Over the summer I dipped my toe back in the festival scene by booking tickets to a handful of outdoor shows.

Buried in the sound check were some profound observations that can be applied to the current and future state of the world.

I’ve found myself in several cities with strong Georgian influences over the last few months – Bath, Newcastle, Edinburgh.

I explain why I believe those Georgian approaches were a precursor to ‘systems thinking’ concepts...

This summer of sport has got me thinking about the origins of sports and how they develop in a similar way to operational metrics.

The death of the Pink Floyd saxophonist Dick Parry got me thinking about the band's lyric, “miner for truth and delusion”, which in turn reminded me about 'desire paths' in system design...

Like a road atlas, an ‘intersection map’ gives you a good starting point when trying to understand how an IT system actually behaves.

Systems analysis and design must consider not just how something is/should be now, but also what it might become.

Essentially, ‘dynamic’ approaches must describe the roads that could be taken, not just how a specific destination can be reached...

There’s an old political adage to the effect that, “If you're explaining, you’re losing.”

But while the sentiment may be well-founded for politics, its wider application has always bothered me, especially in the world of IT.

“God is in the details,” declared the German-American architect and designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

But for IT systems it might be more appropriate to highlight the importance of the ‘gaps’...

Resolutions come thick and fast at this time of year: “must eat less…”, “must drink less…” or, more positively, “must do more…”

This year, I have a specific IT resolution...

It’s the time of year when even the most scientific and rational of us might just be prepared to put aside those traits and partake in a little emotional and religious indulgence.