SOA filling the Gaps

In a previous post titled: Consultants Typology: The Self-deprecating Consultant , I promised to depict examples of my consultancy, which was exactly the opposite of a Self-deprecating Consultant consultancy.  This post describe a Case Study of that type few decades ago. The title of this post is a quote of the words I said to a CIO. I implied that the product's Scalability is not adequate for thousands of users.  I could say it explicitly as well, however my goal was to perform a consultancy project and get paid for it.  The first step of the consultancy will be dedicated to proving that using the product he thought of is a guaranteed failure.  The second step will be a selection process of an adequate product.  The third step could be helping the customer to deploy the selected product properly. Surprise "No problem, I will be the first to deploy a large application based on this product".  He did no...

This post is the third post in the Consultants Typology posts. The first post is about two different Consultant types:  All Around Consultants and Niche Consultants . The second post described the Consultants who knows everything .  The term Self-deprecating was used in another post: Customer Typology: The Self-deprecating Customer . That post described a Customer who accepts any thing a Consultant recommends. This post describes an upside down state: The Consultant accepts anything the Customer would like him to recommend. The ideology of the Self-deprecating Consultant The Self-deprecating Consultant first priority is a satisfied customer. In order that the customer will be satisfied, he assumes that the customer, would like confirmation of his views, therefore he supports the customers views enthusiastically. For example, if the Customer has to select a Software product, the Consultant will praise the product, which he assumes the customer prefers. He will explain...

The post: Two Types of Consultants: Niche vs. All Around , was the first post about Consultants typology. The post differentiated between Niche Consultant, whose knowledge and experience is focused in a Niche and All Around Consultants, who know and understand a variety of Niches and topics. If you read the Customers Typology posts, you probably read: Customers Typology: The Customer who Knows Everything .  The behavioral patterns of the Consultant who Knows Everything resemble the behavioral patterns of the Customer Who Knows Everything.  The only difference is that the Customer is capable of making decisions. The Consultant is only advising.  Is there a Consultants who knows everything? No, but I had worked with All Around Consultants who know and understand a lot about large number of topics. Some of them have the Capability of learning quickly and understanding deeply new topics. Of course, the number of theses extraordinary consultants is limited. However...

One of the posts in the Customers Typology series was titled: Customers Typology: The Captive . I described The Captive as: "The Captive Customer's opinion is that someone else is the Oracle . He will do whatever the Oracle will say". Frequently the Oracle is a Software and/or Hardware vendor. Another post was titled: Customers Typology: The Customer who Knows Everything . I described customer of that type as: "This Customer type is sure that he knows more than anyone else. He is also sure that his understanding is better than any body's understanding". Would you imagine that there is another customer type combining both types?  You probably hardly believe that this type is not a fiction story. If he is a Captive, he will do exactly what his Captor will recommend.    If he Knows Everything, he will follow only his opinion. The best way to describe this type is by example. The example is of a long time ago Case Study . IT Consulting Assignment ...

Leonardo da Vinci (probably self-portrait). source: Hebrew Wikipedia It is time to classify Consultants after so many posts about Clients Typology (e.g. Clients Typology: The Stealth , The Captive , The Paralyzed Analyzer ).  I do not know if the terms I am using: Niche Consultant and All Around Consultant are the best terms to use.  If you think that other terms are more accurate, please comment. Anyway, I am trying to distinguish between two types of Professionals, Consultants, Scientists or Experts . Most of them could be labeled as Niche experts: They know almost everything about a relatively narrow subject matter. Leonardo da Vinchi  (1452-1519), whose portrait appears right after the heading of this post, could not be depicted as a Niche expert. he is a classic example of The All Around type. I will quote the English Wikipedia: " ... Da Vinchi was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, invento...

Before reading this post, please view the Duck and Cover video from You tube . This video which was uploaded on 2008 is based on USA DOD 's video from 1951. I could easily find the original, however the original is about 9 minutes video. The 2008 version is a little more than 2 minutes.  The covering pattern appearing in the video is similar to the Covering Customer's behavior. What does the Covering Customer tries to cover? Prior to answering the question, let me tell you that he is different from other customer types.  He does not know everything . He knows that his knowledge is very limited and he has to hide this fact. Make no mistake, he is not The Self-deprecating Customer . If being a Self-deprecating customer, is the approach which maximize covering, he will stick to this behaviour type.  He is not the classic Social Customer . He will be a Social Customer, if and only if this approach will help him to cover. He will be anti-Social, if this ap...

This post is the last of trilogy of posts named after Sergo Leone 's movie The Good The Bad and The Ugly . In previous posts I described The Good Customer and The Bad Customer I start by describing the challenges of a Freelance Consultant, before dwelling on The Ugly Customer. You will soon discover that the two topics are related.  The World of a Freelance Consultant I refer to a Consultant with no Long Term full time employing customer. Unlike a Salaried Employee, he has to take care of many administrative tasks such as paying VAT , paying Income Tax and Paying National Insurance fees. One of his challenges is income instability and the number of work hours instability.  Sometimes his working hours are similar to working hours of typical salaried employee. During these periods his income is reasonable or good. Periods of too much work to do Periods of too much potential assignments are relatively easy to take care of: The Freelance Consultant could pick ...

image source: Wikipedia The Self -deprecating Customer is exactly the opposite type of The Customer who Knows Everything . He automatically accepts the Consultant advice, without any questions or hesitations. Probably, you will not believe that the first example of a  Self -deprecating Customer I think of, is the CIA . It is about a project named Triangle. Triangle was an Information Technology project of Legacy Modernization and systems expansion after September 11 attacks .  After  completing the Development phase, the CIA begun the Implementation phase. However, someone who was a Senior Manager, thought that it will be a good idea to rethink if the project fulfills its goals. A committee of 100 leading academic and IT industry experts, investigated the project. The main recommendation in  the  committee' s detailed report was: stop implementation and fix the errors in the systems. Afterwards the systems could be implemented again. It shou...

I worked as an Information Technology Consultant, for many Customers . Customers are different in their Self-Perception, in their view of the Consultant and the Consultancy Process. They also differ in the Enterprise size (Large, Very Large, SMB ) and their Vertical Industry (e.g. Telco , Banking , Insurance , Utilities , Public Sector ).  Customers Typology could effect the interaction between them and the Consultant, as well as the probability of successful consultancy. This post is about a particular customer type: The Customer who Knows Everything. The Customer Who Knows Everything This Customer type is sure that he knows more than anyone else. He is also sure that his understanding is better than any body's understanding.  His point of view is manifested in the Decision-making process:  1. There is no correlation between the Consultant's recommendations and the decision. 2. There is no correlation between the consultancy quality and the decision taken. ...

Dovel Technologies is buying Zapthink . It is the first time I read about Dovel.  Unlike Dovel, Zapthink is well known to me. As a SOA expert, I read Zapthink's analysis of SOA and other Architectural topics as well as short articles named ZapFlash .  SOA is Zapthink's major field of expertise. The small company headed by Ronald Schmelzer and Jason Bloomberg provides SOA training and certification, SOA Consulting Services and SOA Research. Schmelzer and Bloomberg's work reveals deep understanding and vast knowledge of SOA. The challenges facing small Analysts and Consultants are incomparable to challenges facing a lot larger company.  Like small software vendors many of the small Consulting and/or Market Analysis companies will not survive. The  circumstances are similar to the circumstances of smaller software vendors described in my post titled:  Vendors Survival Guide: Supermarket Grocery and Kiosk   as well as in other Vendors Sur...