My mother, who turned 95 years old this month, has never used a computer. She doesn't even have a mobile phone, let alone a smartphone. She has only the vaguest idea of what the internet is. So when she asked me what I do at work, I had to simplify things a bit.
I'd be interested to hear other suggestions for how to explain Enterprise Architecture to someone who doesn't know anything about computers. Arguably, this is good practice, because in our role we have to convey complicated ideas to people who vary considerably in their knowledge of IT. Some are IT specialists, while others are specialists in their own areas, and we need to explain our work in language that makes sense to them.
I told Mum that my job is to make all the University computers work together. As an example, I explained that one computer stores information about which courses the students have chosen, and another one handles stores the marks the students score in their coursework and exams. The first computer has to pass the information about courses to the second computer, so that the second computer can add the marks to the right students on the right courses. My job is to make sure that happens, and then to do the same sort of things for lots of similar cases.
As explanations go, that has some obvious flaws. For a start, I don't actually implement the data transfers. It's also not really correct to say my job is to make it happen; it would be more accurate to say that my job is to improve the way that this is done. But I hope I conveyed at least a gist of what my job is about.
In my experience working in various University roles, I've found that the best academics can often explain complicated ideas in simple language that conveys a good approximation of the (no doubt complicated) truth. As you can probably tell from the above, I find this hard, but I think it's a goal we should aim for. And I'd be genuinely interested if you have a better explanation that I can use with my Mum!
I'd be interested to hear other suggestions for how to explain Enterprise Architecture to someone who doesn't know anything about computers. Arguably, this is good practice, because in our role we have to convey complicated ideas to people who vary considerably in their knowledge of IT. Some are IT specialists, while others are specialists in their own areas, and we need to explain our work in language that makes sense to them.
I told Mum that my job is to make all the University computers work together. As an example, I explained that one computer stores information about which courses the students have chosen, and another one handles stores the marks the students score in their coursework and exams. The first computer has to pass the information about courses to the second computer, so that the second computer can add the marks to the right students on the right courses. My job is to make sure that happens, and then to do the same sort of things for lots of similar cases.
As explanations go, that has some obvious flaws. For a start, I don't actually implement the data transfers. It's also not really correct to say my job is to make it happen; it would be more accurate to say that my job is to improve the way that this is done. But I hope I conveyed at least a gist of what my job is about.
In my experience working in various University roles, I've found that the best academics can often explain complicated ideas in simple language that conveys a good approximation of the (no doubt complicated) truth. As you can probably tell from the above, I find this hard, but I think it's a goal we should aim for. And I'd be genuinely interested if you have a better explanation that I can use with my Mum!
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