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Sun, Aug 19, 2007 12:45 EDT

IT exists for one reason

Topic: Architecture

Current Rating: 5 Comments: 16

Never underestimate the degree of clarity that a fresh pair of eyes can bring to a complex situation.

Late one Sunday night a few years ago, my business partner and I were discussing the Oil & Gas markets our new IT company could service.

In particular, we were discussing how to best use IT to maximise the financial value of a) the oil and gas products flowing through a refinery belonging to one of our clients, and b) the huge quantities of data used by the business.

We had many ideas about creating applications to provide a joined up view of how the exploration and manufacturing businesses interacted, but we were struggling to define an appropriate methodology that would put IT in a business context.

For days we had been trying to come up with a way of bridging the understanding gap between business and IT, but with little success.

On the table in front of us were a couple of A0 size Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs).

My business partner’s brother, a man who freely admits he has the technical knowledge of a pebble, wandered by and asked what the diagrams showed.

We patiently explained that the P&IDs were print-outs from a computer model of a nearby petrochemical complex. The computer model held a representation of the interactions between individual assets of the plants - things like pipes, valves, pumps, meters and sensors.

We described how the computer model and P&IDs displayed and communicated how the assets were connected; how the assets interacted with business processes; and how the flows of oil and gas products through a business unit were measured and valued.

Assets that did not add value to or support a business function could be easily identified and removed or reassigned. Also, the cost to the business of failure of an asset could be evaluated and steps taken to mitigate that risk.

“One of the great things about P&IDs”, I said, “is that by using them as a visualisation and communication tool, the engineers and the business guys quickly see the big picture and can easily understand each other.”

We paused for confirmation that the penny was beginning to drop.

After a few moments of silence, The Pebble, as we affectionately call him, frowned and asked,

“So why has this never been done for IT and business…I mean…isn’t IT the flow of data between assets?”

The silence resumed. For quite a while.

The Pebble had pointed us towards the solution to defining a methodology that would put IT in a business context.

We realised that by thinking of IT as data flowing between business assets, the tried and trusted methodology used by engineers to communicate with the business could be adapted and applied to IT.

Data flows in the Oil and Gas Industries

For the last thirty or so years accurate flow measurement and analysis has been the key to optimising the productivity of plant assets in the oil and gas industry.

As technology improved from the late 1970s onward, the flow of oil and gas products became analogous to the flow of data.

Flows of oil and gas through a plant used to be understood by reading values from analog flow meters. Each meter was inspected by an engineer and values recorded. Data such as temperature, pressure and product flow would then be manually entered into a computer for analysis.

Digital flow meters began to replace analog flow meters, which enabled readings to be entered into a model in real-time.

As more digital equipment came online the business gained a better understanding

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Average (4 votes)
5
 
 
Mon, Aug 20, 2007 2:23 EDT
Posted by: Turkey
Rating: 90

Hey Paul,

I think you might be told that your content doesn't meet the needs of the intellectual readers of this forum (lol). But I like the approach. IT is simple, but there are many participants in our industry who use IT complexity as a make work exercise. The Pebble has summed it up beautifully....simple to understand....simple to explain!

From my perspective, taking what I loosely call BS, and simplifying the interaction between business and IT will generate a multitude of "downstream benefits"!

"Taking the turkey out of IT"
www.reverseturkey.com

 
Thu, Aug 23, 2007 14:56 EDT
Posted by: Paul Wallis
Rating: 90

Thanks for your comments Turkey. I think you are right, IT is often made out to be too complex, which increasingly is a "keep the work exercise" rather than a "make work exercise".

The reason: complexity and BS reinforces all the negative stereotypes that the business has come to believe about IT, leading to maintaining the status quo or a drive to reduce IT spend.

The Pebble now thinks he is famous because you mentioned him in your reply, so I had to put him back in his box. But just as I closed the lid he did mention something interesting. He told me that about 100 years ago many Corporations had a VP of Electricity because back then electricity was something new, dangerous and almost mystical. I didn’t really catch the rest of what he said but it was something like “simple pictures changed things”.

Today we never think twice about how electricity flows around our organisations and how it keeps the business going.

When a new building is under construction an architect must have plans/blueprints that show how the electricity (and water and gas) will flow. These pictures enable easy communication between architect, builders, engineers and business people. And they are needed for Health and Safety, compliance, governance etc.

By thinking of IT as dataflow between assets the same sort of picture can be created for business and IT, making communication much easier.

PJW

www.stromasoftware.com

 
Fri, Aug 24, 2007 21:43 EDT
Posted by: ChromaBurst
Rating: 90

Sounds looks like an interesting way of looking at IT, which I haven’t heard before. When you say near the end “across all businesses” is your idea (about IT being about dataflow between assets) just related to manufacturing type businesses that have product flows, or are you saying this applies to any sector, for example, finance, government, transport etc?

 
Mon, Aug 27, 2007 13:41 EDT
Posted by: ChromaBurst
Rating: 70

Thanks for the reply. I work in Finance and I haven’t any experience in manufacturing so I hope this isn’t a dumb question.

You say that you get lots of other information other than the flow data for what is going through the plants – and then you leap into how dataflow overtook the process flow. What other data do you need to know about other than the amount/speed of product that is going through the plant?

 
Tue, Aug 28, 2007 9:09 EDT
Posted by: Paul Wallis
Rating: 90

ChromaBurst,

There is a lot of very important data which can be gathered from the manufacturing process other than the speed of product flow.

You can gather a dash of temperature, pressure, flow and density for starters.

Then, you can mix it up a little with a measure of analysis data from on-line analysers, remote telemetry information from level gauges, and pump or compressor speed and power outputs.

Vibration monitoring information added to the mix will give you a perfect cocktail of data.

All of this data can help the business understand more about what is happening on the plant, and when certain costly business activities should take place, such as when to shut down operations.

Looking at (and understanding) the data helps businesses understand the health of their assets and more accurately predict the most beneficial time to carry out remedial or proactive maintenance.

So you can see how Key Point Indicators in other industries can be used in a similar way to plant information to show how the business should adapt.

PJW

www.stromasoftware.com

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