux-VtgQ8SwCaIm7POr5j8pW6cI3m-sGxumRNvxezcFKFtv-btKDlG-7U19oFgytUQmoUI0eHXqFhMXcT77iR0hAPxWqnHQeL/s320/Google-car.jpg" /></a></div>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-23253581325973453062013-11-08T08:32:00.001-08:002013-11-08T09:01:14.590-08:00Insurance: Regulations likely to bring back more focus on ‘Risk Management’ practices and global visibilityAt recent G20 Summits, the G20 Leaders endorsed the implementation of an integrated set of policy measures to address the risks to the global financial system from systemically important financial institutions (G-SIFIs).
Accordingly FSB (Financial Stability Board), in conjunction with IAIS (International Association of Insurance Supervisors) identified an initial list of Global Systemically Important Insurers (G-SIIs) consisting of 9 groups:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1_M22plKhWDBCVOeC8cadWnaVi5d_wVQ9rblpVhao4VxrrY_sHpIaebf0P72w93zvwrDjep_U3fy__mdrLUZn42RKLpbhD9paUY_lwquJLIcW6UM-nKiRCwE6UqWdhiTgJi_4ZrJKUSm/s1600/Too+big+to+fail.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1_M22plKhWDBCVOeC8cadWnaVi5d_wVQ9rblpVhao4VxrrY_sHpIaebf0P72w93zvwrDjep_U3fy__mdrLUZn42RKLpbhD9paUY_lwquJLIcW6UM-nKiRCwE6UqWdhiTgJi_4ZrJKUSm/s320/Too+big+to+fail.jpeg" /></a></div>
1) Allianz, 2) AIG, 3) Generali, 4) Aviva, 5) Axa, 6) MetLife, 7) Ping An, 8) Prudential Financial and 9) Prudential plc.
<br><br>Basically, FSB is trying to solve 'Too big to fail' problem by hand picking large global institutes and subjecting them to a set of policy measures.
<br><br><br>
Although the initial focus is on these designated global SIFIs, it may eventually come down to all large, internationally active carriers. Many domestic regulators are likely to designate domestically important insurers and apply policy measures on the similar lines. In June 2013, U.S Department of Treasury FSOC designated AIG and Prudential Financial as SIFIs, and both will be subject to stricter regulatory standards and supervisory oversight under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
<br><br>
The set of <a href="http://www.financialstabilityboard.org/publications/r_111104bb.htm">policy measures</a> comprise: <br>
• recovery and resolution planning requirements; <br>
• enhanced group-wide supervision; and <br>
• higher loss absorbency requirements ( including non-traditional non-insurance (NTNI) subsidiaries)
<br><br>
The impact of these regulations is still being worked out, however, at the minimum, it requires following from IT perspective -
<br>
• Integration of data sources for recovery/resolution and risk management across the group <br>
• Identification of changes to Risk management metrics and bringing in visibility at group and legal entity level <br>
• Identification of intra-group exposures <br>
• Approach for ring fencing NTNIs and development of risk management plan & systems <br>
<br>
In July 2014, Systematically important Reinsurers will be identified and they are likely to have similar impact. I will update this entry as we do more research on this. Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-48293970177794856322013-09-18T07:46:00.000-07:002013-09-18T07:47:22.531-07:00New article : Big data Trends 2014
The recent article in Alsbridge Outsourcing Center - Big Data Trends 2014, includes some of my thoughts on how Insurance companies can effectively leverage the super abundance of data - <a href="http://www.outsourcing-center.com/2013-09-big-data-trends-2014-new-uses-new-challenges-new-solutions-58181.html">http://www.outsourcing-center.com/2013-09-big-data-trends-2014-new-uses-new-challenges-new-solutions-58181.html</a>
<br>
Here are some excerpts - <br>
<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj996z21qZUhuGPF27vLJuJj8HgAa9QNp4jNlfUxFlkXRLcULxWhyNV9OEVYNyX8Od1vnwcZVBecc_B4j9SAD6kGbwVzSDTAEWTDu6EDxWblGmwrJywCqwB__cmVtV4yUmJnVOSn6IYBcJI/s1600/quote2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj996z21qZUhuGPF27vLJuJj8HgAa9QNp4jNlfUxFlkXRLcULxWhyNV9OEVYNyX8Od1vnwcZVBecc_B4j9SAD6kGbwVzSDTAEWTDu6EDxWblGmwrJywCqwB__cmVtV4yUmJnVOSn6IYBcJI/s200/quote2.jpg" /></a></div>In this era of low interest rates, insurance companies need strong real-time analytics capabilities to achieve the elusive underwriting profit and sustained growth,” explained Amit Unde, chief architect and director of insurance solutions for L&T Infotech. “Going forward, the competitive battles will be played on the data turf. It’s the companies that leverage both external and internal Big Data, predictive analytics and adoptive underwriting models that will come out on top.</blockquote>
