Global Development

It is all the rage these days to do global development. One "system", global implementation. The idea being is economy of scale. Any region can perform development allowing other regions to reap the rewards. There are different ways for a single system to achieve global development.

1. The system is being developed by 1 region. All global requirements are funneled to this region. The actual system maybe run centrally or locally within the regions.

2. Each region has a separate system which, based on an agreed protocol, feed a shared central system.

Ah, but there is another way. You maybe able to have a single system, and yet global, parallel development. You can split the system into areas of concern, and assign different parts to different systems. Unfortunately, at one point or another, the areas will overlap. This brings up an interesting scenario. Single system, many teams split across different timezones answering to different management, have different requirements, different users, schedules, etc... Quite a mess. Now, each region is actually working on a common goal. The system is a specific system, serving a specific goal, but different masters. The trick is to split the system into a common framework and a regional implementation. If the regions are using the same system, and there is a core of the system which is indeed universal, but there is also an aspect of the system which is very much unique to a given region. Understand the problem the system is solving. Then understand the fundamental aspect of the system, the raw materials, if you will. This is the common framework. Each region may modify the framework, but what they are doing is enhancing the breadth of the system. Imagine a graph, links and nodes going every which way. Imagine dark areas of the graph, unexplored. These dark areas represent parts of the system developed by other regions, but not yet used locally. When a given area matures to that functionality, it will be there for it. The unexplored areas of the graph become used, and therefore visible. This seems a very interesting way to create a global enterprise architecture. Model the system as a graph, allow each region to build out the graph, but in such a way as to allow other regions to use only what they need. Then allow the graph to be customized to the regions needs. If done correctly, the system will become a set of loose shared modules, with concrete implementation by each region. The regions decide how the modules are used and how they link. Of course, some linkages is defined. Regions may enhance existing modules, build new ones, or create region specific enhancements to existing.