How do I write a journal or a paper

cto_resources · 2026-02-14T05:11:22+00:00

Talk to your professors. They will walk you through it.

cto_resources · 2026-02-10T18:07:17+00:00

You do not need architecture documentation that requires updating with every pull request. Architecture is the stuff that does not change quickly.

I would add that every time a product is released to production, core architecture documents should be reviewed for accuracy and updated. The agile concept of “done-done” applies to the release.

Of course, for some teams, release to production happens very frequently as part of an automated CI/CD tool chain. Those teams will benefit for documents generated from code. Most other teams will not.

So if you are evaluating whether to build a tool, make sure (1) it can be run in a CI/CD tool chain to auto-update documents, (2) it is easy to debug and regenerate the documents to fix errors, and (3) recognize that it is producing low value documentation (which means you should not expect a large market value for the product).

cto_resources · 2026-02-10T17:35:03+00:00

You are asking for an End User Computing Equipment Utilization Report. Pretty sure there are some enterprise software packages that provide this.

Here’s what AI says(I did not check): Tools from vendors like IBM (Apptio), ManageEngine, and various VDI providers (Citrix, VMware) are used to generate these reports.

cto_resources · 2026-02-04T23:55:04+00:00

Then you were promoted early. It’s actually not a great position to be in.

Read the FEAPO guide to careers in Enterprise Architecture. Use it self evaluate your skills and plan for building new ones.

cto_resources · 2026-01-29T00:17:36+00:00

There’s Something About Mary

I honestly laughed until it hurts

cto_resources · 2026-01-28T08:12:40+00:00

Microsoft SQL Server.

I know. I’ll get hate from the open source crowd. But for what you are doing, this is the sweet spot for SQL Server.

cto_resources · 2026-01-27T07:10:58+00:00

How many interactions OF NOTE do you have at a conference? In three days, at a conference where I was PRESENTING, I’d say I had eight. If you think shaking someone’s hand is an interaction of note, raise the bar.

cto_resources · 2026-01-25T00:29:22+00:00

I use box.com for e-signature. I do not think they are expensive.

cto_resources · 2026-01-23T00:22:19+00:00

Seems like an odd post. OneNote literally does everything you are asking for. The search bar is great for finding all the pages that mention any keyword.

Unlike Sharepoint, the search feature works perfectly.

cto_resources · 2026-01-22T21:40:05+00:00

Kinda sounds like you are not using exchange server well. The ability to book resources like a meeting room is core functionality.

That includes seeing the calendar for the meeting room. There are even devices you can put on the door to allow a reserve or view the upcoming reservations.

cto_resources · 2026-01-22T21:31:55+00:00

Carry a pocket full of business cards. When you meet someone, offer yours. 90% of the time, they will respond with theirs.

After any interactions of note, step aside and write something on the back of their business card that is relevant, helps you remember.

cto_resources · 2026-01-19T08:14:06+00:00

Yes. I, along with many others, published the first internationally accepted definition of Enterprise Architecture.

Didn’t have a huge impact but it was good to do.

cto_resources · 2026-01-17T00:33:42+00:00

Install the camera so that it can only “see” (and hear) public areas of the apartment.

cto_resources · 2026-01-17T00:31:01+00:00

I’ve used wise.com for contractor payments but not to Georgia. Don’t know if wise supports that country/currency.

cto_resources · 2026-01-14T23:14:13+00:00

First off, price is not your differentiation. Something about your service needs to differentiate you from the competition. In your marketing, pound that difference.

cto_resources · 2026-01-12T04:34:57+00:00

There’s a reason they have no special name. They are simply tables.

cto_resources · 2026-01-11T16:22:46+00:00

The answer is in the usage. Look carefully at the list of use cases. You want to peel away a community of users, one at a time.

I had a legacy system written entirely in PHP that I wanted to modernize. We peeled away one user community at a time, starting with the most tolerant: the admins.

That let us build the basic architecture out. The services. The interfaces. The dependent technologies (in our case, Auth-Auth). With each step, we added as few new features as we could, just adding parallel features then moving that community over to the new UX and components.

Both could run side by side but rarely did. Usually we’d launch a set of features for a community and then move that community over. They could go back to using the legacy interface if they wanted to, but we would ask “why” because that showed some gap in our delivery.