<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj996z21qZUhuGPF27vLJuJj8HgAa9QNp4jNlfUxFlkXRLcULxWhyNV9OEVYNyX8Od1vnwcZVBecc_B4j9SAD6kGbwVzSDTAEWTDu6EDxWblGmwrJywCqwB__cmVtV4yUmJnVOSn6IYBcJI/s1600/quote2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj996z21qZUhuGPF27vLJuJj8HgAa9QNp4jNlfUxFlkXRLcULxWhyNV9OEVYNyX8Od1vnwcZVBecc_B4j9SAD6kGbwVzSDTAEWTDu6EDxWblGmwrJywCqwB__cmVtV4yUmJnVOSn6IYBcJI/s200/quote2.jpg" /></a></div>With Google Maps and location intelligence services, the underwriter can view a property from all angles and assess distance from a coastline, flood plain or other potential hazards. Online access to hundreds of different data sources—from videos to photos to loss trends and other documents— is now just a few clicks away,” Unde said. “But, without the right tools, mining this data is still a highly manual process.</blockquote>
<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj996z21qZUhuGPF27vLJuJj8HgAa9QNp4jNlfUxFlkXRLcULxWhyNV9OEVYNyX8Od1vnwcZVBecc_B4j9SAD6kGbwVzSDTAEWTDu6EDxWblGmwrJywCqwB__cmVtV4yUmJnVOSn6IYBcJI/s1600/quote2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj996z21qZUhuGPF27vLJuJj8HgAa9QNp4jNlfUxFlkXRLcULxWhyNV9OEVYNyX8Od1vnwcZVBecc_B4j9SAD6kGbwVzSDTAEWTDu6EDxWblGmwrJywCqwB__cmVtV4yUmJnVOSn6IYBcJI/s200/quote2.jpg" /></a></div>I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the next five years, the next big player in the commercial insurance industry was a new company with a Big Data-driven automated policy issuance and claims payout model,” Unde said. “Automated decision-making has the potential to transform the industry, enabling small players to compete with large insurers, based on their technology.</blockquote>
<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj996z21qZUhuGPF27vLJuJj8HgAa9QNp4jNlfUxFlkXRLcULxWhyNV9OEVYNyX8Od1vnwcZVBecc_B4j9SAD6kGbwVzSDTAEWTDu6EDxWblGmwrJywCqwB__cmVtV4yUmJnVOSn6IYBcJI/s1600/quote2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj996z21qZUhuGPF27vLJuJj8HgAa9QNp4jNlfUxFlkXRLcULxWhyNV9OEVYNyX8Od1vnwcZVBecc_B4j9SAD6kGbwVzSDTAEWTDu6EDxWblGmwrJywCqwB__cmVtV4yUmJnVOSn6IYBcJI/s200/quote2.jpg" /></a></div>In the insurance industry, companies should validate against a set of rules or cross-verify against multiple sources,” Unde said. “However, in most cases, it doesn’t make sense for insurers to boil the ocean to get 100 percent data accuracy. It makes better sense to apply the 80/20 rule to achieve the desired accuracy for the 80 percent of the dataset without having to invest intensive efforts—then asking ‘did you mean’ questions in the remaining 20 percent of cases. </blockquote>
Let me know what you think about the article.Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-17479662421254796342013-08-09T10:05:00.001-07:002013-08-09T10:07:56.855-07:00Webinar : Aggregate, Visualize and Manage: The Fundamentals for Gaining A Single View of RiskThe ability to aggregate, visualize, understand and manage risk is fundamental to the profitability of insurance carriers and reinsurance companies. In some cases, it’s fundamental to legal compliance, overall solvency and long-term viability.
<br>
Yet it has been difficult to date for most insurers to gain a single, operational view of risk across their organizations. Until now…
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Carriers are beginning to leverage technology solutions for a comprehensive risk management solution – one that helps carriers overcome siloed operational structures, IT systems and data sources to integrate information across the enterprise, ensure its quality, enrich it with third-party data – and then present a single, map-based view of operational risk in near-real-time.
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<a href="https://pbinsightevents.webex.com/ec0606l/eventcenter/recording/recordAction.do?theAction=poprecord&AT=pb&isurlact=true&renewticket=0&recordID=7237932&apiname=lsr.php&rKey=4acdd9f5561c25e6&needFilter=false&format=short&&SP=EC&rID=7237932&siteurl=pbinsightevents&actappname=ec0606l&actname=%2Feventcenter%2Fframe%2Fg.do&rnd=1365897238&entactname=%2FnbrRecordingURL.do&entappname=url0108l"> View this one-hour webinar </a>( conducted on Wednesday, July 31, at 2:00 PM)as <b>Rich Ward, Business Solution Architect with Pitney Bowes Software</b> and A<b>mit Unde, Chief Architect, Insurance Solutions with L&T Infotech,</b> discuss new trends in location intelligence technologies and how near-real-time geospatial analytics are drastically changing catastrophe modeling, underwriting and risk management practices.
Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-72344395453023426222013-06-09T19:32:00.001-07:002013-06-10T05:23:37.774-07:006 Strategies for NextGen Insurance Underwriting<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lntinfotechblogs.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=46"><img src="http://getthedrift.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Six-Words-About-Digital-Marketing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lntinfotechblogs.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=46"> 6 Strategies for NextGen Insurance Underwriting </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-11306769822047882682013-01-28T08:32:00.002-08:002013-08-09T10:09:01.947-07:00Big Data: Are you still a fence sitter?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglw6dWdU08oCRiOgL6GUZkLAzPTo5kSWkYBikXsRzrD8SCiCbMMV0mED9Z5Lym6dZZBWjTcywIr0ldk26vBpovLfo1IS2ZpmnSY3-_MWcEO6sm43qsZ6zyXITRRGEOra5AOMLCHJH5TWNe/s1600/bigdata_blog.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"> <a href="http://bit.ly/UpGg75"> <img border="0" height="320" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglw6dWdU08oCRiOgL6GUZkLAzPTo5kSWkYBikXsRzrD8SCiCbMMV0mED9Z5Lym6dZZBWjTcywIr0ldk26vBpovLfo1IS2ZpmnSY3-_MWcEO6sm43qsZ6zyXITRRGEOra5AOMLCHJH5TWNe/s320/bigdata_blog.png" /></a></a></div>
Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-4560634690220724712012-09-12T05:35:00.001-07:002013-08-09T10:09:24.445-07:00Get more value from Big Data technologies – Use it for Small Data Analytics<i>[ Note : I have published this blog originally at <b>L&T Infotech blogsite</b> - <a href="http://www.lntinfotechblogs.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=38">www.lntinfotechblogs.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=38</a> ].</i>
<br> <br>
Big data is often defined by three Vs. – Volume, Variety and Velocity. While this definition captures the essence of Big data, it is limiting when used to define technologies that support Big data. These technologies can do much more than just handling ‘Big data.’ In fact, most enterprises can derive more value by using these for ‘small data’ analytics.
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Besides handling large variety of data, these technologies provide new analytical capabilities, including natural language processing, pattern recognition, machine learning and much more. You can use these capabilities effectively for small (or ‘not so large’ data) in non-traditional ways and get more value out of this data.
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Here is how –
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<b>1. Create ‘Data labs’ rather than just a data warehouse</b>
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Big data technologies provide advanced analytical environment. The focus is on analyzing the data, rather than structuring and storing the data. Such environment gives a perfect sandbox for experts to ‘experiment’ with data and derive intelligence out of it. For example, Insurance actuaries can derive specific patterns out of claims history data by linking external factors with loss events and define rules for pricing and loss predictions.
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<b>2. Don’t just predict, but adapt continuously to changing realities</b>
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Big data technologies provide machine learning capabilities that allow calibrating predictive models continuously by comparing actual outcomes with predictions.
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<b>3. Change ‘Forecasting’ to ‘Now-casting’</b>
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Big data technologies can help in analyzing large stream of data at real-time, without hampering performance. This capability can be used effectively to provide ‘real-time’ analytics. For example, Insurers can define new products that charge premiums based on real-time risk data emitted by sensors or telematics instruments, rather than traditional approach of calculating premiums based on forecasting of risks.
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<b>4. Don’t get constrained by a Data model </b>
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Have you ever undergone the pain of living with a data model that no longer supports business requirements? Well, don’t worry anymore. Most Big data technologies support ‘Open format’ and dynamic changes to data records to suit analytical needs.
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<b>5. Forget Massive data movements</b>
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In big data platforms, the data is co-located with analytical processing involving minimal data movements. Forget about those large, multi-year ETL programs.
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<b>6. Save cost with low-cost commodity hardware</b>
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Large data warehousing and MDM programs often require expensive enterprise hardware and licensing to support desired level of performance. This expense can be as large as 50% of your total cost of ownership (TCO). The big data platforms are designed to work with low-cost commodity hardware (including bursting on cloud), and most are open-sourced. This can help you slash the hardware/licensing costs significantly.
