The Carrier

Hello again,

Last night I watched the two-hour premier of an interesting docu-drama on PBS called Carrier. I really enjoyed the show as they explored the day-to-day lives of about a dozen sailors and Marines on board the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Fascinating stuff and I think a real tribute to the wonderful men and women of the Navy and Marines who serve our country so selflessly ... and more episodes to come.

I almost wish they had been on board the USS Enterprise, as it would have made the analogy that I am about to float (pun intended) a little more neat.

As you may have guessed, I'm about to compare life on board an aircraft carrier as analogous to the activities -- specifically IT activities -- in any organization. The aircraft carrier as a framework for all of this intense and sometimes unpleasant activity seems a lot like Enterprise Architecture. Bear with me...

On board the ship, they explored the ins and outs of the various ranks of sailors and Marines. Each had a role, everything was very compartmentalized, and some jobs were outright dangerous. Some served the food and some loaded ordinance on F-18's. Personalities were involved. There were different ranks and privilege levels. Personal lives affected performance and focus. The people there loved their jobs, mostly. Sounds a lot like your average IT shop, huh?

The architecture of this enterprise was the aircraft carrier and the structure and rigor associated with delivering the mission. Similar to any Enterprise Architecture, the system of interacting, the reusable parts that overlapped and shared the same context, was designed to deliver the mission. As long as people stayed with "the plan," the architecture functioned as it should. When someone got outside the plan, there was a price to pay. Like on the boat, people could choose to prematurely jump ship, but would quickly find themselves over their head in the deep blue sea of tactical and unconnected projects.

Not to trivialize the actual life on an aircraft carrier where people could lose their lives if discipline and governance failed, the loss of discipline and governance in terms of an Enterprise Architecture plan analogously results in failure to achieve the intended outcome. Not everyone on the boat understood or agreed with the Mission, but they were all very dedicated to it. How many of us could say that about dedication to our architectures?

This is probably a bit of a trite analogy -- perhaps a bit over-simplified -- but I thought it deserved a shot. In any case, I really enjoyed the show. Kudos to PBS for supporting the men and women of our armed forces!!