Insights

Article

10 months ago

4 min read

Design principles for the computer scientist: No hidden interfaces

A principle for the information scientist is "decoupling points for complexity reduction and flexibility". But a decoupling point is also a coupling in the system as a whole! All interfaces must remain visible, if you come across one you must recognize it. This applies to the same extent for the organizational scientist; organizations also have interfaces and dependencies and these must be visible.

Article

1 year ago

6 min read

Construction principles for the IT architect (12): Choose a Storage Structure Based on Requirements

In this blog series, I delve into timeless principles of information science that ensure better "information constructions." This 12th blog in the series continues with the third computer science principle (see my introductory blog for the distinction). Why and when should you choose a relational structure (RDB and SQL), and when is linked data (RDF and SPARQL) a better storage option? Most people think of data in terms of tables to organize it, but this also imposes certain constraints when you want to later modify the structure. What trade-offs exist between the possible solutions?

Article

2 years ago

5 min read

Construction principles for the IT architect (11) Device-independent development

In this series of blogs, I will reflect on the still valid information science construction principles that guarantee better "information structures". This 11th blog in the series continues with the second informatics principle (see my starting blog for the distinction ). Why and when to develop device independently? It's always so nice in the architecture principles at company level or in a policy document "Our employees can work independently of time, place and device". But the impact of the desire to be able to work device-independent on the design of the IT landscape and the software to be developed is not small.

Article

2 years ago

5 min read

Construction principles for the IT architect: (10) Separating application function from data storage

In this series of blogs, I dwell on the still valid information science construction principles that guarantee better ‘information building’. This 10th blog in the series continues with the first informatics principle (for the distinction, see my starting blog ). This one is about the construction of data processing. We don't dwell on it but every screen we process information on hides an underlying construct that extracts data from a storage and allows us to access or modify this data or add new data. If the processing function and the data storage are separated, this has great advantages. In fact, this is the information science principle of decoupling but applied in computing.

Article

2 years ago

6 min read

Construction principles for the information professional: Separating data and metadata in storage and processing

Data is hot. Everyone wants to work data-driven and AI only works on big data. In short, data is the new gold! But what exactly is data? There are different categories of data, and one is specifically about dealing with master data and transactional data. Metadata and the need to distinguish that from the data itself and process it separately is essential. Otherwise, spaghetti is created in the system landscape and searching for specific data becomes the proverbial needle in the haystack.

Article

2 years ago

6 min read

Construction principles for the information scientist: (7) Single registration of master data

Still-valid information engineering construction principles guarantee better information constructs. They are sometimes, in the pace of advancing technology, a bit forgotten, resulting in shaky or poorly maintainable and extensible information constructs. This time, the focus is on the need for single-entry capture of master data and the challenges this presents with respect to usage. Is copying a problem?

Article

2 years ago

4 min read

Construction principles for the information scientist: (6) Disconnect “who you are” from “what you are allowed”

Still-valid information engineering construction principles guarantee better information constructs. They are sometimes, in the pace of advancing technology, a bit forgotten, resulting in shaky or poorly maintainable and extensible information constructs. This time, the focus is on the need to decouple identification/authentication (who you are) and authorization (what you are allowed to do). How many login combinations do you have in use? Probably more than 30. Still every day, people struggle with login names and passwords for all those service providers visited online. In theory, the solution is simple but in practice it is still laborious.

Article

2 years ago

2 min read

Construction principles for the information professional (9): Apply standard patterns without deviations

Standard patterns exist in both information science and computer science. The elegant thing about a standard pattern is that it is a standard. But in practice, there appears to be a reason to deviate a bit each time. The result is a user who no longer understands the user interface or a no longer interoperable concept, lower maintainability of a system and loss of time.