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So the moral of the story is – <b>Big data technologies provide many capabilities that make them an attractive choice for ‘small data’ analytics as well. Be innovative in leveraging these capabilities to complement your current analytics world.</b>
<br>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-80589903260836456002012-01-20T12:37:00.000-08:002012-01-20T12:45:11.153-08:00Big Data - A solution in search of a problem !What does Big Data solve in Insurance, that cannot be really solved by traditional technologies? This one seemingly simple question generates a good deal of brainstorming. Let’s keep Health insurance aside (that’s easy) and think about P&C and Life insurance space.<br />
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<b>Where is the big data ?</b><br />
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Number Uno is Social data, ever growing and less contextual, but BIG it is. <br />
Then we have policy data over years. We, of course, have a loss history of several years. <br />
We have external risk data sources. <br />
Few companies may also have real-time data streams from Cars (PAYD or commercial fleets), factories etc.. <br />
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<b> What can we do with Big Data technologies? </b><br />
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Sure we have many problems. <br />
First, we need to know customers better. <br />
How many times we tell them that you can save $400 by switching and then when they ask for a quote, we provide a quote more than their current outgo. <br />
Do we congratulate them when they have a new baby arrival at home? <br />
Do we know that they are looking to buy a car? <br />
With big data, we will be able to co-relate all the seemingly unrelated data sources and link them to derive the actionable intelligence. <br />
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Another application is Fraud detection. Some people are out of bars, just because we cannot practically spend time and energy to figure out their fraud. Big Data technology makes is possible and simpler. <br />
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What about Risk Analysis? Sure! More the data you have, more you know about your customers, you are likely to predict the risk better. <br />
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<b>The real advantage</b><br />
To some extent, we are doing all this with current traditional technologies as well. More the data, Merrier it is, so big data technologies will definitely help, but is that all? <br />
In my opinion, the real advantage of Big Data is to find the problem (or opportunity) that you do not even know about. When a data scientist dives deep into data and finds patterns and co-relates, there will be an Eureka moment, that will provide you the real ‘intelligence’ hidden in this data. Indeed, Big Data is a solution in search of a problem!Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-31532887767688050992011-10-28T11:19:00.000-07:002011-10-28T11:22:50.804-07:00An ounce of knowledge is worth a ton of dataAs my colleagues return from Insurance CIO summit and other conferences, I am getting bombarded with questions and suggestions of leveraging the BIG social data.. There are many ideas floating - targeted marketing, risk evaluation etc.. <br />
Well, I adopted words of Dr. Fayyad (Yahoo’s ex chief data officer) to reply back - An ounce of knowledge is worth a ton of data!<br />
<blockquote>Notwithstanding the legal and moral issues, the availability of this data does not mean 'availability of knowledge'. </blockquote>The models put on this data are sometimes completely inadequate to generate any useful insight for insurers. Even if there are any, it is hard to tie back these insights to specific customers or prospects, thereby, making those completely non-actionable. <br />
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I think, the insurers will gain more, if they focus on generating 'insights' from the already available data, before looking at acquiring more data. There is a plenty of structured and un-structured data available within the premises of the organization, across several touch points.<br />
How much that is being utilized? Do we have models to analyze the data and generate insights and predictions? Is this intelligence already integrated with the business processes - from customer acquisition, to underwriting and claims processing?<br />
I think, we need to WALK before we RUN.Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-31141800161110507972011-06-19T09:44:00.000-07:002011-06-19T09:45:38.358-07:00Translating Business Strategy to Enterprise ArchitectureI recently concluded a consulting assignment to define Future (after M&A) enterprise Architecture for a health insurance company, who acquired another company with considerable overlap in business. <br />
<br />
While it was ‘relatively’ easier to come up future IT architecture by analyzing future needs and system overlap, it was quite challenging to present to executive board (completely non-technical with attention span of max 5 mins) and explain how exactly it maps to their business strategy. We had generated loads of detailed EA artifacts, however, challenge was to put all this together in just couple of slides and create a strong business case to move forward. <br />
<br />
I found TOGAF’s Content Metamodel very useful in creating this linkage. I identified strategy business themes and for each business theme, and developed a view similar to content metamodel to link business strategy to required business services first, and then further to changes required in business process & IT systems. <br />
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A quick glance at artifacts is as shown - <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgugf3oNaahTTHhtbPzxvmM5-NoHzCUemqHQYdavSWBy1ikInLtVwuF05Hb5MbWROudY3dzj_k1VS5T8M-7DOfri54iGLbef10YScEgckd5BQVGqlaK1C2wVTGUvfNx0s2Yt7gStleQSrKV/s1600/Business+Strategy+to+EA.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgugf3oNaahTTHhtbPzxvmM5-NoHzCUemqHQYdavSWBy1ikInLtVwuF05Hb5MbWROudY3dzj_k1VS5T8M-7DOfri54iGLbef10YScEgckd5BQVGqlaK1C2wVTGUvfNx0s2Yt7gStleQSrKV/s320/Business+Strategy+to+EA.JPG" /></a></div>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-72271162140562139152011-04-30T16:16:00.001-07:002011-04-30T16:16:55.125-07:00Keys for success in using a Global Delivery ModelMy presentation at South New England PMI conference.<br />I shared thoughts and my experience of creating customized process framework by adopting best practices from traditional as well as agile methodologies that are appropriate for your project and your organization.