Jan Bosch
Several of the companies that I work with build very complex systems that are hard to break down into largely independent parts. Instead the components in these architectures are internally complex and have elaborate dependencies between them. Although this is an architectural challenge, it also leads to an organizational challenge. Traditional R&D organizations have a … Read more
During the week before Easter, I decided to take some time off work and escape into the Swedish wilderness (Hallandåsen in northern Skåne, for those who care about the local geography). Although I regularly read books of various kinds, this week I read several books about self-managed or empowered organizations (including the books at the … Read more
Every week or so, I end up in a discussion about ecosystems, be it business ecosystems or software ecosystems. Interestingly, almost everyone I talk to takes a “descriptive” approach to their ecosystem of choice. They describe the ecosystem as a fact of life or a force of nature, like gravity, and often I get explained … Read more
This week was all about software architecture as we hosted the international conference on software architecture in Gothenburg (ICSA 2017). At the same time, I hosted a company get-together between, among others, Booking, Spotify and Klarna. During the get-together, the role of architecture also came up a number of times. I realized that the research … Read more
In almost every meeting that I have these days, the notion of organizational change comes up. Everyone is concerned with changing too slow and the risk of being disrupted by more agile and innovative competitors they haven’t even heard of. My role gives me the opportunity to talk to people at all levels in typical … Read more
This week was all about digitalization for me. I spent most days this week at three companies in different parts of Europe and spoke at the excellent Digitalization seminar at Chalmers (see here for my slides). Two of the companies that I worked with this week are traditional “metal bending” companies that are in the … Read more
Many of the companies that I work with are embedded systems companies, meaning that the products, systems and solutions sold by these companies consist of mechanical, electronic and software parts. Traditionally, software was only a small part of these systems, which resulted in the system engineering process to be driven by the mechanical and to … Read more
After running my consulting business over the last years, I’ve started to see a pattern in the engagements with large companies. The engagement often starts with senior R&D management, one or more lead architects and perhaps a couple of experienced engineers. The focus is some major transformation, platform effort or other topic that starts off … Read more
