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.