<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_7790583"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/AmitUnde/keys-for-success-in-using-a-global-delivery-model-snec-pmi-april-29-2011" title="Keys for success in using a Global Delivery Model - snec pmi april 29 2011">Keys for success in using a Global Delivery Model - snec pmi april 29 2011</a></strong><object id="__sse7790583" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=amitunde-keysforsuccessinusingaglobaldeliverymodel-snecpmiapril292011-110430175949-phpapp02&stripped_title=keys-for-success-in-using-a-global-delivery-model-snec-pmi-april-29-2011&userName=AmitUnde" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed name="__sse7790583" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=amitunde-keysforsuccessinusingaglobaldeliverymodel-snecpmiapril292011-110430175949-phpapp02&stripped_title=keys-for-success-in-using-a-global-delivery-model-snec-pmi-april-29-2011&userName=AmitUnde" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/AmitUnde">Amit Unde</a>.</div></div>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-50619434183287054522011-02-14T08:00:00.000-08:002011-02-14T08:02:33.278-08:00What if two Turkeys make an eagle?If you follow ‘Mobile world’ news like I do, you might have already heard about partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, and Google’s trash-talk in response – “Two Turkeys do not make an Eagle”. <br />
Cut to one year back – when android itself was a Turkey, however, they pretty much turned themselves into an Eagle. If you trust in Gartner’s figures, Android market share has risen from 3.5% in 2009 to 17% in 2010 and it is on its way to 22% this year. See - <a href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1434613">http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1434613</a> .<br />
Nokia’s Symbian has highest share so far and having seen a world (e.g. India) completely dominated by Nokia phones, I believe they will put up a pretty serious fight for Apple and Google. <br />
What does this mean to us in Insurance industry, who are developing mobile business apps? I think, these developments make a clear case for ‘cross-platform’ development. Rather than, making an application specifically for iPhone or Android, it’s time to seriously consider cross platform development platforms. A hybrid approach with combination of common ‘Portable’ code and some sexier ‘Native’ features appears as a good balance that provides functionality with oomph.Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-3104476861884442302010-12-20T09:43:00.000-08:002010-12-20T13:11:56.721-08:00Naturally Yours,<div class="MsoNormal">The stars are getting aligned for Natural User Interface (NUI) technologies, with widespread adoptions of touch phones and pads, and recent advancements in consumer technologies such as Xbox Kinect. Consumers have progressed from ‘liking’ to ‘expecting’ natural multi-touch interface. Many technologies are already creative waves. In L&T Infotech, our Tech office experimented with Microsoft Surface and I was amazed to see the possibilities. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOsqUvPuxOI">Touch IT</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I suspect that we will see explosion of application of these technologies everywhere in coming years…! Consumer electronics industry such as Gaming, Phones, and computers will naturally be far ahead, however, I wonder where we will use this in Insurance industry. </div><div class="MsoNormal">I bet it will be for marketing splash and customer acquisition. I can see consumers leaning on the interactive tables and playing with Geco to understand different parts of policies OR interacting with cute Progressive lady to name their price. Who says buying insurance cannot be fun?<br />
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<div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: 9px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="a2a_dd" href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkname=&linkurl=http://amitunde.blogspot.com/2010/12/naturally-yours.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Share/Bookmark" border="0" height="16" src="http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.png" style="cursor: move;" width="171" /></span></a> </span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: 9px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Amit Unde</span></div></div>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-16585110398559237612010-09-02T12:28:00.000-07:002010-09-02T12:28:51.472-07:00Is it End of Zachman ?It's very sad the way things turned out for John Zachman's associations. Just came across an excellent post by Gartner's Philip Allega on this topic - <a href="http://blogs.gartner.com/philip-allega/2010/09/01/john-zachman-is-dead-long-live-john-zachman/">http://blogs.gartner.com/philip-allega/2010/09/01/john-zachman-is-dead-long-live-john-zachman/</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://blogs.gartner.com/philip-allega/2010/09/01/john-zachman-is-dead-long-live-john-zachman/"></a>One would have expected further research from such elites, rather than just attempts of commercialization of the framework. Really, not much has been added to the framework, since, it is published in 1980s... Though there is lot of value in the thoughts that are behind the framework, IMHO, the use of framework itself is quite hyped.<br />
In comparison, other established EA frameworks ( and methodologies) like TOGAF and even the new upcoming like <a href="http://eacoe.org/">EACOE </a>are quite useful. May be they will continue Zachman's legacy.. but without his name !<br />
Looks like he wants it that way.Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-81624006635852083472010-02-01T13:20:00.000-08:002010-02-08T05:46:31.828-08:00Agile adaptation of Architecture Evaluation Methodologies<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I discussed some of the architecture evaluation methods </span><a href="http://amitunde.blogspot.com/2010/01/test-drive-your-architectures-for.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in my previous post</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. In short, the idea is - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Rather than just using a checklist for technical evaluation, we should test drive each functional scenario against architectural decisions and judge the impact on quality attributes (utility tree) and evaluate the architecture. Such a review will be more specific to the project and hence, more beneficial.</i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many accept the advantages of these methods, however, often criticize these methods for their overhead. I think, these methodologies can certainly be adapted for agile use. We do not have to stick to the the elaborate process that SEI has recommended, but instead, we should adapt it for our use by sticking only to its principles. In fact, in my experience, these methodologies are more beneficial if we use them in conjunction with agile development methodologies.