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Leverage the Technovision framework to create flexible architectures that solve business problems

Wesley Weel
2021-03-08

Software systems these days are very complex and architects need to understand and construct solutions that span diverse technical stacks. The prime focus of an architect is devising new innovative solutions to solve customers’ business problems and improve the quality of existing solutions by evolving their architectures along with technical trends. Both require in-depth knowledge and awareness of the latest technological and business trends. Technovision’s 2021 framework is a handy utility for architects to devise effective solutions for customers.

Long gone are the days where architects specialized in a single technology stack or domain. The increasingly complex needs of business translate into complex software systems, this mandates the new-age architects to have a peripheral vision and understanding of the complete breadth of the technological landscape. As an enterprise architect my prime responsibilities fall under two central themes:

  1. Architect innovative solutions to solve customers’ business problems
  2. Improve the quality of existing solutions by evolving their architectures along with emerging technology trends.

Performing these tasks requires in-depth knowledge and awareness of the latest technological and business trends for which I find it very handy to use the Technovision framework to devise effective solution architectures for customers.

The Technovision framework consists of two documents:

  1. a) Change Making (consisting of 37 trends)
  2. b) Future Thinking

These documents form a powerful tool when used in tandem. The “change-making“ trends help us solve problems by providing insight and knowledge on the prevalent technology stacks and concepts. The “future-thinking” concepts help us keep an eye on the future of tech to ensure solution’s design is future-ready as well.

Most developers have used an integrated development environment (IDE) at some point in their careers, which enables them to write and deploy code more effectively and productively. A good IDE provides developers with the necessary tools to assist them in developing code more efficiently, it accentuates the developers’ ability without replacing them. Using that analogy, I like to think of the Technovision framework as an integrated architecture environment (IAE) that helps technologists and business leaders design effective architectures for innovative business solutions. At AIE Mumbai, we have also developed a utility based on the framework, which enables us to:

  1. Construct a visual representation of the solution’s architecture by using the building blocks/trends provided by the Technovision framework
  2. Map out the customer’s existing landscape using the Technovision trends and suggest areas for innovation using the change-making and future-thinking strategies of the framework.

The diagram above depicts the model of our IAE, or as we like to call it, the Technovision Playground. It enables us to co-architect innovative technology and business solutions along with customer and account teams. The left side depicts the toolbox which contains all 37 Technovision trends. In this example, the utility is used to map out the current state of an enterprise’s architecture and plot the future roadmap for it. The red, orange, and green color coding represents the areas in which the architecture is lacking vis à vis the Technovision trends and the priority in which they need to be addressed to enhance the overall intrinsic value of the architecture. This is just one of the many ways of applying this framework. The Technovision framework is not a replacement for business, technical, or solution architects. It’s a framework that provides wisdom and insight into the wide technical landscape in an accessible manner. It is a framework that is a necessity for modern-day, multi-skilled architects, enabling them to construct elastic and adaptable solutions for the future.

To apply the Technovision framework effectively, practitioners should be familiar with the Technovision trends listed above. To find out more about the Technovision framework, visit the  Technovision 2021 – technology trends in business. If you are interested in learning more about how we use these trends to devise roadmaps for innovative solutions at AIE Mumbai, you can connect with me at wesley.weel@capgemini.com