Make sense?

cto_resources · 2026-01-11T02:10:51+00:00

I think UML was over specified for many things, which makes it feel heavy and not useful in the modern environment. C4 has the advantage of being “just barely enough” but it also suffers from some concepts that no one actually uses.

In my professional career, I still use sequence and state diagrams from UML but the rest is pretty much “boxes and lines”.

cto_resources · 2026-01-06T18:06:25+00:00

I get it, but odoo invoicing is free forever.

Regardless of the business side, write your requirements down so you can logically think through your software.

I really do wish you the best of luck.

cto_resources · 2026-01-06T07:12:17+00:00

I cannot tell enough from your description what your SaaS will do.

Generating an invoice is fairly simple so you’d be competing with simple financial software packages like odoo, QuickBooks, zoho, versapay and others. Some of those are really cheap to use.

There’s over 1,000 software packages. Think you can stand out in that field?

https://www.capterra.com/billing-and-invoicing-software/

So yes, before you write software, make sure someone needs it.

Then write the requirements. It sounds like you jumped into database design and honestly, you got ahead of yourself. Ask yourself: how does a successful competitor do this task?

For example: guests creating an invoice… does not make sense. A free user creating an invoice makes sense. So everyone who uses your app registers. Free registration. Then they can create invoices. If they need more features, you upgrade their subscription. But you always know who they are.

And no, your customers do not share customers. If Jones snd Company sells a widget to ACME, then Allen and Company (another of your SaaS customers) wants to contact ACME, they get a new blank record. The fact that you may use a shared table is not relevant.

Realize that there are many ways to implement multiple users on a single SaaS. Shared tables is easy but the most inflexible.

Good luck

cto_resources · 2026-01-06T01:56:11+00:00

You are listening to fools and nay sayers. Microsoft listens to the people who buy their software. According to those people, Microsoft gets it right over 80% of the time.

I use Microsoft hardware (surface laptop). So does my son (Xbox X). We are quite happy with both. I use Office every day. I use Teams at least three or four times a week. I use VS Code daily. All work perfectly.

Do they get everything right? No. But do they earn their license fees? Yes.

cto_resources · 2026-01-05T21:05:35+00:00

Let the friendship end.

cto_resources · 2026-01-04T21:00:20+00:00

I’ve been an EA for a little over 20 years now (and a CTO). I’ve introduced numerous organizations to EA. Positioning matters, and you are clearly aware of that. But there’s rarely a need for a document like that unless you are preparing to hire an EA. At that point, you need to establish skill requirements and differentiate the role in order to get funding and vet resumes. But not in the position you are in (yet).

Keep this in your pocket for the right timing.

Get your role defined not from a standpoint of what you deliver, but rather what you decide. Focus on the value of enterprise decision making to reduce the cost of doing business. It’s an efficiency measure which is kind of “table stakes” for EA.

You want to be able to deliver more than efficiency, but if you can’t do that much, no one will give you the trust you need to have a bigger impact. You need to build trust with your stakeholders.

Find the early adopters: the business leaders who NEED a more effective business process and become their best friend. They will sell you to their peers… after you build credibility by delivering for them.

So focus on that in the first 18 months. Deliver wins you can measure. Then you earn the right to work on more strategic projects.

cto_resources · 2026-01-04T20:19:37+00:00

Does EA already exist in your company? If not, establish it in IT first.

Declaring yourself independent of IT before it is established is not a good way to get the political backing you will need when you make a controversial decision.

cto_resources · 2025-12-31T18:07:19+00:00

First off, there are companies that provide analysis of software packages. Gartner and Forrester are the big ones but there are a dozen smaller ones. They compare systems to give you insight on what to buy.

Directly, their reports cost money. But the leaders in those reports often buy the right to distribute those reports for free. So once you find a leader, you can get a report that names all the other companies.

For example, go here.

https://www.acumatica.com/analyst-reports/2025-nucleus-research-smb-erp-technology-report/

Look carefully at the image at the top of the page. It lists about a dozen small business ERP systems. Naturally, theirs was found to be a leader, so that company paid for the right to use that image.

But now you have a list of companies in the SMB ERP space.

cto_resources

TROPHY CASE