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why Architecture evaluation is important for Agile methodologies?</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Agile world, the application functionality is to be built in agile way, with constant visibility to business, and frequent changes to the features. However, the same is not the case for its architecture. If the architecture is allowed to evolve with changing requirements, it causes frequent rework, constant re-factoring and in fact, it counters the ‘Agile’ response. It makes sense to spend upfront time on architecture evaluation and ensure that it is flexible to accommodate the future changes.</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What are the steps in evaluation?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I assume that you have background of standard evaluation methods such as ATAM / CBAM. If not, </span><a href="http://amitunde.blogspot.com/2010/01/test-drive-your-architectures-for.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">refer my last post</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Though SEI has defined a very elaborate process, I think, only the following are critical steps – </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Step 1</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> – Prioritize functional scenarios along with all stakeholders and identify architectural approaches and alternatives</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Step 2</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> – Generate Quality Attribute Utility Tree and specify Stimuli – Response for each scenario</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Step 3</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> – Analyze architecture approaches and identify all possible </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 1.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a)</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Risks, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 1.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">b)</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Non-Risks, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 1.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">c)</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sensitivity Points ( interdependencies) and </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 1.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">d)</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trade-Off Points.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Step 4</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> – Quantify the Benefits of different architectural strategies and corresponding Cost and Schedule implications</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Step 5</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> – Calculate desirability (benefit divided by cost) and Rank the alternatives. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Step 6</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> – Make decisions and document</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What about the overhead of evaluation? How can it be done in Agile Way?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To make these methods more agile, use following techniques -</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://bit.ly/cwAjNR" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://bit.ly/cwAjNR" width="320" /></span></a></div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Evaluate on Sampling basis –Short-list only the unique and critical scenarios that are likely to change.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Create the artifacts such as Utility Tree as part of Architecture development process and not just for evaluation. The act of creating the utility tree will improve the thought process while defining the architecture.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Evaluate everyday as soon as you discuss the scenarios in the war room. All the stakeholders are present in the war room. This avoids extensive planning, presentations, and elaborate evaluation exercises.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the evaluation, apply the utility tree to each scenario and evaluate the Sensitivity Points, Risks /Non-risks points, and Trade-off points. In case of alternative solutions, estimate Cost and perform Cost-Benefit analysis.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Evaluate not only for the defined scenarios, but also for the possible changes. Get the ‘change’ scenarios from the business to evaluate the impact of changes. The architecture should be flexible to accommodate such changes.</span></li>
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</span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Amit Unde</span>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-78074354073797745092010-01-13T14:21:00.000-08:002010-01-30T09:47:12.024-08:00Test Drive your Architectures for effective evaluations<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Are you one of those sitting in ivory towers of Enterprise Architecture Group, tasked with responsibility of evaluating project architectures and ensuring IT Governance? If you have done few reviews before, you would know that it is highly subjective process that depends largely on the evaluators’ technical skills, functional/environmental knowledge, authority structure, and other political forces. The evaluators who are parachuted into the project group for reviews are especially handicapped due to lack of knowledge of functional requirements, and often only concentrate on ‘technology’ implementation reviews. Hence, most of the reviews remain superficial and only partially beneficial.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><b>So how exactly should you evaluate the architectures? </b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGB3l5GegMg8EJ3j5BHpO-QjtOUckbXPdqT9H2jb3kNVzRPZwi8KscsS9Qy87Q6-_Hr1Qz31yb6FGOZDdWTgnP683F_YDnpTTpIR-CKiNe-VSLkBghMJSSj6mXvi87GO8fNuRqbuiE38oh/s1600-h/testdrive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGB3l5GegMg8EJ3j5BHpO-QjtOUckbXPdqT9H2jb3kNVzRPZwi8KscsS9Qy87Q6-_Hr1Qz31yb6FGOZDdWTgnP683F_YDnpTTpIR-CKiNe-VSLkBghMJSSj6mXvi87GO8fNuRqbuiE38oh/s320/testdrive.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><b></b>I would say do what you do when you buy a car. Test Drive! You will only know the car’s performance when you actually drive it and feel it, and not just by reading specifications or by asking questions. Similarly, to evaluate the architecture, apply it to the specific functional scenarios and measure the quality attributes. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Carnegie Mellon Institute (SEI) has developed the architecture evaluation methodologies on the same principle. The most known methods are – <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">1)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/tools/atam/index.cfm">ATAM (Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method)</a> – <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">This methodology analyzes how well the software architecture satisfies the quality attributes (e.g. scalability, modifiability, performance etc), by applying the architecture to short-listed functional scenarios. It prescribes developing a quality attribute utility tree, and analyzing it for each scenario and alternative architecture approaches. For each scenario, the method prescribes identifying the following – <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">a)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Sensitivity points</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> – a collection of components that are critical for achieving a quality attribute,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">b)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Trade-off points</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> – a sensitivity point that affects multiple quality attributes, typically trades one off for the other,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">c)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Risks</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> – something that inhibits the system from achieving its quality goal (this also includes the decisions that are not taken), <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">d)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Non-risks</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> – something that is done right (and should not be changed)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">2)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1263420949169"> </a></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/tools/cbam/">CBAM (Cost Benefit Analysis Method)</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">CBAM begins where ATAM leaves off. It prescribes analyzing the cost, benefits and schedule implications as well for architectural approaches before making the final decisions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">3)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/tools/arid/">ARID ( Active Reviews for Intermediate Design)</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">This is more of a design review than architecture review, but uses the same principle of applying design to scenarios, and even writing a pseudo code to evaluate different parts of design.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The SEI has documented a very formal step by step process for all these methods. One way that may be counter productive as people tend to focus on activities, rather than the principles behind these methods. There is a great scope to tailor these methods to suit your organization, and conduct such evaluation in agile way. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">More on this topic later…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">- Amit Unde</span></span></div>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-58373617884431597442010-01-12T17:30:00.000-08:002010-01-13T10:21:49.367-08:00Clouds of InsecurityToday, Google disclosed <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html">sophisticated attacks on its infrastructure from China</a> and its response to it. While Google's response is a welcome move, it raises doubts in my mind about the safely of the cloud. This is not isolated instance. Recently, another public Cloud vendor, <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/114196-salesforce-com-s-outage-will-it-derail-the-saas-market">Salesforce.com, was crashed down for considerable time</a> and raised many questions about cloud's credibility. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsl6JGTGbXJlRcKJHO7YmfrQ8qo1gbZ1KwzG3f8lFs33mA6tXd35UVbrvy56MMhsSHQTpIODoqEUfTLguspaWIWZy1EGh5DGj33Xf1wr9ubjuOQPgvw47akWhnO1SiGIomgJD5OI9zJY8C/s1600-h/Cloud-security.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsl6JGTGbXJlRcKJHO7YmfrQ8qo1gbZ1KwzG3f8lFs33mA6tXd35UVbrvy56MMhsSHQTpIODoqEUfTLguspaWIWZy1EGh5DGj33Xf1wr9ubjuOQPgvw47akWhnO1SiGIomgJD5OI9zJY8C/s200/Cloud-security.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><b>What makes these 'Public' clouds more insecure?</b><br />
Not its infrastructure as much as its popularity ! My organization's infrastructure is not likely to be secure as Google's, however, it is not likely to be on radar of hackers either. The hackers may spend days and nights to bring google down, will they pay same attention to my organization? Probably not.<br />
The 'Cloud' may bring-in efficiency, but it will be a trade off with the increased risk of data loss and security, at least in the near future. The benefits of cloud should be carefully weighed against the risks before committing to the cloud. Recently, Gartner published a report for Assessing the Security Risks of Cloud Computing. <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/gartner-seven-cloud-computing-security-risks-853?page=0,0">Click here</a> to read seven of the specific security issues Gartner says customers should raise with vendors before selecting a cloud vendor.<br />
<br />
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: monospace; font-size: 9px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="a2a_dd" href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkname=&linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Famitunde.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F01%2Fclouds-of-unsecurity.html"><img alt="Share/Bookmark" border="0" height="16" src="http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" /></a><script type="text/javascript">
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</div><blockquote>We define business architecture as the formal representation and active management of business design. Expanding this definition, business architecture is a formalized collection of practices, information and tools for business professionals to assess and implement business design and business change.<br />
</blockquote><div class="MsoNormal">The paper advocates the active management of business design, with the same focus as that of IT. Though it sounds good on paper, is it really practical? - Especially when the fact is Enterprise Architecture is driven by IT. Will the social and power structure present in Today’s organization allow this?<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHTkV0jZ0BImaJ_QJTp__b-6_cPyFX8Kl-BvaYhvgSdiKyUfxFQW4SdT1I-YSGRcgqFSUUYi2Od01-dRzzIomEROD_iz9HdT5bwMQ6kcUJVzh-lvujBK80rJH3SECDYS-qW0-O4AypSmAM/s1600-h/OMG's+perspective+on+Business+Architecture.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHTkV0jZ0BImaJ_QJTp__b-6_cPyFX8Kl-BvaYhvgSdiKyUfxFQW4SdT1I-YSGRcgqFSUUYi2Od01-dRzzIomEROD_iz9HdT5bwMQ6kcUJVzh-lvujBK80rJH3SECDYS-qW0-O4AypSmAM/s320/OMG's+perspective+on+Business+Architecture.bmp" /></a><br />
</div> No doubt that we need a clear understanding and formal representation of business design, however, the comprehensiveness should be limited to suit the need, which is typically an input to IT (and not management of business). Also, the involvement of business in driving the IT solution is critical, however, the involvement should be periodic, although frequent, and every attempt should be made to keep the overhead on business as minimum as possible. Attempting active management of business may be considered as unnecessary intrusion of IT into business and often, it is counter-productive. Instead, a process for periodic review of business models and refresh should be institutionalized. The EA-IT team should, however, do the active management of IT portfolio and ensure alignment of IT investments with business goals through active governance structure.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Having said this, the paper does provide some useful information and examples of artifacts. It will be good if OMG standardizes the business architecture models and encourage tool vendors to support it. The <a href="http://www.motivationmodel.com/">Enterprise Business Motivation Model </a>(EBMM) will be a great start.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: monospace; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="a2a_dd" href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkname=&linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Famitunde.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F01%2Fbusiness-architecture-is-it-its.html"><img alt="Share/Bookmark" border="0" height="16" src="http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" /></a><script type="text/javascript">
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<br />
<strong>Completing and remembering 2009</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
Review the list of all completed projects<br />
<br />
What was your biggest triumph in 2009?<br />
<br />
What was the smartest decision you made in 2009?<br />
<br />
What one word best sums up and describes your 2009 experience?<br />
<br />
What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2009?<br />
<br />
What was the most loving service you performed in 2009?<br />
<br />
What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2009?<br />
<br />
What are you most happy about completing in 2009?<br />
<br />
Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2009?<br />
<br />
What was the biggest risk you took in 2009?<br />
<br />
What was the biggest surprise in 2009?<br />
<br />
What important relationship improved the most in 2009?<br />
<br />
What compliment would you liked to have received in 2009?<br />
<br />
What compliment would you liked to have given in 2009?<br />
<br />
What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2009?<br />
<br />
<strong>Creating the new year</strong><br />
<br />
What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2010?<br />
<br />
What advice would you like to give yourself in 2010?<br />
<br />
What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results in 2010?<br />
<br />
What would you be most happy about completing in 2010?<br />
<br />
What major indulgence are you willing to experience in 2010?<br />
<br />
What would you most like to change about yourself in 2010?<br />
<br />
What are you looking forward to learning in 2010?<br />
<br />
What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2010?<br />
<br />
What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2010?<br />
<br />
What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2010?<br />
<br />
What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2010?<br />
<br />
Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2010?<br />
<br />
What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2010?<br />
<br />
<strong><em>For more on this subject, visit David Allen's web site - <a href="http://www.davidco.com/">http://www.davidco.com/</a></em></strong><br />
<br />
<a class="a2a_dd" href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkname=&linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Famitunde.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F01%2Ffresh-look-at-2010.html"><img alt="Share/Bookmark" border="0" height="16" src="http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" /></a><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Amit Undehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762566619661968548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839092535644944482.post-66865191153271947182009-12-30T10:56:00.000-08:002010-01-13T16:19:32.158-08:00Wish you a Very Happy New You for this New Year!<blockquote>What will you do on New Year eve? – <b><i>Fire Yourself !</i></b><br />
</blockquote>If you are wondering what I mean, read <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2009/12/why_you_should_fire_yourself.html">Ron Ashkenas’ blog at HBR</a>.<br />
Ron highlights how GM Management team could not break out of their routine and do anything different, even when they were witnessing imminent demise. Somebody else had to fire them, because they could not do it to themselves.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikm2CrPWNDerC205crZXx3s93HqwBxCaaq5lhCi0iF8IKHnEUFaSWDL9uKg9xlADNlFzmY4Y9zo6Lbc7Fv6IENMDQcEXqu5LU9itPp1IU144o3izV_LHJ0fp0IFoKI2ISfRq9C7DYaiSp3/s1600-h/Rediscover-Yourself.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikm2CrPWNDerC205crZXx3s93HqwBxCaaq5lhCi0iF8IKHnEUFaSWDL9uKg9xlADNlFzmY4Y9zo6Lbc7Fv6IENMDQcEXqu5LU9itPp1IU144o3izV_LHJ0fp0IFoKI2ISfRq9C7DYaiSp3/s200/Rediscover-Yourself.jpg" /></a>It is similar to UnThink principle I highlighted <a href="http://amitunde.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-insurers-need-to-unthink.html">in my last blog entry</a>. It is so important to stop and think about what you are doing, what you are NOT doing and what you should do. You may rediscover yourself - professionally and personally.<br />
</div>Easier said than done! I have read about this stuff many time before, but never really acted on it until recently, when I was all alone on a business trip. I found myself thinking about my career and my family, and I started analyzing behind a napkin paper. I spent more than 2 hours – just thinking. I believe, I know myself better now and I am quite sure what I want to do in my life.<br />
I guess the act of recognizing this need of self-analysis is important. Rest your sub-conscious will take care of. <br />
<br />
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre;">Wish you a <b>Very Happy New You </b>for this New Year!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre;">- Amit Unde</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre;"><br />
</span></span><br />
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